Plant! (Eve voice from Wall-E)

There are lots of benefits to growing your own food, most notably the mind altering experience of understanding for the first time what certain foods should actually taste like. I’ve been growing fruits and veggies since I was little with my parents and I put together a list of the the best foods I have grown, evaluated unscientifically with only my taste buds and anecdotal experience.

Mind blowingly delicious, I can’t believe the ones you buy at the store can even be called by the same name:
-acorn squash
-tomatoes (Out of the 40 or so varieties we’ve grown, my favorites are always the Paul Robeson heirloom tomatoes)

Fantastically good, much better than store bought:
-sugar snap peas
-green beans
-carrots
-aneheim peppers
-limes

Tastes pretty much the same as store bought:
-zuchinini
-yellow crookneck squash
-onions
-lettuce
-lemons

Taste may suffer if (like me) you don’t know what you’re doing:
-strawberries
-apples
-cantaloupe

My all time favorite food to grow is acorn squash. The taste is just unbelievable. It’s like it already has the butter and sugar added and none of the bitterness. I planted waaay more this year in the hopes that I would have enough of them that I could bear to part with a few and actually share.

My faves! Bounty from years past:

My newest project is the sprouting and growing of purple Okinawa sweet potaotes. Purple sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods that we discovered in Hawaii. Imported ones are irradiated to prevent pest migration, which unfortunately also prevents them from sprouting. I found these California grown beauties just an hour away from home at Niyiya Market, a japanese supermarket that has its own organic farm. They are labeled in the store by their japanese name, murasaki imo. According to my farmer friend Evan, you can also eat the leaves. I haven’t been brave enough to try that yet.

My beloved aphid eaters, pollinators, and furry friends. This little guy even has a heart on his back.

 

 

Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses.  

Or the catnip. At the garden store, neighbor kitty knows where to find the good stuff. I stopped and petted him but I don’t think he even knew I was there.