The Easiest Vegetables to Grow

Would you like to grow vegetables that need no special tools, no weeding, no green thumb, no sunshine - in fact, no garden? Vegetables that will grow any time of year, in any climate zone, in any weather? Vegetables that can be eaten days after starting the seeds, cost little, taste great, and are jam packed with nutrition? If you answer "yes," then you need to start growing SPROUTS!

I'm not going to teach you how to grow sprouts here - there's lots of instructions, including videos, online. I just want to share what sprouting methods have worked best for me.

What is a sprout? It's the first growth (germination) of a seed, usually including a root end and a leaf stem. The nutrients which are packed into a seed to allow it to grow are transformed in the sprouting stage and are highly beneficial for human health. There are many varieties of seeds you can sprout, and some are vegetables you've perhaps never eaten and would never grow in a garden, like fenugreek or arugula. Other popular sprouting seeds might be more familiar, like radish, lettuce, peas, and dill.

To get started, you should buy seeds specifically labelled for sprouting, not seeds sold in packets at the garden center. Seeds intended for garden sowing might be treated and processed differently than those for sprouting. This might require a visit to the nearest health food store. You are only going to grow a few tablespoons at a time (which will fill a quart jar with sprouts), so one bag goes a long way. Prices vary, depending on the type of sprouting seed; radish is far less expensive than broccoli.

The growing process will take only minutes of your time per day, and generally includes these steps:

• soak the seeds in water
• rinse and strain the water (sprouts that sit in water can rot quickly)
• grow on the countertop
• rinse and drain 2  to 4 times a day while growing
• eat

Mung bean sprouts ready to eat

Stacked tray, with mixed seeds in top layer, cover to the right

My sprout jar, just rinsed and drained

I have grown sprouts in glass jars, woven baskets, natural fiber bags, and stacked sprouting trays, but I prefer using a jar. If you don't want to buy any special equipment, you can simply use a cleaned-out mayonnaise jar with a piece of cheesecloth over the opening, secured with an elastic band. Alternately, plastic lids with plastic screens are sold specifically for using on wide-mouth Mason or Ball jars. Many health food stores sell sprouting jars, usually larger than quart size, with a mesh screen inside the screw band lid. This is what I use most often, but I wish the jar was more squarish (like the canning jars) so it wouldn't roll when turned on its side on the countertop. I resort to setting mine in a corn-on-the-cob plate to keep it stationary.

How long it will take to grow the sprouts depends on the type of seeds and the temperature of your growing spot, and how long you like them to get. Quinoa seeds need only 30 minutes of soaking  and will sprout two roots per seed within 24 hours (note: from experience, I recommend using quinoa seeds sold specifically for sprouting, since the quinoa grain for cooking is sometimes processed differently and won't sprout). Other sprouts might require 8 hours of soaking and a few days of growing.

I most often sprout alfalfa, red clover, broccoli, radish, and lentils - mixing them together because they have similar soaking and growing requirements. Combined seeds such as this are sold pre-mixed as "sandwich mix" sprouting seeds. I usually grow these sprouts for 4-5 days in my kitchen, which is heated between 61-68 degrees in winter. If you are growing in warmer temperatures, you might need to rinse the sprouts more often so they don't dry out. I don't bother growing sprouts in summer because I have lots of fresh vegetables from my garden.

I individually grow mung beans because their requirements are a bit different. I start them in soaking with warmer water than usual (about 90 degrees) and soak for a full 12 hours initially, which helps the harder seeds to sprout. I lay a small terrycloth hand towel over the jar to block out light, and I find this keeps the sprouts white, rather than green, and keeps little side root shoots from forming. They usually reach the length I like in about 4 days.

Some sprouting instructions suggest ways to remove the seed hulls after the sprouts have shed them, but I've never found these to be bothersome to eat. Most are paper thin so I don't even notice them. Plus they probably provide added fiber to your diet.

After my final rinsing and straining, I like to let the sprouts grow for another 8 - 12 hours on the counter, to sop up the extra moisture. Putting the sprouting jar in more light to "green up" the sprouts, especially the small-leafed ones, adds chlorophyll to the array of vitamins and enzymes which sprouts provide as a living food - all beneficial to your health. You can start eating them right away, raw in salads and on sandwiches, floated in warmed soups, cooked in stir-fry, etc. Even after your sprouts have reached "maturity" they will continue to grow in storage in your refrigerator, but so slowly you won't notice any difference. You can just place the growing jar in the fridge, or put the sprouts in a zip bag into which you've place a folded dry paper towel to absorb excess moisture. Be sure to eat them within a few days.

So start sprouting and enjoy your harvest!

Beyond Buyer Beware!

If you grabbed a box of cereal with "Blueberry" in the product name, wouldn't you assume there are blueberries in the ingredients? Well, you might be wrong! What looks like a blueberry could be nothing more than artificial colors, hydrogenated oils and liquid sugars to manufacture small bits that mimic the look of blueberries... from companies we grew up trusting, like Kellogg and General Mills.

Image © 2011 General Mills from totalcereal.com

Yesterday Fox News reported on an investigation by the nonprofit Consumer Wellness Center, revealing fake blueberries in bagels, cereals, breads and muffins. General Mills was questioned about its Total Blueberry Pomegranate cereal (no blueberries, no pomegranates) and said: "This product contains blueberry flavoring, and the package communicates that the product is 'naturally and artificially flavored.'" Its box says "crunchy blueberry and pomegranate flavored clusters." Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats Blueberry Muffin cereal does not contain blueberries; the ingredients list "blueberry flavored crunchlets."

I wouldn't be eating these cereals anyway, but I hope to make others aware of the garbage our food industry passes off as "food." If you buy prepared foods, please read the labels.

Reports such as this one make me angry at the manufacturers, and make me grateful that my lifestyle allows me to grow and pick most of my own organically grown fruits and vegetables, and spend time making foods from scratch!

Lessons from my Garden

I've bought my new seeds, started some seedlings, and I'm reviewing last year's garden successes and failures while planning the 2011 garden. Here are some things I learned:

Tomato plant growing in the cold frame.

• Onions: Even though I "cured" my harvested onions as prescribed, I found most either sprouted or rotted in storage. I had been more successful in past years, so perhaps our growing season was too wet. Fortunately, I harvested so many at once that I also dehydrated onions. This proves to be a great option for me, since the dehydrated onions can be used for dips, soups, and other recipes. To dehydrate I peeled the onions then quartered them. I pulsed them very briefly in my food processor, just to get them chopped. (Processing them too long will turn them to onion mush.) Beware of the fumes when you take of the lid! I did all this on the porch so the house wouldn't fill with the onion fragrance. Then I spread the chopped onions in a thin layer on parchment sheets on my electric dehydrator trays. I dried them until they were brittle and golden, then packed what I wouldn't be using right away in a vacuum sealed mason jar.
• Tomatoes: I grew several varieties of tomatoes, and I'll try others next season. The Brandywines had a fabulous flavor, but they crack even if you pick them early and ripen indoors. I learned I prefer a smaller tomato, and I weighed some to determine 7 to 8 oz. is a perfect size salad tomato for me. I also grew a hybrid called "Jelly Bean" and they were tiny and the sweetest I ever tasted. I am leaning away from hybrids, so when I've used all those seeds I won't repurchase them. Late in the season I grew "Amish Paste." They were larger than Romas, very low in seeds, meaty, and very flavorful… worth repeating. They are also "indeterminate" which means they fruit continuously during the season, vs. "determinate" like Romas, which are compact plants but ripen their fruit over a shorter time period then stop setting new fruit. Also regarding tomatoes, many gardeners in my area had "tomato blight". If you know any organic solutions, please let me know.
• Winter Squashes: My harvest was limited, due to an infestation of squash bugs, but I've verified that Waltham Butternut Squashes are all I need to plant in this category. They store in my basement for nearly a year, they can be substituted in any recipe for pumpkin, they are good producers, and they taste great. The white with jagged green stripes acorn-type which I planted turned cream with orange stripes and were gorgeous, but disappointing in the taste test. I think planting the Butternut (and its cousin Cantaloupe) a bit later in the season might help miss the cycle of squash bugs, and our season is long enough to allow me to do that.
• Eggplants: I planted two varieties, and the heirloom "Black Beauty" wins out over the long skinny "Early Longs". They had better taste and were easier to cook with. I continue to be plagued with flea beetles, which eat away at the young eggplant foliage, but toward the end of summer they had left and the plants produced vigorously. So my solution in 2011 will be to start my eggplants later. 
• Beans: All my snap beans suffered from bug bites on the leaves and beans, so I barely got enough to eat fresh. In 2011 I am returning to my favorite bush varieties, Blue Lake Bush and Golden Wax. Both are stringless, taste great fresh (I eat them raw!), and freeze well. Hopefully I can manage the bugs.
• Strawberries: To keep down weeds in my "June-bearing" strawberry bed, I had planted them in two staggered rows in black landscape fabric, and covered that with a layer of straw. Big no-no. Perhaps this might have worked if we had less rain, but the result was that after I harvested a good crop of berries a fungus or mildew developed under the straw and killed the plants. Fortunately, many at the end of the patch had sent out babies that I was too busy to snip off, and I let all the runners grow freely into the other sections of the vegetable garden. By the end of summer, I dug up enough new strawberry plants to replant the original bed (with no mulch this time), planted two new beds (in case the original bed retained any fungus), and had enough left to share with a friend.
• Garlic & Basil: 'Can't have too much garlic, but I can have too much basil! My garlic harvest has stored very well and should hold me through the next harvest, around July. But 20 basil plants supplied me with too much, fresh and frozen. I think I'll still have some in the freezer well beyond next summer, so I'll try to limit myself to just a couple of plants this year, just for fresh use.
• Experiment! Just to see what would happen, I planted some of the mung beans I use for growing sprouts, and two plants grew well and produced a little crop! This year I plan to grow Huckleberries, a melon which will store for months in the basement, calendula flowers (edible and dried for an ingredient in lotions and salves), and new varieties of tomatoes and cucumbers. I'm also going to try some different growing methods, like trellising my cucumbers so they grow up off the ground.



Black Beauty Eggplant, ready to pick.

• Cold Frame: I purchased an Austrian-made Juwel 1000 cold frame last February, and it was a great addition to my garden. The assembly instructions were in German, but my handy husband managed to figure out how it went together from the diagrams. We positioned it in one corner of our raised bed vegetable garden. I used it for numerous purposes:  hardening-off indoor seedlings before setting in the open garden, rooting cuttings from chrysanthemums and other plants, growing my second crop of tomato seedlings, starting fall seedlings, and, now that it's winter, growing lettuce and spinach plants under protection. Temperatures have fallen below 10 degrees F many times already, and several inches of snow have covered the top at times, but the lettuce and spinach plants look healthy and happy inside!

Like fellow gardeners, I am anxious for warmer weather and getting my hands dirty again soon!

Crabmeat Quiche

I've been making this delicious quiche for years, after receiving the original recipe from my Aunt Claire. Her version called for a pie crust, but my variation is a bit lighter.

• 1/4 c bread crumbs
• 1 T olive oil
• 4 scallions
• 8 oz Swiss cheese
• 2 T flour
• 1/2 c light mayonnaise
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 T dried parsley
• 1 small can of crabmeat*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In place of a pie crust, I hand mix bread crumbs and olive oil in the pie plate, then press them into a thin flat layer on the bottom and slightly up the sides. This is enough to make the quiche easy to remove from the plate, and give some added flavor and texture.

For the filling, a food processor makes this recipe easy. Pulse the scallions to chop. Cut the cheese into chunks then process into small pieces without removing the scallions from the bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, except the crabmeat, into the food processor bowl, then process until mixed. Open and drop in the crabmeat, breaking it up with your fingers as you add it, since sometimes there are pieces of shell or cartilage you'll want to discard. Stir the crabmeat in with a spatula, then pour the entire contents into the prepared pie plate.

Bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden. Turn off the oven and leave the quiche in it for another 15 minutes to set the filling.

OPTIONS: For the cheese, you can use Swiss mixed with cheddar or feta for a flavor variation. Also, a vegetarian version is easily made by eliminating the crabmeat and adding 1 cup of mixed veggies, such as chopped fresh spinach, sundried tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, sliced zucchini, etc.

* I had stopped buying canned crabmeat because of the additives but then I discovered Dungeness Crab from Sportsmens Cannery in Oregon. It is pricey, about $9-10 for a 5.5 oz can, but to me the quality, taste, and USA origin make it worth the extra cost.

Garden Dressing

I've always loved the salad at Olive Garden restaurants, and it has much to do with their dressing. When I purchased a bottle at the restaurant to take home, I wasn't surprised to see sugar as an ingredient. I looked for "clone" recipes online, and eventually developed my own, more healthy, variation from the ones I liked best. This will likely taste different in a side-by-side test with Olive Garden dressing, but I like how it ended up and I've been asked to post it by those who have tried it.

• 1/2 c olive oil
• 1/4 c white vinegar
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1/3 c light mayonnaise
• 4 T grated romano cheese
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t garlic powder
• 1 t Italian herb seasoning
• 1/2 t dry mustard powder
• 1 t honey

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a food processor or blender. Makes about 1 cup.

Serve the desired amount of dressing on a salad made with romaine, thin sliced onions, sliced sweet peppers, sliced carrots, black olives, pepperoncini, and any other fresh veggies you desire.

Four New Year's Resolution Suggestions

Seems like an appropriate time to share four simple ideas for improving your "Good Food" in 2011:

1. Grow something you like to eat
   There's nothing like eating a home-grown tomato, juicy and still warm from the sun. I just read "All New Square Foot Gardening" (by Mel Bartholomew) and I strongly recommend it as an easy to follow gardener guide. Even if you have only a tiny space, plant some food this year. Start small and you won't get discouraged or overwhelmed. Try planting just a few herbs; they are hardy, not likely to have insect problems, ready to harvest when you are ready to use them, and very tasty. Perhaps you'll be so successful, you'll add more the next year!
2. Pay attention to where your food comes from
   Read the signs and stickers on fruits and vegetables in the supermarket produce section, and buy USA grown foods. Not only will you be supporting our farmers, but you are possibly avoiding toxins, pesticides, and other contaminants.
3. Eat local
   Find your nearest Farmer's Market or farm stand, and make shopping there part of your weekly routine. Even if you have to pay more, it is worth it for so many reasons. Did you know the average distance travelled for food you eat is 1500 miles? Let's work together to change this.
4. Subscribe to my Good Food Blog
   There are several ways, all in the right column of the blog: you can sign up to get an email each time I post something new, get RSS feeds, add to your Google Reader, or follow in Facebook. Tell your friends too - I'd love to help others learn more about growing, buying, preparing and eating good food!

Thanks and Happy New Year,
Judy

Soothing Tea for Sore Throats

Ginger root has numerous therapeutic properties, and I especially like it for a soothing hot tea when I have a sore throat. It is antiseptic and anti-inflammatory, and honey and lemon add to the medicinal benefits. Packaged ginger teas are available, but this is so easy to make and has the nutritional benefits of fresh foods, so it's worth the effort. You'll like this tea even when you don't have any aches, as a hot or iced beverage.

The amounts are approximate; adjust to your tastes. I like my tea strong and not too sweet.

• 3" piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced into thin pieces
• 1 T fresh lemon juice
• grated fresh lemon rind (if available)
• 1 T honey

Bring the ginger pieces to a boil in 6 cups of water in a 3-qt. covered saucepan. Reduce heat to a simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Add lemon and honey, mix well. Drink and enjoy.

NOTE:  When you buy ginger root, check the sticky label for country of origin. If possible, don't buy any grown in China, since it might have been grown in very polluted soil. Organically grown in the USA is my preference, although hard to find and pricy. When I find some, I buy a lot and freeze it whole for later use.