April in the Vegetable Garden

 

Take a tour of my vegetable garden! Starting with this post, I'll photograph it during the first week of each month, and describe what's growing. Keep in mind that I'm in Tennessee, USDA gardening zone 7, with an average last frost date of April 15th, and a frost-free growing season of nearly 200 days. My "birdseed view" is taken from my east porch.

This year I'm starting all my vegetable plants from seeds, either indoors to get a jump on the season or directly in the garden. Indoors, they move from the south-facing windows in our dining area to the south window in the walk-out basement, which is at about 55 degrees this time of year. From there they move into the cold frame to harden off with cooler nighttime temperatures.

The garden is about 20' x 40', running east-west. Big poplar logs hold the soil and I dig walking paths between raised beds which are about 3-4' wide. The garden is on a slight downhill slope.

Here is the April tour:

1. A thin red plastic mulch warms the soil and cuts down on weeds. I laid this down in mid-March, burying the ends with soil. I planted 3 tomato plants yesterday, cutting a 5" slot into the plastic, inserting the plant, and placing 4 rocks around the hole opening, to keep the wind from getting under the plastic. The south end has one tomato plant in a "Kozy Koat" - a red plastic sleeve with pockets filled with water to permit solar heating for the plant. I'll remove the Koat when the weather warms. (The other Kozy Koat shown with a white feed bag for mulching was planted in mid-March, to attempt a headstart on tomato harvests). The mulch is one of my attempts to prevent tomato blight.
2. The yellow flowers are on my Chinese cabbage, planted last fall along with the kale in this row. As soon as we got some early warm days, the cabbage set flowers. I've left them growing for several reasons: the flowers are pretty and attract bees; the flowers are edible, tasting like raw broccoli; the flowers produce tiny edible seed pods, which I have cooked in a stirfry. I just need to remove them before the pods ripen and drop hundreds of seeds into my soft garden soil!
3. Eight rows of snap peas were planted as soon as I could work the soil in February. This east end of the garden is where I have grown my sweet potatoes for the past 2 years, allowing the long vines to grow out the back end of the garden. I am growing the peas here not only to harvest their delicious pods, but also to utilize their ability to add nitrogen to the soil. I grow "bush" varieties, which grown only about 24" tall, and I push branches into the ground for the tendrils to wind up. By June, when it is warm enough to plant the sweet potatoes, the peas will be harvested.
4. My June-bearing strawberry bed runs along the north wall of the garden, and the plants are flowering profusely now. The big mass of greenery above the word "north" is an area where last year's strawberry babies congregated! I'll dig these up after my harvest; strawberries produce best when not too crowded. If anyone nearby wants to start a strawberry bed, please let me know and I'll provide loads of healthy plants. I think the variety was "Tennessee Beauty".
5. Next to the strawberry crowd I sowed seed beds in this row in March for black seeded simpson lettuce, kale, bok choy, and spinach - all cold-hardy plants. They have all sprouted and are growing slowly.
6. Nine brussel sprout plants, started indoors in January, are growing here. I have sprayed a few times with garlic spray, fighting an insect which is eating holes in the leaves. Otherwise the plants look good - this is my first try at growing this veggie. I never really liked it, but a friend prepares it in a very tasty way. I figured if I liked his store-bought brussel sprouts, I'd love home grown! The brussel sprouts are bordered by romaine lettuce and yellow onions (I put in about 150 onion sets in Feb). Along the south border are loads of spinach plants which I started directly in the garden by seed last fall. The little spinach plants didn't grown much in the winter, but they survived two snow storms and lots of freezes and are now growing strong… great raw and cooked!
7. Garden fresh carrots taste so good, that I am giving them another try this year. I planted 5 close rows and covered them with the tall grass I cut from my blue flax in the flower gardens - there were no seeds in the grass and it is fine and lightweight, so it has kept the carrot seeds moist and encouraged good germination. I started another 4 rows next the the first planting, and hand raked the grass clippings over them. Next to that tan mass are some garlic, planted last fall, with a row of Amish Deer Tongue lettuce. Along one side of the carrot bed is a late winter planting of Chinese cabbage, and along the opposite side is pak choy, a mini bok choy.
8. The front of the garden has been planted with loads of garlic since last fall, which will be harvested in June-July, in addition to more onion sets, Chioggia beet seeds set out for harvesting the greens as well as the roots (they are pink and white inside), flat and curly parsley, and fennel. 
9. My Juwel cold frame is permanently set in the corner, where I can easily adjust the lids according to the weather, harvest the red romaine and spinach that grew in it all winter, and move pots of seedlings in and out. Behind the cold frame I've planted some cilantro, hoping the shade will keep it cool enough so it won't bolt (cilantro likes cold weather, but I like it when the tomatoes are ripe for salsa!)

Have fun in your garden on these gorgeous days of spring.

15 Tips from Judy's Kitchen

This is not your usual list of hints, but a few favorites I'd like to share from my kitchen:

1. Clean the Can
If your can opener ever drops the lid into the can, or you use the lid to drain off liquid from the contents, be careful. Before opening the can, wash the top with dish soap, rinse and dry. This way you won't contaminate the contents.

2. Unbleached Paper Goods
If you use coffee filters or parchment paper, buy the unbleached versions. Just a small step to avoid toxins in your food. My supermarket sells the regular parchment with tin foil and plastic bags, an the unbleached version is sold with the baking goods like chocolate morsels - can't figure that one!

3. Dried Citrus Peel
If you are fortunate to grow your own citrus fruit or you buy organic, save the peel. It dries quickly on a paper towel laid on the counter. Once dried, I put orange, lemon, or lime peel through the coffee grinder, store in a spice jar, and use them as easy flavor enhancers for baked goods, salad dressings, etc. Best to use peel that doesn't have a thick white layer, since that part tastes bitter.

4. Foolproof pasta al dente:

Boil plain water in a big pot, then add your pasta. Stir until it returns to a boil, then cover and remove from the heat. Let it sit for the minimum amount of cooking time on the pasta box instructions. Drain. This always cooks pasta perfectly for me, and it conserves energy too.

5. Remove Sticky Labels
I've tried cooking oil and smelly commercial goo-remover, but the best sticky residue remover I have found is Citra-Solv concentrated cleaner, used undiluted. Smells good too.

6. Sweetening with Stevia

You can buy stevia powder as a sweetener much more readily these days, even in the supermarkets. I've always found it so concentrated that the tiny amount needed is hard to distribute with other ingredients. Now I use a small bottle which previously held hot sauce (very well cleaned out), so it has the plastic top with a slit that lets a few drops out at a time. I fill it with water and mix just a tiny amount of the super-sweet stevia powder. This makes it easy to shake a few drops into a not-quite-sweet-enough smoothie, which is just the right amount. It's also possible to grow stevia as an herb and dry the leaves yourself. I planted one, then harvested and air-dried the leaves on a frame with a screen attached, until the leaves were brittle. Then I powdered them in my designated coffee-grinder… still green, but super-sweet. My stevia plant came back the second year (still looking for growth this third year, after a cold winter). It grows in the mountains of South America, so I hope it is cold hardy enough for Tennessee.

7. Jar Lids
I love having home-canned pickles, jellies, and tomatoes, but I hate those 2-part metal lids and rings. After the jar has been opened over and over and in the fridge for a while, they can start to get rusty and messy. So upon opening the jars, I replace the lids with one-piece white plastic lids (saving the screw bands for future canning). These Ball storage lids come in the regular and wide-mouth jar sizes and are sold in a box of 8, often with canning supplies. They seem fairly indestructible, and clean in the dish washer. The standard threading also fits commercial glass jars that are sold with stuff like peanut butter or mayo, so you can recycle the jars with lids which won't rust in longterm storage as the metal lids can.
 
8. Rice Soak
'Ever get rice stuck to the pot after cooking? Just fill with water and let it soak overnight. The rice will absorb the water and should come unstuck by morning.

9. Crisp Celery
After washing celery, stand it on end to drain. When dry, wrap the whole bunch in tinfoil. Store in refrigerator veggie drawer. Stays crunchy until you've used it all! 

10. Vacuum "Canning"

Speaking of canning, if you have a FoodSaver vacuum machine, they make a hose accessory (standard with some deluxe models, I think) which will vacuum seal a canning jar. This isn't to use for doing pickles or other standard water-bath processed canned goods; it's for longterm storage of items like nuts, spices, grains, dehydrated foods, bread crumbs, baking mixes, freezer jams, freshly milled flour, etc. If you are sealing a powdery substance, you can just put it into a plastic bag and twist closed, and put that into the jar before sealing… this way the vacuum won't suck up the powder while sealing the jar. Contents of jars which have been vacuum sealed are impervious to moisture and air, so storage life is extending beyond just screwing a lid on the container. The product can be used and the lid sealed again and again. This attachment is sold in either the regular or wide mouth standard jar size.

11. See What You Are Cleaning
I'm not fond of cleaning, but I like to do the best job possible for the time I invest. For cleaning in my dimly lit lower cabinets (even for the front of the lower cabinet doors and drawers) I don a miner's headlamp. It's amazing how much better you can see into those dark corners. These are readily available, in various brightness levels, at the camping section of superstores. Bonus Tips: we keep one of these headlamps at the back door for emergency trips outdoors in the night (sick dog, etc) and they are very helpful during power outages.

12. Powdering Sugar
I buy refined sugar only to make food for my hummingbird feeders, and I don't keep 10x confectioner's sugar on hand. When the need arises to sprinkled superfine sugar on some baked goods, it's very easy to make my own - just put regular granulated sugar in a clean coffee grinder and whirl until powdered.

13. Emergency Eggs
Occasionally I'll pull out a recipe for baked goods which calls for an egg, and I find i have none. Knocking on a neighbor's door is not a real good option in my rural setting, so I keep "Ener-G Foods Egg Replacer" on hand. It's a white powder, and just 1-1/2 tsp mixes with 2 T of water to substitute for one raw egg. With that small amount, the 16 oz. box lasts a long long time. It's good to use if you avoid eggs for allergy, vegan or other dietary reasons, since it's a non-egg product. Contains potato starch, tapioca, and other ingredients. I even once used it for one of the 3 eggs in a quiche and couldn't tell the difference from using 3 real eggs.
     A second handy dehydrated egg product is Deb El "Just Whites," which is a can of just dried egg whites, no additives or preservatives… add water and stir. I hate to through away one of my fresh free range yokes when a recipe calls for just the whites, like brushing egg white on bread before baking, so this is a handy alternative. The label says it can substitute for fresh egg whites in any recipe, and even has a Meringue Cookie recipe printed on the side.

14. Blanching Almonds
If your recipe calls for blanched almonds, and all you have are whole raw almonds, it's easier than you might think to blanche your own. Put the almonds in a bowl and add boiling water to cover. Drain after 1 minute and rinse with cold water. The skins will slip off between your fingers.

15. The Best Cleansers
In the cleaning aisle of the supermarket, look for "Bon Ami" cleanser. It is my favorite for scrubbing corning casseroles, cleaning my stainless steel sinks, getting coffee and tea stains out of mugs, cleaning the stovetop. It's made in the USA, cheap (mine was 89 cents for 14 oz.), is non-abrasive, and has no perfume, chlorine or dyes added. Web site says the main ingredients are the mineral feldspar (a gentle abrasive powder) and limestone (an even softer abrasive). I also like "Bar Keepers Friend" for similar uses, and for the shower stall and glass doors.


I hope you find these ideas helpful!

Perfect Winter Harvest

Have you ever heard of Jerusalem Artichokes? Perhaps you've seen them as "sunchokes," sold in the supermarket produce section? I'm a big fan of these edible plants, whose roots are harvested in winter months and can be used, raw or cooked, in a variety of recipes.

The Jerusalem Artichokes are not artichokes and do not come from Jerusalem - various theories exist for how they were named. They the swollen roots, called tubers, of "Helianthus tuberoses," a perennial flowering plant of the sunflower/aster family, which often grow in the wild. They look a lot like ginger roots. During the warm months, these tubers supply the nutrients for the growth of tall stiff leafy stalks, 7 feet or taller, which are topped with a profusion of 3" yellow daisy-type flowers in the fall. As the flowers fade and the stalks and leaves die back, the plant's energies go back into the roots, and the tubers begin to grow again.

AS A FOOD:
Jerusalem Artichoke tubers are dug from November thru early March here in Tennessee, just harvesting as many as you want for immediate use, and leaving the rest in the ground for subsequent harvests. I'll be honest - these are not for those of you who hate to get your hands dirty… literally and figuratively. If you've ever dug and cleaned fresh potatoes, you know there is some work involved. Even though they can be used like potatoes, I wouldn't attempt to prepare a big casserole of Jerusalem Artichokes for a crowd... too much work. But as an addition to other foods, they are perfect.

To prepare for eating, the harvested Jerusalem Artichoke roots are washed and scrubbed to remove the dirt, like other root crops. The skin is golden, and the inside is white. The thin skin can be peeled with a vegetable peeler, but it sort of scrubs off while cleaning. I prefer to hose the tubers off after digging, soak briefly in a bowl of water to loosen the remaining dirt, then scrub with a vegetable brush (the kind like a fingernail scrubbing brush).

The tubers can be:

Freshly dug tubers, not yet washed.

• Eaten raw - with a texture and crunch similar to water chestnuts; added to salads and dips
• Cooked - prepared in many ways as you would use potatoes (baked, boiled, stewed, fried, etc.)
• Sliced - for quick stir-fry type cooking
• Dehydrated
• Dried and ground into flour
• Pickled

Loose soil hosed off.

Scrubbed, ready to cut up and add to a beef stew.

They have a slight sweetness, particularly if harvested late in their season, but otherwise don't have a strong flavor. When using them raw, air will darken them just as with apple slices, so cut when ready to use, or cut and dip them in water with a small amount lemon juice, vinegar, or some other acid added. If you are storing the tubers, it is best to wash them, then place in them a zip bag in the refrigerator; the moisture helps keep them fresh. Use within a week. They cannot be stored like potatoes or they will dry up and shrivel.

USING THEM IN RECIPES

I have used raw Jerusalem Artichokes chopped and stirred into chicken salad for a slight crunch, the same as celery would add. I also slice them thin to mix in a garden salad. Chopped pieces make a good addition to onion dip too. When cooking the tubers, added acid can strengthen the texture, so cut when ready to add to the cooked recipe rather than cutting early and soaking in lemon juice, as when used raw. I have cooked them in a beef stew, cutting into 1" pieces, and adding to a crock pot with onions, carrots, mushrooms, beef and herbs. After hours of cooking, they deliciously absorb the stew flavors. I've also sliced Jerusalem Artichokes and sauteed with onions and kale, as a yummy side dish, and I've used them to make a pureed cheese soup, much like you'd use potatoes. Experiment!

Even if they weren't so good, the fact that Jerusalem Artichokes can be harvested continuously all winter, when so little else is growing in the garden, makes them a valuable food source. In an emergency, when you can't get to the store for produce, they are readily available for your immediate harvesting.

DIABETIC ALTERNATIVE:
After harvesting, the Jerusalem Artichoke's storage carbohydrate is inulin, which is converted to fructose in the digestive tract, as compared with the storage carbohydrate of potatoes - starch, which is converted to glucose in the gut. Thus Jerusalem Artichokes are a better tolerated choice for diabetics.

PLANTING, GROWING & HARVESTING:
My location in Zone 7 is about as far south as Jerusalem Artichokes grow, needing about 125 frost-free days. They are not particularly happy in our slow-draining Tennessee clay soil, so augment the planting bed to improve drainage. I found my three-year old planting bed had spread toward a rock-filled drainage ditch beside the bed, where the drainage was better. Planting in spring is best, and they like slightly alkaline soil and sunshine. Plant pieces of tubers at least 2 ounces, 4-5 inches deep, about 12 inches apart. Chose a location where very tall plants will look nice, and plant them where they can thrive and spread, year after year. Even if you try to dig all the roots, you will have a hard time eliminating this vigorous crop. Mine sometimes get too tall by midsummer and wind will blow the stalks over, so I cut them down a few feet, sacrificing some of the flowering in later months.
 

Digging tubers in late winter, to share with others for planting.

Dig the tubers beginning in fall, after the plant has died back, and after the first frost. Insert a tined garden fork into the soil under the dried stem, loosening the soil. You'll see the golden tubers scattered amongst the dirt, all at about the same depth. Pieces will vary from knobby to round, 1-1/2" to 4", and will not have any roots attached to them, so just pull them out of the dirt. In late winter, you'll know it's time to stop harvesting when you see one end of each tuber has started growing a shoot, preparing for the new season's growth.

February Garden Activities

Highs in the 60s can almost fool you into thinking it's springtime. My crocuses have flowered and the daffodils are popping up, but it is still about 7 weeks until the average last frost for this area (gardening zone 7). So winter gardening still prevails, even though all my indoor south-facing windows are full of seedlings, with some of the cold-tolerant crops (brussel sprouts, lettuce, parsley, onions, leeks) in front of the basement window to harden off, where it's about 50 degrees (or outside in the daytime sun).

My lunar gardening calendar declared last Sunday a good day for planting root crops, so I planted about 90 yellow onion sets, and several rows of beet seeds. I used a 3/4" diameter round wood stick to plant the onions, amending and loosening up the soil first, then poking the stick in about 3" deep, 3" apart. That made it easy to pop one onion set into each hole, root side down, then push soil over it. I also transplanted the garlic from various places in my 20' x 40' veggie garden, so those which have wintered over are all in one area of the garden. For my final "root crop" task, I filled a large pot with purchased organic soil + vermiculite + peat moss, wet it, and planted 5 of the smallest sweet potatoes which I had set aside from my harvest last year. In the past, I've tried starting them in soil as well as in mason jars of water, and the soil method has worked better for me. This is the earliest I've tried starting them, since they don't go into the garden until June, but perhaps it will give me larger plants for the garden. These little potatoes will send up leaves, with little hairy roots at the base of each stem. When I am ready to plant, I'll separate these from the starter potato and plant those "slips" to start the vines.

My Lenten Rose (hellebore) just began to flower.

I've also been transplanting seedlings for other vegetables - such as tomatoes, jalapenos, sweet peppers, and pimentos - from 1" peat pellets into 3" plastic pots, with the same soil mix as described above. This will allow the roots to grow thick and healthy. As an experiment, I planted a 2 foot wide window box type planter with cilantro seedlings. I love to have fresh cilantro for making salsa when my tomatoes ripen, but the heat makes the cilantro produce flowers instead of leaves. I am hoping I can grow this planter either in cooler shade or in the basement window, to successfully harvest leaves in mid to late summer. If you have a better way to coordinate cilantro harvest with ripe tomatoes, please let me know. Just don't suggest I move back to northern New England!

Bread Baking Simplified

If you've never made your own bread, or if, like me, you've been making breads for years, there's a whole new, simple, fast, fool-proof way to make fabulous breads at home.

I learned about this fairly recently, in an excerpt from ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François, which was posted by Mother Earth News.

Half a batch of dough stored in the fridge.

I made the dough, trying their basic "boule" (which means ball in French) and made a small loaf. Then I made some English muffins. Then I made another small loaf, followed with some "naan" skillet bread. Everything I tried came out perfect. I was sold! I started sharing my discovery with friends, and baking bread in five minutes seems to be spreading like a chain letter. This is so easy!

The basic idea is that you make a large batch of a very simple dough, using just flour, yeast, water, and salt. No kneading; you just mix these ingredients in a container until blended (it's wet and sticky dough). You let it sit for two hours. You can use it right away to bake bread or put it in the fridge and use it little by little over the next 2 weeks. And when you go to use it, you basically just shape your bread, let it sit at room temperature, bake, and eat. And it's delicious!!

My boule, scored and ready to bake.

It's not only the simplicity and speed of making great bread that I like about this method, it's also the ability to just make a little bread at a time. A standard small loaf made in my bread machine is too much for two people, so I usually end up freezing the extra. Tastes ok when thawed, but certainly not as good as freshly baked. With the 5 Minute Bread dough, I can use little amounts at a time, to make two english muffins, or one skillet bread, or two hamburger rolls… in hardly any time at all.

I've now used the dough for pizza crust, calzones, and dinner rolls - every one a success. I've experimented with various flours too, using King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour for one batch, my own freshly ground whole wheat for another, etc. [Whole wheat has less gluten, and won't rise as much - but very healthy and tasty]. I own a baking stone, which they recommend, but mine is on permanent loan to my friends who make homemade pizza. But I read of an alternative, which is to use a cast iron skillet instead. I have a round one with a very low lip, and this works perfectly for a small "boule" loaf, set on a piece of floured parchment paper.

Skillet naan bread.

After finishing my 4th batch of this dough, I just purchased the authors' second book HEALTHY BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY, which focuses more on whole grains. Now I'm trying many of their other recipes - whole grain hamburger buns today. Still the same basic concept, but yummy variations. There are recipes for gluten-free breads too. Artisan breads I've tried in the past take a long time and a lot of fussing over how to knead, how long to rise… too much bother for me.

I also review the authors' website for FAQs, I have subscribed to their blog, and I've "liked" their Facebook page- all link from their website and they have many videos too [see one posted here]. So I can keep up with variations beyond their books, like adding sourdough starter to the dough, or reducing the salt, or making their beet bread into a valentine heart!

Slice whole wheat loaf.

Try this yourself. Unless you use only refined white flour or slather on loads of butter, you probably need not worry about eating too much. One of my friends said she might as well just stick the dough on her hips! But eating whole grains is healthy, so go for it.

Heirloom Seed Misconceptions

Some of my heirloom seeds

The growing popularity of heirloom (aka "open pollinated") vegetables and fruit is great, when considering the massive loss of plant variety and diversity in recent times, as well as the near monopolization - and genetic manipulation - by the seed industry. I sense, however, in casual conversation with fellow home gardeners, that there are misconceptions about saving seeds to grow your own plants.

Consider these scenarios:

• Your neighbor gives you a cantaloupe, a honeydew and a watermelon, all grown in his garden from heirloom seeds. Can you save and plant the watermelon seeds and end up the same kind in your garden next year? (not likely - this family of vegetables readily cross-pollinates with each other)
• You buy several tomatoes at a farmer's market which are labelled "heirloom tomatoes." Should you save the seeds from the Cherokee Purple variety you really liked and start your own heirloom tomato plants with them? (no - you don't know the conditions under which the plants were grown)
• You planted one variety of carrots from heirloom seeds bought by a reputable seed catalog. None of your neighbors grow carrots, so you know you've isolated the variety. You carefully overwinter several carrots and replant for a second season (since they are biennials and don't flower and set seeds until year 2). When you save the seeds from these plants, they should grow the exact same type of carrots again, right? (not necessarily; even with all the precautions you took, the plants could have crossed with Queen Anne's Lace, a wildflower which is actually a wild carrot with a white root - even if they grew 1/4 mile apart!)
• I've started all my garden plants from purchased heirloom seeds. Does this mean I'll never need to buy seeds again? (maybe, but it depends on many various of growing and seed saving factors)

I'm certainly no expert in saving and growing heirloom seeds, but I've learned enough from books and online literature that I know all the above scenarios send up red flags. If you intend to save seeds for replanting and want to insure you'll get the same plant as the mother plant, I suggest you do your own research. I recommend Suzanne Ashworth's book on seed saving, Seed to Seed, which some consider to be the "bible" of seed saving.

Here's my abridged version of seed saving guidelines…
Generally speaking, plants make flowers, and, if pollinated (i.e. fertilized), the flower will die off and create seeds. Often the seeds are incased in fruit, like many of the vegetables and fruits you are most familiar with: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, grapes. With root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, or beets, we are less familiar with the flowers - but all of them do flower, some not until the second year of being in the ground. Leafy vegetables, like lettuce and spinach, are also not known for flowers or fruit, but they too will flower in order to set seeds. With many other vegetables, we eat the "seeds", as with corn, dried beans, and peas. Sometimes we eat the seeds without awareness, like in eggplants, bananas, blueberries. And with watermelon, we spit out the seeds!

Vegetable and fruit plants have various ways of pollinating. With the help of insects, wind, and/or the location of stamen and pistil within one flower (oops, don't want to get too technical!), flowers are fertilized to produce future seeds. Methods of pollination include:

1. Plants whose pollen from one flower can self-pollinate itself [ex. beans]
2. Plants whose numerous flowers on the same plant can pollinate each other [ex. tomatoes]
3. Plants which do best with pollen from another plant within its own variety to fertilize its flowers [ex. blueberries]
4. Plants which might cross-pollinate with other varieties within its plant family [ex. melons]
5. Plants which can even cross pollinate with what we think of as weeds [ex. carrots]

Why is this important for saving seeds? These variations mean that planting more than one variety of tomato, melon, or carrot might result in production of seeds not matching the "mother" plant, since they might be pollinated by a "father" from a different variety. The package of some cantaloupe seeds I bought says that for seed saving you should not grow any other cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, and others listed within 1/4 mile, since the pollinating bees might travel that distance. So even your close neighbor's garden can affect your seed saving plans. Zucchini squash will cross with yellow crookneck squash, and might also cross with butternut squash, it's "cousin" - same family, different species. On the other extreme, you can grow two types of peas in your garden, separating the two varieties with a row or two of other vegetables, and be fairly insured that seeds saved will grow the same variety. Somewhere in the middle is corn, for which two different heirloom varieties are recommended to be grown 1000 feet apart to insure purity when saving for seed. Books and websites on heirloom seeds often list recommended plant isolation distances for saving seeds successfully, so this info is readily available to you as a gardener.

Some of my heirloom seedlings, in front of a south window

Even if you plant only one variety of tomatoes, and have no neighbor gardens closer than a mile away, you also need to consider the gene pool. Yes, you may be lucky and pick one lone huge tomato from that one plant, save the seeds properly, and grow the same variety next year. Ideally, you want to be sure to select a very healthy plant, and pick many of its best fruit (weak plants produce weak seeds). Even better, plant loads of that variety of tomatoes, take the best fruit from the strongest plants, and mix all your seeds together. This maintains a broader "genetic base" for your seeds (vs. inbreeding), and, over the long run, can even result in fruit better adapted for your specific garden conditions. It's the old "survival of the fittest" thing.

These are just a few of numerous factors to consider when saving heirloom seeds. To do so seriously, you also need to know the best timing for gathering the seeds (watermelon seeds are mature when you are eating the fruit, bean seeds should be left on the plant to dry out, for example), how to best dry seeds, how to store seeds, how and when to plant, etc.

My personal conclusion from all this is that I have converted to starting all my garden seedlings from heirloom seeds purchased from good suppliers, but I am not going to worry about the proper conditions for seed saving. If there comes a time when I can no longer purchase the seeds, I can refer to my library, and isolate my favorite vegetables - as necessary - in order to save seeds for the next growing season. Happy gardening!

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!