Today's Harvest
Garden #1 is in a community garden plot. It's a 20' x 20' urban garden in a park in our city. There are about 120 garden plots here and you can rent them for $48 a year if you are a city resident. Each plot conveniently has it's own water spigot, in fact, my plot has 2. This is a fairly new garden and I've been gardening here since it opened 6 years ago. Before that, I really didn't know much about gardening but I found I loved it so much, I started growing organic vegetables and selling them by the box to my friends. I was working 4 plots at the time and also using a backyard of a friend.
Gardening, and especially organic vegetable gardening is the best hobby on earth. Having the earth in your hands and the sun over your head is a soothing experience that makes you feel good. It balances you somehow as if this is where you as a human were meant to be. In addition, you are using your time and energy to produce healthy foods for yourself and your family for very little cost. And on top of that, in a community garden, you will meet some of the nicest, down to earth people, the kind of people you can befriend for life.
Almost every gardener I know produces more than they can consume. Many gardeners who don't cook give away the fruits of their labor. I wouldn't be surprised if half of what is grown in the community garden is never harvested and goes to waste.
That's why it's nice to have garden friends. We grow and share. We share our ideas, our seeds, our vegetables and even our support. We are there for each other when one needs a hand putting up a trellis, and we are there when one of us wants to talk about a family crisis.
A few days ago, my garden friend Kanya gave me a large stalk of sugar cane. And today, my garden friend Greg, whom I haven't seen in awhile, gave me a hug and offered me some of his kolrabi and a beautiful head of romaine. Now these people do not know about my dollar a day challenge. They are happy if someone can enjoy some of their harvest.
So today I brought home from the garden lots of zucchini, broccoli, green beans, some strawberries and Greg's kolrabi and romaine.
This afternoon my energy dropped again and I had to take a nap. I had a nice hike in the morning with my friend Barb before working the garden.
So I made a batch of roasted vegetables to snack on. It's so easy and the fragrance that comes from the oven is unbelievable. All you have to do is slice up some vegetables, put them in a bowl and coat them with a tablespoon of olive oil. Then add some salt and pepper and spread them out on a cookie sheet in a single layer.
Roast them in a 400 degree oven for about 50 minutes turning them now and then and it'll come out caramelized like this. It's the first time I tried roasting daikon and broccoli and they are both good but the broccoli was awesome because the flower part comes out crispy. All the flavors are intensified and just unbelievable. It's a great way to use up veggies fast. I ate half of them and will save the rest as a side dish or to put on a salad.
I haven't been consuming enough calories so I decided to make a dessert tonight. I was going to roast bananas with some brown sugar, but alas, I didn't have any so I improvised and used the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars I got on sale at Fresh and Easy for $1. I cut the banana in half and crushed the chocolate bars on top and roasted them. They don't look that appetizing, but I can tell you they were really delicious. I served my husband some with whipped topping and he enjoyed them.
So today, I went over $1 for the day, but after I ate that dessert, my energy really picked up.
Day 4
Breakfast
Oatmeal with soy milk and banana slices
| Orange Juice |
| Lunch |
| Egg Avocado Sandwich on squaw bread |
Snack Roasted vegetables |
Chicken Red Bean Soup
1/4 cup brown rice
Dessert
Roasted 1/2 banana with 2 chocolate peanut butter bars
Calories: 1425
Cost: $1.19
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