Garden Menu

 

                An intelligent young man and I were having a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of vegetable gardening. “Diversity”…he said, “I prefer buying in the market because I get a lot more variety in foods.” Obviously it is true there is more variety in the grocery store than in my small 30’X60’ vegetable plot. Food in the super market comes from other sides of the country, the other hemisphere, and other continents…although I’m not sure all that extra transportation cost is worth the extra “diversity” to the palate. I have never been opposed to agriculture/farming and world trade as plan A; I just like having horticulture/gardening as my back-up plan B. A small garden does not provide as much variety as the market but I feel it does provide “enough” variety…a surprising amount of variety. Too many people picture a gardener as growing a dozen or so vegetables; a rube eating a raw turnip or carrot and saying “Mmm, that’s good! I’m a vegetarian!” The truth is those dozen or so vegetables are only the raw material inputs into a finished product.  In fairness, one should consider whether a garden provides enough cuisine variety in the form of final product i.e. finished meals. With that idea in mind I will present what comes from my garden as items on a restaurant menu. This is what we actually eat in my household.

Salads:

Combination lettuce, spinach, chard, radish, onion, beet, bell pepper salads with store-bought salad dressing of choice;

Cole slaw from grated turnips and carrots with sugar/vinegar and mayo dressing;

Onion, cucumber and tomatoes marinated in sweet vinegar;

Onion and pickled beet salad;

German and American style potato salads with onions and green peppers.

Soups:

Beef vegetable soup with carrots, onions, potatoes or turnips, green beans, and corn;

Butternut squash soup;

Beet borsht;

Potato and corn chowder.

Plate lunch side dishes (served with store bought meat entre):

Sweet potatoes or white potatoes served mashed, baked, as French fries or hash browns;

Sweet corn, green beans, cooked carrots, boiled asparagus tips;

Cooked greens (turnip or chard) or wilted spinach with sweet vinegar and bacon bits;

Fried green tomatoes or fried zucchini;

Yellow summer squash casserole or green bean casserole.

Desserts:

Melon: cantaloupe, (watermelon, if the size of garden is doubled to allow for a watermelon patch);

Pies: rhubarb pie (tastes like very tart apple pie);

          Butternut squash pie (tastes like pumpkin pie);

          Sweet potato pie;

          Raspberry cobbler.

Sweet breads: various types of zucchini bread (tastes like cakes, especially chocolate zucchini bread.)

               

                 Not a bad menu! We do not have to eat only what is “in season” since much of our produce either keeps well naturally (especially the root crops) or freezes easily.  It is now mid-February and we have sweet corn, green beans, asparagus ,sliced green peppers, rhubarb,  and zucchini in the freezer  as well as several boxes of sweet potatoes  in the back room. We ate carrots from the garden until the beginning of this month. So there is much more good eating in a small garden than one might expect; especially if you are blessed with a spouse who likes to cook and has a library of cook books.