Fruits and Nuts in the Vegetable Garden

I have long felt that a vegetable garden was a better investment of my time and money than an orchard or raising my own meat. Simply consider that for the cost of a single apple tree I can cover the expenses of an entire vegetable garden for a year. For that expense one must wait several years for any return from a fruit tree but only two or three months for a return from the annuals in the garden. Both green tomatoes and zucchinis make excellent mock apple pies. Cherry pies are outshined by strawberry-rhubarb pies. Melons are equal to any peaches in summer and in the fall and winter, sweet potato pies and pumpkin or winter squash pies and puddings are the standard fare.

So fruits are pretty well covered in the garden for pies and jellies without even considering the wide array of bush and bramble fruits grown around a vegetable garden, but what if I want some nuts in my zucchini bread or in my oatmeal raisin cookies? There are three nut substitutes that can be grown in a vegetable garden. The first is peanuts, a legume which also adds nitrogen to the soil. Peanut plants can also add a lot of fodder to the compost heap.  The second nut substitute is sunflower seeds. A row of sunflowers adds a lot of beauty to a vegetable plot. The third nut substitute is the one which I plan to go with this year, “naked” pumpkin seeds. Although all pumpkin seeds can be roasted in the oven, the hulless “naked seed” varieties work best. Just because you grow a vegetable garden does mean that you must deprive yourself of sweets and nuts.