2013 Kitchen Garden - Week 1

Last month we bought a house with a stellar kitchen, big backyard and lots of space to garden. After clearing out the weeds, we set out on planning, and planting our garden. We chose not to start from seed with this garden, as its our first year working with this soil, and I'm lazy like that.

Kristi used cloud-based garden planning software, GrowVeg.com.  Given that Kristi and I both work at high tech companies, we applied our nerd-ish best practices to our home projects (we opted out of creating a PRD, however, we are developing a garden road map for 2013-2014).

Out key objectives were to create a garden:

• Where food is easily attainable
• Serve as our primary source of herbs for the Summer/Fall
• Can be eaten off the plant and/or preserved
• Provides a sustainable source of nutrient-rich soil
•  Remains organic - no pesticides, no GMO seed, plants

Deciding to take this project on in phases, we prepared the area by clearing out the plot and turned over the soil by hand. Following that, we designated a corner of the garden to serve as the compost pile.

So, what did we plant in Phase 1?

Let's start with the herbs:

- Basil (Lemon Basil, Sweet Basil, and Herb Basil)
- Terragon (2 plants)
- Dill - (1 plant)
- Sage (1 plant)
- Cilantro (6 plants - turns into coriander)
- Rosemary (2  plants)
- Spearmint
- Peppermint
- Italian Parsley
- Oregano (2 plants)
- Thyme (1 plant)

Veggie Vegetables

A relative of mine runs Love Apple Farm, a kitchen garden for many high end restaurants in the  San Francisco Bay Area. So we have a lot to live up to here.









We have to have tomatoes. started with 5 tomato plants, and I can't wait to try the new one we've never planted in the past.

- Green Grape tomatoes (delish)            

- Yellow Pear (my favorite)
- Sweet 100 (first time with these)
- Cherry Tomato - 2, solid standby

Peppers/Chilis
- Jalapeno
- Serrano
- Thai Chili Peppers
- Caribbean Red Hot Pepper
- (plan to plant Fresno chilis and habaneros as well - and ghost chili if I can find it)

Leafy Greens
- Argula (5 sprouts)
- Assorted Kale
- Rainbow Chard (6 sprouts) 

Other Great Vegetables    

- Artichoke
- Carrots (GARDENING TIP: Tomatoes love carrots. Sow your carrot seeds between your tomato plants)
- Sunflowers
- Sugar Snap Peas (EXPERIMENT: I planted the peas and the sunflowers close together in hopes that the pea vines will climb the sunflower stalks. 
- Zucchini (I think I planted way to many seeds, but we'll see what comes of it)


Next steps: Layout a paver path with flagstones, construct a compost bin, plant beets, lemongrass, cucumber, a strawberry patch, beans, the above mentioned peppers, install a drip system and get some ladybugs!

Make real food granola at home

Alright, so let me start with this: I love granola. All time favorite cereals (besides Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries) is granola. 

Since Kristi discovered the Real Food blog earlier this year, we've taken some of the spirit of the concept and adapted many of their recipes to suit our personal tastes.

This recipe is based on Alton Brown's recipe for granola, but with the Real Foods influence. The result is a sweet, healthy and delicious granola that serves as a breakfast cereal or a snack.

 We usually double the recipe; it keeps for a while in airtight jars. If you want to stay 100% away from unnatural sugar use raisins, I have yet to find unsweetened cranberries. You can add some nutmeg in there if you like, some recipes also call for a little bit of powdered ginger. Once you make it, you can alter, add/omit ingredients it to your taste. Sometimes we will just use 1C honey or 1C syrup instead of both. I hope you like the recipe; it is awesome for breakfast in Greek yogurt or cereal! ☺



Ingredients

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup slivered raw organic almonds
• 1 cup raw organic pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup raw organic sunflower seeds
• ¾- 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1/4 cup raw organic honey
• 1/4 cup Grade A maple syrup
• 1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil (A good extra virgin oil makes a huge difference vs. regular coconut oil)
• 1- ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons or so of cinnamon (Depends on your taste how much)
• 1 cup raisins or cranberries

Double the recipe, it's worth it.

 

 

Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
Heat up coconut oil in small pan on low to melt it. Add the vanilla to the oil and set aside to cool a bit.
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except the oil mixture and cranberries/raisins.

Pour oil into the large bowl with ingredients and combine both mixtures well and pour onto sheet pan/s (I use two when I double the recipe). Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and add raisins or cranberries and mix until evenly distributed.