How Does Your Garden Grow: Day 8

We're one week into the gardening project, and I'm so excited about progress so far, that I think it will be a series!

So far, the lettuce is definitely in the lead.  Seedlings popped up around day 3, and while new ones are still growing in, the plants are about 2-3" tall.

Growing towards the sunlight.  We're going to be eating a LOT of salad.

 The basil is also coming in pretty good.  There are several little plants in the pot.  I'm thinking I may need a second pot sometime down the road.

We have one lone bean stalk who made an appearance yesterday.  On Friday, there was nothing.  On Saturday, it had broken through the soil, but was kind of coiled.  Now, on Sunday, it's about 2" high and standing tall.  But,......where are the rest?  I planted about 12 seeds.  Will they grow, or are they duds?  Time will tell, I guess.

Lastly, here are the peppers.  You could almost miss them, but there are two tiny plants breaking free of the soil. I'm glad, but hope more come in.  The seed package is labeled as "Carnival Mix", and I'd really like to harvest the variety of colors pictured -- green, red, purple, orange, and even ivory!

This project of mine is really bringing out the nerd in me.  I seriously stare at these plants a couple of times a day, willing them to grow!  And it's fascinating how much food from the store is taken for granted.  For example, I know lettuce is a plant, and it grows in the ground (duh!), but I never thought about lettuce SEEDS.  And I didn't really think about my packet of green bean seeds being the same white nubbins that are inside the green beans on my plate.  I know it sounds kind of stupid, but these are some of those things you know in the back of your mind, but it doesn't really click.  Some day down the road when we have children of our own, they will definitely be growing their own little green bean in a paper cup and digging in the dirt with me!

Stay tuned for the next episode!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I guess you can call me Farmer Cake Lady.  The warmer temperatures and ridiculoud prices at the grocery store led me to try my hand at a small vegetable garden.  Nothing too fancy, since we live in an apartment, but things we eat a lot of: lettuce, peppers, basil, tomatoes, and green beans.  See, we don't eat just cake around here!

Because I've never done it before, and it's cheaper, I started most of my veggies from seed.  When I've planted before, I just bought the half grown plants.  So here's what I've got going:

Day 1

Looseleaf lettuce mixture:  Lettuce is well suited to container gardening, and loose leaf lettuce is ready to harvest a little sooner than head lettuce, plus you can pick what you need when you need it.  Hopefully, this will mean no more wilted lettuce in the fridge.

Tenderbush garden beans:  Two advantages here, the beans grow on a bush rather than a vine.  I'm hoping I don't need to stake them.  Second, the sead packet says they are stringless, meaning less prep time when they're ready to eat!  I figure beans can't be too hard to grow, as they're the classic elementary school science project!

Carnival mix sweet peppers:  We eat a lot of peppers, usually green bell peppers.  The brightly colored peppers on the seed packet looked so much tastier than the others.  Though, I'm pretty sure I'll be going back for some hot peppers.  Muy caliente!  Short of ghost chili and scorpion peppers (the world's hottest varieties), we like them all.

Mammoth basil:  There's nothing better than fresh basil.  I grew a small basil plant last year, and thoroughly enjoyed having Billy Basil sit on the windowsill, and grace many a pasta sauce and Thai curry with his presence.  Will this be Billy #2 or something else?

I also transplanted Oscar the Onion into a pot with soil.  Did you know you can grow green onions on your windowsill in just water?  I started Oscar off by putting the root ends that I'd been throwing away for years into a glass of water.  Within a few days, we could see new shoots growing.  Within a few weeks, he was pretty tall.  Now, two months later, he is still alive, and growing faster than we can eat him.  As a result, he's pretty droopy and long.

And yes, we name our plants.  They're our babies until we have some real ones.  Billy Basil, Oscar Onion, and a philodendron named Phil. 

Homemade hot sauce

We are hot sauce junkies at our house. We keep a couple of types on hand at all times, because you never know what you might want to put it on. But, i the grand scheme of things, hot sauce is kind of expensive. So, jackpot bingo when I saw this post in the New York Times! I made immediate plans to make it after a trip to the DeKalb Farmer's Market. I was ready to throw every pepper they had into the pot!

For the first try, I held back and tried to stick to the recipe. They only had 3 red habaneros peppers (all the rest were green -- I figured they wouldn't be hot), so I subbed in 2 serrano peppers. Three red and three green habaneros plus 2 serrano peppers cost me all of 26 cents! Can't beat that with a stick.

Right now, I'm on day 2 of the 3 day setting process. I am SOOOOOOOOOO ready to taste the final product. Of course, I did sneak a taste when it came off the stove. It definitely had some zip. I don't know if the wait period is going to increase the flavor, mellow it out, or what. Tomorrow's going to be taco night --- a perfect time to crack this baby open!