Green Journal: My Backyard Harvest
October 8, 2007
Posted by CindyC in : Green Journal , trackback
At the beginning of summer, my family converted to organic gardening as part of our landscaping efforts. It was one of our largest home improvement projects but well worth the effort. Not only did our now usable yard add to our living space, we were able to do it without worrying about exposing our child, dog or environment to chemical hazards.
Our family happily watched our garden grow and mature through the summer months. Now that it’s fall, we thought it was finally time to “harvest” our garden and enjoy the fruits of labor, so to speak. We decided that we would find something in our garden each day this past week that we can use, rather than buy from the store. We figured this would be a great lesson in sustainable living for our daughter and her playmates. Although we don’t have a large yard, we were amazed at how many plantings we could use. Take a look at our week of small harvest:
-
Monday: Crushed, fresh mint made excellent mojitos. It was a really long day….
Tuesday: A bouquet of roses for the dining room table. .
Wednesday: Sliced vine-ripened tomatoes topped with olive oil and splash of balsamic vinegar
Thursday: Fresh rosemary for pork roast dinner plus extra sprigs prepped for drying*
Friday: Fresh picked oranges as part of a healthy breakfast. (Our orange tree is a mature one but really thrived after our conversion).
We were actually gone for the weekend but could have had plenty of fresh squeezed orange juice since our tree is already loaded with ripe fruit. Now that my family is totally hooked on “living off the (sub)urban land”, they are already planning for our spring garden 
* Btw, drying home-grown herbs is an easy and inexpensive way to add healthy flavor to your food. Low moisture herbs like rosemary, oregano and dill are good for drying. Higher moisture herbs like basil or mint are better stored in the freezer. Check out a great recipe for freezing basil from our friend Michelle.
CindyC at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Find More Green Products & Reviews..
Comments»
Way to go! Those tomatoes look great. Doesn’t it feel good to grow your own stuff?
What are you planning for next year?
Thanks Clea. I’m actually surprised our tomatoes did that well - I was worried that it wasn’t hot or sunny enough for them this summer. We’re waiting for our broccoli now but haven’t figured out what to plant in the winter/spring. Any suggestions?