Tag Archives: Gardens

Broccoli Bouquet – Beauty and Nutrition

Picture 144We used to take our food supply for granted, picking it from a waste-high case in a grocery aisle, giving little thought to where it came from, who grew it and what it took to do that. It wasn’t until we started harvesting our own broccoli that I realized it is actually an edible flower. In fact, there are many edible flowers; nasturtium, bachelor’s buttons, dandelions, clovers, chives, lavender to name a few. To see a longer list, click here.

 

I don’t know if I’d put this broccoli in a vase on the table, but it sure is pretty to look at as I pick it for an afternoon meal.

garden in morning

Aside from the nutritional benefits of freshly grown organic vegetables, it does something for the soul to walk around in the garden and see the plants a little bigger than the day before, reaching for the sun, so hopeful and full of life.

Whatever is going on today for you, I suspect it will be a little better if you stop to pick some flowers, maybe even eat them once you’re done enjoying looking at them and enjoying their fragrance a while!

Sink full of food

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You’d never know it by today’s weather, but last weekend, the weatherman predicted a frost. So the day before, we harvested all the less-than-hardy plants, bringing them inside for processing. It took every crate and basket we own to gather it all! Despite a massive canning, drying, freezing effort, (thanks for the help Christie and Zac) we still have many baskets of half-ripe tomatoes, lots of cukes and peppers to put up. I make it sound cumbersome, but the fact is we love having fresh food by the bushel crowding the counters in our farm kitchen.

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Many of the broad leaf herbs also got pulled to rescue them from the coming frost. When dry, this will be about a pound each of basil and flat leaf parsley. Chives, onions, mint will be ok a while longer outside, along with the kale, brussel sprouts, peas, etc.

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The keeper squashes are on the lawn curing in the sun for a while, to harden up the skins before storage. It’s rewarding to see them all gathered from the garden patch, all huddled together on the lawn.

All in all, a pretty good year and a plentiful harvest!