My Kitchen Garden Wish List

I still haven't been blogging or blog hopping very much lately and I miss it! I have been using some 'me time' to read and play around on twitter and Instagram, but it doesn't have the same level of engagement as blogging. I know I keep saying this, but I hope to catch up with all of you very soon. In the meantime, please tell me what's new and what's been keeping YOU busy lately?

My plan was to have a post up last month last week this week about my newly established, finished vegetable garden but alas, I'm still not finished! ArGh! I'm easily two months behind schedule, but that's okay. At least I'm finally getting somewhere with it and I will be growing things in there very soon. Hopefully I'll be able to harvest tomatoes before the fall frost. Ha ha I'm kidding. It shouldn't be that late. ; )

I'm going to save a lot of my thoughts and ideas about establishing a new vegetable garden for its own post when my garden is finished and I can post before, after and in between photos. In the meantime, I'll talk about my kitchen garden wish list. I'm not going to be able to plant all of my wish list this year and maybe not even ever if I don't have the space, but I've been thinking about what I'd like to grow. In the years that I had a vegetable garden [in the space which our four year old home addition now occupies], I learned a lot about what I can and can't grow easily, if it's worth it to grown my own of certain items, and so on. I've also been thinking lately about what we like to eat in my family that we do not get often enough in our organic co-op. Why work hard to grow stuff I already get from local farmers. Better to focus my efforts on the things I want more of for my family. Makes sense, right?


My kitchen garden wish list:
sugar snap peas
asparagus
rhubarb
strawberries
spinach
beets [ever since I discovered how lovely raw beets are in salad!]
herbs [especially basil and cilantro]
tomatoes [heirlooms]
cucumbers
zucchini [for baby squash with blossoms attached]
raspberries

I already have a rhubarb plant in a pot that I bought years ago and never planted in a permanent spot. It's truly amazing the plant is still alive. I can't wait to see how it responds when I finally plant it in a happy spot. I also have some perennial herbs growing in various places in my landscaping that I'd like to replant into the new kitchen garden area so everything is more accessible. I have mint, chocolate mint, oregano, chives, garlic chives [also called Chinese chives, I think], thyme and the tiniest potted French tarragon plant that really needs its own spot in the soil to thrive.

Asparagus takes a lot of space and time to get established and you need a lot to provide a respectable harvest for a family of five, so I don't know if it's practical for a small garden. Same goes for strawberries. I tried blueberry bushes many years ago, but it was a major battle with the birds for a small handful of berries. It just so happens that deer and rabbits like to eat the tender branches in the winter and one year they pruned my little bushes down to the ground. That didn't turn out so well. Perhaps raspberry bushes are less appealing to them and I can give them a try.

What edibles are on your kitchen garden wish list?

In other vegetable news, the local growing season is taking off around here and it shows in my latest co-op box:

Organic goodness in yesterday's co-op box

Look at all those greens! Two HUGE bunches of Red Russian kale, garlic scapes**, two bunches of arugula, red leaf lettuce, broccoli and dill. We also got Yukon gold potatoes and from CA-- oranges, carrots, and nectarines; a tomato, bananas and NJ blueberries!

**garlic scapes are the flowering stalk tops of hardneck garlic plants. They are cut off during the growing period just before this 'flower' starts to develop into seeds or tiny bulbs. This helps force the plant to put its energy into growing plump garlic bulb in the soil.

In what ways would you eat and or cook this organic goodness? I'm especially looking for inspiration with the arugula and garlic scapes.


The weather this weekend is going to be divine here in my neighborhood and I've got lots of healthy plans on my calendar: A 35 mile bike ride Saturday morning, a visit to a local farmer's market right after with my cycling partner, juicing some of these glorious vegetables at another friend's house later and then finishing up my new kitchen garden the rest of the weekend. I'll be sure to squeeze in some time with the family, watch a bit of Euro 2012 football and probably a midday nap in there somewhere, too! (I love those)... ^_^

What are some of your plans this weekend? Whatever you're up to... hope it's fabulous. xo

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Weekend Cooking, a weekly blog event hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food related post to share--a food related book review (fiction or nonfiction), cookbook review, movie review, a recipe, random thoughts, gadgets, food quotations, photographs, etc. Please visit Beth's blog for more information and join the fun! 

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