Growing (some of) our own food

We made another amazing salad recently, composed mostly of our own home-grown plants. "Growing" a salad is really not all that hard. I suppose the hardest part might be determining what grows best in your area, and what you'd like to grow. That, and the act of gardening every day, which is not so much a chore as it is a pleasure.

Raising chickens or pigs or other meat protein sources for food is another ballgame entirely, a game we're unlikely to play. We'll continue to shop for those items.

We will likely never be able (read: willing) to grow or produce ALL of our food requirements, but we can certainly supplement our food supply, and save a little cash for ourselves at the same time by growing all sorts of wonderful things at home. I suppose that we therefore consume less at the grocery store, which could mean a reduction in energy there also.

We're also making a point to shop the farmers markets and buy some locally-grown organic produce, and meats. It really does taste better than "store-bought."

But our OWN stuff tastes best of all. It is difficult to describe the deep satisfaction that comes with producing your own food.

Since we are visual beings, here are our salad ingredients, all grown on our roof, in two pictures.

Clockwise from top left:

1) radicchio leaves;
2) top-right is Mesclun mix (5 different plants) this one is most likely the black-seeded simpson lettuce;
3) lower-right are a few leaves of swiss chard;
4) lower-center is another Mesclun mix - the rust-colored red salad bowl lettuce;
5) lower-left is Mesclun mix again - a few sprigs of the tendergreen mustard;
6) the orange stuff at lower-left is nasturtium flowers and their green leaves, which have a peppery taste.

The other salad ingredients are in the next photo.

1) Top-left is a bunch of winter purslane;
2) top-right is a few clumps of basil;
3) lower-right is spearmint, which we used in a pitcher of tea;
4) the purple flowers are edible spicy dianthus;
5) on the bottom are five blue lake green beans. I have to simply say that, uncooked, these are the tastiest green beans I have ever eaten in my life.
6) just above the green beans are a few sprigs of arugula;
7) and lower left is our very first cucumber. It might have been picked a little early, but it was very delicious. And now we have a mature cucumber on the vine. Ready.
Here's the salad before dropping the store-bought tomatoes and cheese on it. It was really delicious, and quite colorful.
As for tomatoes, we have about 12 of them on three plants in one container right now. All green. I think we're going to be overrun with tomatoes, unless the predators swipe them.
And, oh yeah, we also added some store-bought croutons. Come to think of it, the wife has made some really incredible croutons in the past. Time to break out that old recipe.

And finally, this time we used some Ken's Honey Mustard Salad Dressing, but the wife makes a top-shelf vinaigrette. Have to use hers on the next salad.

And, best of all? The salad didn't kill us. Didn't upset our stomachs at all, as some salads can.

We definitely need more of those green beans.