The Liberty Garden

A few of my readers will know about the vegetable garden I started last summer at our local Thompsonville Community Garden. Well, this year's growing season is well underway and the garden is really thriving!

This was taken a week or two ago... it's even bigger now!

I've even made a few fresh-picked salads using lettuce and radishes right from the garden. Now that's fresh!

Somehow even veggies you aren't crazy about seem to taste better when you grew them yourself!

I even decided to "accessorize" the garden this year with this flower outdoor lawn ornament made of recycled spoons and forks. Fun!

You know, with all of the negative information out there about today's agricorporate culture (did I just coin a word?) that makes us sicker and poorer, it makes so much sense to grow what you can. You can easily have a beautiful, bountiful organic garden that yields delicious, nutritious, inexpensive food! Even a few pots out on your patio will work. 

Have you ever heard of a Victory garden? During wartime, there were major efforts to encourage people to help out and grow food because food production had fallen so severely. We may be at war (boo!), but we don't face that problem today. Agribusiness is big business, and government subsides, tariffs, and quotas unnaturally distort prices and market signals. You can, in your own quiet way, resist this with what I'm calling the Liberty Garden. Grow what you can, support local family farms by buying from their farm stands, and at the grocery store vote with your dollars by buying things you believe in. 

Happy gardening!

P.S. I just want to add that this is my 100th post! Yay!

The Last Veggies

Saturday was Clean-Up Day at the Community Garden. Time to pull out the exhausted tomato plants and save seeds from the basil and marigold. The bed was all cleaned out, with the exception of the chives, oregano, and basil, which should come back next spring. I saved some OK looking green tomatoes to allow them to ripen indoors, along with two adorable (and yummy!) baby carrots. Yum! Can't wait for spring so I can start planting again!

Tomato Bumper Crop!

We've been blessed with a bumper crop of flavorful, juicy, bright red Roma tomatoes! Just look at this big heaping bowl.... wow! I'm going to have to freeze a ton of them so none of them go to waste. The other day I made a tomato soup in the slow cooker using my fresh tomatoes, and it was SO amazing! I know it's called "Winter Tomato Soup", but do yourself a favor and make it anyway, NOW! I might even make it again today! It's from "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. It's a great book!

Winter Tomato Soup

Serves 4   Setting and Time: LOW for 5 to 6 hours

1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter
1 large or 2 medium yellow onions, chopped
1 quart home-canned tomatoes or one 28-ounce can imported Italian whole or chopped plum tomatoes, with their juice [I just used what I thought was an equivalent-ish amount of my fresh tomatoes!]
1/2 cup dry vermouth or dry white wine
1 tablespoon sugar
1 heaping teaspoon dried tarragon
Sea salt to taste
Could sour cream for serving [I didn't use this, I just served it with some bread]

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until golden, about 15 minutes, stirring often.
2. Combine the tomatoes, vermouth, sugar, and tarragon in the slow cooker; add the onion and butter. scraping out the pan. Cover and cook on LOW for 5-6 hours.
3. Puree in batches in a food processor or with a handheld immersion blender. If you don't like the seeds, push the soup through a strainer set over the slow cooker. Season with salt. Keep warm on LOW without letting it come to a boil until serving. Ladle the hot soup into bowls and top with a spoonful of cold sour cream.

If you make it, let me know! I guarantee you'll love it!