Well maybe earlier in the summer last year, we began taking our gardening a bit more serious than before. In past years, we had had a roommate who used to be a farmer in (fill in with Midwest state I don't remember) and he had planted artichokes, asparagus and lots of succulents. The artichokes were mistakenly taken down some years later by some overly eager "gardeners". The asparagus are going strong.
We expanded our backyard boxes and went crazy with fava growing.
We also had a French roommate living with us, Christophe, and when his mother visited, she made us some delicious Salade Nicoise, which goes something like this:
Fresh fava beans, prepared; fresh
peas, shelled; grape tomatoes, halved; spring onions, slices thin,
Kalamata olives and tuna.
We also planted some lettuce, onions and we already had our lovely strawberry line (which is becoming more of a strawberry field this year).
I got some sun chokes (they grow up to 8 feet and some times get flowers, that look like sunflowers though I have yet to see any) but you can eat the root and it is pretty delicious. Apparently you can even pickle them, which is the plan this year. They are very satisfying to grow, like favas, they are quick and resilient.
Another important addition last year was our herb box! Cleverly placed right by the stairs which lead up to the kitchen, we planted a variety of things: Lemon verbena, lavender, oregano, cibule (scallion), chamomile,parsley, peppers, basil and somehow some tomato plants made it in there as well (I wanted to try out the idea that basil and tomatoes grow well together, hence Caprese salad).
Ah yes and those little plastic containers with brown stuff (beer) was to get rid of slugs, they were all over that precious basil! Next post will include a picture of the herb box this year (looks SO different) and all the things that we have been doing with the herbs and future plans.
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