As you become a RealAge gourmet cook and appreciate the enormous difference that really fresh produce and herbs can make in the taste of a dish, you may consider growing some of the ingredients yourself (3 Kitchen IQ points). Nothing beats the great taste and feeling of pride you’ll experience when serving and eating them. Now, I’m much better at cooking and treating and motivating patients than I am at gardening. But I have enjoyed the little bit of gardening I’ve done. This chapter reviews some of the secrets great chefs use to produce fresh products locally—how they do it themselves. Not all of us will choose this RealAge kitchen option, but if you already grow your own, or if you want to start, here are some tricks that should make your RealAge younger.
Some of us find gardening too time-consuming or too complicated. Even though the exercise of gardening, learning a new skill, and possibly acquiring new friends almost always make your RealAge younger, you may be intimidated by the prospect of gardening. Perhaps you think you don’t have enough space for a garden. Don’t let these issues stop you if you really are interested in learning to garden. Just take that first small step and learn the basics.
Whether you have a backyard garden, keep a windowsill herb garden, or buy fresh garden produce at a farmers’ market, you can get the most out of fresh produce by making the delicious dishes in this book.
Soil
The key to successful gardening is having nutrient-rich soil. You might want to start a compost pile right away. Onto this pile you toss your uncooked kitchen scraps—coffee grounds, egg shells, potato peels, apple cores—which eventually break down to become nutrients for your garden. These nutrients help produce food that is rich in taste. You might also visit an organic garden in your area—possibly gaining new friends—to see how it’s done. Or, you might want to take a composting class to learn just how to make sure your garden soil has the right amounts of nitrogen, phosphate, and the other essential elements. Meeting a new challenge makes your RealAge even younger.
Tools
Your RealAge will be younger if you invest in quality tools for the garden. You don’t need that many. The essentials are a garden spade, a digging fork, a garden rake, plant supports, a trowel, and a hoe. Before buying a tool, go through the motions of using it to make sure it “feels right” in your hands and doesn’t strain your neck or back (making your RealAge older). Having all six essential garden tools is worth 1 Kitchen IQ point, and testing them before buying is worth 2 Kitchen IQ points.
Climate
Climate is everything! It determines your growing season and what will grow when. Apples don’t grow in Southern California nearly as well as they grow in southern Wisconsin because they need enough days of chill to bear fruit. And in upstate New York, we’ve never seen (outside) an avocado tree (unlike Florida!). If you live in northern Montana, your garden in June will look different than if you live in southern Texas. A friend in Tucson replaced all the sandy soil in his garden with potting soil, so he could take advantage of the hot dry, Arizona air year-round.
The USDA has rated cold hardiness zones for gardening based on climate—mostly temperature. Often, a package of seeds or a seedling will tell you how hardy they are by naming the zone in which they grow best. But climate is not just cold hardiness. Climate is also influenced by topographical features such as hills and valleys, large bodies of water (with a lake effect), urban heat effect, wind, canopies—all of which can give rise to the nooks and crannies of microclimates.
To know what kinds of plants you can grow in your climate, ask at a local nursery—the sales people are usually very helpful. Go to a gardening club and ask other gardeners. Experiment with container gardening—it works, especially inside, no matter what the outside climate!
Getting Started
Choose the Right Location for Your Garden
Prepare Your Site
You can encourage good vegetable growth by removing any existing grass and weeds. Till the earth to aerate the soil and remove roots, rocks, and remaining parts of weeds. Spreading compost (about 1 inch thick) over the soil, so that it gets mixed in while you till, feeds your garden. Work from one end to the other, backing up so you never step on the tilled earth (which would cause it to lose the fluffy, air-filled texture your plants need to thrive). Rich soil smells good and clean, and is fun to run your hands through.
Start Planting
Once your plot has been prepared, it’s time to start planting. Transplant baby plants you’ve bought at a nursery or have started yourself indoors, or plant seeds directly in the bed. The choice depends primarily on how long it will take the plants to grow, the expense involved, and the likelihood of success. Planting from seed takes longer, but seeds are less expensive than starter plants. With seeds you’ll have the pleasure (and privilege) of seeing the plant grow from the beginning. Of course, animals may want to dig them up, especially vegetable seedlings; seedlings make good snacks for rabbits and squirrels. On the other hand, transplants are more likely than seeds to flourish in an amateur’s hands.
In either case, you may want to put down landscaping cloth between rows to prevent weed growth. Such cloth is better than using an insecticide, and it reduces the need for time-consuming (and sometimes backbreaking) weeding.
If you decide to buy transplants from a nursery, ask a local gardening friend and expert to recommend the best local nursery. The second-best strategy is to find a nursery and its plants yourself, using the following questions:
1. Do the plants seem well cared for, with plenty of room and aeration?
2. Do the transplants have ample containers for their size? (Space to live is important to plants, just as it is to humans.) If there isn’t enough space for a plant, the roots may become crowded. You can check for this by lifting the plant out of its container in the nursery. The soil should keep its shape, and you should see white tips on the roots, indicating they’re healthy. Plants should not be root bound.
3. Are the plants healthy looking, free of yellowing or mottling? (Check the underside of the leaves.) Are they misshapen or infested?
If you decide to buy seeds instead of plants, check the date on the packet. Very old seeds may lose their ability to germinate. However, if you use only half a packet, you don’t necessarily have to toss the rest. Seeds can last much longer than you’d expect, but if you want the best germination rates, use new seeds. Here’s a general list of the approximate maximum viable life of some common vegetable seeds:
Beans, 3 years
Beets, 4 years
Broccoli, 3 years
Cabbage, 4 years
Carrots, 3 years
Cauliflower, 4 years
Corn, 2 years
Cucumbers, 5 years
Eggplant, 4 years
Lettuce, 6 years
Onions, 1 year
Peas, 3 years
Peppers, 2 years
Radishes, 5 years
Spinach, 3 years
Squash, 4 years
The success of growing from seed or transplants also depends on the vegetable itself. Beans and peas, for example, produce rather fragile seedlings that don’t take well to transplanting. So, for those crops, planting seeds directly in the bed is the better method. Other vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, aren’t widely available as transplants, so this crop is another good seed choice. We’re crazy about growing fresh herbs and spices, and cover that in the next chapter.
Managing Your Garden
Once your seeds or transplants are growing, you need to take care of your plot on a regular basis. The essentials of garden care are as follows:
• Watering. Many vegetables love soil that’s moist—tomatoes and onions, especially. Try not to let the bed dry out completely. Watering varies with the plant—seek the advice of a local expert. Early morning seems like the time vegetables most like to receive water, and of course, it evaporates most slowly when the temperature is cool.
• Mulching. Mulch is a protective ground covering used to reduce evaporation, prevent erosion, control weeds, and enrich the soil. Shredded leaves or grass clippings make great mulch for your garden. If you use grass clippings, use only those from a lawn that has not been treated with chemical pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. This will promote the success and vibrancy of your garden, and the health and youngest RealAge of those who consume its bounty.
• Composting. Compost is a mixture of decayed organic matter that is used for fertilizer. Continue to add organic uncooked kitchen waste to your compost pile. Also add soil and water, mixing them to encourage decay. By turning it over you aerate the pile to prevent mold and accelerate composting action. Keep the pile covered with a tarp so the rain doesn’t wash the compost away, or consider purchasing a compost bin.
• Weeding. Weeds rob your vegetables of water, nutrients, and sunlight—three factors needed for successful crop growth. Although you don’t have to eliminate every last weed from your garden, regular weeding keeps them under control and promotes good crop growth. Regular weeding means digging out as many weed roots as possible during the tilling process, and then pulling up weeds as they sprout among your vegetables.
• Fertilizing. If you have a good compost heap that you are using regularly to feed your garden, you may not need additional fertilization to have a great RealAge garden. However, if your garden is not filled with rich, organic soil, or if you’re growing hungry plants—tomatoes, peppers, and onions are among the hungriest—you may want to supplement the soil’s nutrients with a fertilizer. Several varieties exist, in both dry and liquid forms. Let a nursery help you choose the fertilizer that’s best for your geographic area, crops, and other aspects of your garden. Fish emulsion, seaweed emulsion, and compost teas are especially effective and complement each other.
Obviously, this chapter does not provide an exhaustive discussion of gardening. But we’d love to help you find out more. If you’re interested in learning more, see the Recommended Resources at the end of the book for gardening books that present much greater detail.
Sprouts
If you don’t have a vegetable garden, or even enough room for a balcony or roof garden, but want to grow fresh food, a great place to start is with sprouts. Sprouts are full of protein and vitamin C, often lutein as well, and can be harvested all year long with minimal effort and expense. If you have children, enlisting their participation teaches them about the miracle of plant life and the fundamentals of good nutrition.
Alfalfa Sprouts
For alfalfa sprouts, all you need is a glass pint jar, cheesecloth, and a rubber band, or a glass pint jar that is fitted with a mesh wire top. If you are concerned about the risk of salmonella, you can rinse the seeds (and the jar they’ll be growing in) in a solution of 1 tablespoon of bleach to a pint of water before starting the sprouting process. If this doesn’t appeal to you, another way to safeguard against the risk of salmonella is to cook the sprouts. (Cooked bean sprouts are part of many wonderful Chinese dishes, such as stir-fries.)
To start, put a tablespoon of alfalfa seeds in the jar, fill it half full with room-temperature water, and let it sit overnight. The next day, drain the water. Rinse the seeds with lukewarm (not hot or cold) water and turn the jar upside down so that excess moisture can escape and the seeds can get oxygen.
Rinse the seeds with lukewarm water as described above two or three times a day. After a few days, the seeds will start to sprout. Be sure to shake the seeds gently to keep them separated as they grow. By about the fourth day, the sprouts will turn bright green, a signal that they are ready to eat. Past this point, the sprouts should be refrigerated.
Sprouts can become a staple in your lunchtime meal, to be added to salads and sandwiches for a delicious way to pack a nutritional punch.
Other Sprouts
Try sprouting different types of seeds and beans. Just be sure they have been grown organically (that is, they have not been treated with any chemical fungicides, herbicides, or pesticides, or chemical fertilizers that might inhibit growth or be toxic to you). Most seeds can be sprouted in the same way as alfalfa sprouts, although bigger seeds and beans (such as soybeans) will require a quart jar instead of a pint jar. It helps to store the seeds in a dark place with humidity that is not too cold. The cupboard under the kitchen sink is a good place. Be methodical about rinsing the seeds. If the water the beans are soaking in begins to bubble, that means the beans have been soaking for too long and fermentation has begun (toss these and start again).
What other seeds and beans can you try? Mustard seeds, soybeans, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, lima beans, fava beans, wheat kernels, rye kernels, and lentils are all good possibilities. Be creative.