Our garden has half the footprint of our house and has to be used for grilling, storage, a dog run, shade, and planting. So I can’t have everything my own way and grow whatever I want wherever I want. I have identified the produce I buy the most- tomatoes- and the produce that is most frustrating to buy and store- lettuce. I am focusing my growing efforts on these.
I’m toying with the idea of only eating homegrown lettuce but at the same time as my lettuces are one quarter inch big, I still have to have salad. I bought a bag of baby spinach because it keeps longer. Part of the bag froze and soiled and the other part stayed fine. I had one more salad from the unspoiled part and then let it go. This waste and short fridge lifespan is why I am prioritizing growing lettuce. Every bag I buy at the the store I hope is the last. I also have a system where if I let something go bad I skip buying it next time. So my next lettuce purchase was butter lettuce.
Then I got home to cook up salmon and had no spinach to go with it. I went to the front yard (because it is not a dog run) and picked all the clean and young looking dandelions for an experiment. Rinsed in vinegar and water, simmered in two changes of water, added more vinegar. Tasted it- it was sharp, and the leaves didn’t really get smaller when chewed.
While the salmon was cooking I looked up whether dandelions are safe to eat. I found they upset stomachs sometimes. I decided not to eat all the greens I gathered.
Mixed with the salmon they were perfect. Exactly right. Delicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment