Watch My Food Grow

We have been pulling the oh-so-sweet sun sugar tomatoes off the vine and popping them into our mouth since the very first day we planted them. Sarah even grabbed a handful of cilantro for some pulled-pork tacos. But, we hadn’t really made a meal using our garden until Saturday afternoon.

Garden Fresh Jalapenos and Bell Peppers

Nachos, in our house, have very few rules. Basically, whatever is in the refrigerator is fair game so long as it is sitting on top of tortilla chips and smothered in cheese. Saturday, we had some leftover rotisserie-cooked chicken, some black beans, week-old refried beans and some kernel corn.

Flush with hunger and inspiration, I went out to my brand new backyard raised vegetable garden and picked two bell peppers, four jalapeno peppers and some pretty ornamental peppers (for color and general pizazz).

How to Make Chicken Nachos Steinhoff Style

The tortilla chips go into the oven at 350 degrees with a layer of Velveeta cheese. (Yes, Velveeta.) The Velveeta acts as a moisture barrier, protecting the chips from the juicy toppings to be added shortly.

All the ingredients go into a skillet where they are heated and seasoned (salt, cracked black pepper and a hot spice of your choosing ).

Once the Velveeta has melted, take the (now even crispier) chips out of the oven and dump the skillet over the chips. Sprinkle the top of the concoction with shredded (non-Velveeta) cheese. Toss it all back in the oven on broil until the cheese is pleasantly melted.

Serve, still on the cookie sheet on which you baked them, with salsa and sour cream. Keep eating until you feel ill.

Fresh Garden Foods We Have Eaten

I should really be keeping track of how much this garden produces. So, starting today, I’ll keep an updated total of what we have eaten out of the garden. Here is the list thus far:

• more than a dozen sun sugar tomatoes
• two green tomatoes
• half a dozen fairy tale eggplant
• two bell peppers
• four jalapenos
• half a dozen ornamental peppers
• a fist full of cilantro

I’m also going to keep track of what we have made with our home grown foods. I may not let you know about every meal but I will highlight some specialties or meals made completely from our garden.

—Farmer Matt

If you own a circular saw, you can build your own backyard raised vegetable garden. If you just Googled ‘circular saw’ and are still planning to build your own, please google ‘how to reattach fingers’, too.

Really, there is nothing to the construction. Cut three long, even strips from a full sheet of plywood, cut one of those strips in half and screw them all together to create a 4′x8′ raised garden box. The steps below took me about four hours and I’m not very good at this sort of thing. No big deal, I swear.

How to Build a Raised Garden Box

Step One: Buy your raw materials.

• one 4′x8′ sheet of plywood

I used 3/4-inch pressure treated plywood because that is what I had leftover from hurricane season. Some feel that the wood protecting chemicals will leach into my food and kill me. They may be right. If I was to go out and buy something, I’d probably get one-inch non-treated plywood — the 3/4-inch plywood bows out a bit in the middle from the weight of the soil.

If your lumber yard isn’t too busy, have them rip the plywood into three, 16-inch wide strips and cut one of those strips in half. I’ll save you time, make it easier to get the wood home and they will do a better job of cutting a straight line than you will.

• one 4″x4″, eight feet long

You’ll need to cut four, 16-inch long pieces to use as the corner supports.

• 16, three-inch lag screws

Drill pilot holes to make your life easier and to keep the wood from splitting.

• 40 square feet of weed barrier cloth

This is the only purchase I made for this project. Everything else, I had left over from other projects. A three-foot wide, 50-foot long roll of weed control fabric cost me $15.47. If you’re more environmentally-minded and prefer to use recycled materials, line the bottom of your box with old newspapers a couple layers deep.

• 1/4 or 3/8 inch staples (to attach the cloth)

I ran the weed control cloth a few inches up the sides of the box and then stapled it to the inside. You could also lay the cloth out flat, set the box on the cloth and then cut it even to the box (so the weight of the box keeps it in place). If that is the case, you may not need staples.

Step Two: Cut three, 16-inch wide by eight-foot long strips of plywood. Cut one of these strips in half. (See the above graphic and cut along the red lines.)

Step Three: Cut four, 16-inch long 4″x4″ pieces.

Step Four: Organize all the wood as shown on the above photo. Now would be time to have someone help you hold stuff.

Step Five: Drilling pilot holes first to prevent splitting, attach the plywood strips to the 4″x4″ corner posts using three-inch lag screws. Make sure to carefully align the top of the 4′x4′ with the top of the plywood.

The long plywood strips sit outside (cap) the short plywood strips. This gives the wide side of the box a finished look. If you want the short side as the front, do the opposite.

Step Six: Attach the weed control cloth to the inside of the box. This is critical. We don’t want grass or bugs attacking from below. A good quality weed control cloth attached well will keep bugs and unwanted plants our for a season or two.

Step Seven: Get some good quality soil. I paid $20 for bucket-loader full of soil from Art by Nature Garden Center. That was plenty of dirt to fill your 4′x8′ box 12 or so inches deep. Everything I have read says eight to ten inches should be plenty of dirt. My box walls are 16 inches tall so I opted for a deeper garden. Call me an overachiever.

Step Eight: In terms of raw, physical labor, this step is the worst of the batch. Unloading that much dirt is a full upper body and abdominal workout.

Hint: unload the when the dirt is dry. As my father learned when he shook hands with sandbags during a Mississippi River flood, dry sandbags weigh less than wet sandbags.

Step Nine: Stand back and admire your wonderful new raised vegetable garden.

How Did You Do It?

Do you have a backyard raised vegetable garden that was similarly constructed? If so, drop me a note and, better yet, a picture. I’d love to see what yours looks like.

—Farmer Matt

It was cold last night but not too cold, I hope. I checked the thermometer this morning shortly after seven and it was about 37 degrees Fahrenheit under the tarp. Not as warm as I’d like but probably warm enough.

Update: Covering the garden must have helped keep it warm… When Sarah went outside around 9:30 am to water the garden, the hose was partially frozen. It took several minutes of flow before the ice was melted and she had full water volume.

The National Weather Service is guessing that’ll be below 40 degress tonight and may reach freezing for some parts of Palm Beach County. I’m not taking any chances with my recently-planted vegetables.

The blue you are about to see on the webcam isn’t a technical error. I’m about to cover my plants to keep the warm. I might even stick a hundred watt bulb under the tarp tonight to make extra sure that the plants stay safe.

Stupid winter.

Are you doing anything special with your plants tonight?

—Farmer Matt

Consider this a somewhat unrelated to growing my food but bonus post of War Food Administration Victory Garden Posters.

In researching my garden, I came across a lot of great WFA posters. Below are three. Enjoy!

Plant a Victory Garden

Grow Your Own: Be Sure!

Can All You Can: It’s a Real War Job

Canning Home Grown Vegetables?

If my home vegetable garden is successful beyond my wildest dreams, there is a good chance I’ll try our canning. My mother and her family have canned a lot of food in their day. Mom still regularly makes and cans her grandmother’s mustard relish.

There is another topic to which you can look forward!

—Farmer Matt

When I told my personal food advisor about my backyard raised garden plans, I could hear her eyes roll over the phone. She said something along the lines of ‘boy howdy, are gardens back again?’.

Jan Norris is right, of course. Backyard gardens come and backyard gardens go.

Backyard Gardens are Back in Style

That was the headline from an April 1972 Reader’s Digest I found in my grandmother’s basement last month. It seems Americans rediscover backyard vegetable gardens every few decades.

(Also in the April 1972 issue of Reader’s Digest:

• the coming health care crisis
• drug abuse in America
• oil spills in the ocean
• America’s endless war
• discussion of high gas prices
• what’s wrong with our Federal bureaucracy

It ain’t just gardens that are cyclical.)

Historical Perspective on the Victory Garden

In 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt went maverick: she planted a vegetable garden, ticked off the United States Department of Agriculture and started a gardening revolution. By the end of World War II, there were more than 20 million home gardens in the United States supplying 40% of the food consumed.

That is no small amount of food: 40%.

Of course, planting a vegetable garden was a lot easier in 1943 with a two-continent war raging and the First Lady leading the charge. Heck, even in 1972, the number of deed-restricted and zero lot line communities were far less prevalent. Backyards are watched for CC&R violators as vigilantly today as union halls were watched for commie pinkos sympathizers.

That food was rationed, too, may have been strong encouragement to plant your own food. Also, America was far more agrarian in general in the 1940s. Even the people living in big cities probably had parents who had farmed. Today, chances are, you have never grown anything that you ended up eating. Still, 40%.

Today’s Trend: Grow Your Own Vegetables?

Am I leading a new backyard vegetable cycle or hitching my cart to a horse that is already running? I’m not sure.

Organic foods are popular. (Or they were popular two years ago when people had money and jobs.) Locally-grown food is popular. (Or was when gas was $4.00 a gallon and transportation was a large percentage of food cost.)

Both those trends may be leading toward a grow-your-own trend. I’m just not sure. It is easier to buy organic or go to a farmer’s market to get locally-grown food than it is to grow your own food. I guess it is all a matter of degree and level of dedication.

Next Up: Why am I Growing My Own Food

Stay tuned to this blog for the reasons behind my home vegetable garden.

—Farmer Matt

In mid-December 2008, we went looking for a Christmas tree. We ended up with a Japanese Blueberry Tree. (In 2007, it was a cataphyla tree. Before that, it was a Honeybell tree.)

Our Non-Traditional Christmas Tree Tradition

A few years back, we decided it was stupid to spend a lot of money on a Christmas tree that we were just going to throw away in a few weeks. Better that we spend about the same amount of money on a tree that we could carry outside and plant at the end of the Christmas season.

Even if the tree died inside or didn’t do well in our yard, at least we started out with good intentions.

Unfortunately, finding a tree can be difficult. Our requirements:

• Must survive two to three weeks inside.
• Must be less than eight feet tall, including the pot.
• Must be awesome. (No ficus or other typical office plants.)

A Dozen Nurseries But One Stands Apart

While scouting for trees, we came across Grower’s Choice, Inc. on Northlake Blvd. west of Military Trail.

They weren’t yet fully open at this expanded location but we ran into Tim Whelan, the owner.

What set Grower’s Choice apart from the other nurseries is that it had a huge area for vegetables. There were a dozen varieties of tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, bird peppers, three different types of eggplant, herbs, lettuce of two kinds, broccoli and many others as well.

Tim spent several minutes pointing out all the plants and giving us growing tips. He was also very proud of his tomatoes. He put our four-year-old son to work plucking sweet sun sugar tomatoes and passing them around. Tim explained that they were going to have a demonstration garden up and running when the nursery opened. I got a card and told him we would be looking forward to the grand opening.

Pitching the Story to Jan Norris, South Florida Food Blogger

After visiting Grower’s Choice, I immediately called Jan Norris. She runs a South Florida Food Blog. I was totally excited by the whole grow-your-own-food concept. As exciting as the idea sounded, I knew nothing about gardening and didn’t have any time to learn. But, certainly she could do some research and find out more about farming.

Norris was lukewarm to the idea. Home vegetable gardens come and go every couple decade, she said. She would need to think about it. Needless to say, what was just an idea in December is an actual garden today.

Helpers, Sponsors and Advisors

Tim Whelan was kind enough to donate my first garden’s worth of food. He’ll also be answering any gardening questions I might have. (Grower’s Choice is located on Northlake Boulevard a couple miles west of I-95. Be sure to check out their demonstration garden.)

Jan Norris is going to tell me what to do with what it is I’m growing. My culinary goals are low: I want to make salsa and have a salad.

Our Own Modern Victory Garden

Well, maybe ‘victory’ is putting the cart before the horse. The raised-bed is built and the soil is in place. We even put in our first crop last week.

This blog will cover our vegetable garden experiment. We’ll cover construction, what we planted, what problems we ran into and, in general, what it took to get food. Throughout the process, keep checking back to see how we are doing.

Live GardenCam: Broadcasting Now

You, too, can watch my food grow. If this become really popular, I may have to take the live camera offline. Until then, please keep watch and let me know if you see any bugs.

—Matt

Soon, you’ll get to see my garden growing live by webcam. In the meantime, here a photo of my garden, less than a minute old:

Check back this week for a much improved home garden related web site.

—Farmer Matt