Archive for the ‘Lettuce’ Category
Making Your Salad Dollar Stretch!
Posted by forsythkid on May 18, 2010
Posted in Carrots, Danomanno, Diet, Gardening, Health, Lettuce, Meals, Onions, Vegetables | Tagged: Cost of eating, Danomanno, Forsythkid, Salad dollars | Leave a Comment »
So, what’s happening in the garden?
Posted by forsythkid on April 9, 2010
After a cold night down here in southwestern Missouri, where the temperatures dipped down into the thirties overnight, I have to say that the following day was a gem. That seems to be the modis operandi in spring. A really brutal day of rain and cold is followed by warmth and fair skies. April can be like that. The good news is that cold weather crops like broccoli and romaine lettuce really love this kind of wacky treatment. Add radishes and onion sets to that also. I had the great pleasure of harvesting my very first radish today. It was a Cherry Belle radish and after cutting off the top and adding a little salt I can tell you that the crunchy, salty taste is everything that is good about spring to me.
So, as of this date (April 10th) in the year 2010, I have the following crops growing in my two four by eight foot raised beds; Little Caesar romaine lettuce, Cherry Belle radishes, white onion sets, bush beans, Kennebec potatoes, spinach and parsley. Also, in growing trays I have some plants grown from seed including; Thai Hot peppers, Bananarama peppers, more Little Caesar romaine lettuce and a just seeded tray containing Early Girl and Brandywine tomatoes. Wow! I can hardly wait for those beauties. I have a special place in my heart for freshly grown tomatoes. One of the greatest pleasures of gardening in the spring is the harvests you realize in the summer.
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One plant I am tracking this year are the seeds of Great Northern Beans I sowed from a package I purchased at a local store. I have planted them in a couple of spots and will be most interested in seeing if I can produce some dried beans at the end of the growing cycle. I am intrigued as to what kind of production I will realize per plant. Bean, if you have followed some of my earlier blogs are one of just two veggies that can provide all the essential amino acids we need to survive. The other is rice. Combine these two and you have a combination that can allow for survival during hard times. Not that I’m really worried that the United States is headed for dark times. I really believe that our 121 trillion dollar debt will be repaid (with interest) and that everyone will greatly prosper in the years ahead…I also believe firmly in the possibility of pigs flying.
You can see more on gardening in my blog ‘DanO’s Garden‘.
Posted in Gardening, Green pepper, Lettuce, Seed Starting, Spinach, Spring gardening, Tomatoes, Vegetables | Tagged: Danomanno, Forsythkid, Garden Report, Raised beds | Leave a Comment »
The Actual Cost of Vegetables at the Store
Posted by forsythkid on March 1, 2010
I though it might be interesting to take a look at the actual cost of certain vegetables I pay for at the grocery store. I was amazed to find that no one seems to be tracking this sort of stuff. At least I couldn’t find very much on the internet.
So, I’ve elected to try and track what I’m paying at a local chain store for select items. The list will include the following; Broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peppers, green beans and Bell peppers. I think this list is representative of some of the stuff I like to grow in the garden each year.
My purpose in doing this is to provide a record of produce costs and to see where I want to concentrate my growing efforts. I’d like to grow veggies that cost a lot and perhaps save a few bucks in the process. I’ll try and append monthly updates to this blog over the course of a few months to get a feel for the average cost of each item in the list.
All costs will be expressed both in the unit in which they were purchased (a bag of potatoes) and in a cost per pound. So, a head of lettuce that might go for $1.39 per head will be also expressed in its true weight. This will allow an ‘Apples to Apples’ comparison as it were. Finally, wherever possible, I plan to buy the produce that is packaged in the cheapest manner. This means buying a 5 pound bag of potatoes rather than each one individually. The only cravat is that I will keep the proportions consistent with what an average family would purchase. In other words, I’ll confine myself to buying a head of lettuce as opposed to a crate of lettuce just to try and save some money. (Anyways that much lettuce would just rot away before I could eat it all).
So, for the beginning of the month of March, 2010, this is what I paid for vegetables at a chain store in southwest Missouri. If, anyone in another part of the country wants to post their costs in the comment section please feel free.
I will followup with another report this coming fall to compare prices.
Here is a followup done on May 11th.
Another update:
Posted in Carrots, Danomanno, Gardening, Green pepper, Lettuce, Vegetables | Tagged: Carrots, cost of vegetables, cucumbers, Danomanno, Forsythkid, Lettuce, Onions, peppers, potatoes | 1 Comment »
Fresh Romaine in December from My Cold Frame
Posted by forsythkid on December 20, 2009
While it might be cold outside, my mini cold frames are doing great. There have recently been a few nights when the temperatures outside have plunged into the teens! But witness (picture at right) how healthy the romaine lettuce is that was harvested today. The wonderful thing about having a cold frame is the way in which lettuce that was started from seed in early September is now grown but in a kind of suspended animation. Each head is growing very slowly and, even after sitting in the frame for a couple of months, is still as fresh as any I could get from the garden in the spring. I’ll tell you right now that the little bit of work I did back then to get these seeds to grow more than pays for itself as winter approaches. Just having a bit of fresh produce you have grown yourself helps to keep me going until spring gets here!
Posted in Gardening, Lettuce, Vegetables | Tagged: Cold frames, Romaine lettuce, Winter lettuce | 2 Comments »
Raised Bed Update
Posted by forsythkid on May 21, 2009
Posted in Gardening, Lettuce, Radish, Spring gardening, Square foot gardening, Tomatoes, Vegetables | Tagged: Raised beds, Vegetable production | Leave a Comment »
There’s Nothing Like a Homegrown Spring Salad!
Posted by forsythkid on April 26, 2009
Nothing says, “Hey! It’s Spring!” any more than a nice fresh salad with vegetables. Especially one grown from your own little backyard garden. Earlier in January, I had some misgivings concerning the lettuce starts I had seeded in October. For the better part of the winter, they just languished in the frames… not really doing anything. Then, as if by magic, as the weather became warmer in March and April, they really took off and flourished! To my increasing amazement, I am still harvesting romaine from the two cold frames (see my earlier blogs) and have to admit that now the effort was worth it. Pictured, at right, is a salad I prepared today. It featured homegrown lettuce, green onions, chives, celery and radishes. Only the celery is store bought. Not bad! Right now I have my spring lettuce starts in the garden and they are still a bit tiny. I’ve also put out green bell pepper, broccoli and Brussels sprout transplants along with some carrot seed that is now growing nicely. I’ll try and get in a more comprehensive report on the garden later next week.
Posted in CF1, Cold Frame, Gardening, Health, Lettuce, Nature, Onions, Spring gardening | Tagged: Cold Frame, Romaine, Vegetable salad | Leave a Comment »
Cold Frames Now Paying Off
Posted by forsythkid on March 10, 2009
Thanks to the two small cold frames I built last fall and the fact that I nursed some small romaine and spinach plants along this late winter, I now have all I can eat! Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. I do have a good supply to help augment my occasional iceberg lettuce purchases at the local grocery. Today I harvested about 56 grams (2 ounces) of a combination of plant leaves this morning which will be more than enough for a couple of salads. In addition, my small romaine transplants (I think there are seven of these) are now in some empty spaces in both cold frames and are doing well. These guys will be ready to harvest by sometime next month. While I was out there this morning I also planted some radish seed here and there. Where ever I had a little space. They should germinate and be ready for harvest in about thirty days. So, one bottom line to having some cold frames around is that they offer a bit of a buffer. You get a supply of early green while the main beds are still lying fallow. I am hoping to begin planting out back sometime in the next week or so depending on the weather.
Posted in CF1, CF2, Cold Frame, Lettuce, Vegetables | Tagged: CF1, CF2 | 1 Comment »
Cold Frame Update – Early January 09
Posted by forsythkid on January 6, 2009
Well. Well. It’s the first week in the New Year and I’ve finally harvested my first morsel of lettuce and spinach for a grand total of nine grams! Yes, I said grams. Not much to show for my efforts at this point. I also had a single radish that was about half and inch wide and weighed in at 5 grams. As I think I have pointed out in another entry, the crop is more or less in suspended animation at this time. Everything looks healthy; it’s just not growing very fast. Had planted the seed back in September instead of late October, I think I would have a lot more to eat at this time.
The radish got consumed first and tasted great! The lettuce and spinach was next. I added a small amount of iceberg lettuce and a short stalk of celery, then sprinkled on some oil and vinegar. The result was a very fresh and tasty addition to my lunchtime fare.
My big hope is that as the weather moderates, I will see more and more growth. So that’s it for now. A total of 9+5 grams for a whopping total of 14 grams. My basket runnith over.
Posted in CF1, Cold Frame, Lettuce, Radish, Spinach | Tagged: Cold frame update | Leave a Comment »
Cold Frame Insulation a Must!
Posted by forsythkid on December 15, 2008
Over the last couple of days, Mother Nature has dropped an arctic cold wave over much of the county. Here in southwest Missouri, we have taken a pretty good hit also. On Sunday, December 14, 2008, the temperatures went from the high sixties to below freezing in just a couple of hours. Yowsers! Overnight, they then dropped into the teens. This is the first time in my memory that such cold came so early in the season. Hey! It’s not even winter yet! Outside, I have two small cold frames I built out of 2×4’s that house young and tender romaine lettuce plants along with a scattering of radishes and spinach. When I began the experiment in September, I had anticipated December temperatures dipping to the twenties once or twice, but not the teens like we have had for the last two days. That’s just too darn cold!
To their credit, the structures have insulated the plants pretty well so far. The temperatures tonight outside will be very cold again, dropping down to 18F or so. This level of cold has been a trial for the plants. I hope I’ve prepared for them by taking additional steps to insure their survival. On Sunday, I made sure to turn on the small 40 watt light sources I have installed in each frame and then covered them with spare floor mats. As a result, the internal temperatures in both cold frames have stayed in the mid to lower forty degree range.
In reflection, if I made any mistakes, it may be that I have neglected to build up the soil around the back side of each frame. The earth is a great insulator and the other three sides are covered well, just not the backsides. Next week, I plan to attach some additional insulation to see if that will help. Also, I’m hoping the ambient temperatures will moderate a bit during the rest of the month.
Posted in Cold Frame, Lettuce, Weather | Tagged: Add new tag, Cold frame insulation | Leave a Comment »
Romaine is the Game
Posted by forsythkid on November 17, 2008
How can such a beautiful and healthy vegetable come from such a small seed? I choose to grow romaine lettuce in both my cold frames this winter for two reasons. One it is on the list of the American Cancer Research as a cancer fighting agent, and two it like cold weather and will mature inside of 60 days. It also does well in confined spaces needing just an 8 inch spacing between plants. Unlike leaf lettuce, romaine will also keep for long periods in the refrigerator and adds a lot of crunch to any salad.
Since I have about twelve square feet of growing space, I will be able to grow at least six plants in each cold frame while still having plenty of space for spinach and radish plants. By starting six new plants every third week, I will be insuring a steady supply of greens throughout the winter. Mind you, as a bachelor, I’m only feeding myself.
Posted in Gardening, Lettuce | Tagged: American Cancer Research, Romaine, Seed picture | Leave a Comment »
