Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
I am currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for our parish book club. (We have a choice between this and No Impact Man, but, since I suggested that one, I'd already read it.) The focus of this book is on eating locally, and the easiest way to do that is to grown one's own food.
I like the ideas in this book as well, and, as usual, they have made me think about how to make similar changes in my life. And this, understandable to those who know me and can join in, makes me laugh. First off, I don't like vegetables. I grew up a picky eater and am slowly attempting to try new foods. For instance, I turned 30 on March 21 this year, and today was my first taste (that I know of) of beets. (They are not quivering blobs of blood after all, but taste, unsurprisingly, like red tubers.) I even ate fish without turning a hair. (I only started admitting to the idea of liking fish less than three years ago, when we moved here and Presvytera Vasso made salmon for us.)
So I've made a rough plan of preparation for starting a vegetable garden (a long-term goal of mine).
Oh, well, I've run out of thoughts and need to rush out to Bridegroom service tonight. Have a blessed and profitable Holy Week, y'all!
I like the ideas in this book as well, and, as usual, they have made me think about how to make similar changes in my life. And this, understandable to those who know me and can join in, makes me laugh. First off, I don't like vegetables. I grew up a picky eater and am slowly attempting to try new foods. For instance, I turned 30 on March 21 this year, and today was my first taste (that I know of) of beets. (They are not quivering blobs of blood after all, but taste, unsurprisingly, like red tubers.) I even ate fish without turning a hair. (I only started admitting to the idea of liking fish less than three years ago, when we moved here and Presvytera Vasso made salmon for us.)
So I've made a rough plan of preparation for starting a vegetable garden (a long-term goal of mine).
- Learn to:
- Eat vegetables.
- Cook vegetables.
- Store vegetables (freeze-dry, can, etc.).
- Harvest vegetables. (I don't actually know how to tell when things are *ready*, which is probably important.)
- Take care of plants (weeding, not killing from over-/under-watering, or bugs and disease, mulch, and plenty of things I'm sure I don't know yet).
- Plant things.
Oh, well, I've run out of thoughts and need to rush out to Bridegroom service tonight. Have a blessed and profitable Holy Week, y'all!
Labels: cooking, diet, plants, self-improvement
posted by magda at 4:25 PM
5 Comments:
Fortunately, cooking vegetables is very easy. Often, I just boil them - chop them, toss them in a pot, add a little water, and heat. Another tasty preparation idea is to steam them, for which I use a bamboo steamer, but any steamer (container with holes in the bottom which you can set atop a pot/wok of boiling water and add a lid) will work.
Once cooked, drain (if applicable) and add butter, pepper, and seasoning salt. Perfect vegetable dish! My favorite is yellow squash, closely followed by green beans (to which I sometimes add new potatoes or bacon or sauteed onion), both of which my mom grew in her garden.
And to you!
I really worked hard on preserving our CSA this past year, a lot of chopping and freezing (as well as adventures in canning, as you well know) and it has been amazing, and made cooking all winter a lot easier.
I hope you have a blessed Holy Week. Now that we have our own home, my husband and I are deciding what we are going to do about a garden. We will see. :-)
I need to get more vegetables into our diet as well. We eat a lot of fruit, and I LOVE veggies, but I just don't make enough of them.
I hope you have a blessed Holy Week.
It's such a great book...have you tried to make the 30-minuate mozzarella? We participated in a CSA last year, but my husband tilled up our backyard and we're growing a lot this year!
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