Sorry, Onions

Several years ago a friend gave me a simple recipe for making homemade vegetable broth.   She said to saute’ garlic, celery, carrots, and onions in olive oil until the vegetables were soft and the onions had caramelized.   Add any spices you like … salt, pepper, cilantro, cumin, basil, thyme, rosemary etc.  It probably makes sense to think about what you’re going to do with the broth before adding too many spices.

My memory is a little fuzzy on the next steps but I believe she said to puree the mix in a blender or food processor.  I’ve started using this as a base for soup.  I add water until I get the consistency I like.  I leave the blended vegetables in the mix — it makes for a thicker, more filling soup.  I was happy to find out that my friend, Blanche Agassy McCord, has written a cookbook — Vegetarian Cooking for Starters.

This recipe is relevant to our spring garden for 2014.  We’ve decided to grow these basic ingredients — garlic, celery, carrots, and onions — since they form a framework that we use frequently for many foods.  The recipe also inspired the name of this blog.

Sorry, onions.

All content © 2013-2014 Candace Nigh.
All rights reserved.

Next Year’s Garden

We’ve decided to grow the following veggies and herbs in next year’s garden:

• Garlic
• Celery
• Carrots
• Sweet onions
• Black Seed Simpson Lettuce
• Mild Mesclun Mix
• Spinach
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Bell pepper
• Zucchini
• Butternut Squash

I just ordered some organic seeds from Seattle Seed Company.  My favorite veggies are the rainbow carrot blend.

All content © 2013-2014 Candace Nigh.
All rights reserved.

I Don’t Even Like Radishes

My husband and I started sampling farmers markets in Hendricks and Marion Counties last summer.  We decided our favorite one was the Zionsville Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.  We made friends with a couple farmers who offered gorgeous veggies at their booth each week.  We discovered a burning passion to grow our own food.

It was late July, and a visit to a local garden and landscape store revealed that the only veggies we could plant and harvest before winter were lettuce and radishes.  I don’t even like radishes, but we decided to give it a go.  We planted black-seeded simpson leaf lettuce, mesclun mix, watermelon radishes, mustard greens, and arugula.  We also planted some herbs and vegetables from plants — basil, thyme, cilantro, rosemary, garlic chives, and a pepper plant.

We had mixed results, but the big deal was — we were hooked.  We have decided to expand our garden in 2014, and have been avidly poring over books and magazines from our library.  Gardening seems to combine a lot of the activities we love — spend time outdoors, exercise, eat healthy food, build community, explore science in a fun and engaging manner, and connect with the farming roots of our ancestors.  We don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re having fun doing it.

This blog will document the adventure.

All content © 2013-2014 Candace Nigh.
All rights reserved.