For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."
you grow all these plants and didn't know you could eat them 🌱
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What do these things have in common:
They're all plants you're probably already growing, they're totally edible and most importantly, they're delicious. (This is not one of those things where something is technically "edible" but you'd rather starve than have it touch your lips. 😆) But all those vegetables I listed above? They're what I call bonus crops, because while you're waiting for the main event (the various fruits, roots, tubers, or buds) to mature, you can harvest a little bit of the foliage for salads, soups, stir-fries, or sautes—so you can harvest many weeks (or even months) earlier! This pretty much doubles the harvest you can get from the same plant by the time the vegetable is ready—all without you having to plant more plants. And when it comes to root crops, in particular, the leafy tops are generally more nutritious than the roots or bulbs (this includes scallions, whose dark green leaves have more nutrients than the white bulbs), so you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you always chuck them in the compost pile. (This is a topic that author Jo Robinson uncovered and explored through hundreds of scientific papers in one of my favorite books, Eating on the Wild Side.) So if you want to maximize your edible garden this year and get a lot more out of the plants you grow, check out my list of 11 vegetables you grow that you didn't know you could eat. I also give lots of ideas on how to prep and eat these unconventional parts of your plants. 😀 This time of year, it's a free-for-all in my garden. My plants have taken over and they have a mind of their own. ​I use biointensive planting methods and like to fill my beds to the brim (it also helps increase my chances of something working out in the garden, in case I end up losing a plant). Kohlrabi is planted in front of watermelons, with ground cherries and bush cucumbers growing just behind that trellis. Beets share space with cantaloupes, and behind them, I've got bush beans and zucchini. I squeeze arugula into the bed and also grow lettuce all summer in the shade of these taller plants. (This is all in less than 40 square feet, seen below.) I sometimes miss a few beans or squash that hide in the foliage. I stop fertilizing because there's simply no need to. I let the melon vines get all tangled up with the beans and the bolting arugula (I harvest the arugula flowers too). There's not even mulch in these beds because everything is so thick and layered, the plants themselves protect the soil. For the bed below, which is equally jam-packed, I sowed handfuls of old (and on the verge of expiring) seeds in between my crops. Whatever came up became a living mulch that I've also been harvesting. August is the best month in my garden because the summer veggies are going strong and the fall crops are just beginning. For me, personally, it's a much more enjoyable season than spring planting, which feels overwhelming with too many things to do, and risky with our consistently late frosts. But August feels perfect, and there's still time to get a few more seeds and plants in the ground. Have you started your fall garden yet? P.S. Double the harvests from your garden without growing more plants. Here are 11 vegetables you grow that you didn't know you could eat.​ P.P.S. Looking for recipes to help you use up all those garden harvests, including the odds and ends you typically discard? The No-Waste Vegetable Cookbook will introduce you to a whole new world of flavors and textures, all from the same plants you already grow and eat! |
Garden Betty
For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."