A thought provoking book about the possibility that human cultures co-evolved with certain foods.
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Melissa McEwen
This blog is about the intersection between evolutionary biology and food. But also about practical applications, sustainable agriculture, and general tasty things. I originally started eating this way to heal from chronic health problems and...it worked!
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Grow Your Own Salad Bowl
I'm glad I saw this great post about growing your own "salad bowl." A couple of weeks ago I had bought some lettuce seedlings on a whim and put them in a pot on the windowsill. They weren't doing so awesome and I was thinking of throwing them away, but this video gave me hope. A few days later they recovered and tonight I harvested a small salad. It's not a lot, but it was crisp, fresh, and tasty. The plants should keep yielding for awhile if I just pick a few outer leaves each time. Bonsai lettuce...
I also have a few pots of herbs. In Sweden when I needed herbs they sold the actual plants in the produce section, which would last for a week or more if you took care of them. Here they sell them in cut bundles, already wilting and just as expensive. Good thing growing them yourself is easy, but I guess I'm lucky- some city folk don't have a good South facing window like I do.
Bagged salad isn't much better than those wilted herbs. And who knows where it's from or what kind of fertilizer they used? I took my lettuce leaves, a spring of parleys, and poured melted bone marrow, lemon juice, and capers over them. I sprinkled the salad with salt and pepper...it was delicious!
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The idea of learning in
The idea of learning in growing herbs is the best one that we can come across! Herbs today are very expensive and most of all, you can't expect commercially available herbs to be 100% healthy and safe, right? That's why, I also started growing my own "salad/herb bowl"!
Oh Melissa, Yumm that sounds
Oh Melissa, Yumm that sounds like such a great flavor combo. I just love capers, not too many of my friends or fam do. When I lived in Santa Cruz, CA I too planted salads in between flowers. I always thought the where our house is in AZ it would get too hot - I am going to give the post a try. Thanks!
that's cool... how more
that's cool...
how more nutritious do you think it is than store bought lettuce?
@Stancel: Forget the
@Stancel: Forget the nutritional content, the major concern with store bought lettuce, both commercially grown and organic, is pesticides, insecticides, and/or herbicides.
Lettuce can be very challenging to grow outdoors with large yields because open-air leafy greens are a magnet for pests. I've grown lettuce before and lost entire rows just to gnats. Lettuce also grows aggressively with an enormous surface area that can seemingly double overnight, so pesticides may be applied liberally. Consider the total surface area presented by a head of lettuce over the course of its growth versus the surface area of a typical fruit or veggie; also think about how much more challenging it is to completely wash every leaf of a head of lettuce as opposed to rinsing the exterior of that same traditional fruit or veggie. I would absolutely recommend you either attempt to grow lettuce indoors in a window box, or purchase it fresh once or twice a week from a farmers market. If you're eating commercially grown lettuce, you may as well make your salad dressing out of RoundUp.
Don't think organic is better either. Rotenone is a popular, commonly used "organic" pesticide, but you certainly don't want to be eating it.
I grow lettuce, mint, etc in
I grow lettuce, mint, etc in potted plants outside. With mint, it is to control it from spreading. But, with lettuce and other delicate herbs (dill) - placing them in pots lets me move them through the season so that they do not get too much sun. Also allows for covering of the plants in the evenings to protect from little buggies and bunnies.