The Semi Clean Pantry: Breaking Ground....My First Attempt at Gardening

The Semi Clean Pantry: Breaking Ground....My First Attempt at Gardening: Spring is finally here in WI! Although with these temps, I do believe we skipped right into summer. Along with these warmer temps comes pl...

Breaking Ground....My First Attempt at Gardening

Spring is finally here in WI! Although with these temps, I do believe we skipped right into summer. Along with these warmer temps comes planting all of my flowers, repairing the doggy damage to our yard, and finally kicking out the hundreds of seedlings I started in my basement!

That's right, I'm trying out my green thumb. After switching to all organic produce over the last year or two, and especially after I started drinking green smoothies every day, I began to feel the sting of the higher prices. No, you can't put a price on good health, I know that. However, you can certainly grow your own produce for a heck of a lot cheaper yourself! 72 tomato plants for $3.50? I'm in! I wonder how many fractions of a penny that equals out to per tomato or per pound....not many I'm sure. And yes, I actually do have 72 tomato plants. Actually, I have a couple hundred right now. But I digress.

Last fall after purchasing over 6 bushels of tomatoes for our freezer salsa & spaghetti sauce, my parents and the boyfriend and I all decided to start our own garden this year. We had an idea of what we wanted to plant and how we were going to do it, and luckily my parents had gardened for years when I was younger. We attended a large garden show in February and the gardening bug bit me!

Come a few weeks later, I had a grow house set up in our basement and I was starting some seeds. Having never gardened before, seeing those sprouts pop up a few days later was so rewarding! In total, the seeds I started ahead of time were tomatoes, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, kale, spinach, basil, thyme, oregano, chives, cucumbers and some catnip for our furbaby. I've been taking notes all along, with the brand of seeds, when they were started, how they did, etc. and let me tell you, those notes will come in super handy next year.

Finally, a few weeks ago, we were able to start putting some of those bad boys in the ground. A friend of ours owns a farm where we keep our horses, and they were generous enough to let us use a corner of their hay field for our garden. After a few long nights of pounding posts, hanging fence, and prepping the dirt, it was ready to plant. So far, we only have the "cold weather" plants done. I needed to harden off my tomato and pepper plants a little longer before we put those in the ground. Which just means I started introducing them to the real sun and being outdoors a few hours at a time, and now they're outside 24/7 (so they don't go into shock once planted!).

Over the next few days we'll finish planting the rest of our plants and starting some bean and pea seeds. It's actually pretty exciting! Every time I put a plant in the ground I feel like I'm putting money in my pocket. I day dream about my grocery cart not consisting of 60% expensive organic produce, at least for a few months...

We also met up with a great lady that owns an organic farm that sells produce, CSA's and plants. We bough 75 strawberry plants and 5 raspberry plants from her and I am super excited about those! The strawberry plants are second year, which means that they will produce fruit that we can pick this year, however next year they'll be yielding a lot higher volume of berries. Still, we're really excited for fresh strawberries and hopefully a small batch of freezer jam! The raspberries are brand new to us, so that will be a little thing I call trial and error, but hopefully not the latter.

All in all, the plants we are starting out with are:

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Celery
Tomatoes
Peppers
Radishes
Carrots
Onions
Potatoes
Lettuce mix
Spinach
Kale
Green Beans
Yellow Beans
Peas
Cucumber
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Spaghetti Squash
Eggplant
Popcorn-I know, right?!
Basil
Thyme
Chives
Oregano
Cilantro
Parsley
Strawberries
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Pumpkins (Including Fairytale pumpkins, they're so adorable!)

I know, I know, we'll have our work cut out for us. But, I know it will all be worth it once we pick our first basket of home grown goodness! What are we going to do with ALL that produce, you ask? Eat it, freeze it, can it, of course! Last year was our first time making and freezing salsa and spaghetti sauce, and we found out it's actually quite simple! For both of them, it's basically just cutting up your tomatoes and peppers and onion, then adding your spices, boiling, cooling, then portioning and freezing! I've never in my life had a better salsa, and yeah, I'm bragging a little. And the feeling of knowing exactly what's in your food and knowing it's all organic, GMO free, sodium free and who knows what else they normally put in that stuff free, is priceless.

I was also able to blanch and freeze a bunch of carrots my parents gave me last year too. I have a vacuum sealer so I simply portioned them out for what I'd need for a casserole, soup, meal, etc, blanched them, sealed them, and froze them. Anytime I make chicken pot pie or some other meal that calls for or deserves carrots, I just thaw them out and they have the best, freshest taste.

We'll also be freezing any leftover fruit, peas, beans, and broccoli. The tomatoes and peppers and onions will all be used for fresh eating as well as the salsa and spaghetti sauce, and we'll be canning our own diced tomatoes as well. The herbs will be hung to dry so we can use them year round as spices. The kale and spinach, if we actually have any fresh stuff leftover, can be blended with a dab of water, and frozen in ice cube trays to use in our smoothies later on. I could eat grilled squash and zucchini for every single meal so I doubt we'll have a problem using up any fresh stuff, but just in case, I might get a little crazy and try freezing that too. And popcorn, hello! I can't wait to try that!!

Sure, I feel like a little bit of a hippy. But I love it! And now that we've got a garden, I'm starting to notice more and more gardens every where I look. Sure, I think I'm just noticing them more now. But I also really think a lot more people are growing their own food again. It's a great experience for young and old alike, plus you know where your food came from, and it's cheaper than buying it. And it's not just big garden plots in yards. I'm noticing a lot of raised beds and container planting, which are both awesome techniques of their own, let alone if you don't have yard space for a regular garden. We're actually using both of those techniques this year too. My lettuce and herbs are in a raised bed of their own, and so are the strawberries. You can purchase a raised bed kit from Menards, Farm & Fleet, or make your own from untreated cedar. I've also started potatoes in a Smart Pot, which is a cloth planter that can sit just about anywhere. You can use something like the Smart Pot or any kind of planter, pot, basket or hanger for growing veggies of your own. Smart Pots or larger planters can house anything from tomatoes to peppers to potatoes and more. You can even grow herbs in window boxes or railing planters on your patio or deck!

I almost forgot to mention community gardens! So many places are offering small garden plots that they rent out for a small fee. They will typically till it for you and provide a water source. Then you can plant whatever you want in your space all summer long. You'd be amazed at how much produce you can get from a 15x15 square! Especially with companion planting.  I strongly encourage you to try your hand at growing a little bit of your own food this summer. I guarantee you'll be hooked!

I'll keep you posted on how our garden does, and once we have our first harvest!

Until Next Time,

Katie

The Semi Clean Pantry: Is Your Sunscreen Safe?

The Semi Clean Pantry: Is Your Sunscreen Safe?: Recently I've been learning a little more about sunscreen, and sun protection in general. My mother has recently undergone her second ro...

Is Your Sunscreen Safe?

Recently I've been learning a little more about sunscreen, and sun protection in general. My mother has recently undergone her second round of "chemo cream" for "pre-cancerous" cells on her face. I couldn't help but wonder how in 3 years, her face had gotten so much worse during this round of treatment, and had so, so many more spots compared to last time. Especially since she's been so good about using sunscreen any and every time she's outside. Then the light bulb came on! Maybe the reason wasn't from the sun, maybe it was from something, or things she's putting ON her face. (I also believe it's caused internally as well, but that's another topic).

I had heard about sunscreen and the fact that all of the ingredients might not be safe here and there but hadn't put a whole lot of thought into it. I don't use it often myself, unless I know I'll be at the beach, or in direct sun for a long time. I prefer to absorb the Vitamin D and I don't burn easily, but I'll get to that later.

It wasn't until a recent post from The Food Babe for a deal on natural sunscreen that I really started to look into it and find out what the fuss was about. Then I was shocked. I could not, and still can't, wrap my head around the fact that this stuff can contain so much garbage! And to think that a lot of doctors, especially derms, push this stuff to no end! My mom's derm told her to wear sunscreen every day. EVERY DAY! So since her first treatment, which was pretty mild compared to this last one, she's been very diligent about applying and re-applying her sunscreen whenever we're outside, camping, strolling through the flea market, or gardening. No wonder. No wonder the skin cancer came back, and no wonder it was SO, so much worse than last time. And what's the number 1 factor that had changed.....

Up until the first time, sure she wore sunscreen here and there, but she wasn't slathering it on and re-applying like crazy. But this time, she was. Sure there's no guarantees or way of knowing that yes, 100% the nasty sunscreen caused her skin problems, but it was more than enough to scare me away from it and want to share it with everyone I know! Who wants to take that risk?

And it honestly pisses me off to no end that the manufacturers can actually put those chemicals into products like this that we use on a regular or daily basis. Over the years the sun has been given such a bad wrap, so doctors and derms are pushing to always use sunscreen or else, so moms are loading it onto their kids, fair skinned people are using even more, and that skin cancer or "pre-cancer" patients are using more and more of it, thinking they're doing good by protecting themselves from the sun.

The Food Babe has an excellent investigative report here where she discusses the ingredients of most conventional sunscreens, and why they are potentially dangerous to us. Skin cancer, toxins in the organs, hormone disruption, allergies, and more. It only takes less than 30 seconds for what you put on your skin to be absorbed into your system. 30 seconds. I have never been more conscious of what I'm putting on my body, as well as into my body, as I am now. On a daily basis, just in a normal routine, there's shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, lotion, perfumes/sprays, hand lotion, chapstick, makeup, and even more. All of those things could very possibly contain harmful ingredients.

Now when it comes to sunscreen, there are options. There are several safe brands of sunscreen that have been tested and approved by the Environmental Working Group (see their Sunscreen Guide to check on your brand, or find a new brand to use). They're not as expensive as I thought they would be either. There's even a brand that's available at my local Walgreens for less than $9 per bottle, which is the Yes To brand. Local and cheap? That's my kind of safe sunscreen.

Check out the EWG's site and change your sunscreen today, for a healthier tomorrow.

Thanks all for now,

Katie