Scott City Musings: Gardening for vegetables

From the time I was little I’ve gardened as did Marge. Marge’s parents like my parents were serious gardeners growing much of the food their family lived on. I don’t have a clue how many potatoes Mom bought at the store, but I’m guessing not that many. It was the same with frozen corn. Dad’s potato patch was probably 200 feet by 100 or so. They had a nice cellar, so the potatoes were kept until the following year and were used as seed potatoes. Helen and Keith always had a garden. One crop they grew I thought was neat was Kohlrabi.

When Marge and I got married and we began our life together, we planted a small garden 30-by-30 feet. Later, when we moved to Oklahoma and Kentucky, we had our summer gardens. I don’t think we got serious about gardening until we moved out of town to where we live now and sold veggies at the farmers market. Vegetables have always been on my menu list.

One goal Marge and I strive for is to have a vegetable at every meal: breakfast, lunch and supper, and snacks in between. Normally, we have some type of meat such as pork, beef, chicken, turkey or fish but, along with a vegetable.

Veggies can be Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, greens such as mustard or turnip, peppers, cucumbers, green beans and on and on. We’ll have tomatoes of some kind, as well as apple sauce with many of these meals. Very few meals are box meals or just open and dump and heat and eat.

This might be a crazy notion but the chewier the food, the better it seems to be for me, and I find it more satisfying. Soups you can almost drink don’t satisfy me at all. When we don’t have to spend time chewing, we seem to just consume the meal without even enjoying it and we aren’t satisfied. Somewhere way back when, someone or something I read said to chew each bite so many times and keep your lips together when chewing. Don’t smack your lips!

When cooked, our raw veggies tend to be on the crispy or chewy side or slightly uncooked. Both Marge and I like chewy veggies such as green beans, broccoli or cauliflower. Cabbage can be crispy, but I like my Brussels sprouts cooked.

Both head lettuce and coleslaw are on my list of favorites. I don’t eat Romaine lettuce. We normally don’t buy the fat-free salad dressing which tends to have more sugar. If you are a diabetic, be sure to watch the sugar content. Some dressings are ridiculous. We bought a dressing that I absolutely love, never checked the sugar content and it was loaded with sugar.

One veggie we love is baked carrots. Marge cleans up the carrots, then slices them in 1/2 inch- to 3/4-inch-thick round dollars, sprays them with olive or avocado oil then bakes them. Every so often, we’ll have to sample one to see if they are done.

Marge microwaves a cauliflower and, just before it’s done, she adds a mix of mustard, miracle whip and cheese. One veggie and meat dish we eat is cabbage fried with hamburger. For this recipe, take a pound or two of ground beef, some onions and peppers and brown until done. Then add diced-up cabbage. Man, that is good.

Buy a sleeve or bundle of mustard greens or turnip greens. Cut the leaves off the stems. We boil them in water for five to 10 minutes, dump off the water, add new water and boil again. Season and add some butter and, possibly, a little vinegar and enjoy.

I like to take celery and add a dab of peanut butter. We buy some apples and eat them raw or add a dab of salt or even a little peanut butter. I enjoy summer cucumbers, but normally eat three to four long English cucumbers from the store every week.

Grow or try buying fresh veggies for a change and bypass the cans.

Just me,

Rennie

Phillips began life as a cowboy, then husband and father, carpenter, a minister, gardener and writer. He may be reached at phillipsrb@hotmail.com.