Localvore

I have become a localvore. For those that are not familiar with the term, a localvore is someone who tries to eat as much food as they possibly can from local sources. I have been buying all of my produce from Harner Farms, a local farmers market that has the best produce around. Its open all week and is about 5 miles from my house. The food they sell is either grown on their farm or grown regionally and brought in for sale.

Today, I purchased a basket of peaches, a basket of string beans, two tomatos and a basket of blueberries for $12. At the grocery store, I would have paid $.99 a pound for peaches that were grown, picked and shipped from Georgia. How can they still be fresh after such a long trip?

Last week, I bought blueberries and cherries. Both were bursting with flavor. I'm excited to try the peaches. They were grown at the farm and look and smell fantastic!

I was telling the nice woman at Harners that I am using the market as a way to supplement what I'm growing in my own garden. She was very interested in hearing about what is growing in my garden. That's the other nice thing about being a localvore - my dollars are supporting the farm and the friendly employees like this woman.

I wonder what I will do in the late fall/winter, when there isn't any local produce to be found. I'm thinking about freezing some of the blueberries. I may also try to buy some extra peaches and can them for use over the winter. I will have to do some research into all of this, since I'm going to find it very hard to go back!

I'm off to pick an onion from my garden for my salad. I had the first onion out of my garden last week. It was yummy - very sweet and full of flavor. I had to buy lettuce at the grocery store, since the heat and dry weather has really stunted the growth of my lettuce. I may have to look into grow a few different varieties that tolerate the heat well next year.

Have a great week and remember: go local! Support your local growers and producers!

So That's What That Is For....

I've been a bad blogger - sorry!

I was really stressed about my ghetto garden full of weeds. Two weeks ago, I went online and googled how to control weeds in a garden. To my surprise and delight, it recommended using your hoe to rid your garden of the pesky weeds. I'm so happy my mom bought me my hoe!

I spent 4.5 hours hoeing the garden (why does that still make me giggle? Sometimes I can be a 12 year old!). I was so pleased with the outcome - all the ghetto weeds were gone! It really made the excruciating pain I was in for the next two days worth it. I have never spent so much time on my heating pad in all the years I've had it! But, I learned my lesson. I now plan on hoeing once a week to keep the weeds under control and prevent another back breaking session.

So, the garden is now full of onions, lettuce, chives, tomatoes (3 kinds - grape, lemon yellows and jet something or others) and a watermelon. I planted the watermelon just to see if it will actually grown in our climate. In addition to the garden, I have two pots of basil (one is courtesy of Katie, who dropped 4 plants off to me), a pot of rosemary and a pot of mixed herbs.

I feel like I've been doing so much running around this summer and that I haven't fully been able to enjoy the Oasis. I plan on logging some hours out there tomorrow, if the weather cooperates. I did want to share a picture of the custom sign I had made at Memorial Day. Its very cute!

Lastly, I was at the beach last week with my family. Thank you to Katie for watering the garden while I was away. I didn't have to stress about my plants dying! And because we're so cute, here's a photo of my entire family taken on the front of our beach house.

Happy 4th of July everyone!