Helen Lynne Culpepper - Grow. Cook. Preserve.: The Complete Guide to Sustainable Food

AVON, MASSACHUSETTS

Do you wish you could serve your family fresh, farm-to-table meals instead of heating up yet another frozen dinner? Are you tired of countless trips to the grocery store where you spend too much money on food you dont really want to eat? Concerned about what those prepackaged meals are doing to the environment?

If youre looking for a better way to feed your family, youve taken the first step. Grow. Cook. Preserve. teaches you everything you need to know to lower your carbon footprint and feed your family inexpensive, sustainable, delicious meals made from ingredients that you grew in your own garden.

Throughout the book youll find more than 150 recipes that teach you how to prepare and preserve delightfully rustic dishes such as Spicy Sweet Cucumber Salad, Dried Tomato Risotto with Spinach and Pine Nuts, Blueberry Cobbler, and more. In addition, Part 1 details everything you need to get ready to grow your own foods, including information on what types of plants to grow, where to plant, and how to troubleshoot any issues. Part 2 teaches you how to choose and cook the fruits, veggies, and herbs that will flourish in your garden. And Part 3 provides detailed information on how to preserve and store your gardens bounty so you can enjoy it year-round.

So whether you want to leave the grocery store behind for good or just have more input into what youre putting on your table, Grow. Cook. Preserve. gives you what you need to get your hands dirty and then eat up the fruits of your labor. Enjoy!

To truly experience the self-sufficiency of farm-to-table food, you need to grow your own fruits and veggies. But how can you make sure your garden will be successful? Sunlight, water, and soil are the key ingredients to a productive garden. Depending on the area you have to work with, the quality and quantity of these components can differ widely and can affect how you design your garden. Other factors, such as wind, pests, drainage, and space, can also affect how and what you can grow. Understanding the strengths and challenges of your outdoor space is the first step to planning a successful garden. By maximizing strengths, thinking creatively, and viewing challenges as guidelines rather than limitations, your garden will be a unique reflection of your home and personality as well as an optimum growing environment that gives you amazing, homegrown food when you need it.

Open sunlight for your garden is your top priority when deciding where to plant. Although not all crops require the same amount of sunlight, the majority of your plants will need direct sunlight for at least six hours a day during the height of their growth.

If you have a yard or an outdoor space large enough to provide you with options for garden placement, then chances are you already have some idea as to where you would like to put your garden. There might be a spot in the yard that looks too vacant, or an area that you could access easily from the kitchen. Maybe you want the garden to be near an outdoor eating area or a space where your children like to play. When determining the consistency and directness of sunlight for your garden placement, you will want to observe the location you have in mind, but choose some other sites to observe as well.

By pinpointing and observing multiple sites, you can better gauge the quality of sunlight in each area. One spot might seem sunny enough on its own, but when compared to a different section of your outdoor space, you may notice that the sunlight in your spot is less present at certain times throughout the day, or that there is more consistent shade than you expected. It could turn out that the area that you were imagining for your garden is not the best option, but if you observe a few different locations at once, youll be able to adapt your plans.

If there isnt much option for where your garden can gofor example, if you have a very small yard, patio, deck, or an assigned community garden plotthen the goal of making your growing-site observations is to understand the type of sunlight your garden has access to. Being familiar with this beforehand will allow you to plant strategically. When observing your space, you want to determine if your garden area receives mostly direct sunlight, mostly shade, or a combination of both. Once you determine which category your garden space fits into, you can plant crops that will thrive in your particular environment.

Depending on the time of year you are making your observations, pay attention to trees and other vegetation that may not be in bloom but will have shade-producing foliage during the growing season. Nearby trees do not always rule out a potential garden location, but it is important to understand the scope of the shade they will produce. Knowing the type of tree or vegetation and assessing its relative health will help you to understand how much shade will be provided. If the area and the vegetation are new to you, talking to neighbors who are familiar with the specific tree or site is often the simplest way to get an idea of how much shade to expect. If you are unable to get the information you need from the folks living around you, a little research and common sense should be enough to give you a basic idea of how much shade to expect. If your outdoor space is tree-heavy, dont despair; often, pruning a few branches or cutting back some vegetation can open up plenty of sunlight for a productive garden.

It will be easiest to make accurate assumptions about sunlight at times of the year when there is ample daylight and also during days when the sun is visible and present. For some this will mean that the fall and early spring will be the best times to observe potential garden sites (other than during the growing season itself) and also on a day when the sun is out. This might mean that you have to make observations over a span of several days if youre planning your garden at a time of year when sunlight is scarce or unpredictable.

In general, making observations at specific points throughout the day will allow you to accurately assess your access to sunlight. You can stagger these observations over a larger window of time by observing the garden site at different times on different days if you are unable to take note of the light at every hour (beginning in the morning until early evening) during a single day. Depending on where your garden is located in relation to where you live and work, it might take several days to develop a complete understanding of the sunlight in your garden site.

If one area was fully immersed in sunlight during one-third of the day, but without any direct sun for the remaining two-thirds, this area does not have consistent sunlight despite receiving some direct light. A site that received partial to full sun throughout all times of the day, but did not reach a point of receiving direct sunlight, has more consistency of sunlight but less direct sunlight. In an ideal situation, you do not need to choose between planting a garden in direct or consistent sunlight, as both direct and consistent sunlight would be present, although this is not always the reality.