Real Food From The Earth – Grow Your Own Healthy Food, Its Easy

All my life I have been playing in the garden. My father got me started with growing real food from the earth.  He also taught me how to pick wild food.

This was the beginning of my love for Real Food. As you know, I am passionate about real food. In the spring I am always busy putting in my garden. It is so small but you would be amazed by how it nourishes me.

See the pictures and learn all the many foods I grow or pick and then turn into delicious vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free recipes.

I always grow all my fruits and vegetables organically, with no chemicals just natural fertilizers.

If you would like to learn more about organic gardening here is an E-Book to get you started: Organic Growing and Gardening E-Book

How It Began

I have been a gardener ever since I can remember thanks to my father. He would plant a garden in our backyard and get an allotment for us to grow more to last the winter. My father would load all five of us children into the back of his pickup truck and take us out to the allotment to weed all Saturday afternoon. As a teenager, it was not something I wanted to do at all.  Still, I thank my father for the passion I have for growing my fruits and vegetables every year almost wherever I live. I love real food from the earth.

Growing a Garden in Canada

Up here in Canada, the growing season is short but grows fast because we have very long days of lots of sunshine.

My garden was planted this year in a very good time and here I am watering my baby plants. As you can see it is not a big patch but it does feed me all summer. I don’t need to go to the farmers market often in the summer.

As you can see I grow my veg in beds with pathways between the beds.

This bed near the deck is filled with salad greens so when I am ready to make a salad I just go out and pick some greens to take back to the kitchen.  My father always told me that the sooner you eat something you harvest from the garden the more nutrients you get. This is so true from all the research we now have.

There you can see baby arugula, radishes, two types of lettuce, spinach, dill, and perennial chives in the background.

I love zucchini as I am sure you have heard me say here. My little babies are growing which makes me so happy.

I went for it with peas this year and plan to actually have some which is why there is a net over them.  The birds in my neighbourhood love the tasty baby peas. Sorry birds you will have to have lunch somewhere else.

Ok not so much to see but that is my carrot patch; I did not grow it in rows.  There are a variety of flowers, herbs, and cilantro that come back every year so no weeding till I am sure.

I had a raised bed made for a strawberry patch last year. Until the strawberry plants fill it up chocolate mint and parsley get to be there. Behind you can see my raspberry patch that fills up my freezer with raspberries every year. This year it will not because we had a bad winter for the raspberries.

If you would like to learn more about organic gardening, here is an E-Book to get you started: Organic Growing and Gardening E-Book

Tasty Recipes with Real Food From Your Garden

Carrots with Orange Easy to grow lots of carrots; I ate the ones I grew right up until January.

Simple Garlic Zucchini Quick easy recipe and tasty if you like garlic too.

Apple – Raspberry Jam This jam was developed from picking apples at a neighbours and then combining them with my picked raspberries.

Power Spinach Salad With all that spinach I had to get creative.

Braised Kale A fast side dish.

How To Freeze Your Own Berries This is how I freeze all the berries I pick in my garden and in the wild.

Free Food I Pick – Real Food From the Earth.

• Dandelions – the flowers, leaves and roots. There are a number of recipes (see below).
• Berries like raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries, Saskatoons….to name a few.
• Green leafy things we call weeds like pigweed, dandelion leaves,  chickweed, nettles, lambs quarters and so much more. Click on any of these weed links to read our adventures.
• Mushrooms: there are many varieties of wild mushrooms.
• Even wild honey if you are lucky enough to find it…and brave enough to face the bees.

Have you noticed how well dandelions thrive?

While getting this garden and my yard ready I had to deal with many dandelions.  It seemed such hard work to dig them up for nothing but the compost. Dandelions are good for us!  So instead of dandelions being a problem, I decided to put them to good for the first time.  Yes, I have used the leaves in salads or steamed them like my father would for us when we had nothing else to eat. He knew where there was real food from the earth.

I remember enjoying dandelion coffee but had never made it from the root and had no idea what to do with the flowers even though I knew they are edible.

I picked the dandelion flowers to make dandelion syrup and dandelion pancakes. I cut off the roots of the main plant to make dandelion coffee. It was a busy weekend filled with dandelions. There were not enough in my own yard and had to go to my neighbour’s yard to pick their abundant crop. They do not use pesticides from the looks of it and because they have children playing in the yard they would not want to harm them.

The good news is that we can dig up as many dandelions as we want. The habitat is safe because much more will grow. I will continue picking and digging them every year with the pleasure of harvesting nourishing free food.

Learn more in the post here:  Dandelion Celebration. I have experimented and created some very tasty recipes from this real food from the earth.

Delicious Dandelion Recipes

Dandelion Pancakes -No milk or eggs, but lots of health and good taste.

Dandelion Root Coffee – The first time I tried this recipe this year was a Dandelion Disaster, but all is good now!

Dandelion Flower Syrup – You can taste the unique sweetness from the yellow petals. (Read more about the health benefits of the flowers here.)

Dandelion Flower Cordial – The word cordial sounds tasty, and it’s very appropriate in this case!

Dandelion Tea – Made with the leaves — this is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to use a dandelion.

Dandelion Smoothie – After almost passing out from a dandelion smoothie, Randy gives some practical tips to keep your dandelion smoothie palatable.

Learn To Cook with Health Principles Simply
I teach these principles all around the world
with my 2-5-30 Healthy Diet Online Courses.Save

Save

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get healthy tasty vegan gluten-free recipes and useful lifestyle tips sent to you twice a month

• Your email address*