Home Grown

My first pepper!

It's official.  I am a gardener.  This is my very first vegetable I have ever grown.  Not only do I have this one, but I have 3 more growing outside!  This is unheard of!

I don't count my herb plants because I really didn't have to do anything to make them grow.  Except water them.   Which I'm really no good at.  It's a good thing Ryan likes to go outside or else it would probably never get done.

This lovely little green pepper went into a favorite dish in my house, sausage and peppers.  Just like it sounds, it contains sausage, usually chicken sausage, and peppers.  And usually onions.  Onions belong in just about everything.  They add a little extra something.

But this post is not just about onions. This post is supposed to be about home grown deliciousness that is vegetables.

Because I don't have a garden at home, (my peppers grow in some whiskey barrels I have in my side yard) I like going to the farmer's market.  I like knowing that what I'm buying there was picked that morning, or sometimes that afternoon.  I like knowing that these people didn't drive for hours or ship their produce across state lines in order to give it to me.  I like knowing that I'm helping out local farmers and neighbors by buying this produce.

I will concede that living in California gives me a distinct advantage in that area.  The county I live in is smack in the middle of the salad bowl of America.  45 min south is one of the main growing areas of California strawberries and an hour north is a city called Gilroy where most of the garlic sold in the United States is grown.  You can get kale, squash, oranges, peaches, apples, grapes, tomatoes, carrots, any kind of lettuce, delicious white corn, and many more other vegetables in a 50 mile radius of where I live.  So, yeah, I know I'm really lucky.

Not only do we have great vegetables, but we have tons of beef.  Most every day I drive past cows grazing on the hills.  There are at least 3 local butchers, not to mention the meat program they have at Cal Poly.  It's easy to get grass fed, locally raised beef here.  I'd buy it a lot more often if it wasn't so expensive.

Not only does buying local help support your neighbors, but it also cuts down on your carbon footprint, if you're concerned with that.  It also helps to keep food prices down and gives people fresher food.  When strawberries are $0.97/lb here they are $3.99 in Georgia.  Granted, they don't grow strawberries in Georgia, but I saw the ones that were shipped all the way out there, and I'm certain they were not worth $3.99/lb.

So next time you go shopping, check out where your food was grown.  If you get a chance, find a local market or farmer's market and ask them how far they came.  I bet your food will taste better if it was grown somewhere near your home.  And if you're feeling really daring, go plant some green pepper plants!

My next challenge, Tomatoes!