The concept of gardening in our eyes becomes WAY more alluring when it comes time to eat what we have sewn. We are the proud caretakers of many small garden beds left at our house by the previous owners, which we try to do justice to. The rest of our backyard is filled by a long cedar picnic table atop a stone patio along with a littering of grills, a smoker, a pizza oven, and a big stir fry burner. All of this is to accommodate more guests for when we play host to a big dinner party, as we do a few times per year. Tying the “farm to table” rhetoric together is easy when most of the food never leaves a few square yards!
Although we host friends when we can, we also use lots of those fun cooking tools on a weekly basis. Overnight or bakes oats will receive that addition of whatever fruits are ripe outside. While smoking chicken or pork for meal prep, we almost always throw some fresh peppers, tomatoes, etc. on the grill for charring. Stir fry is my favorite weeknight activity, which is so versatile. I’ve added photos of a stir fry with carrots, a shallot, and broccoli, all from the garden. The other photos are a garden salad with all sorts of leafy greens, tomatoes, and some store bought chick peas. Lastly, we have a photo of a pizza made with homemade sauce and basil.
Our biggest challenge with the garden has been keeping it clean of overgrowth and grasses/weeds. We have tended to over stuff the tiny beds full of too many plants which eventually leads to thick growth making harvesting and weeding difficult. We may continue to stuff the beds full of whatever we know we can cook with, but hopefully we get more efficient with our space. We are learning the things we really use and the other plants we disregard come summer. For instance, we DON’T need 4 tomatillo plants! We hope you enjoy the photos of our creations and maybe you’re feeling hungry now!
~Jacob Ragland & Sarah Mast