Indoor Gardening

Just after planting. This also provides a
handy under-cabinet light down at the dark end of the kitchen

Two weeks ago I started up my automated hydroponic countertop garden again. I planted lettuce in the unit on the left, and herbs (mostly basil) in the unit on the right. Now, just two weeks later, I ate my first lettuce! I love this!

One of the online gardening groups I belong to had a memorable (to me) post from a woman who lives on one of the Arctic islands in the Canadian archipelago that is in the Northwest Territories. She was so excited to be able to grow fresh vegetables year round! In her tiny village, they will go weeks at a time with no flights in the winter, when they are icebound and isolated. How cool is this!

Ripe for first picking! Two weeks!

Ready to stuff into my pita sandwich

Final Harvest

I finally harvested my chard today. I had let it go, and many of the outer leaves had fallen over. But there was lots of good stuff in there! I cut leaves individually and left the innermost small ones, in case we continue to have mild weather - it could continue to grow for another month! There were some spiders and slugs in there, but I carefully washed each leaf one at a time.

Chard is ridiculously good looking. The dish I made with it was actually kind of bland, just braised with rice and good olive oil. It loses most (but not all) of the color when it cooks. But it made a good substantial side for the other five things I made for dinner (I pretty much spent the whole day cooking).