Original Fast Foods

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I'm fading from lack of greens.

I just got back to Utah after 3 months in Seattle, where the organic produce is fresh and varied. It's been awful to open a box of organic baby spinach that I paid $5 for and find old squishy junk. By this time tomorrow or the next day, I'll have 2 lbs. home grown greens and enough wheat grass for 10-12 oz of juice. I've started an indoor square inch kitchen garden. Wahoooo I'm fading from lack of greens.

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Permalink Reply by G Conrad on April 26, 2010 at 1:53am

In a disaster, I wouldn't need to change the way I eat at all, as long as we had a heat source to keep the greens from freezing. We eat almost entirely off our food storage. This is possible following Original Fast Foods with all the beans, sprouted grains, and nl breads. We have a sun oven for these. This system gives us enough greens for 4 people to eat heartily every day. I plan to make a video my system, when my petite greens are at maturity. I'll link it to the site at that point.

This summer we are planting our old veggie garden with various berries (blue, black, rasp, straw) to freeze and dry. We're also putting in several genetic dwarf peaches and expanding our espalier fruit orchard to include cherries and pears. I'd also like to plant an almond tree. We have strawberries, currents, peaches, and apples at this point, although we don't produce nearly enough for the volume we now consume. I'll continue to grow peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and such in my raised Square foot beds, but we're moving them to a sunnier location. Hopefully, we will never have to rely on our garden totally. Be that as it may, I'm turning my home's landscaping into an edible one for that very reason.

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Permalink Reply by G Conrad on April 26, 2010 at 2:49am

Maybe one person could live off this garden with nothing else to eat for a very short time. I can't say we would ever choose to eat just greens exclusively. I don't think we could get enough calories. As I said, the greens we produce feed 3-4 adults daily. But we also eat several lbs. of fruit and other veggies, about 1-2 lb. beans, and about 1-2 lb. other grains for our whole family daily. If we had little children still. I believe our little square-inch garden would be enough for 2 adults and 4 children with the addition of fruits, other veggies, beans, and grains.

1. Until my cute red wigglers make compost for me to use, I use miracle grow organic potting soil. On the fourth day, I water the trays with kelp water. I could also dehydrate and powder wheat grass for my fertilizer.

2. I plant every day, but am considering doing a double planting on Saturday. I don't feel that it is in keeping with the Sabbath to plant on Sunday.

3. I harvest 6 or 7 trays each day of about 1 lb. each.

4. I plant sunflower greens, buck wheat lettuce, wheat grass, and (starting today) pea shoots. We've added several different lettuces and greens for petite greens (for salads) that take about 4-5 weeks til harvest and have not eaten any of these yet. I plant these trays once a week.

5. For the micro greens I use plastic 10X14 fast food trays, which I purchased on line for $1.35 each. I have 90 of these. They are solid and use 4 cups of soil each. For the petite lettuces and greens, I have the usual starter trays with greenhouse domes available anywhere. None of the produce is in the trays long enough for drainage to be a problem. We water sparingly as well.

After I am successful with microgreens, and petite greens, I plan to see if I can grow broccoli, cauliflower, chard, kale, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, and such in the house, basement, or outdoor shed as well. Our town has a terrible supply of vegetables and fruits, organics in particular. Oh, and I also keep bees. Again, I plan to make a video of this system in about 4 weeks. Your questions have been valuable as to what information to include in the video.

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Permalink Reply by Marilyn Larsen on April 26, 2010 at 2:54am

Wow! That's amazing. I can't wait to see the videos of your system. I live in AZ and I grow greens all winter. I don't have to buy any from about the end of Oct to April. It's just too hot here after that and the plant bolts quickly and the greens are very bitter. I wonder if I could do this system indoors in the "cool" air conditioned house. We have a very different growing season here and sometimes it's frustrating getting information because it is so different. Thanks for sharing. P.S. Have you ever looked at the Dervais family blog? Just google "path to freedom". They grow most of their vegetarian diet in their suburban lot in Pasadena, California (they do have the CA weather) but it is very inspiring.

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Permalink Reply by Kisi Watkins on April 26, 2010 at 3:30am

Thank you so much. Keep up the great work!

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Permalink Reply by G Conrad on April 26, 2010 at 4:09am

I grew up in Glendale and remember gardening in Feb. Yes, I think anyplace you can get light and keep below 75F would work.

I've drooled over that site many times.

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Permalink Reply by Glenda on April 26, 2010 at 4:59am

Love your post. You are an ispiration!

I've grown broccoli successfully here in St. George. I blogged about it here: http://thelittleredhenfoodsite.blogspot.com/2010/02/broccoli-plants...
I planted it in the fall, and harvested it March. Once the weather starts to warm up, it is impossible to grow because it starts to go to seed. I enjoyed it while I had it though!

I get most of my produce from a coop called bountiful baskets. You get about $50 worth of fruits and vegetables for $15. I try to grow what I can. I used to have a huge garden in Utah County. We've lived in So. Utah for 1 1/2 years, the first year in a rental. So, this will be my first year getting a garden up and going here. I have 3 tomato plants that are looking great. I'm going to plant peppers, zucchini, chard and hopefully some grapes. I am going with containers this year, until we figure out the best location to place the garden.

I've planted edible flowers (calendula, etc), sunflower greens and micro lettuces so far. Everything has sprouted, and I'm waiting for my first crops.

I'm looking for people in the area who have extra apricots and grapes this year. We had some in the rental we were in, and they were wonderful. I'd also like to find out if almond trees do well here. I'm pretty sure they would, I remember having an almond tree or two in Las Vegas when we lived there when I was a child.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Abdo on April 26, 2010 at 5:50am

Has anyone tried WindowFarms yet (http://www.windowfarms.org/)? Looks intriguing. . . .

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Permalink Reply by G Conrad on April 26, 2010 at 7:44am

Ooooooo, using something like this would remove the need for curtains and improve the air quality in children's bedrooms. Hmmmmm...I'm thinking of all the places I could use these in my house, like the huge picture windown in the living room. Anyway, until I'm done with my current projects, I'll leave this one on the back burner. Thanks for the link.