“Best Foods” You Can Grow

While wandering around the NY Times yesterday, I came across “The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating“. Hey, I’ve been eating most of these foods for years and years, and I bet you have been, too. The really good news is that you can probably grow most of the fruits and vegetables included in this list yourself.

Sure, unless you live in a Mediterranean climate, you’re unlikely to be harvesting and juicing your own pomegranates. But folks in most temperate climates should have little trouble growing blueberries. And if you have room for a tree or two, you can also grow your own plums. As for the veggies on the list, they’re all gardening standards: beets, cabbage, Swiss chard, and pumpkins.

Pumpkins make it on the list twice – once for their seed and again for their pulp. And don’t think that pumpkins are space-hogging sprawlers that can’t fit in a modest-sized garden. For example, Baby Bear is a short-vined variety with fruits weighing less than 2 lbs. Both its flesh and its semi-hulless seeds make good eating.

BTW, it isn’t hard to roast your own pumpkin seeds. And if oven-roasting or skillet-roasting is more than you want to tackle, try this microwave method for toasting pumpkin seeds.

Speaking of seeds, I’m planning on writing a seed-harvesting article real soon. More on that later.