We’re going to talk about seasonings today in our second cooking-related Project TWH post.  In case you missed it earlier, our first cooking-related post in Project TWH was about Nutrition For The Suburban Homesteader.

Why Seasoning Is Essential To Homesteaders

Let’s get this fact out-of-the-way right off the bat – bland food sucks!  Monotony does too.  Picture this very realistic scenario:

Your suburban homestead garden is successfully producing this year and you’ve got more tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers and broccoli than you know what to do with.

At first, this problem is anything but a free problem.  The vegetables are fresh and taste great.  But in the not too distant future, you’re getting sick of all these vegetables in your diet.  It’s just annoying to eat the same thing over and over and over and over again despite how fresh these vegetables are.

But, add some seasoning – garlic to the broccoli, sage to the carrots, salt and balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes, dill (with some yogurt) to the cucumbers – and, all of a sudden, these mundane flavors are once again exciting!

Seasonings make food more interesting and also allow you to be creative with your cooking!

Types of Seasonings

We can spend a long, long time talking about seasonings, but let’s start talking about the basics.

• Herbs: The flavor in herbs comes from the leaves of the plant.  A lot of these seasonings can easily be grown in your garden.
• Spices: Anything used to season food that is not made from the leaves of a plant are considered a spice.  A lot of these items are difficult to grow in a typical garden in the U.S., however some like chili peppers and fennel seeds are able to be grown in the U.S.
• Black Pepper: A typical staple in every pantry, this seasoning can only be grown in tropical climates.  It is, however, almost a required, essential seasoning for any setting.  The ability for only a light sprinkle to make an astounding difference is incredible!
• Salt: Due to the fact that it is not a part of a plant, salt is neither a herb or a spice.  It is, however, much like black pepper in that it is essentially a required staple due to its ability to greatly change (most will say improve) flavor in small amounts.
• Onions and Garlic: Both are vegetables and, at the same time, both are used primarily to alter the taste of other food rather than as a major.  Onions have a sweet, but not sugary, flavor to meals.  Garlic has a unique flavor and is able to turn a simple dish (think steamed broccoli) from a mundane dish to a tasty dish.  It has amazing health benefits as well.
• Vinegars: A liquid seasoning that can help you spice up salads and other vegetable dishes.  There are multiple different flavors that range from sweet (balsamic vinegar) to subtle (apple cider vinegar).

Grow Your Own Seasoning

There’s two ways to effectively start using seasoning in your cooking.  The first approach is determining which seasonings you like and thane making dishes that use them.  The second is finding dishes that you like and figuring out what seasonings work well with them.  In the end, it’s probably best to use a combination of these approaches.  That being said, the average suburban homesteader can grow most of the seasonings listed below and could easily try incorporating them in their cooking.

• Basil: This plant is very simple to grow, although it is frost sensitive.  It also has some propensity to experience fusarium wilt in the Deep South.  Basil grows great from seeds that are planted after the frost-free date.  We use basil extensively with tomatoes here on the Suburban Steader homestead – tomato and mozzarella slices with chiffonade basil and balsamic vinaigrette is a terrific appetizer for summer meals.
• Chili Peppers: These peppers are grown just like bell or sweet peppers.  And, much like sweet peppers, the fruits can be eaten.  They can also be dried and used for seasoning foods in the winter.  Chili peppers have a spicy taste to them and are used extensively in Mexican and Asian-style cooking.
• Coriander / Cilantro: A definite “two-for-one” in the seasoning world.  Cilantro leaves are typically used in Mexican-style cooking.  Coriander, on the other hand, is associated with many different styles of cooking.  Both have very unique flavors.  Unfortunately, the Mrs doesn’t like cilantro very much, so it is not used very much on the Suburban Steader homestead.
• Egyptian Onions and Chives: Both of these perennials are grown mostly for their green leaves.  Their taste profile is similar to onions or garlic but neither have as sharp a flavor as the latter.  The Suburban Steader homestead always has some chives on hand for numerous things but one of our favorites is adding these great seasonings to tuna, egg or chicken salads.
• Garlic: Probably my favorite seasoning, garlic has many uses.  Almost every dish, regardless of cuisine, can benefit from some minced up garlic.  Garlic typically goes hand in hand with onion.  We use the age-old ratio of three garlic cloves to one onion in most meals and it works great.  The taste of garlic is wonderful and the health benefits (as mentioned above) are incredible which makes it no surprise that garlic is the most used and appreciated seasoning in the Suburban Steader homestead.  Garlic is planted in the fall and harvested in the summer.
• Mint: Probably the easiest seasoning to grow, mint can also be a problem in your garden.  It is known as a runner meaning that the roots will spread and consume a large area.  It is recommended that you use either a separate pot or root barriers when growing mint.  All that being said, mint is quite a useful seasoning.  It is matched well with some meats – lamb especially – and is also great for making teas.  In addition, mint is a great addition to some adult beverages.  In addition to normal mint, you might want to experiment with different variations like spearmint or peppermint.
• Onions: Just like garlic, onions have almost limitless use.  They can be eaten raw on sandwiches – they are terrific on hamburgers – or diced and sautéed as the base for numerous dishes.  Onions are planted from seed or set early in the spring and the bulbs are harvested mid-summer.  Onions have a unique ability to add a sweetness to a dish that is nothing like the sweetness sugar adds.  The aroma and taste onions add as seasoning to a dish is unique and it is added to many dishes here on the Suburban Steader homestead.
• Oregano: This fast growing perennial is hardy down to Zone 5 (learn about USDA Hardiness Zones here).  Much like mint, oregano can be a runner so make sure you use some kind of root barrier or a separate pot when growing oregano. Oregano is used a lot in both Italian and Mexican cuisines and is a mild, but tasty seasoning.
• Parsley: Much like onions and garlic, parsley is best known for its extensive use in Italian cuisine.  It is a biennial meaning that it is harvested in the first year and bolts to seed in the second spring.  Much like cilantro and basil, parsley is grown for its leaves.  A fine-chopping of parsley is a great addition to any Italian-style dish as well as many soups and pasta dishes.
• Rosemary: This terrific seasoning has many uses but is best known as a great seasoning for most starches.  Our favorite use of rosemary is as an addition to roasted red potatoes.  Rosemary is a perennial that will grow hardly in the South and may die back some in the cold of winter in anything less than Zone 7.
• Thyme: Another perennial that is hardy down to Zone 5, thyme is a great seasoning for both vegetables and different kinds of meat.  Here at the Suburban Steader homestead, we use thyme a lot with chicken.  We’ll take a few chicken breasts, rub them in a little olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika, toss a sprig or two of thyme on the chicken and bake them.  This process makes the chicken tasty and a great addition to salads.

Testing New Seasonings

So you’ve taken the plunge and are growing a bunch of the seasonings from above but don’t know where to start when it comes to trying them.  Do you find the seasonings you like and then find meals that use them?  Or, do you figure out what seasonings you can use to spice up the meals you already like?  Ideally, you’ll do both.

Here on the Suburban Steader homestead, we definitely take the two-prong approach to trying new spices.  For instance, there are quite a few meals that we’ve become very good at making such as different grilled meats, chicken meals and pasta with red sauce.  We’ve begun to play with different seasoning profiles on these dishes to spice them up and change the typically taste of the dishes so we don’t get bored.

On the other side, we’ll occasionally buy a seasoning from the store (sage was one of the latest we tried) and found recipes that highlight it.  Not everything works out well, but it’s opened up our palettes and has allowed us to expand both our taste profiles and our culinary skills.

Exploring new seasonings is definitely a win-win experience in both the taste and culinary skill worlds!

photo credit: Tord Sollie via photopin cc

Over the last few weeks, I’ve talked about Finding Room to Homestead and how to perform a Suburban Homestead Site Survey. Now that you know how you’re going to approach your suburban homestead and where on your land you’ll be conducting different suburban homesteading activities, it’s time to plan your summer garden.

For most suburbanites, setting up a garden is the first step to a suburban homestead. Guidance from The Weekend Homesteader is quite useful in making sure that you avoid a few pitfalls and are aware of a couple of tricks and tips for this otherwise simple task. With that thought in mind, we’ll be covering the following topics in this post as well as talking about how we implement these areas of knowledge on the Suburban Steader Homestead:

• Garden Size
• Garden Location
• Garden Layout
• Simple Vegetables and Herbs

Garden Size

If you remember one thing from this post, remember this:

You don’t set and forget a garden

You will be working this area extensively throughout the season – weeding, harvesting, planting and maintaining. The reason I emphasize this point is because the biggest mistake you can make when you plan your summer garden is to bite off more than you can chew. Designing a space that is too large will be more detrimental to your suburban homesteading success.

Why is too big worse than too small you ask?

The answer lies in availability of time. You only have a certain amount of time that you can spend gardening. This fact is especially true with suburban homesteaders as they are not working the homestead all day, every day. Typically a garden is a weekend and/or after work activity for most of you.

So, how big of a garden should you build?

If you’ve never gardened before, I suggest you plan your summer garden in an area that is roughly four (4) feet by eight (8) feet. This approach will give you forty-eight (48) square feet of gardening space. Anything more than that is going to be too intimidating. You can have a few side items if you like outside of this area (potted tomatoes, blueberry bushes, etc.) but the majority of gardening should happen in this area.

Note that Anna Hess disagrees with me. She recommends beginners can go up to one hundred forty-four (144) square feet – three times what I recommend! All I can say to that is remember that it’s always easier (mentally and physically) to expand your garden than decrease its size.

Suburban Steader Homestead Garden Size

For the last half decade or so, I’ve used a roughly forty-eight square foot area for my garden. By using the space efficiently – I implement Square Foot Gardening principles – I have successfully offset my family’s vegetable consumption by a significant margin. Please do not take that to mean that we are anywhere near self-sufficient.

I’ve doubled our garden space this year with the addition of a four foot by eight foot raised bed. In addition, I have some perennials (blueberries, strawberries, etc.) on other locations which are above and beyond this ninety-six square feet of garden area we now have.

Garden Location

In my last post, I talked extensively about how to lay out your suburban homestead based upon a long list of factors. There’s not much more to be said here that hasn’t been outlined in that post. The one bit of advice I would give is to plan your summer garden so that it is not far from the house. The closer you are to your garden, the more apt you will be to work on it and the better success you will experience.

Suburban Steader Homestead Garden Location

As you’ve seen in this picture, the new garden box I put in is right next to our patio. The old garden box is about as far away from the patio as you can get on my land. This update is already paying dividends. I spend a few minutes each day tending to the closer garden box whereas I don’t walk out to the other one as much. This little bit of knowledge has taught me that I’m going to put the more needy crops in the closer box.

Garden Layout

I have two main tips when you plan your summer garden on your suburban homestead:

1. Remember the Two Foot Rule
2. Visual Record Keeping

The Two Foot Rule

This rule is something I learned from Mel Bartholomew in his Square Foot Gardening principles. Most people cannot reach into a bed more than two feet. If you design your garden so that you can reach every piece of soil with this rule in mind, you’ll never have to walk on your garden (compressing the soil) and you’ll be able to utilize all your land. That’s part of the reason I recommend four foot by eight foot beds. As long as the maximum dimension on one side is four feet, you’ll be able to reach the middle on either side.

Visual Record Keeping

I’ll be perfectly honest – I have a crappy memory.

I can’t remember what I planted or where I planted it, especially if I’m starting from seed. That is why I use a visual record keeping system. Not only does it remind me of what I planted where, but I can track when I planted it, how many plants/seeds I planted and plan accordingly.

I use a piece of software called Garden Planner from GrowVeg.com. While I’m a kind of tech geek, there’s nothing wrong with good old paper and pencil to keep track of your garden layout.

Simple Vegetables and Herbs

All this work to plan your summer garden and you don’t even know what you’ll be growing yet. Not any longe!.

It’s time to pick your produce!

As a novice gardener, Anna Hess and I agree that picking simple, easy to grow vegetables will give you early wins and build your confidence. With that thought in mind, we recommend the following items:

• Swiss Chard – A summer green that is virtually work free. Cooks up like spinach but much easier to grow.
• Summer Squash (inc. Zucchini) – Big and beefy, these veggies will provide you with lots of produce as well as lots of confidence. There’s something boastful about growing a plant as big as summer squash can get. With that in mind, summer squash does take up a lot of room, so if space is at a premium, you might want to think this one over.
• Green Beans – Quick to sprout and quick to harvest, these guys will give you a quick, bountiful victory. Bush beans don’t need a trestle but will grow very quickly meaning you’ll be replanting a lot.
• Tomatoes – They love sun! While they’re a bit more finicky than some of the other veggies mentioned, you can’t beat the taste of a homegrown tomato. Buy them in seedling sets and plant them deep. Too much water is a problem for these guys.
• Mint – A quick grower and a perennial to boot! Mint will take over your garden if you’re not careful so make sure you have a root barrier in place or, better yet, start it in a pot.
• Basil – Drop the seeds, water and walk away. You’ll have fragrant leaves all summer.

Anna also recommends okra – I can’t really comment on that as I’ve never grown it. I will say that the items I would add to the list are romaine lettuce and broccoli. Both grow rather easily from either seed or seedlings.

The most important thing to do when picking what you grow is remembering what you eat. It’s a shame to grow tomatoes if your family dislikes them. At best, you’ll have a harvest and not know what to do with it and, at worst, you won’t work your garden because the outcome doesn’t interest you.

Wrap-Up

There you have it – how to plan your summer garden in a few simple steps. Remember that, at the end of it all, gardening should be a relaxing endeavor, not something you feel is a chore. That’s not to say it’s not a lot of hard work, but if you find yourself resenting the garden, take a step back and figure out why. You should be enjoying this work – you get to reap all the rewards!

Please let us know any tips you have for planning your summer garden in the comments or on our Facebook Page.