DIY, the not so extreme version

Indoor gardening is still gardening.

At the grocery store last week, I mentioned to the cashier that I wanted to plant the "live" basil I was buying. I mean, it came with roots, and in a cute little bag full of nutrient water, and looked perfectly plantable. At first she looked at me like I was nuts, and then like I was some kind of freaky genius. Because if I plant it, it will keep growing and I can keep harvesting it.

Freaking genius!

You could do the same with those "live" lettuce heads you see sometimes.

I've heard of people sprouting avocado pits and planting them too.

And if you get herbs that were cut right, you can sprout them too.

Yes, I know, I could just go to the garden store and buy seedlings, but it's more fun this way. There's a certain amount of challenge, a bit of suspense, that point of frustration where you're sure it won't work and so you stop checking it and stop adding fresh water...

And then you realize there are roots on your lemongrass stumps.

And in a couple days there are lots of them.

Lemongrass is extremely easy to root, and fairly fast growing. If you're going to put it in planters outside, make sure you are able to move them. This is a tropical grass and it doesn't like any kind of cold at all. You'll have to bring it inside in the winter.

Or just harvest it all and start again in the spring.

It's not like this is difficult.

If you're going to keep it indoors year round, choose a bright and sunny spot, as full sun as you can get.

I used a regular organic houseplant medium. i.e. Potting soil.

And potted it like a typical houseplant.

In a nice pot, it would make a lovely hostess gift or housewarming present. Include a recipe for Beef Chow Fun, or Thai Green Curry.

And you can always start another batch for yourself.

Have you ever sprouted something weird? (Your kids don't count)

Extreme DIY

I'm not cooking.

Well, I am. Last night we grilled crooknecks, reduced some wine, added butter, and tossed it all with pasta, chicken breast, basil, and cheese. Tonight, pork filling for tacos. I do like pork in tacos.

I also made date muffins again (turns out the recipe actually works and wasn't a total fluke), and sauteed chard to go into biscuit pastry for lunchy spanikopita-type things.

But I didn't take a single picture.

But I did take pics of food. It's just that it's food in a somewhat less familiar format.

The garden.

Yes, food comes from dirt.

And while Taneasha and I are fans of DIY cooking, Recipe Guy has gone one step further and is DIYing his own food.

I've had gardens in the past, but right now I'm trapped in my student apartment without even a balcony on which to grill things. Man, I love food cooked on fire.

So, as I said, we grilled crooknecks last night. But first we had to harvest them. Squashes are fuzzy, and the fuzz is sharp and sticks in your fingers like fibreglass.

Tasty things always have ways of protecting themselves. Note that the broccoli has no thorns, no fuzz, no dangerous parts to navigate around. That's because it's not edible. Contrary to what his housemates seem to think.

Behind the broccoli is the remnants of the iceburg lettuces. There was romaine too. There's red leaf on the way. There's also chard.

A lot of chard. I'd already taken 2-4 leaves off each of those plants. That got me about 4 grocery store sized bundles of chard. Sautee that shit in bacon fat with a bit of browned onion... goes perfectly with fried chicken. Holy yum.

I need to make fried chicken.

Some would recommend frying these little green tomatoes,

but I think I'll wait until the sun turns them red (better them than me) and then eat them warm off the vine.

TIP: As soon as your tomato plant starts fruiting, defoliate it. Pervert, it means take the leaves off. If you remove the leaves around the fruits, the sun will ripen them faster and the plant will put more energy into fruiting since it no longer has leaves to feed.

And, if you let your cilantro go to seed, you'll attract all kinds of flying insects that will help pollinate the rest of the garden,

and those little green burrs in the bottom left are actually corriander seed, a component of garum masala. Let them dry, harvest them by putting a paper bag over the seed head, turn it upside down and shake; all the seeds fall into the bag. This works for dill seed too.

If you're lucky, you'll have a neighbour with honey bees

(can you see the bee butt in the flower?) who shares the hibiscus scented honey that results from his bees spending all their time in your bushes.

Of course, if you have a garden you need a compost heap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Zz-GRPAzA

(still don't know how to embed vids)

Now, you may not end up with a blues-singing, advice-giving heap, but what you might get are a few volunteers. I don't think I've ever seen a compost heap that didn't have things growing in it.

We're pretty sure this is a butternut squash.

There are onions just to the left out of the frame too. Which is good because Mowing Man keeps mowing down the wild onions in the horse pature.

Speaking of wild things, remember the wild beans that appeared last year during the drought? Well, if you let wild beans go to seed in your garden, they will happily come back and demand trellises the next year.

How does your garden grow?