I stayed home yesterday with my nasty cold..again. At 5 I pulled myself off the couch for an hour to meet with Scott. He is a living garden landscaper who i hoped would reveal the secrets of my garden to me. Although that didnt happen, he gave me some good suggestions all of which i knew but didnt want to believe. Sometimes you just need to hear it out of a stranger’s mouth. So the butterfly bush is out to make room for my Fig Tree and the raspberries are moving for a mega composting pile extravaganza. I am excited about this! He also designed a 40 foot garden box to edge my patio. This box will be in the most direct sun, double as seating for my friends and give me lots of fresh veggies.
After Scott left, i got more and more nervous about all the changes he suggested. At one point i was ready to scrap the whole thing and just continue on as i had planned. Then i opened this beautiful website called CULINATE. i read one of her articles about farmer’s market veggies and came across this;
Nutrients dissipate quickly. Broccoli loses 34 percent of its vitamin C in just two days. Asparagus making the refrigerated trek from California to New York arrives with only about one-third of its initial vitamin C.
Growers who sell to supermarkets can’t do anything about the nutrients, but some do try to combat moisture loss: they wax the produce. Waxes on cucumbers, peppers, rutabagas, melons, citrus, apples, and other fruits and vegetables keep moisture in and give the produce a shiny appearance.
According to Bryan Jay Bashin, writing in the magazine Harrowsmith, the wax is sometimes mixed with fungicides and sprouting inhibitors before it’s applied. The only ways to get rid of it are to scrub your vegetables with detergent or to peel them, which eliminates more nutrients.
I knew that wax wasnt the best thing to eat and i dont scrub it off with detergent or peal them but i had no idea that the nutrients disappeared so quickly. it made me much more motivated to get my garden box built so i could pull my veggies out of the earth and eat them that day.
I also watched this beautiful interview with ALICE WATERS and good god do i want her garden…and her egg cooking fireplace! I love all these places to find inspiration.
So Onward! i am ready to conquer the yard this year. My sprouts are starting to look like real things now too.
