vegetables | Offbeat Home

This is Offbeat Home's archive of vegetables posts.

Most Recent Posts About vegetables

Yo, hopeful Northern Hemisphere gardeners! Check in! How's everything looking with your starter seedlings?

If you haven't already, it's a good time to look at your babies and see who's past the germination deadline without showing any green. Some of my seeds have a very long germination time (10-14 days) but once two weeks is up and I haven't seen any proto-leaves, those little things are quickly replaced with new seeds.

This year I'm planting a bigger variety of vegetables than I ever have before. I've started most of them already (all that I had toilet paper rolls for!) because I have a feeling we're in for a warm spring. I don't think I'm going to have to worry about frost as late as I have in years past — so I'm kind of starting all my stuff at once. If I'm wrong, well…then I'll just start again. I've been late in planting seeds in the past, and everything turned out all right, so if I end up starting something late because I THOUGHT it was already covered, it's not the end of the world.

Now that I'm living on my own, I have to figure out what I'm not too lazy to cook for myself. Luckily, there's Pho to the rescue!

Here's my recipe for a simple soup you can customize MANY ways to keep your lonesome self happy.

Last summer I read The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. I was given the book for my birthday, together with some cookbooks. You get the point, I love food. But I care about how it found its way into my kitchen, too. Let me tell you about what we decided works for us, after much book-reading and value-weighing.

I've been saving up my toilet paper rolls ALL WINTER. Last week, I proudly harvested them from the bathroom cupboard, sliced them all in half, and used them to start my garden.

I just refuse to buy those little peat pots and seed starter plugs. They cost so darn much and don't have any advantage to a bag of starting soil and one of these reuse-ier solutions!

Mooseloaf, buttery Greek yogurt mashed potatoes and a fresh salad sounds like a dinner you can brag about tomorrow. Maybe bring leftovers to work. Casually mention it at lunchtime. We have the recipe to get you started.

I've always loved food: I was taught to bake from a young age and can whip up a mean Sunday roast or Victoria sponge. I come from a farming family so I've always felt aware of where food comes from.

Unfortunately, living on a boat makes growing my own a difficult task — but we've finally found a solution.

I had ideas of producing pounds upon pounds of produce to put away for the winter after I'd enjoyed them all summer long. Well, I have enjoyed peas, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and basil, but definitely not enough to “put up.” I kept waiting to get enough of one thing to can, freeze, or dry — but it just never happened.

This week I finally learned the most amazing thing about gardening as a grocery supplement:

You need a whole lot less of one thing to can than you might think.

Meet a bullhuahua — a pit bull/chihuahua mix — who lives on a super stylish orange couch. Learn about underground automated carports, and about how squatters can take legal possession of their squats.