Well we’ve been in North Carolina for close to 8 years now and always have vegetables growing in our boxes. So here I just wanted to give an overview of why we still grow vegetables, and what of the vegetables we keep in our boxes.
Why Grow Vegetables at All?
Well basically we’ve found that the advantages of growing vegetables spans across educational for our kids, health, and honestly some financial benefits.
Educational – Every spring, summer, and fall, we clean out the boxes, put in the new seeds (or the new plants if the seeds died). In the afternoons while we’re cooking dinner, they’re helping harvest tomatoes and peppers, plucking some for themselves to eat. So overall, they’re learning the fundamentals of agriculture, biology, the purpose of healthy soil, why plants need water, why composting is important. Overall, they’re picking up these lessons without having to sit down for a lecture.
Health – We eat very healthy because it doesn’t take many plants to have too much around, and a majority of the time the produce tastes better. That sounds cliche but it’s true. Kale doesn’t have to be as chewy as you find in the grocery store because there are so many varieties to pick from. Tomatoes, personally taste a thousand times better in our boxes, they end up with with flavor. And because we always end up with too much produce, you almost have no choice but to just eat healthy, and use up all that produce. Fresh marinara and fresh pesto of the standard things because of the over abundance of vegetables.
Financial – We do grow certain vegetables to offset costs and the reason is two-fold.
- First, you only need a fraction of what you purchase. In this case it’s easier just to pluck it from the garden – herbs fall into this category, and depending on the dish you may not need a lot.
- Second, the vegetable is expensive and you love to eat it all the time. I rarely purchase peppers because I have a stock in the boxes or frozen for the winter. I love to eat bok choy, and it happens to be easy to grow.
So in summary, would I suggest growing vegetables? Yeah I would. Contrary to common belief it’s pretty easy to get started, you don’t need too much space, and honestly a balcony is a perfectly good spot.
What Do We Grow in our Boxes?
All vegetables we grow fit into the following criteria:
- They easy to grow and low maintenance
- There is a lot of produce or easy to replant / regrow
- Everyone in the house hold is going to eat them
- Long growing season
- They are expensive in the grocery store
Vegetable | Number of Plants | Notes |
---|---|---|
Lettuce | too many to count, they just grow like weeds | Lettuce stays fresh for surprising long time, often 7 days or more, and you have so many varieties to choose from. |
Arugula | too many to count, they just grow like weeds | Love having it at home because its expensive, hard to find, and usually you don’t want a whole box from the super market any how. |
Bell Peppers | 3 | tons of produce, this is plenty |
Banana Peppers | 1 | tons of produce, this is plenty |
Cherry Tomatoes | 2-3 | tons of produce. |
Kale | 3-4 | Just pluck the leaves, and let the stem keep growing |
Japanese Eggplant | 2 | This plant needs a lot of space, be weary |
Swiss Chard | 2-3 | This is too much, it’s an acquired taste. Freezes really well. |
Bok Choy | 4-5 | It’s easy to harvest baby bok choy, or let it grow out. Expensive in the store, so love to have this around for soups and side dishes. |
Basil | 3 | Wow so much basil, it’s pesto all summer |
Cilantro | 3 | What can I say, we’re hispanic, we eat a lot of cilantro |
Green Onions | infinite | I throw seeds into some pockets of space. I usually don’t need too many, and avoid buying the bunch at the store. |