The Wednesday Ag Report

Happy Wednesday! Since starting our new eating guidelines this year which are:
1- Eat organic as much as possible or at least eat "The Dirty Dozen" (the foods that should be organic due to the chemicals from pesticides getting in the easiest, click on The Dirty Dozen to see the list.)
2- Eat Local as much as you can. It's hard now a days to trust what is in your food sadly, so if you know where and who it comes from that makes me feel a lot better. I even try to visit the farms at times that supply us because I think it's good for the kids to see where the food comes from, not just a store or market!
3- Eat Only Whole Grain
4- Try to keep the sugar low and make sure it's natural (No High Fructose Corn Syrup) Try to stick to local honey, Real Maple Syrup, Raw Cane Sugar, I try to make my own Brown Sugar which is very simple to do.
5- If I don't know what the ingredients are in a pre-made item from the store (and know it's good for us) I try not to buy it!

Basic rules but sometimes not so easy to follow. Sometimes it's cost, sometimes it's just finding the thing you want with out having to drive 30-40 mins to get it.
With summer coming though I know one way I can cut the produce bill is to grow it ourselves! However I have to tell you I am....not the best at that. I had a nice (though small) garden a few years ago that has now been turned into a sand box for the kids if that is any indication of how badly I failed.
So I am trying something else this year, something more in my face and manageable, Container Gardens!

So far on week one we are doing pretty well! The top left are sugar snap peas, the middle top is my lettuce, the far right top would be container friendly cucumbers and cilantro (used some last night for our chicken and it was very good!)

The middle-ish row far left is our mystery plant. It seems when I plant things with the kids I get distracted and the packet is missing so I have no idea what we planted but hey it's coming up!

Bottom left would be black beans (a first for me I've never tried to grow them before, should be interesting.) The second from the bottom left would be one of three planters with tomatoes, I hope to get a good crop and try some canning this summer.

Bottom middle-ish are my pepper plants, and the far right bottom would be our strawberries that we go our first ripe berry off of today! My daughter was super excited!

So what are you growing this year? It's not to late!! I highly suggest getting the kids involved, mine love checking on our seeds every day and can't wait to eat what we grew!