The Constant Gardner Blog Index
July 09, 2008
Mono-diet, or fresh and local

I just ate peas as the main vegetable for my sixth straight evening meal.

I love it. They are all from our garden, and peas are my second favorite vegetable, asparagus being No. 1.

Nancy asked if I were getting sick of having the same vegetable night after night, and I said not at all.

Granddaughter Maeve may differ. We had strawberry shortcake on the Fourth of July and again on Sunday, and Maeve said that was too much for her. It just meant more for the rest of us. But she and Brigit were happy with three straight days of peas.

We have had more than peas, of course. There were some onions and some red peppers, a bit of lettuce. And the edible-pod Sugar Daddy peas count as a different vegetable, and they were great in a pasta salad.

But peas are what the garden is producing now. And will be until the end of July, as pods are just being formed on the second planting. Our company from the South, who like peas as much as we do, will be happy to hear that.

But, if you are going to eat local, you have eat what is being produced locally. And peas are what is being produced now.

The diet will get more diverse soon. I saw some just-forming yellow summer squash and tiny cucumbers during a stroll through the garden Wednesday. The tomato plants have some small green tomatoes, and there are small peppers as well.

This weekend I will search for some new potatoes, and that will be a treat. And the onions are large enough to use. They are not as huge as they will get, but some are an inch in diameter already, and the tops are edible as well.

While our strawberries have gone by, we will be getting more fruit soon, barring disasters. Our earliest highbush blueberry has a few berries that are turning color. The raspberries are getting a good size, if green. And we have golf-ball size peaches that seem to be progressing well.

It's a great time to be a vegetable gardener in Maine. No gasoline was spent transporting those vegetables to our table.

Posted at 08:20 PM

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Tom Atwell has written the Maine Gardener column in the Maine Sunday Telegram since the spring of 2004. He has worked at the Press Herald/Sunday Telegram since 1974, about the same time he started gardening with any seriousness.

He gardens with his wife, Nancy. She not only is the better gardener of the pair, but also knows the botanical names of plants. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.

Tom was born in Skowhegan, grew up in Farmington and graduated from the University of Maine with a BA in journalism. His goal each year is to have continuous compost from his three compost bins, continuous bloom in his low-maintenance garden and more fruits and vegetables on his family table than the garden pests eat in the field.



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