beets are tasty

No, seriously.  Next time you are at the store, go grab four or five beets.

These are golden beets - they look orange on the outside, more yellow on the inside.  I like them and they are a good first place to start if you are intimidated by the dark red beets (which will stain your hands but will wash off plates, etc).  Also, FYI but also maybe TMI, beets will stain other stuff too.  As in, you will know you have eaten beets when you go to the bathroom.  Maybe start with the orange ones.  :)

So grab your beets.  If they are dirty, wash them off.  I usually cut off the tops and the main big roots (which tend to poke through the foil) and I also usually take a carrot grater to them and grate off any residual root thingies.  All are optional (except the washing part).

Put your beets on some aluminium foil and drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with some kosher salt (or regular salt, or sea salt, or whatever you have on hand).

Fold them up in a little packet and pop into the oven on a baking sheet.  I usually do somewhere around 400 to 425 on the oven for around two hours.  Note: this will caramelize (actually, sort of burn) the parts that are touching the foil, but to me that just adds to the tastiness.  If you are not fond of caramelized stuff, just cook at a lower temp or keep them in there for a shorter time.  You know it's done when you can easily insert a knife into the cooked beet.

So.  Tasty.

planning ahead

So today while I was out shopping I wandered over to Lowe's.  I remembered seeing seeds there before, but alas, apparently they don't carry them in the winter.  While I was there, I found a book specializing in container gardening.  I had been over to Barnes and Noble earlier (gift card from my aunt and uncle!) but didn't find a gardening book I liked.  All the container ones were for ornamental plants, and all the urban homesteading books were too focused on having an actual plot of ground and raising chickens.  (Someday I would like to raise chickens.  Obviously I never will while I'm living in my condo, but... someday!)

So, I found a book called The Vegetable Gardner's Container Bible.  It was focused on the two things I need: containers and veggies.  :)  I left the copy at Lowe's and then after I got home I ordered it from Barnes and Noble online using my gift card.  I am still considering ordering some kind of portable green house thing but I'm not sure.  I want to read my book and see what the best methods for my chosen vegetables are and go from there.

Since my quest for seeds had been futile, I googled "seed catalogs" and came up with a few websites.  I ordered a free seed catalog from parkseed.com as they seemed to have a good selection with some organic options and also not too pricey.  I would love to grow organic seed but I am not going to be uber-picky about it.  I am planning to order seeds for a lettuce mix, carrots, and beets.  (I love beets.  I could seriously compose an entire blog entry about beets.  Maybe I will someday.)  I also want to grow tomatoes but understand it's easier/better to just buy some small starter plants and go from there.

I also found this really interesting article about growing potatoes in a barrel.  So: now that I've selected the veggies I want to start off with, I will start searching for containers.  A barrel would be awesome but I won't be heartbroken if I don't find one.  In the meantime, I need to start getting my stuff together to grow lettuce, carrots, beets, and however I'll do the tomatoes.  Going to look around in the next few weeks to see what I can find.

I took some "before" photos of my balcony this morning.

Here's hoping by this summer it'll be all green!

a beginning

So - a blog!

I've been thinking about doing a blog for a while now.  A friend of mine mentioned it to me again recently, and I decided to take the plunge.

There are a lot of things I'm interested in and that I'll probably talk about on here, but primarily I want to document my attempt to do some gardening on my 40 square foot condo balcony in 2012.

Primarily, I want to get either a cold frame or a mini greenhouse for my balcony.  My balcony faces east with a decent southern exposure as well, so I think something that would have a little protection for the plants would be useful.

I want to grow lettuce, green onions, and beets.  I'm also interested in trying potatoes, basil, and carrots to see what I can pull off.  In years past I've had a basil plant or two but I can never seem to keep them alive very long.

I'll also be doing a CSA again this year and want to learn more about canning and food preserving so I can still save and eat later the things I don't get to every week - even with a half share, excess food was a problem in 2011!

Come join me on my journey!  :)