Jason Tuller wrote:I'm not so concerned about growing food. If I put my mind...and back...to work I could grow plenty of food in my backyard to cover a food cost increase. My concern is that my family won't eat what I grow. i realize that starvation is a good motivator, but is there somewhere in here that talks about cooking what we can grow in a way that is palatable to picky eaters? Or a way to slowly move from processed food to more natural food without having the crew revolt.
I'm the fussy eater in the house. I completely understand this concern as it is a thing that happens.
Two main approaches work for me.
1. I grow a lot of kale because it's the most nutritious green veg that survives our climate. It loves our climate. It's the lowest effort edible crop, even easier than weeds. I let it self seed every year and it can out compete most weeds. So even if we don't garden that year, kale will still be there.
I also lothe eating kale.
I tried, I really tried to like it. I faled.
But I know it as backup food. Like money under the mattress for emergencies. It's not everyday food, but I feel better knowing it is there and it can be quite a decorative plant.
People around me love eating kale, so it has good trading value for foods I like better.
2. Encourage participation and start with snack foods.
As a kid, I would rather read a book indoors than go outside, but my parents encouraged me to help with the garden planting. I could see the plants grow and when it came harvest time, my 4-year old self understood that I helped make that food. Because I made it, it tasted better than bought foods and I was allowed to eat as much as I liked.
Most of it was food we could eat in the garden. One meal a day (usually a big one), would be garden meal. Peas, beans, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, fruit, berries.... foods that can be taken off the plant and put in the mouth without any prep.
Most of what I grow now is that kind of snack garden and usually have lunch and dinner. I can never eat it all. I grow extra beans and peas to blanch and freeze. Dry beans and peas make tasty winter soup. (japanese snow peas make a good edible pod pea, shelling pea, and dry pea, so one plant can do three foods). Fruit gets dry or frozen. There are never enough tomatoes to sun dry, but maybe this year.
Snack foods are also some of the most expencive foods to buy in the store, but if one can just send the family out to the garden for snacks/meals, it saves money on groceries and cooking. From my personal budget, snacks are the most grocery money saved for least garden effort.
And if they do well with snacks, you can expand to other foods.
I don't plant foods I hate like eggplant or zucchini. That's a waste of space and time.
Nor do I plant foods that are cheap in the grocery store like cabbage.
an insomniac misanthrope who enjoys cooking, textile arts, farming and eating delicious food.
