The holidays have come and gone – unless you live in Puerto Rico celebrating Three Kings day today, which is HUGE! – and we’re all trying to settle back into a routine. Or at least I am.
The last few weeks had us all out of sync with a crazy work schedule for the husband, a teething baby (she has 16 teeth, my friends…16!), and the building of the chicken coop! Needless to say my weekly grocery shopping trips were sporadic, which left us with no veggies for last night’s dinner. And just as an aside: the veggie selection here in PR is scarce and expensive. I haven’t had cauliflower since moving here because it’s almost 7$ a head and it’s the size of a grapefruit. No thank you. And I just can’t do the frozen stuff. The normals sides here on the island are rice and beans, tostones, amarillos, and potatoe and yucca. I’m not complaining; just ever so often I want a zucchini.
So I wonder why veggies don’t reign supreme here on the island – or even in the upper 50’s? You see countless books/articles/discussions on ‘how to get your kid to eat veggies’ and it really boggles the mind. With our limited supply Gabi hasn’t had the benefit of trying out different things (I do miss Brussels sprouts!) so her palate to veggies is limited. Sucks. But I’m trying. Which is why I started our garden. And last night we had a pleasant surprise…
With our crazy schedule I didn’t make it to the store yesterday to get veggies for dinner and I so didn’t want anymore rice. My solution? I walked to our backyard and picked fresh green beans, zucchini and squash, and Rosemary. After years of trying to grow squash/zucchini I FINALLY had a ‘crop ‘. And can I just say: the difference between store bought and fresh is huge! And Gabi even seemed to like it as well.
So I also wonder what I’ll be planting in my (hopefully expanding) garden next. Brussels sprouts could be on our horizon! Oh- and an update on the ‘seeded on their own’ tomatoes: they are growing like wildflowers, have flowered but no fruit yet. Crossing my fingers that they’ll be ok!
What veggies do you like to grow? How did you get your lil toddlers/kids to enjoy their veggies?
A little day trip to Utuado. This was at the Restaurante Las Tortugas.
Tagged: cultivate, day trips, garden, i wonder, PR, Puerto Rico
My kitchen musings! 
Score, you got some veggies from your garden! We grow zucchini, yellow squash, green beans (2 diff. kinds), tomatoes (24-26 plants),cucumbers, many diff. hot peppers, lettuce, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, swiss chard, rhubarb, okra (YUM), green onions, kohlrabi, sometimes turnips, horseradish (comes back each year along with strawberries). We stopped growing potatoes and sweet potatoes because we don’t eat as much of them anymore. I put herbs on pots on our deck and have chives that come back each year with lemon balm. It can be a lot of work be so rewarding!
I’m in total awe of you! I’d so love to see a photo of your garden sometime! I’d love to be that big but with a baby it’s hard enough finding the time to cultivate the little patch I have now. I can’t wait till she’s bigger to get her hands in the dirt and understand where her food comes from. You’re an inspiration and I can’t wait till you make it to the island so I can meet you! Yea!
Hi, Jen. I’d love to try and meet up when we arrive in Feb. Maybe go to the beach for a visit? We’ll be in Rincon. Your comment above regarding rosemary and oregano…they should live all year round and not die off. The rosemary will turn into a giant bush. Our oregano would go dormant in winter snow but come back each year and started to take over the garden so I ripped it up. I have some in a large pot hoping it will come back.
We don’t plant the tomatoes or peppers from seed but from plants purchased. Everything else is planted by seed. It sounds like different areas have different soil types.
I wonder the same thing. I have a friend who studies dirt and says the dirt here is just rotten for farming. I’ve had zero luck growing any veggies here in pots. I’m going to try again tho and add coffee grounds to the dirt. I heard that helps. What your tomato method you tried?
And cauliflower was $10 at the Pueblo in Mayaguez!!
$10! That’s crazy! When we first moved here and bought ‘soil’ for our pots it was like mulch. Awful. Now if we do anything in pots, which I’ll be doing lettuce on top of the chicken coop, I’ll only buy miracle grow from Home Depot. We must be in a fertile area because veggies do thrive in our yard. My Rosemary and oregano have lasted well over a year and my tomatoes always flourish. I suck at zucchini and squash but I’ve changed varieties so they don’t stay on the plant too long. I was having bug problems.
As far as the tomatoes: I find determinate ones do better. I normally start the seeds indoors until some true first leaves appear and then transfer them out to the garden. I keep snipping the bottoms leaves so they can concentrate their energy in the fruit. Fertilize. And that’s it. Oh, and good sturdy cages with our 20+mph winds. THIS crop, however, self-seeded and I awoke to about 30 seedlings in the tomato area. I’m going without and see how the fruits turn out. If they’re not so good I’ll just start over.
I’ve done coffee grounds and not sure I fit really helped but darn it I kept adding to it. I also did eggshells bc it was supposed to add more irritants to the soil. It’s a labor of love but I enjoy every minute!
Oh— I wonder if our little garden area backs up onto where cows graze…maybe some residual ‘fertilizer’ feeds into our yard? Hhhmmmm.
Thanks for stopping by and your comment. I hope your pots turnout better this time around!! Keep me posted! 😉