garden Archives - the lovely kitchen

Spinach Salad with Beets, Hearts of Palm, and Citrus

Wednesday, May 13, 2015 0 all recipes, garden, salad 0

This is a spinach salad we make all the time - spinach with roasted beets, hearts of palm,

I’m talking staples today! It’s funny how sometimes I don’t think to blog about the everyday staple dishes that we cook in a pinch after work. Either they don’t feel “special” enough, or they don’t feel like recipes because I’m often just throwing things together. Enter this spinach salad with beets, hearts of palm, and citrus – it’s one of our go-to recipes that I make probably once a week!

The spinach I’ve used here is the very first crop we’ve been able to harvest from our rooftop garden this year. It’s so exciting to see the little budding plants wriggle their way through the soil’s surface! Our spinach crop didn’t do very well last year, so I’m loving that it’s flourishing this year. (Strange how every year can be so different!)

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Simple Garden Tomato Bruschetta

Tuesday, August 26, 2014 0 all recipes, garden, savory, snacks 0

You may have noticed things are looking a little different around here! I’ve reorganized the blog, moving it from wordpress.com to wordpress.org so it’s now much more customizable. I’m also veering away from fashion posts to focus on food and recipe posts, as that is truly where my passion lies!

In the past two years I’ve come to be passionate about whole foods, organic produce, and supporting local small farms. It’s been a slow realisation which started by reading this book and then this book, and has since spiraled with the addition of our rooftop vegetable garden last summer, our CSA box this year, watching so many different documentaries, and now I can’t read or learn enough about it! I constantly joke to J about how I want to leave the city, get some land, grow some vegetables, get a bee hive, sell jam at the local farmer’s market, and basically become a big hippie ;)

Joking aside, the recipes featured on this blog will be focused on whole foods – though, admittedly I have a sweet tooth that sometimes needs satisfying, so I will also be posting baking recipes. Baking also relaxes me, and can be a stress relief! I love being in the kitchen, so thanks for coming on this food adventure with me!

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We’ve got an abundance of tomatoes overflowing our garden from our six tomato plants. Every day it seems like there are a hundred more to pick! I needed a recipe to use up a lot and settled on bruschetta. { Is it mind-blowing to anyone else that bruschetta is actually pronounced “bru-sketta”?! } I could eat bruschetta for days.

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Harvesting the Roof Garden

Wednesday, July 23, 2014 2 garden 0

Check it out! We grew our very own beets and carrots in pots on our rooftop patio! We ate the beets for dinner on Sunday in a yummy beet quinoa spinach salad, but the carrots are still sitting in the fridge waiting for their moment to shine. And shine they will – look at all those pretty colours!

It’s so satisfying growing your own veggies! My only complaint is we have TOO MUCH lettuce! What to do with so much lettuce?!

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Rooftop Patio Summer Sanctuary

Wednesday, July 16, 2014 0 garden 0

This summer, we’ve turned our rooftop patio into a real sanctuary. There’s nothing I love more than bringing up a chilled glass of wine and a good book or magazine.

Last year we outfitted the patio with the basics: patio furniture, patio umbrella, and a few plants. This year we have even more veggies and plants (and my favourite lavender!) growing and it feels like a real oasis. J and I spend every day we can on our rooftop patio – after work it feels like instant relaxation as soon as we step up there, and on the weekends it feels like we’re on vacation.

I am kind of a homebody (apart from traveling the world which I looooove), so having a dedicated space where I can practice yoga, or relax with a book, or soak up the sun is beyond amazing. And on this warm sunny day, our rooftop patio is where I wish I could be!

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First CSA Box Membership

Thursday, July 3, 2014 6 garden 0

{ week 2 box: new potatoes, salad turnips, garlic scapes, kale, radicchio }

This summer J and I decided to try out a membership for a weekly CSA box from a local farm. If you’re like me a year ago and don’t know wtf a CSA box is – CSA stands for Community Sourced Agriculture and by paying for a share in a local farm, the farm reciprocates by providing you with a weekly produce box. My CSA box membership runs June – September (but some CSA programs run longer or in the winter too). We generally receive 5-7 items of produce weekly and the box contents are always a surprise.

J was a bit hesitant with the CSA box idea, so I put down the money to sign us up and basically gave him no choice ;) I find we often fall into meal ruts (“Should we have chicken and salad again for dinner?”) so I thought this would be a great way to try new vegetables and recipes and keep my brain guessing!

We’re on our third weekly box, and have already eaten a few veggies I’d never tried before – swiss chard, salad turnips, and garlic scapes. All were wonderful! It’s such a thrill to open the box each week and see what vegetables are inside. I love googling new recipes! I love eating more vegetables! And I love supporting a local farm!

Once our own rooftop vegetable garden starts its harvest, then we are going to have produce coming out of our ears and won’t be shopping at the grocery store at all! Next step is getting a few hens on the roof to lay us some eggs and then we’ll really have it going on. Urban farming, people! ;)

I’m kidding about the hens. But I’m really loving our CSA box. I highly recommend signing up for one.

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{ week 3 box: bok choi, patty pan squash, leafy green lettuce, beets, new potatoes }

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Planting This Summer’s Rooftop Vegetable Garden

Thursday, May 15, 2014 2 garden 0

Our rooftop vegetable garden is flourishing! Mostly. The broccoli seeds won’t sprout and I had to replant the lettuce because its pot drowned after a week straight of rain… but other than that, it’s thriving!

I’m very late posting these photos of our garden set up – I can’t believe this was

almost a month ago!

Our garden is on our apartment’s rooftop patio and we have filled it with tons and tons of pots and filled those pots with tons and tons of vegetables. Last year was the roof garden’s first year and we had success with tomatoes and lettuce. So this year, it only made sense to fill it with more vegetables!

We planted peas, lettuce, kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli, beets, and carrots (with tomatoes still to come). We’ve filled our lower patio near the kitchen with herbs for cooking – basil, dill, oregano, parsley, chives, rosemary, and thyme.

The peas were A’s favourite seed to plant – the seeds are so big and easy to handle!

Since I took these photos, mostly everything has sprouted – except for the broccoli seeds, which remain a fail! I’m going to try and replant them again, although it may be getting a little late in the season now. Anyone have any tips on growing broccoli in pots?

Also – you know you’re getting old / nearing 30 when you get excited about gardening. Seriously. Every day I go up to the garden to check on all the little seedlings. Grow little plants, grow!

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