Growing Food at Home

In the summer time it’s easy to grow something to eat at home. You don’t even need a garden, few pots on balcony or windowsill is enough. We have a piece of land in community garden this year too, but we also have edible plants in our home.

We were busy in the spring, so we planted the seeds rather late, but the fist plants are ready to eat. Like the mizuna and rucola in the green box. Behind them in the white box is cilantro, but it has to grow bigger before eating.

Bloody sorrel in the hanging pots is still very tiny. Last year I tried to grow them in a pot on the balcony table, but it didn’t grow well. I think it was too hot for it, so this year I’m trying to grow it in less sunny spot.

Herb pots. From left to right: dill, dill, cress, curry plant, parsley, chocolate mint. I’m not very familiar with curry plant. Anyone have suggestions how to use it?

Lettuce on the lower part of the table. Last year our lettuces suffered from too much direct sunlight, so I planted them in shadowy spot. I hope it’s not too shadowy.

Caigua in front and mint in the huge pot behind them. Caigua pots will be moved soon so they can climb in the net that you can see in the first photo.

Something for the cats too: catnip and grass (barley).

Midsummer Barbecue

Most Finns want to celebrate midsummer in the country, preferably on summer cottage. So do we, and luckily we had a chance to go to a friend’s cottage. The weather wasn’t good, but we had a nice time with sauna, swimming and of course yummy food. We had seitan, sweet potatoes, vegetables in foil pouches and corn on the grill.

Zucchini, onion, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, garlic and cherry tomatoes went inside the foil pouches.

Barbecued Vegetables

vegetables of your choice:
carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli, garlic, onion etc.

aluminium foil

Sauce:
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp mustard
1-2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
t tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Cut the vegetables into bite size chunks. Boil harder vegetables like carrots for few minutes. Mix the sauce ingredients together. Cut the aluminium foil into big squares, put some vegetables and about a tbsp sauce on it. Close tightly and put on the grill.

Vegan Burgers

Last week we made some veggie burgers. We filled whole wheat buns with bean patties, fresh vegetables and mayonnaise based sauce. The weather was very nice and we ate our burgers on the balcony. Is there a better way to spend summer day than eating outdoors?

I didn’t write down the recipe for patties, but they were made of 4 dl kidney beans, 2 chopped celery stalks, 0,5 dl dry bread crumbs, 0,5 dl wheat flour, ketchup and seasoned with salt, pepper, some herbs etc and fried in oil.

Sauce for Burgers

6 tbsp vegan mayo (or 3 tbsp vegan mayo + 3 tbsp plain soy yogurt)
2 tbsp chopped pickle
1 tsp mustard
pinch of black pepper

Mix everything together.