On the Grow!

We have been growing lots of good food in both the greenhouse and the garden.  Currently, in the greenhouse, we’re growing basil, mint, and lettuce in our aquaponic beds, as well as upside-down tomato plants.  We’re also growing basil and lettuce seedlings, and repotted basil chard, and spinach.

In our outdoor gardens, we recently pruned the vines for our pumpkin plants in order to direct the plants’ resources to the pumpkins.  Earlier on in the summer, we also grew potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, garlic, onions, and watermelons in the garden.

We’ve also been using some of the plants from our gardens in our recipes.  We’ve made mint tea and mint brownies, with mint from the greenhouse, as well as making pesto with basil from the greenhouse.  When Wes had his going-away party recently, we used potatoes from the garden to make potato salad, tomatoes and basil from the greenhouse to make spaghetti sauce, and tomatoes and peppers from the garden in a salad.

We recently gave two tours of the greenhouse: one for the Irish Impact Conference from Notre Dame, and another for a group from the Mennonite Seminary in Elkhart.  On the tours, we explained the greenhouse, how everything in the greenhouse works, and what we do here every day.  We also explained how Green Bridge Growers started.  We enjoyed having the groups here to visit.

Even though we won’t be able to grow anything outside during the winter, we’ll grow Swiss chard and lettuce in the greenhouse once the weather gets cool.  We expect the tomatoes in the greenhouse to continue to grow through the winter.

It’s a lot of fun working in the garden and the greenhouse, and I’m happy to be part of it.