Do you grow any basics for cooking with?

[Foodie14]

I grow a selection of herbs, onions, garlic and chillies for use in my cooking. Some of the herbs are quite hardy over the winter, but I also grow some indoors on my windowsills for a steady supply throughout the year. I can often have a surplus that I dry in my dehydrator, or freeze in ice cube trays for quick use.

I also dry chillies, onions and garlic, or preserve them in other ways for continuous use over the winter season, and until I can grow things again in the spring/summer.

How inventive are you in growing things for use in your cooking? Have you any good preserving methods/recipes to share? I'm always looking for new ways of doing things.

 

[Ellyn]

I'm not really very inventive. Usually, I water my herbs a day, put an organic rosemary oil bug spray if I notice any parasites, mealyworms and red nits are common ones... and just get more of whatever survives for a long time.

Mainly, that's been aloe vera and Italian oregano.

I wish I had the time to really cultivate an ecosystem, like introduce some earthworms or ladybirds...worms and bugs don't bother me, I love all animals, especially when they help with doing something useful.

 

[vennybunny]

What a collection! I'm quite envious. My plants have a tendency to die in a year or so.

I have a staple dill plant though, since I can't ever find fresh dill in the market. I've found that growing my own basil is too tedious: I never seem to have enough to cook with.

 

[xTinx]

That's very innovative of you. Unfortunately, perhaps because I live on an area with abundant plant life and enough space to grow a variety of crops and trees, I tend to forgo creative means of nurturing basic crops. We just let them grown naturally outside of our house. In the tropics, rains and sunshine are both abundant so most of our plants grown with minimum supervision. We already have a red chilli bush, a big jack fruit, a tall calamondin tree, a bunch of papaya trees, a large avocado tree, a sour sop tree and a gooseberry shrub.