Are you tired of looking for easy-to-grow organic fruits and vegetables, only to realize that you’ve grown a lot of stuff that you don’t actually eat much of? Who wants to eat kale everyday, right?
Okay, just kidding. I know a lot of us don’t mind eating kale everyday. In fact, we probably should. However, aside from finding creative new ways to incorporate whatever you can grow out of your garden into your meals, you’ll really want to plan out your garden to grow more of what you’ll actually eat.
This article will be dedicated to fruits and veggies you can grow at home, of ingredients you actually use, because they are actually in some of the most common dishes you cook. Let’s take a look.
HERBS
Herbs are, by far, some of the most practical plants you can have growing around the house and they will provide the most use in your kitchen. Herbs and spices are a staple in the kitchen and what better way to source them, than by getting them directly from your own garden.
Basil
One of the most commonly used herbs in home cooking is basil.
Italian, Mexican, Indian, Persian, Chinese, Thai and many other types of cuisine incorporate basil in their cooking flavors.
Basil also makes a great companion plant to tomatoes.
COOKING TIP: The best (and often the most common) way to use basil, is fresh. It’s typically added towards the end of the cooking, so the heat doesn’t get rid of all of the flavor right away. Dried basil just doesn’t have as much flavor and due to the drying process, the flavor is changed to a more “woody” flavor.
Rosemary
Another great herb commonly used in home cooking is rosemary.
The leaves of the rosemary plant are typically used to add flavor in many food items such as pot roasts, stuffings or even marinara sauces.
It can be used both fresh or dried but has much bolder flavor when used fresh, especially in things like marinara sauces. As with the basil, if you are using it fresh, make sure to add it toward the end of the cooking.
FUN FACT: Some other things that make rosemary a perfect additional to your garden is that it’s a perennial herb plant, meaning it’s a plant that lives more than 2 years and it’s also drought-tolerant too.
(It’s definitely worth planting at least one or two of these in your garden.)
Mint
If there was an award for Most Versatile Herb Plant, hands down – it would go to mint.
Mint has impressive versatility. Not only is it used in cooking but it is also used variety of household products as a freshener, such as in toothpaste, mouthwash, and gum. Mint is even combined with chocolate to make various desserts or thrown in a chilled drink to add a minty twist. The possibilities are endless.
FUN FACT: The proper name for the plant is mentha, which is derived from greek. However, as many of us know, it’s most commonly known as mint. There is a large variety of different mint species including spanish mint (“Yerba Buena”), peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, chocolate mint and many others.
Cilantro
Cilantro is one of my personal favorite herbs to grow and I love the fresh flavor cilantro adds to food.
Cilantro is a deliciously fresh herb that can be added to pretty much anything. Some popular food items that incorporate cilantro include: salsas, dressings/dips, sandwiches and tacos to name a few. Over the recent years, cilantro has made its way over from being just a garnish on our plates, to taking on a slightly bigger role at the dinner table.
FUN FACT: Cilantro helps to detox your body and get rid of toxic metals, such as mercury and aluminum, from your body.
Parsley
I would have to say that parsley is another herb that, has too, slowly made its way over from being a garnish at the table, to being more incorporated into the flavor profiles of the food that we eat today.
Mediterranean flavors have influenced our palates to enjoy more fresh herb flavors like parsley and cilantro in our dishes. Although, parsley has more of a fresh mint flavor versus cilantro’s clean, high chlorophyll, fresh flavor, both serve a great place at the kitchen table.
FUN FACT: Parsley comes in 2 main varieties: A curly leaf variety and a flat leaf variety (known as “Italian Flat Leaf Parsley”) which is more commonly used.
Oregano
The last herb I suggest growing is some oregano.
Although you might be thinking that you don’t use oregano that often around the kitchen, unless you are making Italian food or something specific, it’s a spice to stores well. Unlike basil, oregano’s flavor is actually enhanced by the drying process.
PLANTING TIP: Oregano is also a perennial herb plant and because you won’t need a lot of it, growing one plant should be enough for your whole household (unless you use it very heavily in your household). With one oregano plant, you should have enough to harvest and dry some and then allow the plant to continue to grow more leaves which can be harvested and dried at a later time.
VEGETABLES
Okay, now it’s time to talk about the more important ingredients, the veggies! Vegetables are one of the main parts of most dishes, from any cuisine.
Of course, for vegetarians and vegans, vegetables ARE the main ingredients in all of their dishes. Either way, if you’re doing some home cooking, you’re bound to need some sort of vegetable. Why not grab it from your own garden?
Let’s take a look at some of the most practical vegetables you could start growing at home and skip the trip to the market…at least for these items.
Onion
No matter how many times you’ve said “no onion please”, you’ve probably eaten your share of onions, especially when the onions are subtly incorporated into the dish.
For example, when cooking meat on a skillet or in a pan, it’s always best to sauté onions in some cooking oil, prior to adding your meat. The same concept applies even when you’re cooking up some rice or even a simple vegetable medley. Onions just give food more flavor.
COOKING TIP: Try sautéing some garlic prior to cooking too. This allows for the oils to become infused with the flavors of the garlic and onion, but it’s so subtle that it becomes an almost undetectable part of the dish! This works well especially when cooking up some rice or quinoa. Give it a try, if you haven’t already!
Carrots
Freshly-harvested organic carrots are seriously the best tasting thing ever. Store-bought carrots, or even farmers market carrots, don’t compare to harvested homegrown carrots. Nothing beats the fresh taste, sweetness and crisp bite found when you chow down on freshly harvested carrots that come directly from your own backyard.
There’s plenty of common dishes that you’ll make that will require the use of carrots, so having fresh carrots around the house will surely have its advantages. From a vegetable medley, stew, soup or even just a simple carrot juice, you’ll always have some way of incorporating carrots into your daily diet without any trouble.
FUN FACT: Carrots come in a variety of different colors including: orange, purple, white, yellow, red and black. Who would have known that this colorful root would have ended up tasting so good?
Lettuce
Wether in a salad or sandwich, lettuce has become a staple green at the lunch and dinner table. Although most lettuce is mainly water content and has hardly any nutrients, people love their crunchy lettuce.
Lettuce is definitely a convenient plant to have around the house because unlike the lettuce you’ll find in stores, your homegrown lettuce will at least have some more nutrition.
PLANTING TIP: If you want more nutrient value out of your lettuce, try planting a lettuce variety like romaine lettuce, which is actually packed with vitamin C and vitamin K.
Spinach
It’s no question that spinach packs more nutrients that lettuce. In fact, spinach is loaded with tons of vitamins and minerals, including: vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, iron, copper, calcium, potassium and much more.
Spinach makes a great breakfast, lunch or dinner ingredient. Scrambling spinach in with your eggs, blending it inside a smoothie, or eating it raw in your salad are just some of the ways you can enjoy your freshly grown spinach. It’s so versatile that you’ll always find a way add spinach into your daily meals.
FUN FACT: Spinach is native to Central and Western Asia, where it is eaten fresh or frozen, dehydrated and even eaten as chips (just like kale chips).
FRUITS
You might be thinking that some pretty important vegetables were left out of the previous list, however, many fruits that we eat are commonly mistaken for vegetables.
So, you’ll notice the first few items on this list are what you might commonly refer to as a “vegetable”, although it’s rightfully a fruit. Let’s check them out.
Tomatoes
Ahh, tomatoes. You either hate ’em or love ’em….but yes, they are technically considered a fruit.
Regardless, even if you don’t like tomatoes, they have probably managed to find a way to sneak into the food you eat, even if you didn’t know it. For example, Spanish-style rice (orange rice) usually contains a bit of tomato (fresh or in sauce form; or both) for flavoring.
Tomato is the main ingredient in ketchup and is a major flavor in most Italian dishes, or any dishes that contain tomato sauce for that matter. For these reasons, tomatoes are a staple food to have growing in your backyard or even canned up and stocked away in your cabinet for later use.
If you grow some cherry tomatoes, you can have a fresh and healthy snack waiting for you right outside your doorstep, just a hand-pick away.
PLANTING TIP: Tomato varieties are either determinate or indeterminate. Determinate varieties usually only grow to be about 2-3 feet tall and have a bushy characteristic. Indeterminate varieties are more of a vining type of tomato plant, which usually requires staking or a cage for support, as these varieties don’t have a definite growth size and tend to grow rampant if not controlled.
Peppers
Another fruit commonly mistaken for a vegetable is the pepper. People are sometimes surprised to find that the bell pepper and the chili pepper are fruits. Although, bell peppers actually have a sweetness, which hints at their true identity of being a fruit.
Homegrown bell peppers are very convenient to have around the house. The favor profile in an organic bell pepper that you grew yourself doesn’t compare to flavor found in the bell peppers your traditional supermarkets. Not to mention that the homegrown versions will taste much sweeter too.
Q & A: So, why exactly are bell peppers sweet? Why are other chilis hot?
All chilis, including bell peppers, belong to the Capsicum genius, which is part of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family. Typically, all fruits from plants in the Capsicum genius produce a chemical known as capsaicin, which is responsible for the “heat” factor in most chilis. However, bell peppers lack capsaicin due to a recessive gene that removes capsaicin, thereby removing the heat, and leaving their sweet flavor profile to take the center stage.
Squash
Whether you grow pumpkin, butternut, spaghetti or zucchini squash, you won’t be disappointed in the amount of fruit production these plants give, but the best part is, there is so much you can do with squash in the kitchen and each fruit produces an abundant amount of food.
If you want to get the most out of the small space you have, try growing some sort of squash. I recommend the “Dark Star Zucchini” variety because it’s an extremely prolific variety. One single plant can produce enough fruit to feed a family of four (2 adults, 2 kids), but of course you can always plant more if you need more.
FUN FACT: Squash is not only technically a fruit, it is actually considered a type of berry, often referred to as “pepo”.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are a great snack to have growing yourself in the backyard. Just think of all the delicious types of fresh food you can make with your own homegrown cucumbers. You can make anything from cucumber water, DIY pickles, cucumber salad or eat them raw, just like that. These are just some of the easier ways you can enjoy eating cucumbers from your own garden, but you can always incorporate them into a slightly more complicated dish with the satisfaction of knowing how fresh your ingredient is.
PLANTING TIP: Although there are a number of different varieties of cucumbers, they all fall under 3 main type/categories of cucumbers:
Slicing -These are your most commonly known and commonly used cucumber. Slicing cucumbers are the type that you would use for salads, sandwiches, eaten raw or with lemon and salt. These varieties of cucumbers also tend to be larger and have a lot more water content. Marketmore and Straight 8 cucumbers are some of the most commonly grown slicing cucumber varieties.
Pickling – Pickling cucumbers, on the other hand, tend to be varieties that are much smaller in size and have more flesh than water content that has a nice crunch when eaten raw. These types of cucumbers are also used in salads for that added fresh crunch. Sumter cucumber is a well known pickling cucumber variety.
Seedless – Seedless, or also referred to as “Burpless” varieties, are cucumbers that have much thinner and sweeter skin. The reason for the name Burpless is due to the low amounts of cucurbitacin, a chemical known to cause burping. Armenian and Burpless Beauty cucumbers are some great burpless varieties.
“REAL” FRUITS
Okay enough with the fruits you didn’t realize were fruits. How about some of the actually fruits you’ve always known as fruits? You know, the real fruits? Okay here’s a list of the “real” fruits that I find great to have a fresh source of, right at home.
Strawberries
Strawberries are probably the easiest fruit to grow at home. The best part is they require very little room to grow! You can literally grow them a small hanging basket, such as this one.
Strawberries can turn into anything from jams, dressings, salads, pies, toppings or even just a simple snack. The list is almost endless, just use your imagination!
PLANTING TIP: Strawberries are pretty easy to take care of, they just require plenty of light and water (just make sure not to let the soil dry out). Fertilize using an organic homemade mixture like the ones found on our Soil Care and Fertilizers page.
Blueberries
Blueberries are a little trickier to grow, but so worth the harvest. Blueberry pies and jams are just some of the delicious things that come to mind that would taste twice as good with some freshly harvested blueberries from your own backyard.
Good luck having them make it into the house though! They make such a great snack that you’ll find it difficult to not munch on them while outside gardening. I highly recommend planting a few blueberry bushes if you love blueberries.
PLANTING TIP: The only thing that makes them slightly more difficult to grow is that they are picky about the type of soil they are grown in. Blueberries love and thrive in an acidic environment, so adding coffee grounds to your soil can definitely help give it that acidic boost that your blueberries will love.
Citrus Trees
Citrus trees are always great to have in your backyard. Whether it’s lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines, kumquats or the countless other citrus varieties, you’re bound to find many practical uses for them around the house.
Citrus fruit make a great snack when eaten alone. However, they’re also most commonly used in freshly squeezed juices such as O.J. or lemonade. Of course, you can always get fancy and use lemon zest in your cooking and baking or even make full-on pies, jams or marmalades.
FUN FACT: There are technically only 3 original types of citrus fruit – mandarin orange, pummelo, and citron – everything else is just a cross of these 3 original types.
Get Growing, Get Cooking!
I hope you now have a better idea of the types of fruits and vegetables you can grow in your own backyard that will have some practical around the house. Yes, some things might require a bit more work than others, but no matter what you whip up in the kitchen using homegrown ingredients, you and your family will definitely be enjoying every last bite.