Growing Your Own Salad
Author: Kirsten Hawkins

It's not exactly fast food. It could take most of the summer to
get your salad (which seems to be roughly the speed of most
pizza places) but it is well worth the wait. With only the most
rudimentary of tools, a little space in the back yards, and some
elbow grease, anybody can have a truly fresh salad.

Gardening is a rewarding hobby. Flower growers can see the
beauty of their labors all summer long. The vegetable growers
also get a great reward. They can hear the fresh crunch of
home-grown lettuce and taste the mouth-watering tomato that
just came off the vine minutes before you tasted it.

A gardener can grow his own salad, making it as simple or
complicated as he would like. As with any salad the first thing
he starts with is the lettuce. Any true vegetable aficionado
will tell you that there is no such thing as lettuce. The leafy
salad staple comes in a variety of tastes, shapes, sizes, and
colors. Gardeners can grow iceberg lettuce (the normal kind you
find in the grocery store), butterhead, romaine, or countless
other lettuces. The produce section of the supermarket
generally doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the
types of lettuces out there. It's best just to check what grows
in your area and plant whatever looks good.

Next on the salad is the tomato – the ripe, red wedges add
visual appeal as well as deep flavor. Tomatoes tend to be
robust plants and can grow in a variety of climates. Its best
to stake them to make sure that the tomatoes do not touch the
ground. This can be anything from a simple wooden stake to an
elaborate metal cage. Keep an eye on them, though. They'll
sprout up and ripen seemingly overnight. Pick them when they
are plump and red, slice them into sections, and enjoy!

To add some extra color to the salad, not to mention some
Vitamin A for good eyesight, shave some fresh carrots over the
salad, or chop them into round pieces. The carrot is another
hearty vegetable. Unlike the tomato, the carrot grows into the
ground, thus it grows better in loose soil. When you are ready
to make your fresh salad, simply go to the ground and pull out
any carrot bigger than your finger. Slice it up and you are
ready to eat!

One of the last things to add to a fresh grown salad is a few
cucumber slices. Cucumbers are fast-growing plants – most
varieties are ready to pick in 2 months. When you are ready for
your salad, go to the garden and pull one of these off the vine,
clean it, slice it and eat it.

A simple hobby is turned into a delicious salad – with its
crisp greens, ripe tomatoes, crunchy carrots, and brisk
cucumbers. And they eat their fresh home-grown salads,
gardeners can definitely enjoy the fruits … er … vegetables of
their labors.


About The Author: Kirsten Hawkins is a food and nutrition
expert specializing the Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food.
Visithttp://www.food-and-nutrition.com/ for more information on
cooking delicious and healthy meals.