Oh gawd, it’s summer again. Why do I do this every year!
I’m picking at least a pint of cherry tomatoes, 4-5 cucumbers and at least one squash, not to mention a handful of peas, every day. Anyone else torn between the old belief that fresh, organic, homegrown produce is the holy grail, and our newer knowledge that perhaps, it’s not?
Nope! The crap you buy in stores is nutrient deficient garbage, dirty, usually bringing chemicals in, even the organic stuff… assuming it’s actually organic. Most of it isn’t grown in soil anymore, and the minerals it has are fortified into the growing media. You’re getting the real thing!
I’ve gone carnivore this year and it has simplified my life! My vegetable garden is now a flower garden. I have saved time AND money. I spend more time on my back porch watching the birds and enjoying myself.
The longest lived people eat like this with fresh fish, eggs, yogurts and cheese. They go out and get a little morning sun, which is very important for our health too. Kudos to you.
My garden has shifted, for sure. This year I planted fancy pumpkins, gourds, cutting flowers and a small raised planter of each of kale and bok choy. The last two I worked into shared meals, although I’ve technically reintroduced them. I have a single cherry tomato plant in a felt pot for hubby and the grand kids. I’d rather they pick my tomatoes than my flowers, lol. It’s nice because I’ve had time for other projects this summer.
I’ve reached the conclusion that gardening to grow enough for a family is difficult to useless. It’s really hard to grow things, you spend a lot doing it, and then if you do get a large crop of something, you can’t keep it unless it can be canned and you know how to can things.
I still eat some vegetables, like tomatoes (we’re growing some), onions (we’re not), some vegetables. I like hot peppers, which I ferment. Last year’s crop got white “mold” on them, though, and I’m not sure why. When I first went keto, I HAD to eat vegetables, particularly salads. Then, over time, I realized many vegetables – particularly salads – gave me issues. Too many salads, for instance, cause all kinds of gastrointestinal distress, including constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.
I always get organic vegetables from Market Basket. Organic celery, broccoli, spinach. They don’t have organic mushrooms or snow pea pods so I just get the regular. As far as I can tell its all pretty good.
{Of course I had to go and write about fruits again… Among others. But we warned, it’s a comment mostly about my fruits and my love towards them again. I never can resist. Nice topic for me.}
No, it’s very obvious my body prefers extreme low plant carbs - though it tolerates much more, just not a ton all the time.
My property barely has any good place for a veggie garden (and it’s partially flowers :D) as most of the garden hasn’t much sunlight and it’s a too steep slope for most vegs anyway.
I have very, very many different fruit trees and other plants though. In 2019 I had 120 jars of apricot and it was one tree, I had 3 previously… I am not very sad the tree doesn’t produce enough to store any though a tiny amount wouldn’t be too bad, my SO is a huge fruit lover and consumer. I am a huge fruit lover but I don’t eat much. I ate a serious amount in cherry season (one of my fav fruits and it’s best, by far, when it’s fresh) this year and I barely can look at our other fruits since then. I hopefully will be smarter next year.
We have plenty of fruit seasons at the moment but the only one that comes in masses, greengage is almost over, thankfully.
I had some spring onions and lettuce in my veggie garden this far, my first cherry tomatoes still needs a few days. No problem with that. I don’t even like lettuce and the onion leaves are nice in a quark spread that is extremely low plant (it’s mostly quark and butter).
About the feeling/belief that fresh home grown (without chemicals) produce is great… Well I understand, it does look great… But the carby stuff is still carby stuff. As I can handle carbs to some extent without any problems and I lost interest in most vegs when I tried out carnivore (that my body totally loved, apparently the less plants, the better for me - physically at least as I would be very upset if anyone tried to force no fruits on me and I do love certain vegs in small amounts occasionally too), I only need to be careful with the carby and unusually tempting ones. I mean, the ones tempting me to eat a lot as it’s fine to adore some sweet fruits where 10g is plenty. I couldn’t eat much currants if I tried despite it’s nice. Not my fav though. The mini strawberries are great, well 10g is very many of them (less in spring when they are bigger) and they are flavorful so it’s enough.
Mental health is important and if fruits and vegs give me lots of joy without harm, why not? But I don’t consider them actually good. Fruit is candy so tolerable in tiny amounts and not needed in any. It’s SUGAR. It has other, actually necessary stuff but in very tiny amounts and I have proper carnivore food for essential nutrients anyway.
That is a nice perk of carnivore! I still can complicate my dishes but it’s not needed at all. It’s wonderful. As I previously did vegetarian keto, the difference probably was even bigger. Vegs are very time consuming (okay, not in every cases but my mixed veggie soup took time and effort. and I used mirelite peas… when we had much peas and used those, just getting the peas out took more than an hour once. okay that was for a pea dish so big amount was needed).
Carnivore? I toss some meat or eggs into a pan for a while… It may take 2 hours in the case of meat in the oven but I don’t need to do much with it. The egg is quick 
That’s nice but growing vegs is a joy too Not a tiny amount of work though but it depends. I don’t grow time consuming plants but lots of watering is needed (and not done by me). I am not into garden work but watching the little tomatoes getting red is nice. And it’s always a big excitement to see a fruit tree to have fruit for the first time (I have that multiple times per year, last time was a few days ago, it was a greengage tree resulted from a failed apricot tree. it has pink fruit and orange fresh, it’s the tastiest kind! it had 4, lovely amount as we had a ton of the dark purple one. that tree was planted by a bird, most probably).
It’s good that I even can DO carnivore if I want without losing my love for fruits. I get plenty of joy just from looking at them. Actually, it’s the bigger part of all the enjoyment I get from them… I still taste mine but I probably could live without it? If it would be life or death…? Don’t see the point to stay at zero fruit, really. I should keep lowering the amount though. Last year went in the opposite direction for some reason, I used to have little fruit in the last 1.5 decades. Compared to a normal person (let alone old me. 1kg fruit in one setting happened a lot. isn’t that too much fructose for someone to feel perfectly fine with it? but I did).
And requires a huge land, not just a garden. Well it depends how much plants they eat I guess Growing fresh vegs (the kind one eats raw but in my case, it matters little) for me requires very little 
For my SO, we can’t do it but it helps when it’s lettuce or spring onion season.
Canning vegs is tricky, I only do it with tomatoes and peppers as they don’t go bad for some reason. Tomatoes are sugary, that may help but peppers…? No idea why but they work. I mostly just can fruits as they are easy with their sugar content. Way less than 1 per 100 jars go bad. maybe 1 on 1000? Oh and mushrooms but my success rate is much worse there and it depends a lot on the mushroom.
My reason not to grow most plants is that it’s just doesn’t worth it. Even if I had the place and good soil (my veggie patch started with very useless soil 10-something years ago, it’s still not great but much, much better and starts to be fine for the vegs I want), why to work A LOT on something that may or may not yield a serious amount when I can buy it quite cheap? Makes no sense. Really tasty tomatoes can’t be bought in supermarkets here and it’s lovely to grab fresh ones every day in season. Lettuce takes almost no work, the same for onions. The latter is just planting as we still have rain in spring and not super hot weather… It covers the early lettuce too. Not even much time is needed for them. Totally worth it.
But potatoes, OMG. It needs a lot of space, lots of work and it’s cheap to buy. Nope. Growing good looking cauliflowers is probably very hard too (we never did that. we had potatoes when I was a child. we stored it all winter. well until it lasted but it lasted for some months), no way I would try. And it was my opinion before carnivore.
I can’t grow big onions, by the way (not like I have tried but the leftover few bulbs never grew up). It’s fine, I am glad I have tender spring onions. The supermarkets have them big and the green part is tough. I simply can’t buy the kind we like and it’s super easy to grow them and they are quick.
Why? To balance out the fatty protein? Some people do it for nutrients (I saw so much about spinach in keto. of course I avoided it on vegetarian keto as I hate most green leaves and never felt the need to eat them even as a vegetarian).
I had to eat vegs as I always ate vegs and couldn’t function without them. The only real hardship in keto was the lack of vegetables for me. I had to eat below my minimum amount, hence my quitting keto right after getting fat adaptation. I missed my vegs too much.
Carnivore solved this problem of mine (Despite not actually doing it anymore. Just staying close in good days. But when I eat off, it’s usually not vegs.) Not much interest in vegs anymore, apparently. Apart from a tiny amount here and then when my meat is very rich or something. Still not needed but nice. A smaller lettuce (my garden doesn’t produce heads just soft leaves together, it’s perfect, actually though the yellow inner leaves would be fun… mine are all green) lasts super long for me, good to have an SO to eat it up before it wilts…
I go now, sorry. Maybe I will bring some pretty flower next time? I have gladiolus now (among others but they are the prettiest. one of my fav flowers. I dislike that I need to bring in the bulbs for winter unless it’s not very cold but how would I know if the next winter will be harsh or not? But the flowers are too pretty and so great in a vase I just couldn’t resist…)!
It’s been hard to wrap my brain around. We have big gardens. We do eat some of what we grow but mainly grow to sell. So some of the stuff we grow we don’t eat or don’t eat much of. I’m growing some lettuce… despise the stuff, don’t even wanna taste it. We grow lots of strawberries, we do eat a few of those. We grow lots of potatoes, eat very few of those. Etc.
We do have some keto veg, stuff like broccoli, green beans, tomatoes (our own sauce is good, no added sugar) stuff like that that we’ll preserve.
But when it comes to what I eat on a day to day basis, I’m way more interested in meat. Even though I’m not a carnivore, I really do lean towards wanting the meat and going really light on other stuff, even if it’s keto or low-carb. Eat quite a lot of eggs, too.
I’ve grown lots of veggies too, but end up eating mostly meat and eggs. Gardening’s satisfying, but my daily meals lean animal based. Funny how what we grow doesn’t always match what we eat
I can’t say I grow anything for no reason at all. If I don’t eat it, I’d grow it to sell because someone wants it… or one of the kids / grandkids want it.
I always think about growing flowers… but I rarely get a whole lot going other than a couple of planters on the front porch.
You have my jealously, I’m not near Market Baskets, they’re the only place I’ve found that have the hunk of meat that you make steak tips from! Wish I remember what that’s called… Whenever I go to my brothers that’s a pit stop I make on the way out!
I promised a flower. Not my best pic, oh well. It is pretty! It’s neat a garden can give us so many different joys! Some give us more joy and less work…
This house we bought 1.5 decades ago came with an insane amount of flowers I added some here and there (gladioluses! and a few roses though there were some already) but there wasn’t a need for much.
I got very strict with my tiny veggie patch this year (only a quarter is for flowers!)… But it doesn’t mean it isn’t full with flowers everywhere again. They just popped up eventually and they weren’t so much in the way after my first vegs got out… But I love flowers 
Even the simple ones.
Understandable. Meat is highly enjoyable (not all of them but we can choose). It suits our needs. While vegs… They can be joyous, crunchy, juicy, pretty, even nice with some meat now and then… But I can’t look at them and seeing something worthy nutrition wise. It’s a bit weird for me to read about vegs as nutrition bombs. Maybe that’s for vegans. Not even vegetarians as I mostly got my nutrients from animals as a vegetarian. I did love vegs but it was mostly joy eating. I don’t think I ever ate any plants for health reasons. Except that I needed some for health as a vegetarian… Not very much but some. But the reason to eat them was that I loved the taste and texture and couldn’t resist. If I didn’t like some plant, I never ate them (or maybe out of curiosity in tiny amounts). And now I feel so sorry for people who force feeding themselves with vegs they don’t even like… Maybe they need that but probably not if they would just make other changes on their diets…? But IDK, maybe plants are that awesome for many and I can’t understand that. I don’t feel I need them, I just still like some. But the less, the better, usually.
I still enjoy some veg. But not like I used to. It’s not like I crave it. On occasion I’ll have something home-grown that you just can’t buy in a store and expect any similar taste. An example is lima beans. I love home-grown lima beans. The ones from the grocerty stores? Nope, not even interested. Don’t care for them at all. Green peas? Same. Tomatoes? Same. The produce aisle is of little interest, just nothing there I want, let alone trust…
Oh, I did. 
I feel like such a fool. And I stayed there way too long. During that time of being a very unhealthy vegan and doubling down on all of the vegan propaganda, I remember of those big fruit smoothies with all of the fresh fruit. They were SUGAR BOMBS! It’s a wonder I wasn’t in a diabetic coma. But I thought it was “healthy”. I was told it was “healthy”, and by people who I thought wouldn’t lie to me, that I thought were trustworthy. I look back and wonder how I could have been that stupid.
Closest I typically get to a fruit smoothy these days is having a few of our own homegrown strawberries or blueberries on my Greek yogurt at breakfast (not every day). Funny thing is, if I even come close to overeating those kinds of things now, there’s something about them that makes me want to stop, hard to explain. I don’t want much.
It is pretty! Thanks for sharing!
I went to all raised beds this year (24 - 5’ x 3’) and it made a huge difference in the amount of work and my yields. Weeding is so easy and we had wonderful yeilds in the early summer.
It is getting into the high 90’s so some of the tomatoes are still going but many have pooped out. I throw them into a baggie in the freezer and will thaw them out, peel and can later after the garden is done. I was losing some that went bad before I could can and found the freezer trick online. No blanching or ice baths - the skins are supposed to split when you that them out. Haven’t tried it yet.
I had 10 cups of cherry tomatoes so I canned those also. Yes, they will have the skins but I don’t mind and will use them in soups and chili this winter.
Potatoes, onions and garlic all harvested and hanging in mesh bags in my basement safe room. Green and yellow beans, peas, lettuce, yellow squash and zucchini all done. Cucumbers still going gang busters and I put up several pints of dill pickles this afternoon. I make a half-gallon batch of the vinegar/water brine and freeze it in a baggie. When I need it for pickles I set it in a small tub of hot water to thaw it out. I just used the last of my brine today.
Peppers and okra loving the heat! LOL.
Oh, and I have been throwing away the tomato skins all these years! This year I dehydrated them and ground into powder and add to any dish with tomatoes.
Same. And it’s true for fruits. I love them, they are super delicious, the best ones reach the top where normally only pork is 
But I stopped needing them. On keto, I couldn’t skip A DAY and I had to eat all the vegs I could fit into my generous carb allowance. I had fruits but only 1-2g carbs worth a day, maybe 3 if I ate more than my usual daily amount of banana.
It’s soooo liberating.
I never had a fruit smoothie apart from the ones I made myself but that only happened a few times in my life. I don’t think it was a thing here and it can’t be so big now either…? Or I just don’t see them? But it’s probably a smaller thing here. Thankfully.
We did got all the hype about fruits… But I loved them without that and I am not so easily influenced when it’s about food (I just eat what I like best) so the hype couldn’t have a significant effect on me. I just was unaware about the dangers of fruits… Okay, if I knew about those, maybe I had eaten a bit less? But I already felt fruit isn’t food. It’s natural candy with a usually very good hydration effect. So I just ate it for joy. I STILL can’t truly feel fruits aren’t nice, I do know it’s mostly sugar and water and it’s not so great for me but I look at that tasty beauty and my appreciation raises again…
My fruit garden doesn’t help. I have way too many jars again My SO has limits (and raw fruit needs in winter so he buys a lot of fruit then while we have 500 jars left. okay maybe just 400, IDK) and the trees doesn’t understand I would like less fruit. I won’t mutilate them or waste the precious things. I wish I could convert some of my fruit into alcohol, the normal method is too bothersome for me (even if I wouldn’t need to make it myself. just collect and transport the fruit). I won’t sell it either and I don’t know people. Oh well, we will see. Maybe the trees will die (I know they will, we just buy new ones as we must have many kind of fruits. just not very much) and we will be happy with our old jars. They last pretty long.
I think I can relate - though I overate cherries this year. It was in mid-June? Seems so very long ago… And since then I have a strong fruit aversion. It’s troublesome as I have fruits and I eat them, no matter what… Just in very tiny amount and it is not joyful. I really need some carnivore times (or at least something really close) to be able to enjoy fruits again. In very small, careful amounts. I almost never needed much, very tasty things are sometimes like this, a little goes a long way. Berries are super good at that.
My lettuces and small tomato plants looks much worse than in other summers during the day (they get watering in the evening and perk up, it lasts until noon the next day or something and they look awful until the evening). It’s not even high 90s here yet and some days are cooler! We even have a tiny rain regularly. My room is still fine to be in! What will happen when the true hot weeks arrive?
My first tomatoes (from the 3 big ones I actually bought as mine are always too slow) will ripen in a few days!!! They are almost red now! And there will be very, many, small ones but that is a fun, convenient size! And even my own plants have green ones on them here and there. I am pleased.
I never peel my tomatoes, peels are good in everything I use normal tomatoes for. I mean, I have a few dishes where I use tomato puree from the supermarket, those are tasty and I never could have enough tomatoes for that purpose.
My zuicchini will bring tiny ones (hopefully) in the distant future but I already see the tiny yellow potentially future ones on it. It’s a yellow kind, why to grow ones I can buy cheap and easily? I like interesting varieties. My carrots are little balls. I almost have regrets, I definitely won’t buy it again. It’s small like normal carrots of mine but short too! I just hope they will get a growth spurt in the autumn (as I don’t expect much from the hot weather, survival is enough).
I still have lettuce but not many and it definitely hates the weather… We just couldn’t eat it fast enough, not even with the guinea pig guest we had. Half of my veggie patch was for lettuce this time as I was so happy last year that I have found a good veg to eat raw… My soil still has its limits but it’s good enough for impressive lettuce! (They still don’t form heads but the leaves are numerous and big. And who needs heads anyway…)
I don’t dare to grow cucumbers (I remember from my childhood that summer was tough on them and I barely have space for my tomatoes, lettuces and tiny things like onions and radishes) but I have dills Still smallish but promising. Unless it wilts. I only use a little in quark dishes sometimes.
I should make my own pickles. I always had bad experiences with pickled vegs, I seem to have an antitalent. We buy pickles sometimes but they are way too sugary. It’s very little added sugar (it’s not the carbs that bother me though I prefer it to be at zero) but I doesn’t want any. I feel the bothersome extra sweetness. So I almost never eat pickles and I used to love it so much… Oh well, I can live without it pretty well. But I am sure it could scratch some itch and I probably wouldn’t try to balance it out with something less healthy…
They do? Indeed, I don’t remember seeing my very tiny pepper plants (they have buds now!!! will they have fruit, the first time in my garden? 2025 is exciting!) wilted… They have some shadow though, more than my small tomatoes a bit farther. Maybe it won’t be a bad thing if the walnut tree in my veggie patch (accident) will grow… I adore big walnut trees in summer. All that shade. Making my walks bearable.
I only ever saw okra in a tin in Greece… If you has it, it means it should grow here too? But I never saw seeds for it. They exist in Hungary too, I just googled. But it’s big! I suppose they need some extra care due to it…
I hear ya.
Something that probably helps me a lot more than I give it credit for is the “memory of food”. I remember what I think something tasted like years ago and finding that again today, it’s rare.
I remember of sweet, very ripe peaches, how the skin would nearly fall off, how there was that deep, fuzzy, nearly syrupy sweet peach juice and oh so tender flesh. It’s a wonderful food memory. Today? Good luck. Seems like most peaches I’ve had since have little flavor, some are almost crunchy, and if that close to ripe are likely rotten. So finding something like my memory? Not likely.
I kinda have a similar things with donuts. I had some of the best I’ve ever had in a little shop in PA, not that far from where I grew up. (The place has since been sold and I can’t even go back there to get what once was.) But having a donut from Walmart? Nope, really not even interested, I know what it’ll taste like and that’s not what is in my memory. On rare occasion, I’ll find a real bakery that can truly make some of the things I remember, but it is very rare, and I know of none close to me, which is a very good thing. FWIW, it’s been years since I had a REALLY good donut. Ain’t gonna lie, I still want one… or two. 
But I won’t go out and just eat anything, that won’t satisfy, it’ll only make me feel bad… physically cause of the carb load, and emotionally because it didn’t connect.
Anyway… probably TMI.
I remember great peaches too. The soil here is bad for peaches, apparently, very few gardens have any and those trees are tiny with a few fruits (that’s fine, I would love such a tree and this year I managed to find on in my veggie patch! I put it into its final place and it’s very pretty now but still just some leaves so anything could eat it…). I have all kind of summer fruits so I don’t buy peaches (but when we do it, once in several years, that’s really not great. I am sure some must be good… right? but the sour cherries in the nearby orchard aren’t great either, all my sour cherry trees have vastly better fruit). I have fond memories, very vivid ones, I don’t want any, I just remember fondly, it works for me! it’s almost as good with apricot, it’s good as my last tree is dying and it usually has zero fruits. But I want apricot trees again, I will buy 1-2 young ones soon. And my garden will be totally full again.
So, I can just use my memory instead of eating fruit sometimes.
But memories are different from reality even using a fruit exactly like in the memory. As I have changed, especially my sweet perception. So many fruits became borderline inedible. But I manage if the fruit is tasty I just use super tiny amounts.
Food changes, sadly. Or my fav stuff just disappear. It’s a smaller problem now that I mostly make my own food from scratch but I do have my fav brand of dairy items…
At one point in my life bread became much worse. I have started baking then and it’s quite useful now (I bake for my SO. for myself too but the latter is lower-carb).
I never liked donuts. Maybe the normal, traditional, homemade kind but probably mostly because of the apricot jam in it I never desire it. Well I was fine without bread too when I had a break from baking it because my SO experimented with gluten free and there were my early very low-carb, almost-paleo times as well, it was novel and I was more determined to behave and it was pretty easy to do anyway. Bread made a comeback unlike most abandoned items. Most things I wanted to eat was easy enough and even tastier on keto (after I experimented a lot but that’s a hobby of mine), bread is what can’t happen without grains. Proper bread with the right texture, I mean. Bread role keto things, I have them and they are great but nothing like proper bread. And if I don’t have my nice proper bread, I will end up eating the inferior wheat bread I bake every week (it’s a quite nice sourdough bread but it has no eggs and that’s a huge flaw in my eyes), eventually. Bread was my weakness in the last years but I have better recipes now and able to fight my problem with more vigour.
If I ever start a garden, it will be to grow tons of cabbage to make sauerkraut! Then I can have all the sauerkraut I want all year round. Maybe also some cucumbers and lettuce and some tomatoes. I’ve come around to thinking vegetables are probably not so beneficial (and clearly very harmful to some), but I seem to tolerate them well and I have real difficulty eating only meat and eggs.
