Farmacy Garden (Archive)

Welcome to the farmacy garden!

Below is an archive of pictures of all the different fruits and veg I’ve grown over the years, including the garden-t0-table meals and recipes I’ve made with the food.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them for me at the very bottom comment section.

SOME QUICK NOTES:

1. I don’t post everything from the garden on the NYCT social media pages (in fact, probably 90% of the pictures below are not on the NYCT social media pages), so if you want to pop back by this page from time to time you can see all the latest organically grown veg (short link for this page is NYCT.me/garden).

2. You can also follow the Farmacy Garden Instagram page where I post more garden pics and garden-to-table food/recipe ideas. The page is food-only.

3. If you want a friendly reminder about the garden pics, food and recipe updates from this page (and the blog in general), you can sign up for the free Nutrition You Can Trust email newsletter as well where I add new updates.

Ultimately my goal for this particular page is one thing:

Provide information and inspiration on growing and cooking our own real food

When we garden and grow our own produce we get local, organic and sustainable food without the toxic tagalong pesticides we find ubiquitously in today’s food supply that are detrimental to our health, vitality and performance. In other words we get:

an overall healthier YOU
free food
fresh air
great exercise
sunlight
healthy doses of “Vitamin N”

and so much more that can improve for the better when gardening…what’s not to like?

Lastly, a quick reminder…

I’m no garden pro! I’m just a health professional with a passion for getting his hands dirty, growing his own pesticide-free integrity food and vibing with Mother Earth. Why do I tell you this? Because YOU can do this stuff too! I’ve failed many times growing different plants and you likely will as well. That just comes with the territory. Don’t let a “brown thumb” cause you to give up. Each season work on your “green thumb” craft and you’ll get great at growing your own food!

How do I start garden? If you haven’t started a garden yet but are wanting to, check out this post on what you need to know with getting started with your own organic garden at home. I loaded that post up with the basics and a bunch of different ideas. Also, size does not matter whether you have a front or backyard, a condo patio or an apartment balcony (how I started my first garden, just a few pots!), there’s options for everyone and you too can start your own farmacy at home and have delicious, “farmaceutical-grade” integrity food on your plate!

Ok, let’s get started…enjoy the eye candy below!

Blue Beauty tomato fresh off the vine

I used these in this summer gazpacho below:

Summer gazpacho made with Blue Beauty tomatoes

(recipe will be up on the blog in the future)

First farmacy garden haul of Spring 2019: green garlic, beet, carrot, red potatoes

Lettuces and purple brussels sprouts are from a local farm stand

The green garlic will be used for homemade green garlic powder (the DIY for it coming to the blog soon. Get notified here when it’s live)

Different Zucchini/Squash varieties harvested I used in this homemade raw zucchini bread

Example of the raw zucchini bread as a salmon salad sandwich

Eat the rainbow

Tomato varieties pictured: Lucid Gem, Blue Beauty, Galaxy, Atomic Grape, Yellow Bear Claw

A delicious change up to plain ol’ hummus you can make is add fresh chopped tomato & basil in it like this:

Sprouted hummus with atomic grape tomato, basil and olive oil reservoir

Beautiful Genovese Basil

Great for seasonal summer caprese, homemade pesto and more

I’ve got a cilantro-lime hemp seed pesto I did with this basil in the blog archive that I’ll get around to writing and posting (will add an image of the pesto here and link up to the recipe. Get notified here when it goes live)

Fresh picked basil is also incredible in homemade pasta:

One of my favorite reward day indulgences: homemade pasta

Pictured I made it the simple Italian way with just a few ingredients:

warm salted pasta + fresh picked galaxy tomatoes and basil + warmed up minced garlic and olive oil

Toss all: the fresh pasta, fresh tomato, fresh basil, fresh minced garlic oil. Addicting!

Galaxy Tomato basket

Basket of beautiful: fresh lettuces, arugula, cilantro, beets, peas, rainbow carrots, purple potatoes

Rainbow carrot haul

Green and purple peas

Green and purple pole beans climbing up. Shout out to that healthy looking chard below

Red Bells

Mixed lettuces, arugula, cilantro, basil and bok choy growing in a cinder block bed

Cinder blocks are a cheap way to build a garden bed (only about $1.50 each per block)

The Garden Bag: mixed lettuces, arugula and cilantro pictured

Another affordable way to grow a lot of food on your patio, balcony, porch or other small space

Have room somewhere for a bag of soil? Then you can do this!

Check out this step-by-step detailed post on how to make one of these for your own home

Another alternative that is great is growing your own herb garden:

Pictured: Italian parsley, cilantro, thyme, dill, sage, basil, marjoram, oregano

Beet jumping out of the soil ready to harvest

One of my favorite things to make is oven-roasted mixed veg

Garden-to-table: carrots, beets, bells with a few springs of rosemary for aromatics

A glug of olive oil all over and 350F for 40-45 minutes set-it-and-forget-it and you’ve got delicious, hot food ready for a main meal or meal prepped for your week

Chino Farms Yellow/Peach striped grape tomato

Bell pepper squad

Brandywine tomato (Baker Creek Seeds)

Sunset tomato (Baker Creek Seeds)

Lucid Gem (Baker Creek Seeds)

Changing of the seasons…

Color transition…

Red Plum Grape Tomato Clusters (Chino Farms saved seeds)

Changing colors…

100+ summer tomatoes in a small 50-cell tray ready to transplant

I always save my tomato seeds each year and try and plant a lot so I can pick n’ choose the healthiest looking seedlings to transplant, as well as give plants away to friends, family and clients so they can grow themselves

I didn’t choose the fig life, the fig life chose me

Now you know what a baby grape vine looks like next time you have a glass of wine. You’re welcome.

Sweet Corn (Baker Creek Seeds)

Growing pickles

I’ve also made Swedish Cucumber Salad with the different cucumbers I’ve grown

Sunset Runner Beans (Baker Creek Seeds)

The sweetest sweet potatoes. These guys actually volunteered so it was a nice surprise.

Carrot flowers bring a lot of different insect species to the yard, including this unusual traveler

Scarlet Runner Beans (Baker Creek Seeds)

In case you didn’t know…

Carrot flower squad

Fortnight Lily

Pakistani Mulberry. I got this tree at Cal Poly Pomona Farms.

Still a baby so only producing a couple dozen fruits right now (2017)

Up close carrot flower starting to transition from flower to seed

Mini lemon tree. Nothing goes to waste when I pick these beauts- the juice and zest is so potent and delicious

Sniper up high in his nest on the hunt for bugs

The Alpha

The honey bees love cilantro flowers.

The flowers are edible too… great to throw in salads, on top of homemade pizza, frittatas, crostini. Many options!

Every year I’ll let the cilantro go to flower to attract the pollinators, and then when they finally go to seed, they produce a bunch of seeds that are easy gathering for a brand new crop to grow.

A really easy plant to grow and save seeds!

Teeny tiny grape vine popping out of the soil for the first time and flexing it’s muscles.

I started this from some organic grapes I got at my local co-op.

It was really just a test if the seeds would sprout and grow…and voila, this little guy popped out of the ground the spring of 2016.

As of early spring 2019 (before spring/summer growth) it looks like this

I love making flatbread/pizza for a reward day treat where I can grab a handful of different garden elements and shape it into some tasty eats. This is a rosemary sourdough flatbread using fresh picked rosemary, a handful of fresh picked tomatoes and I threw some kalamata olives on it for good measure.

Drizzle some olive oil all over, slice it up and serve with a glass of vino on a weekend summer evening. Perfecto.

Welcome to the jungle, we’ve got fun and games

Hard at work. Thank you Mr. Bee.

Collards and chard: veg wraps for daaays

Also love simply sauteing these with some pancetta for an easy side to a main meal

Up close and personal: Chive flower. Beautiful, no?

Sunset tomato (Baker Creek Seeds)

Saved seeds: last years purple peas twisting and turning out of their shells getting ancy for spring

Harvested golden potato pot

Golden beauties

Homegrown potatoes are different than store bought in my experience in that they have much more flavor and are noticeably crispier when you slice into them

I used some of these potatoes in this salmon nicoise salad:

Salmon nicoise salad recipe coming to the blog soon! (Get notified here when it goes live)

Sweet 100’s

San Marzano Tomatoes

If you get some little green baskets and grow some tomatoes, you can pick your own farmers market haul right from your own garden

Up close beauties

Eat the rainbow: the flavors are so intense you don’t want to do a lot to it. Just a little salt and few drops of olive oil and balsamic with fresh basil.