Eat Healthy, Eat Local

by Helen Legare
Legare Farms Inc.

This is one of my favorite times for the harvest coming out of the garden. We are starting to dig the new potatoes and pull the green onions.  We don’t dig all of them now or pull all the onions because they need to get bigger but I can’t resist harvesting the small tender, sweet bounty. There is nothing better than new potatoes with a little butter. It doesn’t work with my no carbs diet but sometimes, we have to enjoy the good things in life. I love to steam the little onions and use the green tops cut up on my salads. We’re still cutting broccoli from the garden even though the heat will soon put an end to that. It’s nice when cool season vegetables overlap with spring vegetables. I take the new potatoes and cut them in half then put a little extra virgin olive oil on them and bake in the oven. When the potatoes are about half done, I add broccoli florets also with evo on them. The combination is almost addictive.

It’s not too late to plant a few tomato plants or peppers or eggplant. You don’t need large acreage or even a yard to grow vegetables. If you live in an apartment, you can have a few plants on a patio. Container gardening is easy and very rewarding. We have 300 acres here at the farm but we still grow some vegetables in containers.  Nothing is more rewarding than picking a few tomatoes off your vine for dinner.

We offer a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for the folks who don’t have time or a green thumb but want to eat healthy. We collect the money up front and use it to grow the crop. It allows us to grow without having to borrow money from the bank. It allows the CSA member to get fresh healthy vegetables for 15 weeks.  Each week, we pack into the bags whatever is ready in the garden that week. Even though we will have started deliveries by the time you read this, you can still join for the remainder of the season. For more info go to http://legarefarms.com/pages/csa-program.

Roasted Potatoes
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut potatoes in half or quarters and place in bowl. Add just enough extra virgin olive oil to coat potatoes and add salt. Spread potatoes out on a baking sheet with 1 layer. Place potatoes in preheated oven for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve immediately.