The kitchen garden

I spend time looking at the ingredients of the food stuff I buy from the store and think about how is it possible to make this at home? Even with a smaller back yard garden, a LOT of food can be grown and made right at home. Paprika? It's literally a dried pepper and ground to a powder. You can grow one plant and have paprika in your pantry for the next year.

My goal for this page is to keep track of the things that are POSSIBLE. I have been doing a lot of moving and have not established my kitchen garden so I get to use this valuable down time to do my planning [and what better way to plan than with HTML and CSS amirite....??????]
I have yet to see what I actually wind up doing, which is most certainly not all of what is listed here. [But like... we'll see, right?]

I garden in zone 5 with an ambitious dream of building an atrium for the house to grow more tropical and year-round plants.

As soon as I get this project rolling, I'll figure out a way to update this page to reflect the real life version of this.

If anyone reading this has any tips on anything listed here they'd like to offer, I'd gladly accept any advise!

Quick notes:

Source heirloom varieties whenever possible for seed saving purposes.
Shou Sugi Ban AKA Yakisugi. "By slightly charring the surface of the wood without combusting the whole piece, the surface becomes water-resistant ... which results in increased durability. It additionally protects the wood against insects, fungi and mold"
the raised garden beds for longevity

Asparagus
Main uses: Cooking
Preserving: Freezing
Variety: Mary Washington, heirloom
Growing notes: Takes about 3 years for full harvest.
Source[s]:

Garlic Powder
1. Peel garlic
2. Chop garlic
3. Dehydrate garlic in dehydrator [or oven @ 150*f] until dry and brittle
4. Grind up dried garlic and store for a year in a vacuum sealed mason jar

Make fresh once a year

Corn
Main uses: Eating, cornstarch, cornmeal
Preserving: pressure canning, freezing [whole cobs], dehydrate and then mill into cornmeal or flour
Variety: For eating fresh, Golden Beauty - heirloom. For cornmeal/flour, Nothstine Dent -heirloom
Growing Notes: Had critters devour my crop last time, consider a way to deter pests.
Source[s]:

Leeks
They're like onions without the crying!
Main uses: Soups!
Preserving: Plan to use mostly fresh in recipes. Can be frozen cut, blanched or unblanched for a year.
Variety: American Flag - heirloom
Growing Notes: Cool weather, can be planted before last frost. Plant deeply to encourage long stalks. Can hill them like potatoes- optionally.
Source[s]:

Onions
Main uses: Cooking. Get a variety for storage. Onion powder.
Preserving: Root cellar. Can keep in-ground until needed. Do not store near potatoes or behind closed doors [needs a lot of ventilation].
Variety: Heirlooms- Yellow Sweet Spanish [long day], Ruby Red [long day]
Growing Notes: Transplant out when thick like pencil. Heavy feeders. Succession plant two weeks.
Source[s]:

Garlic
Main uses: every single recipe ever.
Preserving: Powder. Can minced/chopped. Can jelly.
Variety: Can be grown from bulbs from store. Hardneck best for my zone.
Growing Notes: Plant bulbs in fall. Hardneck grows scapes, softneck does not. Softneck grows better in milder climate and mature quicker, opposed to hardneck that requires exposure to cold weather for a time.
Source[s]: n/a