I’m going to share with you my secret of taking the hassle out of eating your own homegrown, fresh produce.
Hassle, you say?
Oh, we sow, we weed, we water, we toil, we mulch, we hoe, we fuss until finally the day arrives. The day we begin to harvest baskets of fresh produce right from our gardens. Oh, the satisfaction, the happiness, the joy of bringing basketfuls of fresh, organic, homegrown produce into our homes.
But …
It must be washed, rinsed, cleaned. The bugs, the dirt, the pieces of mulch have to be removed. The filth has to go so the veggies can be fit for our tables. There are few things less appetizing than a bug in your salad. Except maybe three worms in your broccoli.
Shudder.
All of the sudden, the joy of all that homegrown goodness is overshadowed by the amount of work ahead of you in the washing and debugging department.
I have a trick that will fix this dirt/bug problem.
Especially when it comes to lettuce, greens and all leafy veggies.
I am going to jump to my own conclusions and say that the reason many people don’t grow these is because it’s such a pain to get it from the “growing in the garden” stage, to the “on the table with dressing” stage.
Greens are easy to grow. They are hard to kill. Sprinkle a 99-cent packet of seeds in a row and you’ll be eating lettuce in a few weeks (lots and lots of lettuce). Go here to see how easy it is. Why don’t more people grow it?
I think it’s because of the washing, rewashing, picking out the bugs, stems, dirt, mulch and unidentified weeds and then washing it again. And did I mention washing?
Drum roll, please …
Enter, the garden sink. Oh, how you need one of these!
It’s nothing fancy. They have four of them at the antique mall where I found this one. It’s basically just a giant wash tub on a stand, with a drain in the bottom. The hose is the faucet.
Toss in the lettuce, veggies, or whatever else needs cleaning (like maybe a duck or a rabbit – go here and here for more on that) and rinse to your hearts content.
I can blast off all the bugs, dirt and unwanted debris in no time. I don’t have to even worry about splashing water all over my kitchen or my house. I don’t have to be concerned with where the bug went that I just saw crawling up the side of the sink. Wash away!
Once everything’s clean, transfer into a colander (to drain) and take to the house (to eat). I don’t have to clean veggies in my house. I am bringing in lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, turnips, asparagus and peas that are completely clean and ready to eat. Squeal!
When I get into my kitchen I can just slice and serve. Can you say, “Freedom?”
This simple trick has saved me so much time. A sink in the garden. Brilliant!
