12 Steps to Whole Foods

Reaping a Gardener’s Rewards
Be sure to wash produce, especially conventionally grown selections, very well with lukewarm water (cleans
best and doesn’t damage enzymes) and vegetable soap in a spray bottle. I use Shaklee Basic H (a gallon lasts
me a decade), but a variety of options exist online and in stores.
In 2011, I discovered an exciting appliance for the kitchen that uses superoxygenation
of water to eliminate pesticides, herbicides, and bacteria from
plant foods. A cycle takes about 4-5 minutes, and extremely pesticideheavy
produce such as soft-skinned fruit may take more than one cycle.
But the water ozonation technology, which has been used in many other
industrial applications for years (carpet cleaning, for instance), is now
available, affordably, for home kitchens. I have a YouTube video
demonstrating its use, and you can read more about it under “Robyn
Recommends” (the topic “Eliminate Pesticides”) on
GreenSmoothieGirl.com. It’s called the Lotus Sanitizer. It is tremendously
helpful for people who cannot afford to grow or buy all their produce organic—and that’s most people. It will
give you some very helpful peace of mind. Even if your Lotus doesn't register 100% elimination after a couple
of cycles (for strawberries or grapes, for instance), you can rest assured that the vast majority of chemicals
have been eliminated.
Why Should I Consider Square-Foot Gardening?
For limited spaces, or to make the most of the space you have, I highly recommend square-foot gardening,
which maximizes the yield per foot of space. You are gardening based on squares instead of rows, which lets
you get twice the amount of produce out of half the space.
In one square foot, you might have nine beets, or four lettuce heads, or one corn stalk or tomato plant. This
method is eco-friendly, because you use much less water than with traditional gardening. You also have less
weeding and a space designed for better access, since the grow boxes are up off the ground. The author of the
system says that square-foot gardening uses 80% less space, time (especially weeding), water, and money than
the traditional method.
I also recommend that you plan ahead to stagger plantings (planting hardier greens and vegetables as early as
possible) so that your harvest doesn’t come all at once, providing much more than you need. With staggered
plantings, you enjoy vegetables for an extended period of time. Square-foot gardening is the perfect way to
achieve that: I go out every Saturday from April onward, planting just a few squares each week of greens,
beets, corn, and some other crops that I like to extend.
If you live in climates that are cold and snowy through the winter, you can plant a few crops as early as 3-5
weeks before the last spring frost, as indicated below. In Utah, we plan on that being May 1, though on a rare
occasion is it later—if you’re new to gardening, you’ll have to get used to the fact that you have no guarantees
in nature! Warm-weather crops are planted on May 1 (and then hold your breath and cover your tomatoes if the
forecast calls for a freeze). But these are a few exceptions:
You can plant these as early as the first week in April:
Peas and spinach from seed; broccoli and cabbage from seedlings
130 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw