I used to hate vegetables. The taste, the texture, the way they looked, No Thanks. Not just as a kid, but even into my teens and early twenties. I was proud of the fact that I would only eat large quantities of meat every night. At 16 I lived mostly from Wendy's Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers. When my mother cooked spaghetti with meat sauce, I used to remove all the onions from the sauce because I didn't like them. It's pretty sad actually. Salads were a total no-go. Much too green. Part of the problem was my own reluctance to try new things. In the end you convince yourself it won't taste good without even giving it a try. Years of fast-food and meat-and-potato nights followed. When I was a student I persuaded myself to try broccoli just because I realized that my own nutritional requirements weren't being met. So I finally had a vegetable, but that was where it stayed. 4 years of broccoli and meat. Good times.
Not that I couldn't cook. I consider myself a fairly decent cook and I'm not afraid to throw some flavours together. When you're living off of very few ingredients, you need to learn to cook, or you're going to be bored at every dinner. I could make some pretty mean meat-dishes in my day. But I still avoided the entire vegetable section at the grocery store.
Two things helped me change my mind about veggies. My vegetarian girlfriend and growing the food myself. Also, backpacking through Australia for a year and thus being poor and hungry helped. I learned to eat pretty much anything in that year. I still really enjoy eating meat, but I’ve found a new trove of culinary delights by exploring what vegetarian food has to offer. And in terms of convenience its easier to go veg. We usually eat vegetarian dishes when we’re cooking together and I eat meat when she’s not around.
And I was amazed at all the good stuff out there. I slowly learned to enjoy most of the green growing things we can eat. They say you need to eat something 7 times before you start to like it. I think I can agree with that, more or less. I don't like everything right away, but it can grow on you, and with the right recipe can be totally awesome. Eggplant, I remember my utter disgust a few years ago, but now its one of my favorites. So much potential in one purple plant. And a good salad is definitely a standard during the summer.
2 yeas ago we decided to rent a small plot at the community-garden center in Arnhem, NL where we live. We had no experience, no prior interest in gardening, and no real idea what we were doing. But its definitely a lot of fun. We've been trail-and-error gardening for the last couple years and its turned out pretty well. Even with the minimal effort we put into it the first year, we had a decent harvest. Last year also went well, except the weather throughout the season was all over the place, and some garden pests also took their toll. But we tried some new things and worked on improving soil quality. This year we're hoping for another good season. Going for some new varieties and getting a bit more adventurous with what goes in the ground. This blog contains some stories about what’s growing and what kind of meals we're making it into.
Cheers.
de Tuinier
Not that I couldn't cook. I consider myself a fairly decent cook and I'm not afraid to throw some flavours together. When you're living off of very few ingredients, you need to learn to cook, or you're going to be bored at every dinner. I could make some pretty mean meat-dishes in my day. But I still avoided the entire vegetable section at the grocery store.
Two things helped me change my mind about veggies. My vegetarian girlfriend and growing the food myself. Also, backpacking through Australia for a year and thus being poor and hungry helped. I learned to eat pretty much anything in that year. I still really enjoy eating meat, but I’ve found a new trove of culinary delights by exploring what vegetarian food has to offer. And in terms of convenience its easier to go veg. We usually eat vegetarian dishes when we’re cooking together and I eat meat when she’s not around.
And I was amazed at all the good stuff out there. I slowly learned to enjoy most of the green growing things we can eat. They say you need to eat something 7 times before you start to like it. I think I can agree with that, more or less. I don't like everything right away, but it can grow on you, and with the right recipe can be totally awesome. Eggplant, I remember my utter disgust a few years ago, but now its one of my favorites. So much potential in one purple plant. And a good salad is definitely a standard during the summer.
2 yeas ago we decided to rent a small plot at the community-garden center in Arnhem, NL where we live. We had no experience, no prior interest in gardening, and no real idea what we were doing. But its definitely a lot of fun. We've been trail-and-error gardening for the last couple years and its turned out pretty well. Even with the minimal effort we put into it the first year, we had a decent harvest. Last year also went well, except the weather throughout the season was all over the place, and some garden pests also took their toll. But we tried some new things and worked on improving soil quality. This year we're hoping for another good season. Going for some new varieties and getting a bit more adventurous with what goes in the ground. This blog contains some stories about what’s growing and what kind of meals we're making it into.
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| Arnhem |
Cheers.
de Tuinier
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