Winter Gardening. Cold Weather Vegetables you should start Now!

Winter Gardening? whats THAT?

I was totally intrigued the first time I heard the term. Certainly you cannot do that here. Winters are COLD in Chicago, much too cold to grow anything… but IS it?

Did you know that some cold weather vegetables will grow in as little as 26 degrees. right? If you’re as thrilled as I was to hear this, its time to get out there and start your winter garden now.

You can start seeds right now, of beets, carrots, radish, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, kale and many more cold weather vegetables. Heres a list of cold weather vegetables that I made for my nursery website.

IF you dont have a ton of space, or if you want a convenient way to start right now, without all the digging, you can start your winter gardening project in a square foot garden. Build a 4×4′ box, add soil, divide it into square foot sections, and throw in your seeds. Here’s a square foot gardening layout chart that I created. Substitute the warm weather plants for cold weather vegetables and you’re good to go! You can read more about square foot gardening here.

If you’re SUPER interested in winter gardening and want to learn all about it, Eliot Coleman wrote a fantastic book on the subject called The Winter Harvest Handbook. Eliot is a commercial winter farmer who supplies local restaurants with winter vegetables, so he knows his stuff.

Winter Gardening. Cold Weather Vegetables you should start Now!

Smoothie Detox. Cheap blenders to get the job done (real cheap)

Whats the best way to get healthy? Start a vegetable garden. Whats the best way to eat them veggies? Green Smoothies!  How can we get healthier faster? Smoothie Detox!

Smoothies allow you to DRINK your vegetables, like 15 servings at a time. Thats crazy! you say, it might just be crazy enough to work… I dont know yet. I havent tried it. But I can share with you what I HAVE learned so far about smoothie detox and the tools (blenders) to get the job done.

One day, out of left field, I wanted a smoothie. REALLY wanted a smoothie. A nasty, green, foul tasting,  couldnt-you-have-added-more- fruit smoothie. I wanted to feel good and didnt care what my taste buds thought. But like they always say. No blender, no smoothie. Dang. Smoothie blenders are like $400.  It shouldnt cost this much to be healthy. Lets hope it isnt…

After a ton of searching, I found 2 options that just might work (guess which one I will be testing)

Option #1

The Bella 13330 Rocket Blender, Regularly $44, On sale right NOW at Macys. At $19 bucks, you cant go wrong, unless it doesnt work. LOTS of good reviews for this little single serving blender, fingers crossed its a great intro to green smoothie detox.


Option #2

The Oster Counterforms 7-Speed Blender. More great reviews specifically for green smoothies. Id say $60 aint too shabby for a blender, but again, only if it works.

Now on to the real meat and potatoes (ok, the real kale and spinach)

The Smoothie Detox

I was really only looking for instructions on how to make a green smoothie, but I came across the Green Smoothie Girls website and had to look around.

For $49 she’ll walk you through a 26 day smoothie detox that will clean your colon, liver, kidneys, gall bladder, joints, blood, lymph system… plus you should lose weight. SOLD! I mean, how much more convincing do you need? Im trying this.

Smoothie Detox. Cheap blenders to get the job done (real cheap)