How I Use All The Veggies In My Garden

plus how I’m using this summer to slow down

Jul 23, 2024

When it’s 100 degrees out, you spend a lot of time in your garden, ensuring everything is well watered. We visit early in the morning, relishing the wonderful cool breezes that are always prevalent in the Pacific Northwest. We visit late afternoon, watching over the newest plants, wilting from the intense heat from above.

The thing that shocks me most is how quickly new veggies come to life. We can count a few small zucchinis or peppers one day, and they’re full-grown the next. (With several more small ones showing promise right behind it.)

My kitchen counter is already showing the excess. Three large zucchinis, four pan squash, and two yellow squash are already accumulating in a corner.

What’s for dinner? It’s a question we laugh about right now.

Maybe we should share the wealth with our neighbors. We do that from time to time.

But I planted a garden to cut back on how much we spend at the store. I carefully chose what to grow based on how it would influence our shopping list.

I know where these veggies come from. Organic seeds. Vegan fertilizer.

I want to utilize everything I can. I want to savor what I grow, highlight each item I pull from my garden as the center of my meals.

I want to slow down, enjoy the process. Enjoy every moment that summer has to offer.

The Slow Approach

A few weeks ago, one of my marketing coaches sent out an email, saying she was reorganizing her business. She was silent for a few weeks. Until today. I opened up her email this morning.

Her words hit me from the first paragraph.

“The most important thing to me is a feeling of regulation. Low stress. No anxiety. Calm in all things.”

That’s why I joined her program. Her words touched me from the moment I found her. I appreciated her approach to business. I loved her advice, her words. They’ve helped me as I’ve switched my focus, moving towards a business I love.

She talked about her life, the past few years, her current life. She described it as “Stressed AF over self inflicted activity.” Her and her husband, trying to make sense of the life they’d created.

He turned to her months ago, asking, “Why are we doing life this way?”

She’s not alone.

I’ve been asking that question A LOT these past few years. The 2020s, oh the 2020s.

I know when you are aware, you start to notice. Want a new red car, you see all the red cars on the streets. I’ve been asking questions, looking for change, looking to slow down. Is it any wonder I find others doing it too?

In the marketing coach I signed with two years ago. In the people I follow online. In my own friend network.

Women especially are saying, “Something’s got to give.”

I notice it everywhere.

And when you notice, new things happen. Words that say “It’s okay …”

What if we just slowed down? Took a slower, calmer, deeper look at life?

The Calm Creative

005 - Slow creativity

What does a slower, calmer, deeper creative practice look like? It's something I've thought about since reading Cal Newport's latest book Slow Productivity. So in this episode, I dive into the key points of the book, my thoughts on them, and how they pertain to creatives, today. What does it means to create work you're proud of? And how can we create ou…

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a year ago · 25 likes · 5 comments · Louise Stigell

What if we sat back and asked better questions? What if we searched for more meaningful answers?

What if what we truly wanted was just a slower, simpler, better life?

Nature is about slowing down

It was late. The sun moving slowly towards the horizon. A cooler breeze settling in, overtaking the heat of the day.

My husband and I strolled up and down the aisles of our local community garden, where our plot sits in the middle.

We smile at the way each plot owner chooses to plant their seeds. What each plot owner decides to grow.

One set up an elaborate system, raised beds, a complicated irrigation system.

One caters to the local wildlife, a birdhouse, lots of flowers.

We’ve expanded this year, moving up from a half plot to a full plot, enjoying so much more room. We’ve moved forward with our desire for vertical growing, upgrading our simple bamboo teepees from last year to a more sophisticated PVC pipe and rabbit fencing archway to allow our squash and pumpkin vines to grow.

With more room comes more food.

But it’s not just about the food. It’s about the peace of the garden. The way it feels to dig in the dirt. Plant something and watch it grow. See what works. And what doesn’t.

To ask bigger questions. What we want. Out of our lives together. Out of the world we’re living in. Out of the careers we have. Out of our next decade.

My marketing coach’s words resonated with me today:

“Life is a journey, and it’s a never ending evolution of growing into the next version of who we are. If you are not happy, if you do not feel free, and if you are more stressed than calm - step into change and watch the magic unfold.”

Where do we feel free? Where do I feel magic?

In the garden. In the kitchen. Because that’s where I feel I’m the best version of me.

The two combine when you pick a surprise, something that’s grown quickly, out of sight, until you notice it.

Then you pick it, bring it home, and figure out how to use it in a recipe. Use it in your cooking.

Like yellow squash. It becomes the center of the meal.

Yellow Squash and White Bean Soup

Start with a base.

1 leek, chopped (white part only)
1 shallot, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, finely minced

Saute it until tender. Then add:

2 tablespoons Italian herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, etc)

Stir herbs in just enough to let the aroma tantalize your senses. Get creative. Change it up. Add what suits you best. You can pull herbs from the garden or use dried. Taste along the way.

Now it’s time to add:

4 cups veggie broth
6 cups of yellow squash, sliced into bite-sized pieces
2 15-ounce cans of white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups of chopped kale

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes, just until squash is tender. Turn off the heat and add:

Juice and zest from one lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste

Taste before serving.

Mmm …

Why are we doing life this way?

“Why didn’t we buy property, an acre or two, load it up with fruits and veggies and flowers, just for us?” My husband almost whispered under his breath, as he stepped up to a rose bush, taking in the fragrance. I’d noticed this plot from the moment we took ownership of our own. But we hadn’t made our way to the far corner, until now.

The owner has been there for a while, a long time looking at the size of some of his plants. Wooden structures weathered with age, dried moss tucked into the corners. But the roses, they’re gorgeous! Still blooming this late into the season.

I thought about my husband's comment. “Because, life,” I responded.

I knew he wasn’t looking for an answer. It’s just a moment in time, relishing what we have right now in our lives, wondering what it would be like to go back in time, telling ourselves what would become important in the future.

And there’s the dilemma. Reaching an age where things look clear for today, wishing you could have implemented them years before to be here today. Yet wondering if it's too late to implement them now.

Do we have what it takes to create that life now? Is that the life we want in five years? Ten years? Twenty?

One thing I know for sure. The question, “Why are we doing life this way?” is front and center right now. It’s what we’re thinking about. It’s where we’re going.

And maybe that’s the most important part of the question.

Because thinking about it is the starting point.

And where it takes us, that’s the journey.

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