our big food swap
Some folks in my office organized an event where we’d bring in our excess fruits and veggies and do a big exchange for some of the other things people brought to share.
My main time of having excess food in my garden is around March, when the grapefruit tree goes crazy. Now in the late throes of summer, the garden basically had herbs to share–I didn’t think the figs would make it intact in a tight backpack as I scootered to work. So here’s my little pile of offerings: rosemary, parsley, lemongrass and rose geranium. People weren’t convinced that rose geranium was edible, so I also brought a couple recipes. [ Here’s one of them. ]
I didn’t feel so bad that my figs didn’t make it in. Someone had three trees of green figs, all of them ripening at the same time.
We have another gardening artist in the building. He had some potted tomatoes and sweet peppers to share. I helped myself to one of the peppers, Doux Long d’Antibes, a long sweet pepper from up the coast from Cannes.
And here’s this glorious collection of hot peppers. I love my hot peppers, but being fairly coastal I have a hard time growing them. This gardener lives inland a few miles, so the little bit of extra warmth helped her get this great crop. So of course my haul included a few of these as well.
This was the first time that this food swap was tried at the office, and I’d definitely call it a success. You reach a point where even neighbors and family don’t want to see you headed their direction with a bag of fruit.
I’m hoping we can do this again, maybe in the late winter, when I’ll have kale and chard to spare, along with a tree full of amazing grapefruit…
August 27 2010 06:30 am | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: food exchanges • summer • vegetables
Loree / danger garden on 27 Aug 2010 at 7:51 am #
Great idea! Those peppers are things of beauty…
Wendy on 27 Aug 2010 at 1:20 pm #
What a fun event you guys had! A great way to try different things and spread the gardening fever.
Arleen Webster/Camissonia's Corner on 29 Aug 2010 at 8:17 pm #
James, what a great way to share one’s garden bounty with friends and coworkers! Kind of like a Seed Savers Exchange, where the seeds of heirloom varieties are swapped between farmers and home gardeners, but in this case, involves fresh produce and seedlings. Instead of the ho hum office potluck, it may be more fun to have a veggie swap!
Jean on 31 Aug 2010 at 8:21 am #
James, What a wonderful workplace custom. Fresh herbs are one of my favorite things about this time of the year, so I would definitely have been taking home some of yours. Last week when I arrived back on campus for the beginning of the school year, I discovered that one of the college employees, who has a small farm, sells produce on campus on Friday afternoons. How delightful to be able to step outside my office and stock up on fruits and veggies!
melanie bear on 02 Sep 2010 at 10:53 am #
Your event is really fun. I just wished that we also have like that in our office or maybe I can start that event. Lol. All of your herbs are really good. There are many of us too that don’t believe that rose geranium is edible. Maybe if I mix it in a recipe then they will be agreeing with me.
ricki - sprig to twig on 02 Sep 2010 at 5:58 pm #
I remember tearing out a recipe from Gourmet magazine in a dentist’s office many years ago, intrigued by the idea of using a geranium leaf in the bottom of the pan. These were pre-gardening days, and what I used was the leaf of a pelargonium. You can imagine how tasty THAT turned out to be.
rose plated on 12 Sep 2010 at 7:30 pm #
That is really a great idea for making an event in your office. I will really love to suggest that to my officemate since most of them are into gardening. I just hope that my garden will have many produce when we started that event. LOl.
Isabella Cake on 28 Sep 2010 at 4:19 am #
That is really a wonderful work custom. We should try doing that in our work. I love your bell peppers. They are really big and reddish. I can’t wait to see how my peppers produce.