Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces - Gayla Trail

Your patio, balcony, rooftop, front stoop, boulevard, windowsill, planter box, or fire escape is a potential fresh food garden waiting to happen. In Grow Great Grub, Gayla Trail, the founder of the leading online gardening community (YouGrowGirl.com), shows you how to grow your own delicious, affordable, organic edibles virtually anywhere.                  
 
Grow Great Grub packs in tips and essential information about:
 
- Choosing a location and making the most of your soil (even if it’s less than perfect)
- Building a raised bed, compost bin, and self-watering container using recycled materials
- Keeping pests and diseases away from your plants—the toxin-free way
- Growing bountiful crops in pots and selecting the best heirloom varieties
- Cultivating hundreds of plants, from blueberries to Thai basil, to the best tomatoes you’ll ever taste
- Canning, and preserving to make the most of your garden’s generosity
- Green-friendly, cost-saving, growing, and building projects that are smart and stylish
- And much more!
 
Whether you’re looking to eat on a budget or simply experience the pleasure of picking tonight’s meal from right outside your door, this is the must-have book for small-space gardeners—no backyard required.
 
GAYLA TRAIL is the creator of the acclaimed top gardening website yougrowgirl.com. Her work as a writer and photographer has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Newsweek, Budget Living, and ReadyMade. A resident of Toronto who has grown a garden on her rooftop for more than 10 years, she is the author of You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening.
Recipe from Grow Great Grub: Root Vegetable Fries

Ingredients:
1 large carrot
1 large potato
1 large sweet potato
1 large beet
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper

Roasted potatoes are good and all, but a roasted root vegetable medley is just as easy to make and a little bit fancy, too. Substitute any root vegetable, including starchy potatoes, turnip, parsnip, celery root, or rutabaga. While the veggies are roasting, toss a garlic bulb or two into the pan at about the 30-minute mark--the result: easy, creamy garlic! Yum.

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the vegetables into 1/2"-wide spears and toss in a roasting pan with olive oil and herbs to coat. Keep the peels on; that’s where the vitamins are.

2. Roast for approximately 40 minutes, turning regularly until all sides have turned a golden brown and the fries are cooked straight through.

Serves 2–4

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