Growing your own veggies fills the larder and the soul

These days, Lorene Edwards Forkner has both the time and inclination to cook meals at home. And why not, with a pantry and freezer filled with summer's bounty? "We've never eaten better in our lives," she says of her reignited lust for growing and preserving food.

For years, Forkner kept busy running bustling little Fremont Gardens Nursery along with raising two children. Her own garden in West Seattle was stuffed with cool plants, but she had no space left for radishes and rutabagas. Her family made do with store-bought vegetables when they weren't going out to restaurants. Then Forkner closed down her nursery, and set in to replace perennials and shrubs with fruit and veggies. "I approach growing food as more of an intellectual project," she explains. "I want some control over the food we eat at home."

At the same time, Forkner found herself elbow deep in canning jars and freezer bags for her update of Carla Emery's classic "Canning and Preserving Your Own Harvest: An Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide" (Sasquatch Books, $16.95). This do-it-yourselfers' bible is full of good old-fashioned know-how, flavored with a whiff of survivalism. Forkner's job was to translate Emery's living-off-the-land ethos and practical knowledge into recipes and advice suited to new millennium gardeners.

Between personal conviction and professional project, Forkner's own garden and her family's diet have been transformed. It's not that Forkner hadn't grown vegetables before. As a child, she had her own little plot, and even in college she cultivated edibles in containers. "Vegetables were my gateway drug to ornamentals," she says with a laugh.

As we sit at Forkner's kitchen counter admiring a bumper harvest of beans, it's clear vegetables have taken over her pocket-size garden. Corn has colonized a warm spot that housed a New Zealand flax before it died in the big freeze of '08. Beans of various colors climb trellises, blueberries provide both shrubbery and nutritious fruit. Some edibles are more ornamental than others; Forkner describes the small, early-cropping Japanese eggplant 'Millionaire' as being as pretty as a perennial.

What does Forkner advise for those new to growing their own food? Start with lettuce, which grows easily from seed and tastes so much better fresh than anything you can buy at the store. Make the most of your garden space by growing crops you can keep picking over a long time, like pole beans, kale and chard. The latter two can be picked from the garden all winter long. Forkner's favorite way to cook chard is to slice it all up and toss the stems into a sauté pan. Once they're tender, add the leaves and stir, add salt and pepper, and top with a poached egg. Mix the whole concoction in with some cooked pasta, and you've got a meal.

But how best to deal with all you harvest? "I went through an unfortunate dehydrator phase where food just didn't really taste like food," admits Forkner. She's moved on to mostly freezing and canning fruits and vegetables fresh from her garden or farmers markets. She also suggests creating root cellar-like conditions for holding durable vegetables. "Winter squashes last a long time stored under the bed," she says.

One of Forkner's specialties is quick pickled beans. Heat spiced vinegar to boiling, and pour it over raw beans packed into a jar. They pickle up in a day and are delicious in salads, or served as cocktail garnishes or on antipasto trays.

Forkner emphasizes that she's not putting food away for the end times. "It's about making the most of what's in season right now," she says, "about sharing, using it up, eating well."

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "The New Low-Maintenance Garden." Check out her blog at www.valeaston.com. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.