As time marches on, my appreciation of my urban gardens deepen as well as my intent to eat local, eat organic, and eat vegetarian.  Just tonight I read that the USDA has approved a process whereby chickens grown and slaughtered in the USA will then be shipped to China for processing.  Absolutely unbelievable!  In the past year China has been caught passing off rat meat as mutton, selling sausages filled with maggots, and having an outbreak of H7N9 bird flue in live poultry.  Now they are going to be processing chicken for millions of Americans.  Certainly this should be a wakeup call for eating locally grown produce.

Labor Day weekend I decided to expand Urban Garden 1 which is located in my front yard.  I dug up a 20 foot by 40 foot area.  In it I've planted two grape vines, radishes (which are begging to be thinned)  french beans, more swiss chard, spinach, carrots, and artichokes.  All seeds have germinated.

The twins are doing fine.  Thus far, this one pot has produced three cantaloupes.  The previous one was delicious (and yes, I saved the seed).

Also on Labor Day weekend I planted some Siberian Kale.  Already I've had several salads using this delicious and nutritious green.  Below the Kale is a photo of some of the Swiss Chard that is also growing in my front yard.  Some of the leaves are now so large they will need to be cooked.  Chard leaves contain 13 different polyphenol antioxidants. One of the primary flavanoids found in Swiss Chard leaves is syringic acid which helps to regulate blood sugar and thus is a good source for blood sugar control.