Back when I was blogging, I used to rant on and on about how common it is for some of the daytime shows (specifically a well-known doctor-turned-show-host) to feature the nutrition powerhouses grown and/or produced in other countries that are expensive for us to buy (and sometimes dang-near impossible to find), when there could be things growing right in your back yard that are just as good. And Lo, here is an article I got through the GardenSMART E-Newsletter that is talking about that very thing. In case you don't get the newsletter e-mailed to you, here is that URL:

http://www.gardensmart.tv/?p=articles&title=Vegetables_are_Nature%27s_Original_Nutritional_Powerhouses

I would add some information to that article, however.

Chia seeds are readily available now at my local WMT. They're where the flour is shelved. And you can grow Chia, here in North America. Not sure how harvesting would go, though. But Chia, for people like me, most certainly might be easier for me to grow that squash, thanks to The Squash Bug, sometimes called "Stink Bug". And yes, they do stink when smashed.

A berry that is easy to grow but is hardly ever mentioned is the Aronia berry. The Aronia berry is coated in that same puckery compound that grapes are, and they're not good just-picked off the bush. They remind me of blueberries crossed with currants when baked into muffins, though. I started out with one bush. This last fall, I took cuttings, coated the cut ends in rooting compound, and stuck them in the ground with a glass quart canning jar over them. They sat like this all winter. Now that the weather is warming, I have babysat them rather closely, removing the jars gradually so they can stay uncovered on warm sunny days and thus won't be killed by the trapped heat, and then going out in the evenings when nighttime frost is forecast, and covering them up again. It's a bit of a pain. But it's only temporary. My twelve baby Aronia bushes are budded out and will be leafing out soon. We're having a dry spring, so now the babysitting consists of making sure they have adequate water, which is step 2. It'll take two or three years for them to become bushes big enough to make berries. Likely I'll be 75 by the time I pick anything from them. But Hubs and I are frugal -- and this is a free way to propagate if you have access to one bush that can spare some cuttings. I've done this in years past with Nanking cherry bushes and with Hansen's Bush cherry, which is like Aronia in that they are quite tasty when cooked but not so much right off the bush. This year I expect to get a good harvest from the bushes that I propagated from them.

I take my great-grand-daughter out to the garden with me when she comes over to spend the night with us, some weekends during the summer. She's afraid of bugs (any bug), but she tries to be brave in the garden because she loves to eat peas. She knows how to tell if the peas are big enough in the pod to be picked. She knows how to pick the pod with both hands. She zips the pods open, eats the peas right up, and then chews on the pod while she's testing for the next likely candidate. When I have enough to pick for a meal, she sits down with me and helps to shell them. She does a good job and doesn't eat any of those until we cook them and have them with our meal. She was six years old last year when we started this and is such a good girl. When I related to her mother how we had spent our time in the garden, she was so very happy because she said she thought it was important for kids to know where their food comes from, and we are the only family she knows that have a garden. Peas are another power food, by the way. Have you ever bought pea protein powder to make a shake with? Same thing, only in it's freshest form. Next time you make a shake in the blender, throw a handful of frozen peas in with your milk and fruit. You won't taste the peas, and they will make the shake have a more creamy consistency, especially if you also put in half a banana.