Grow it, taste it, buy the rest: women sharing garden food

Pulenaz tries something she has never eaten

Pulenaz chooses kohlrabi for a small growing project even though she has never eaten it. She shows the seed packet and the bed where she plans to grow it, then returns to check its progress. At harvest she is not yet sure how she wants to eat it; the unfamiliar shape is the reason she chose it.

In the kitchen she looks up a simple way to prepare it, peels and slices the harvested swollen stem, and cooks the slices in a pan until tender. She tastes it for the first time beside a familiar meal and considers whether she would grow it again. The story runs from choosing an unknown vegetable to learning a preparation and finally tasting the result.

Kohlrabi’s rounded edible portion is an enlarged stem. University of Florida IFAS Extension recommends peeling its outer layer before eating and lists roasting, boiling and other preparations.

References: University of Florida IFAS Extension

Carmen: an unusual variety on the plate

Carmen of Carmen in the Garden describes a Los Angeles food garden and seasonal cooking, and identifies her Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts under the same name. Her garden-to-table approach gives a reader a place to follow growing and cooking together.

References: Carmen in the Garden

Carmen grows Chioggia beets, cuts one open after harvest and shows its striped interior before roasting slices for a salad. She describes choosing the variety for its appearance and then decides how to use it with the rest of the meal. The variety is not just a name on a seed packet: the viewer sees why she picked it, what came out of the ground and where it ended up on the plate.

Cornell’s vegetable variety guide describes Chioggia as an heirloom beet with concentric pink and white rings.

References: Cornell Cooperative Extension

Becky: garden harvest plus groceries

Becky identifies herself with the Acre Homestead YouTube channel and runs Scratch Pantry, a resource covering gardening and cooking.

References: Becky / Scratch Pantry

Across the growing season Becky repeatedly harvests tomatoes, beans and courgettes from several beds. She cooks some fresh and freezes portions of the harvest for later meals. In a kitchen update she sets a large basket of vegetables beside the groceries she bought: rice, flour, milk and oil. She uses the garden vegetables for dinner and names the purchased ingredients she still relies on. The recurring harvest and stored portions show how much the garden contributes, while the shopping list remains part of the household routine.

Choose what you want to follow

Pulenaz is the choice for the whole first-taste sequence, including learning how to prepare a vegetable she had never eaten. Carmen’s example follows a particular variety from bed to plate. Becky’s account answers a different question: what a generous garden harvest replaces, and what still comes from a shop.

Sources and attribution

1. Carmen in the Garden

   AboutPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

2. Becky / Scratch Pantry

   Scratch PantryPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

3. University of Florida IFAS Extension

   KohlrabiPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

4. Cornell Cooperative Extension

   Chioggia BeetsPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026