- So the menu for today is going to be roasted vegetables,
a salad and a green soup
and some fried bananas.
My name is Manju Kumar.
I am the president of Brush with Bamboo.
I'm also the farm manager at Sarvodaya Farms and Nursery.
I love that I learn how to garden.
This is what I teach.
I'm very passionate about it.
I am so thankful that I have all this abundance
around me during these stressful times,
and I'm so thankful that I can grow food.
My focus has been to grow as many foods as possible
that are easy to store
and give me a long shelf life.
Check out these beautiful lettuces
that have sprung up all over
just from seeds that fell on the ground,
and I'm gonna be harvesting them for our salad.
This is my arugula that's blossoming.
I am going to pick up these young, tender shoots.
This is bok choy,
and I can just snap off these tender parts.
I love growing spinach,
and let's go harvest some.
You can grow one spinach plant
and then just keep harvesting the leaves.
No need to pull out the plant.
It'll keep giving you spinach
throughout the winter season.
The garden is also filled
with California native weeds that are edible.
Today, I'm gonna be picking up the chickweed,
and I'll clean this up.
We're gonna go get some flowers.
I'm picking up radish blossoms.
These are gonna give me a little bit
of a pungent, like a spicy flavor.
Flowers are also beautiful in a salad,
good for just overall skin health.
I think I will add this
to my dressing.
Peas, of course, are so tasty,
but so are these tender tips.
I really enjoy them raw in a salad,
or I can do a stir fry.
So yum.
Pumpkins have a pretty good shelf life
and can last you up to six to eight months.
This was one plant that produced over 60 pumpkins.
So I'm gonna harvest some Egyptian onions.
These are perennial onions,
a stronger flavor than a normal onion.
And next, we're gonna get some garlic.
Fresh garlic.
This mallow right here
is a great green to eat,
and I'll be putting this in my soup.
So if you ever get a chance to take a class
where you can identify weeds that you can eat,
it's a great bonus when you go out foraging.
I'm gonna be attempting to harvest nettles barehanded.
Watch me.
So if you can grab it by the roots,
there are no thorns by the roots.
I'm also going to harvest some cilantro.
Amazing.
Off to the kitchen now.
I kind of displayed on this table
some of the things that I harvested,
and I thought that I could eat all of it
in one day, but I just wanted to share with you
all the abundance that there is.
But that's basically the potential of food
that you can grow.
(playful music)
So my salad today is going to be chicory, arugula,
chickweed, and I'm going to toss in a little bit of mint.
So we're gonna toss it together
and then garnish it with some flowers.
We're gonna make a little very, very simple dressing.
A little bit of olive oil,
some lemon juice.
Throw in some cilantro,
some mint, salt, some pepper.
Mm, perfect.
Check it out,
my beautiful salad.
The salad is all done.
Now we're gonna work on the roasted vegetables.
We've got pumpkin and turnips
and sweet potatoes and broccoli and asparagus.
So here we go.
I'm gonna cut this pumpkin
and put it to bake.
I'm gonna hollow out this pumpkin
and use the seeds for roasting.
Next, I'm going to rub the coconut oil
all over the surface.
I've got my oven set at 350.
I'm going to place these face down,
so they retain their moisture.
(soft guitar music)
I'm ready to roast my veggies
in some olive oil.
All right, it's time
to put these roasted vegetables to roast.
Roasted vegetables are done
and ready to get plated up.
Look at how beautiful they are.
So here are all the ingredients for my soup.
I've got my chopped garlic,
my chopped onions.
I have a little bit of mint.
I have some bok choy.
I have some mallow.
I have some fresh peas.
I have chrysanthemum greens,
also some spinach and a whole bunch of nettles.
This is going to be a super duper green healthy soup.
It's gonna be awesome.
I'm gonna start off
with a little bit of avo oil,
and I'm going to drop the onion and the garlic.
Some fresh pepper.
Some salt and give it a stir.
And now we're gonna throw everything in.
All going in there, baby.
Gonna cover it.
I'm making some green broth
for my green soup,
and I'll be adding all of my leftover veggies,
onion roots,
garlic roots.
It's all gonna go in my broth.
And now, we're going to blend it in.
All right, so it's all finished.
Check it out.
And of course, we can't forget dessert.
So these are homegrown bananas.
I'm just gonna do a very simple dessert with them.
I'm gonna peal them.
Coconut oil is, of course, not something
that I can grow.
There are a few exceptions.
I cannot do salt.
Can't do pepper.
Can't do oils.
We do need some basics.
All right, so the bananas are in the pan.
And I'm going to fry them up
with a little bit of salt.
I want them to get a little golden.
I'm going to plate them up
with a little bit of cinnamon, freshly ground.
So there's my dessert.
All homegrown.
(playful accordion music)
So check out my beautiful plate.
And now it's time to enjoy my bounty.
Mm, homegrown goodness.
It's very, very satisfying
to know that you grew the food
and of course you get to enjoy it with your family.
Wow.
My mouth is really happy.