For years, we have been relying on local farms to provide us with ingredients for our menus. Last spring, we took it to the next level by building a garden of five raised beds, each 5 by 30 feet, on our property. In the beds we plant lettuce, tomatoes, heirloom vegetables, broccoli, cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, arugula, all types of pole beans, herbs, cukes, chilies, bell peppers, squash, eggplant and more. On an adjacent field, we planted 400 bulbs of garlic last fall for this summer’s harvest! This year we will also start composting a large percentage of our veggie scraps to help fertilize the gardens.