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[caption id="attachment_15765" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Korean Vegetable Garden with Korean Sqaush, Cucumber and Chili Pepper plants[/caption]

Korean vegetable garden is something I have been doing for over 10+ years now and I can't imagine living without it. Not only do I enjoy how wonderful they all taste and how fresh they are, I just love watching them grow and picking them whenever I need it.

Reasons for growing your own vegetables

Gardening is great for Mental Health

For me, my day always starts with visiting my garden of flowers and vegetables. Whenever I smell my roses or see plants grow - I feel my stresses all just melt away and make me think about what heaven must be like. ❤️😇And having my own garden has especially helped me to stay positive and not stress about stocking up vegetables during this difficult time of sheltering in place. This article on Psychology Today talks about the benefits of Gardening on Mental Heath.

Growing your own Korean vegetables is yummy and reduces food waste

In addition to my love for gardening, a big reason why I decided to grow my own vegetables is that I either buy too much from the market and end up having them go bad OR I don't buy enough and I never have them when I need it.

For example, Perilla leaves, I LOVE them but I can't eat them every day because my husband is not a huge fan. So.. either I buy them and they go bad before I use it all or I don't buy them and then I don't have it when I need it. It's not the end of the world if I don't have Kkaennip but then it makes such a difference when you add it to a dish.😍

The same goes for Ssukat (Chrysanthemum leaves), Chili peppers and more.. but when you have them in your garden, it's just a lovely short walk to your home grocery store 😊🥒🌶.

And for me, it's because I just LOVE to farm

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[caption id="attachment_14675" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Steamed Perilla L:eaves (Kkaennip jjim) on rice[/caption]

Steamed Perilla leaves (깻잎찜 Kkaennip Jjim) was something I knew I would be making this summer because I planted a little too much Perilla this spring. 😝😝I wasn't planning on planting so much but...you see.....

It's all because some creature(s) kept digging up my perilla seeds before they had a chance to sprout!!! Are they birds? Squirrels? I don't know..

Anyway, after my 3rd try of planting perilla seeds and finding them all disturbed and gone again couple days later, I was so frustrated and angry that I poured a whole bunch of seeds into the ground (the 4th time) instead of planting just a few. Well, this way some should still survive!!! RIGHT?? HAHAHA.. Well, murphy's law...for some reason, this time, the seeds were not dug up and so not just some sprouted but every seed survived and I ended up with a Perilla forest..😜

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Cooked Cucumber Recipe using overgrown, over ripe cucumbers aka Nogak in Korean.

This cooked cucumber recipe makes otherwise unpalatable cucumbers totally delicious! Also often served as Temple Food in Korea.

Cooked cucumber recipe is probably not a common concept for some but it is a common dish called Nogak Namul 노각 나물 in the Korean country side. You can make this cooked cucumber dish with either regular or yellow overgrown cucumbers and you can use any kind of cucumbers, not just English or Korean because you peel the skin and remove the seeds.

This is a wonderful recipe for vegetable gardeners -- when you leave a cucumber on the vine for a long time, past its peak harvest time, it will grow too big, turn yellow with the skin turning really tough and the flesh tasting bitter. I didn't have any yellow cucumbers but I did have one that grew way too big and knew it was getting to be tough and bitter... so I decided to make this cooked cucumber dish with it.

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Korean Chive Pancake - Buchujeon (부추전)

Korean Chive Pancake (Buchujeon) uses Garlic Chives and is one of those foods that may seem like there is not much difference between different recipes but just like how there can be big difference in taste and texture between a plain ol' breakfast pancake that you get from McDonalds and pancakes that you get from a famous breakfast diner, you can actually have an amazingly good chive pancakes and oh, so-so Buchujeon that you get from any old Korean restaurant.

The key to making the best Korean chive pancake is the batter to chive ratio. As my mother-in-law used to say, "It should look like you don't have enough batter and too much chives". When making Korean chive pancakes or any other buchimgae/jeon, Chives or any other main ingredient should NEVER be swimming in batter but be just barely covered in batter. I have to confess, I always have doubts every time I make it. 'Should I add more batter?'...is what I always ask myself and then most times I am able to stop myself and make an amazingly flavorful chive or zucchini pancake.

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