Author Archives: Mike Lieberman

When heated up and blended down, cauliflower can get to that creamy consistency like mashed potatoes. This cauliflower and leek soup is dairy and gluten free. Here’s what you’ll need: 1 1/2 small heads of cauliflower (or one large) 1 leek the bottom white and light green part 5-6 cloves of garlic 3-4 cups of homemade veggie broth Tablespoon of olive oil Dash...

There was a post on Change.org, Federal Budget Cuts Threaten Food and Water Safety Programs, which should give you another reason to grow your own food and source as much of it locally as you can. Here’s an excerpt: Congress recently proposed a federal budget that threatens to eliminate critical funding for food safety and clean water programs, placing the health...

Mint is a pretty invasive plant. Just ask anyone who has ever grown it in their garden. It can take over pretty quickly. This is why most people recommend growing it solely in containers. I’ve had my mint plant for a few months now. The leaves have remained pretty small. It’s not until I started my garden from scratch that I began paying more attention to it. The...

Nothing quite says spring time (or makes your pee stink) like asparagus showing up again in your garden or at the local farmers market. This recipe I slightly adapted from a cooking demo that I attended at Native Foods in Culver City. Make this in the beginning of the week and enjoy throughout. Here’s what you’ll need: 2 bunches of asparagus 2 avocados Handful of...

Update: I was corrected by someone and told that People’s Gardens are the name for Community Gardens, not people’s individual gardens. It still doesn’t sit well with me. Last month the USDA announced People’s Gardens. I’m sure that my thoughts on why this database will be questioned by the “anything having to do with gardening is great...

It’s been two-months since I’ve started my garden from scratch and for the most part it’s doing pretty well. Though I did notice that there were some white clusters on the stems of the spinach plants. These clusters were forming around the part where the leaves are coming off of the stems. I also noticed an insect on the plant as well around the clusters....

Butternut squash are still readily available at the Farmers Markets. Since Beth Buczynski of EcosphericBlog was happy that I posted a non-soup recipe when I made the roasted butternut squash fries, I’m posting another non-soup recipe. Here’s what you’ll need: 1/2 butternut squash 2 apples (one sweet and one sour) Handful of walnuts 2 tablespoons of raw honey ...

There was a post on EcoSalon titled The Conscious Case Against Veganism by Abigail Wick. The gist of the post was that just because one is vegan that doesn’t mean that they are eating in a more sustainable way than an omnivore. This is a topic that I wrote about in the past on GreenLifestyle Magazine. To me what was most interesting about her post were the comments....

A lot of my posts contain the words “I” and “me” a lot. If you’ve been following along, you know that I started my garden from scratch, did some succession planting and thinned out the seedlings. My thoughts on that right now are, “who cares?” Most of you have been buried in more snow than you can imagine this past winter and...

I’d like to introduce MasterGardening.com as a sponsor of Urban Organic Gardener. I spoke with their Social Media Coordinator, Jessica, to learn more about the company. Here’s the Q&A. What does your company specialize in? MasterGardening.com specializes in products to help you get better results in the garden. As a leading supplier of garden tools, composters,...

Here’s another recipe using one of my new favorite vegetables – the rutabaga. I’ve already made a soup out of it and was given another idea by one of my friends on Facebook – a rutabaga mash. This rutabaga mash is dairy and gluten free. Here’s what you’ll need: 1-2 rutabagas Tablespoon of olive oil 2-3 clovers of garlic Dash of sea salt and...

When President Obama was campaigning in 2008, there was all this promise of “change”. That was the rallying cry “change.” Everyone jumped on board and was happy when he was voted in. One of the first things that happened when he moved into office was his wife, Michelle, became the poster child for healthy living, especially for kids, with her Let’s...

The one thing that I don’t say enough when writing these posts is “Thank You.” I’d like to thank all of you for taking the time out of your busy lives to read what I have to say. The reason that this has come to mind right now is because in the past few weeks, I’ve been nominated for a few awards. While I’m pretty happy to be nominated,...

Brussel sprouts are the vegetable that everyone likes to make fun of for some reason (that’s likely dumb). This recipe is a quick and simple way to enjoy them and you can make it in bulk for the week. This recipe is dairy and gluten free. Here’s what you’ll need: Half to one pound of brussel sprouts 6-8 cloves of garlic tablespoon of olive oil tablespoon of...

There was a post on SimpleBites.net by Aimee titled Why (and How) You Should Create a Healthy Food Culture for Your Family that got me thinking about the food and health culture that I’ve created and the one that I grew up with. Aimee’s talks about food culture as it relates to couples and kids, why food culture is important today, the food culture of her family...

Since I’ve started my garden from scratch committed to eating off from my balcony more often, I am taking better care of the containers. It’s been a few weeks and the seedlings are starting to grow, so now it’s time to thin them out. What that means is cutting out the extra ones. When you planted your seeds, you likely scattered a few of them in the...

I’d like to introduce BlueStone Garden as a sponsor of Urban Organic Gardener. I spoke with one of their E-Commerce Marketing Manager, Kelly Van Eschen to learn more about the company. Here’s the Q&A. What does your company specialize in? Everything but the plants! We offer great garden tools from Wolf-Garten, planters, greenhouses, water and irrigation...

When I was at the farmers market last week, I noticed rutabagas. I’d never had them before and was curious. The vendor hooked me up with one for free (gotta love the farmers market) and recommended making a soup with it. So I made one and it came out damned good. This rutabaga soup is dairy and gluten free. Here’s what you’ll need: 1 rutabaga 2 ribs of celery ...