There are very few things in this world more satisfying than being able to pick some fresh produce straight from your garden and prepare it yourself in the kitchen. The entire process of cultivating your own fresh produce on a small scale in your own backyard pumpkin patch is therapeutic, but there’s something totally gratifying about being able to taste the signature essence of your own garden when you’re enjoying the cooked food.

It’s quite a bit of work maintaining your own vegetable garden though, even if you reside in an area where the soil is good along with the weather. A domestic orchard of sorts is also quite the challenge, even in the very common case that it actually develops by mistake really since people who enjoy any fruits from trees growing in their backyards often discover by chance that they can actually grow fruit trees instead of expressly setting out to plant them.

The feeling of enjoying your own produce after picking it fresh and cooking it can be a very addictive one though, to be tried at least once since this is indeed one of the more constructive addictions one can have.

So start with some easy crops to plant and maintain, such as fresh strawberries. They’re usually very easy to grow, with the strawberry plant reproducing via sprouts. In fact, you’ll probably soon realize that you probably have way too many strawberry plants to have to contend with, in which case you can give the surplus away to the neighbors or make all sorts of tasty treats with strawberries as a main ingredient.

One such tasty treat you can make is that of a delicious, fresh strawberry shake.

Ingredients

6-8 fresh strawberries (as ripe as they can get)

2 heaped scoops of baby formula milk (or whatever equivalent of which will make 500ml)

1 handful of plain Rice Krispies

1 medium sized glass of ice cubes

4 mint leaves (or 6 garden clover leaves)

Preparation method

This is a very easy shake to prepare because all you really need to do is throw every single last bit of all these ingredients into a blender and blend until the paste forms a smooth consistency which is wet and runny enough to drink. “Runny” makes it sound a bit bad, but it should really have the consistency of a regular drink that’s just a little bit thicker than regular water.

The portions of each of the ingredients can be adjusted and tweaked of course to go along with your own taste preferences, but the idea is to experience somewhat of an earthy taste with a minty punch to it. The Rice Krispies in particular add that ice-cream cone type taste to the very dominant strawberry sweetness and wholesome goodness of the baby formula milk, so there’s no need to add any artificial sweetener such as white sugar or in fact even a natural sweetener like honey.

The aim is for you to want to describe a taste of some sort of liquefied strawberry flavored ice-cream, ice cream cone included! It’s delicious, filling and healthy.