I am in Nothern California. Growing in raised beds.
Kale
Swiss chard(white giant and a yellow variety)
Purple mustard
Two varieties of sugar snap peas
Arugula
Broccoli
Three kinds of lettuce
Carrots
Bunching onions and herbs are always growing.

I just cook them and feed them to my dog. He likes them A LOT!

You can also find these at Marukai in Cupertino. If you live in this area Marukai, and Maxim for other Asian ingredients (Haw flakes for my son) both are worth a visit.

Drinkable? Just buy sake or soju to drink. I have always thought as mirin as just a cooking wine. To add a little sweet to a sauce, marinade or dressing. I buy the cheap stuff or what is on sale. It is an ingredient I use quite a bit but never gave much thought to buy the best of. It is cheap sweet rice wine for cooking, its not fancy just Asian.

Spend more on sake or soju.

I know the snap pea as a fall/winter veggie throws a lot of people. I live in the Bay area and it is mild enough. They take up some room so it might not be what you want to try with only one bed. Chard, kale,radish, beets,carrots all do fine unprotected, lettuce as well.
Check out the fall seeds at Territorial seeds.

http://www.territorialseed.com/prod_d...

Might as well fix the slant now and put it behind you if it is going to bug you?

It should be fine if it is on a slight slope. If you are worried maybe put some landscape fabric on the low side( inside the bed) and add dirt on top of it? What are you going to grow? I am lucky and can grow veggies threw the winter in Ca. I just started kale, snap peas, chard, lettuce carrots, and beets.

We take my son to Dim Sum a lot. He is 4 and has a few favorites. The "fun" ( a white sheet of noodle) wrapped around 4 shrimp, the turnip cake, Sue mai(pork dumpling) and Don Tat( little egg custards)That is about it for him. If the place has a fish tank ask to sit near it as toddlers love it for entertainment. Bring his milk or what ever and put it in one of the tea cups. They love acting just like adults drinking tea.

Dim sum is easy, when you are out of tea. Open the tea pot and they will re fill it for you. When the carts come around its a simple yes or no. They will load you up till you tell them you are done. When you are ready to pay you can waive down the host by holding up the check that is left on your table.

Try Kitazawa seeds on line. They have 6 varieties. I order from them every year. If you order from them pick up some bunching onions also. You will have a life time supply of green onions in your yard. They survive cold down to 25 C! You will never buy green onions again!

http://www.kitazawaseed.com/seeds_chi...

I have a Vincent Price cook book from the 50's I got it at an estate sale for $1.

I have a bio stack composter and it works just fine. In the past I just made a circle with chicken wire and piled every thing in it and after a year or so I had quite a haul of compost. I put every egg shell in there(good for tomatoes) used coffee grounds and to kick start the pile I will get a bag of steer or chicken manure for .99 cents. Also the green to brown ratio is important if you want it to break down fast(fast is relative) so to every one bucket of kitchen scraps (green) you need twice that of brown. Which can be news paper shredded, card board tubes(paper towels) pressed fiber egg crates. You can even dry some leaves or other yard scraps in the sun and save that for your browns.

To get rid of the volunteer seeds you can bag up the compost and let it cook in the sun for a week or so. That can take care of most of that. But I had the BEST butter nut squash volunteer and grow from the base of the compost bin.

Composting takes time, but it is cool to see all the stuff that was tossed in the trash get digested down into the best plant nutrient you can get.

Could be tomato horn worms? do you see any black poops around the plants? They eat tomato and egg plant also. Look under the branches and leaves, they blend in very well.

http://www.thedeliciouslife.com/asian...

Paht bing soo as in the Korean dessert?
we make shave ice all the time but do not add all the fruit and stuff. The condensed milk is good and we make syrup with Kool Aid. Great summer treat.

Hm? I have had shave ice with red bean and the sno-cap( condensed milk) But that is not a drink.

One trick is to save the ash from your Bar-B-Q and cover the tops of the radish with it. The row covers work also. I grow my radish in the fall when those pests are not a problem. They are a pain for sure. Good luck.

I had earwigs in my lettuce last year and the chard was being eaten by, get this. Wasps! I did not figure it out till I was sitting in the garden with a beer being puzzled about what was chomping my chard. I got slugo plus for the earwigs, and a floating row cover for the chard. I took out the chard this year as I found Kale grows like a weed and nothing bothers it. Check some the row covers on the link. I ended up getting a roll of fabric for $15 and used stakes with a pot on top to support it over the plants.

http://www.territorialseed.com/prod_d...

What area are you living in? If you google foraging and add your state you may find some thing more local?

This is another blog writer who has a book

This forum may be more help full? You may need to ask for a specific plant.

http://fat-of-the-land.blogspot.com/

or ask for a specific plant you are interested in on this forum? Such as a specific onion in the allium topic area. I am sure you can find some thing there.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

You can check out this blog. He is on the West coast but he has links to other sites about this kind of stuff. Purslane is one that comes to mind that grows like crazy. The hunter angler gardener cook guy made dolmas with mallow. That stuff grows like crazy all over the place.

http://honest-food.net/

http://www.territorialseed.com/prod_d...

Peppers like hot weather. So be patient and they will flower when the weather gets warmer. Leave a few on the plant so they turn red and see how different they taste. I have 4 this year and Thai dragon peppers. I'm going to try my hand at a hot sauce using both! Check the forum on garden web.

http://gardenweb.com/

Ok first store potatoes are not the same as "Seed" potatoes. Seed potatoes have been aged properly so they are ready to produce. Store bought potatoes have not been stored in the dark for long enough. The term "seed potato" dose not mean it has been treated with any thing. Seek out a good source like territorial seeds.

Have you heard of a potato tower? Google it there is a video on you tube, it is cheesy but you will get the idea. I am trying a potato tower for the first time this year. So far they plants are growing like crazy!

You might try slugo plus? It takes care of earwigs, slugs and snails. Or if you want to be all organic diatamacious earth or DE for pool filters will kill slugs and snails. Problem is it only works when dry and wont even phase an earwig.

If you want Asian veggies and herbs check out Kitazawa seeds.

http://www.kitazawaseed.com/

They are very generous with the quantity of seeds and you can also order bulk if you need. I also order from Territorial seeds as well. Burpee has a pretty catalog but they seem to be stingy on the quantity of seeds last few times I ordered from them. Any one else feel that way with burpee?
Any ways check out kitizawa they have all kinds of cool unusual stuff!

I have a Bio-Stack compost bin that works well. I found I needed to add more brown to all the kitchen scraps I dump in it. After I started to add news paper/card board and dry leaves that sucker started to break down stuff fast. If you get the green brown ratio just rite you will not have a smell for the neighbors to complain about. If your husband is a wood worker have him use some pallets to make compost bins with. You can find easy plans on line. Or try looking at www.gardenweb.com I'm sure you can find more info there.

Heck I find some good deals at TJ's. I'm a fan of Australian wines and wines from south America. Yes they are in the best bang for your buck category and so what. They are affordable and good quality. I found a nice Portuguese vino verde that is a sparkler there and its a great house wine. One friend said ," Oh I feel like I'm special and we are having a party!" she liked it that much! Hello $3.99!

I use to work in a wine shop and you know what? Wine snobs over think things. For god sakes people it is meant to be enjoyed but some times the snob thing very much ruins the fun for others around you. Also most folks can NOT afford Silver Joke or Stags leap for a week night wine. I do not like two buck chuck but there are plenty of good buys in the ten buck and under category! Bev Mo has the 5 cent sale on now! Hello Penfolds $11.99 a bottle and 5 Cents for a second bottle! Now I just need to drink some wine so I can make room!

I have a mandarin orange tree I planted 5 years ago. It grows slow and produces not so much yet but what it produces is very sweet. I have it directly planted with only half day sun so that may have some thing to do with the slow growth and production? I am in the South Bay and we have a warmer summer than you do. I also have some dwarf limes that do very well directly planted.

If you want fruit it can take up to 7 years to produce. I have never heard of one producing in a pot? The other issue I have heard of is some avocados are hybrids. so the seed may not give you the fruit you are expecting it to produce? Since you seem to want it as an ornamental kind of thing I guess it dosnt matter?

Try some salad mix seed packets. I have 3 kinds going and a row of winter red kale(turns sweet after a frost)a row of butter head lettuce. Radish, plant them then 2 weeks later plant another batch so you have a continues harvest. Sugar snap peas grow very easy directly sowed where you want them. Plant some just to harvest the sprouts also. Snow peas are also easy.
Very small zucchini are nice in a salad as well as the blossoms. Bunching onions if you like green onions are good producers. Burpee has a yellow/orange sweet pepper called "Big Daddy" that is great! Sweet as a bell pepper but is ready to eat much faster than bells. Yard long beans if you have a trellis are nice blanched in a salad.

Territorial seeds has two kinds of purslane. Garden and golden. I just grow the wild stuff that popped up in my yard. I'm sure you can plant now and put the pot in a protected area by the house or fence. Or cover the pot with some fabric and make a little green house like thing. This is the link to Territorial page with the purslane.

http://www.territorialseed.com/prod_d...

Yes I have a 14 inch pot that I let it self seed in. It spills over the side and grows like crazy from spring to the fall when it dies back. It thrives on neglect, if I see it droopy I give it some water and it comes rite back. I grow the wild one some where I read that the other up right varietals do not taste as good. Have not tried them so I do not know for sure. I know Territorial seeds caries two types.

I second the Avgolemono Lemon rice soup. I take another approach to it though. Make the broth your self. If you can get a chicken for $5-$6 boil that with some carrots and cellery/ onions. Take out the chicken put in the rice and make the lemon soup. You can eat that for a few days.

Take the chicken you used to make the soup and make enchiladas or chicken salad sandwiches. Or make some ginger scallion oil as a dipping sauce and serve it on rice. Each one of those will last one person a few days. I almost always make enchiladas though. Soup a few days and enchiladas, that $6 bird just got you threw the week!

My mother use to make beans and corn bread every Wednesday and we had left overs the next night EVERY WEEK. It got boring but I crave it now. Whats a bag of beans cost like .99 cents?

1 pound of beans in crock pot with a chunk of ham hock if you can afford it cover with water? cook for 8 hours and your in bean city!

I also can make frozen burittos for around $10 that I eat for breakfast. If you make your own beans you can cut the cost almost in half. I use caned beans.They last about 2 weeks.

Ground beef/potato , 2 cans of green salsa.

Cube potato, put in pan W/ ground beef add salsa and cook till potato is soft. Smash a few potato chunks, it just makes it good. Set aside to cool. 30 pack of flour tortillas. about 2 Lg cans of beans is about rite. scoop of beans scoop of meat wrap buritto. Make them small like the ones in the freezer section in the store. put in freezer. Microwave two for 4 min. I bring a bag to work and keep them in the freezer there. 2 a day lasts me 15 days.

This is an easy to make self watering container. You can find some thing like this on the market but this is so much cheaper. The good thing is you can fill it and forget about it for the week end. Check out the garden web topics for container gardens. Lots of information there.

As for easy to grow; Salad mix, lettuce, Kale,radish, cherry tomato, peppers, some bush cukes & squash(patty pan)

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/l...