In this Daily Gratitude Practice 2026 I’ve decided to share some of my favourites in the garden. Crops that I love so much that I keep growing them year after year. Crops that I am extra grateful for. One of these are green onions, or leeks. Just like the Ishikura I wrote about yesterday they freeze well, without any other preparation than rinsing and chopping. I grow a lot of green onions (around 200/year) since I like adding them to a number of dishes, and several of my friends appreciate them as well. One of the dishes I like to use them in is a one-week-salad, a salad that I prepare weekly, that last for a long time in the fridge. Since I make this salad every week I use a lot of green onions. If I am lucky my stash in the freezer will last until April when I hopefully harvest the first White Lisbon, the earliest spring onion in my garden.

If you’d like to try the one-week-salad here’s the recipe:

One-Week-Salad

1 tbs sugar

1/2 cup olive oil (or other vegetable oil that you have at home)

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 lbs cabbage

1 lbs carrots

1 green onion (medium sized)

(1 bell-pepper)

salt and black pepper

Heat up sugar, olive oil and vinegar on the stove until you see the first bubble. Stir frequently while heating it up. Let it cool down.

Shred the cabbage and the carrots in a food processor (or by hand).

Put the cabbage and the carrots in a big bowl/container. Cut the green onion into small pieces and add them. (During the winter I use small packages of green onions from the freezer that I prepared when I harvested them in the fall.) If you want you can add one bell-pepper, I do that sometimes, but I don’t always have access to bell-pepper. Add the liquid you prepared earlier. It is OK if it hasn’t cooled down completely. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well and store in the fridge.

To mix it up I sometimes add garlic, herbal salt, and other vegetables that I happen to have at home. Last spring I had a lot of kohlrabi and used that instead of regular cabbage. It was delicious. The Ishikura onion is also a great choice for this salad. When I have a lot of beets I use them in the salad. I would love to know if you try to make a version of this one-week-salad yourself. As the name says the salad usually is good for at least a week in the fridge. Mine tend to not last that long..

What are you grateful for today? Tell me in a comment, or make a gratitude post to share with us.

Maria

11 responses to “Daily Gratitude Practice 2026 – Garden Favourites”

  1. I love these shares… helpful!
    I’m grateful today for my morning cup of tea, listening to soothing music, while watching the sweet birds that come to our feeders. Daily joy! 🙏🏼

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    1. Thank you Eliza!! Your morning sounds absolutely wonderful. What kind of birds do you usually see in the winter?

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      1. Junco, chickadee, American goldfinch, house finch, titmice, nuthatch, cardinal, bluebird, a few sparrows, as well as a few unwelcome starlings and squirrels!

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        1. I do love the nuthatch! A favourite of mine :) They are fun to watch.

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          1. I love their call which sounds like they are laughing, ‘haha-haha!’ It always makes me smile. :D

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            1. Yes! Last year I had one that used to hang out with me in the garden almost every morning.

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      1. You are welcome, Maria. ❤️☺️

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  2. I’m grateful to learn you can freeze leeks! We love leeks at our house but didn’t think about freezing them.

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    1. Wonderful! Personally I can’t tell a taste difference between the ones just harvested, and the ones from the freezer. The processing of the leeks require some work rinsing them, chopping them up, and dividing them into smaller portions, but it is definitely worth it. It was a lady that worked as a chef at a school I worked at that told me this. She was also a passionate gardener and we had many interesting conversations.

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