Vegetable Garden

In my environmental studies class, we had a guest lecturer come. He talked about population increase and how our current style of life (with the insane amount of consumption) is unsustainable and we're heading into a crisis. Did you know that the average piece of food on your plate traveled 15,000 miles to get there? That shocked me. The U.S. has virtually no natural resources because we've depleted them. We are a nation of business, and our business is making money off of other countries' resources and temporary surpluses. The stuff that is grown in the U.S. is pesticide, herbicide, and feces-laden, farmed by big companies who hire immigrant workers at less than minimum wage in atrocious conditions. You can avoid this social injustice by buying 'organic' and 'locally grown' product, and though it may be higher in quality, it's too expensive for anyone save the affluent to reasonably live on.

I'm afraid that for the next few years, I'll be supporting this corrupt system because I'm too poor to do anything different. My dream is eventually to start my own garden. My own BIG garden. I want to move to Oregon, live in a nice cottage-ish house, and have a huge yard where I can grow vegetables and raise my tortoise (and eventually, family), teach chemistry and english, write, and cook to my heart's delight. Large gardens yield lots of food, and perhaps since teachers earn so little, I could earn some extra money on the side by selling surplus vegetables at a farmer's market. Now obviously because of the climate, I won't be able to grow all of these, but here are some ideas:

butternut squash
spaghetti squash
zucchini
pumpkin
tomatoes
grape tomatoes
eggplant
lettuce
spinach
brussel sprouts
sweet peas
sugar snap peas
leeks
cucumber
rhubarb
onions
potatoes
sweet potatoes
garlic
carrots
garden mushrooms
water chestnuts
celery
beans
melons
bell peppers
chili peppers
corn

basil
sage
rosemary
dill weed
thyme
lemon balm
chives
mint
parsley
oregano
marjoram