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| My washed baby greens: Cherry Belle radish, Scarlet Charlotte ruby chard and Nero Toscana kale |
This time of year you'd think there wouldn't be much happening in the garden. Ah, but in my little patch of earth I've got some fun food percolating. Yesterday, in advance of a winter storm, I decided to thin out my greens and enjoy them myself. I picked radish, chard and kale greens. Some of the radish greens had true little radishes (why have I never grown these before??). The radish greens and kale went into a saute with some purchased Swiss chard, onions, garlic and red pepper flakes for a pizza topping (with goat cheese, yum). The baby chard was saved for a later salad.
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| My washed baby lettuces |
I also thinned out my lettuces, which became my lunch along with the baby radishes, some lemon juice from Louisiana lemons and some of
my brother's California olive oil. It's sometimes difficult for people to eat as local as they'd like but I've found that if you try to go with what's in season, it's a little easier. And of course, a local farmers' market allows for more options (what would I do without my favorite farmers' market, the
Ruston Farmers' Market?).
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| Fresh, local eggs |
My friend Kathy gave me a dozen beautiful eggs from her chickens on Friday. Am I lucky or what? I see some greens and eggs in my future. This fall Kathy also passed on to me her copy of
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is imminently more readable than some of Michael Pollan's books on the same subject - how and why to eat local. Barbara Kingsolver makes it real and I loved her sense of humor. Give it a whirl if this subject is something you're interested in.
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| Ice on baby lettuce |
And this is why I wanted to get some greens yesterday! Fingers crossed for the lettuce but I hear kale gets sweeter with a little snow and ice.
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| Baby Nero Toscana kale |
Stay warm everyone!
This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2010. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.
You are so lucky! Out of my garden this time of year, all I can get is ice for mixed drinks. We've even run out of the end-of-season frozen pesto from the garden.
ReplyDeleteEven with our 22 degree blasts this winter so far we are still harvesting cabbages, lettuce, broccoli, mitsuma, arugula, kale, onions and mustards. This being the first winter for the new edible garden, I am having a blast!!!
ReplyDeleteCooking turnip greens right now, sadly, not from my garden! I do have two chard leaves out there - but they are pretty pathetic. They were a last-minute impulse buy too late in the season! Enjoy your greens.
ReplyDeleteThose greens are beautiful. I long for the day when I can have my own garden...and for the day when the Ruston Farmer's Market is back on!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you were able to pick some greens before the ice fell, Jean--that poor lettuce looks sooo cold! Funny that you raise the radishes for the greens and don't usually eat the radishes. I've raised radishes quite often, but have never thought of eating their green tops:)
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky to have some local markets this time of year. Everything in our stores probably comes from California or some place even further these days. I wanted to buy some fresh broccoli at the supermarket this weekend, but it looked so bad, I passed it up. Nothing is "in season" here!
You are so lucky to have fresh veggies to harvest and farmer's markets! I am sorely missing both!
ReplyDeleteJust to clear things up a bit, our farmers' market is not running right now. Last market was in November and the next one will be sometime in the spring. But many larger towns in the South do have farmers' markets all year long. Yep, I'm very lucky to have any kind of veggies this time of year!
ReplyDeleteAmen, sister!
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky indeed. I also love the view of your patio in the previous post. I could sit there...
ReplyDeleteAnything with goat cheese sounds tasty to me! Okay, maybe not saurkraut and goat cheese. That would be pretty gross. You are indeed lucky to have such bounty available to you in winter! Those greens looked wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThat pizza sounds amazing!!
ReplyDeleteI love how care-free winter veggies are. I think the trade off is that they grow excrutiatingly slowly, though - at least carrots and lettuce.
Good for you for eating local. I will have to check out that book. I didn't get too far into Pollan's. Too academic :)