Friday, April 15, 2011

herbal haircuts



Most of the overwintered crops have already gone to seed and many of the earliest spring crops have too. We went from cool to down right hot and back to cool so most things got confused and went to seed. Even my bok choy and cabbage that were planted in March have already bolted. The rhubarb was a bust this spring as was asparagus. Both came through the soil with seed heads on them already. It is kind of bizarre but they do make things pretty. The kale was the latest to bolt so today I went and harvested most of it. We actually eat very little kale because we don't much care for it. We have so many other green things growing that we do like and its such a pretty plant that I tend to just let them grow even though its one of the most nutrient laden good for you foods out there. Instead, I dry most of our kale. I then crumble it and use it like any other herb in recipes. This way we get more healthy green veggies and nobody has a clue that I just stuffed the equivalent of a cup of kale into their diet. I do the same with spinach and beets.

Many of the other herbs are wanting to flower already and the walkin onions are getting ready to creep. It is a little bit too early for the herbs to be doing that so I gave them all a nice hair cut and brought them all in to hang to dry since we are in the middle of our weekly power outage and nasty storm.

2 comments:

  1. Another power outage? Is it from the storm?
    We've got heavy rains & wind here today. It is rare to lose power though, even when it seems like a possibility.

    I wonder if your weird start to the growing season is an indicator for the cooler zones. Perennials are just popping now, my neighbors rhubarb looks great. Garlic here is shooting up nice too.

    You lucky to have so many good greens! Great idea for drying kale.

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  2. another storm lol.. its becoming a habitual thing.. we lose power quite often although not typically for more than a few hours .. but with all the crazy storms lately with crazy winds i am sure each storm following much is falling from the damage.... i do not know what to make of the season thus far.. am fixin to run n cover the maters i have out as we are going to be very close to the freeze mark.. i dont think it will frost cuz its too blasted windy... our high today was 52hehehehe

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