Friday, September 21, 2012

Garden greens

Remember when I planted the little collard and chard seedlings? Well here they are now. Not yet ready for harvesting, but well on their way.

Left to right: rhubarb, collard greens, swiss chard, basil. In back, squashes. See how dry the ground is?

I need to keep them watered as we aren't having any rain these days. We're about to harvest the next bunch of tomatoes; there are a ton of them on the vines. More sauce, more oven-dried tomatoes. Yum!

Speaking of harvests, it seems that the grape harvesting has begun.

6 comments:

  1. What green thumbs! Looking good.

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  2. We've just had to harvest our pumpkins... that frost early yesterday damaged the plants beyond recovery! But, whilst damaged, the courgettes and crook-necked squash, with their clumped shape have kept their leaders... only some of the younger outer leaves have been hit. We had to harvest the melons too... they had been as badly affected as the pumpkins.
    Do you use collard greens in a constant harvest, loose leaf cabbage / mustard greens / kale fashion, or cut the plant down? We've grown them for the first time this year as a winter greens crop... astuces please.

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  3. Tim, you can harvest individual leaves off the collard plants, or you can decide if you want to take the whole plant out at any time. I've done both. Collards need long cooking to tenderize, and they are good cooked in chicken broth and/or white wine, with some lardons or sausages or duck fat, etc. We say they are "some kinda good" when they are cooked right.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Ken... we've got a pick of leaves on the row at the moment. I'll pick some before the rain arrives and we'll try them against Red Russian and Black Tuscan kales.

      WV is aprop... "tlyHeat 80" as in Gently Heat at 80 degrees

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  4. rick, thanks! We enjoy our successes when they happen. There are plenty of failures, too!

    tim, Ken answered. Our courgettes didn't do much this year, and our pumpkins produced only one or two fruits per vine. We've had more than that in previous years.

    judy, I can't wait until they get bigger and bushier and we can start eating them!

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