gone to seed

We planted cold hardy greens last fall, both kale and collards. They were ridiculous good all winter long, and as we cut a meals worth of greens off of either the leaves grew back with more. These were planted outside the hoophouse with no protection. It was a mild winter, but it sure looks like this two grow right through the coldest days.

We ate them for months and months, until the beds had nothing left to pick and there were really just roots left. We cooked them in a pan, with olive oil, garlic and onions browned to the point of burning, then added a little water to deglaze the pan. Rinsed the greens off under running water and then into that hot pan, stirred until wilted, and then a little balsamic vinegar. We also added to any soup or stew we made. Really sweet and delicious. Also seems like those dark leafy greens really keep winter time blues away.

And then we had weeks of unseasonably warm weather, and the kale and collards bolted..grew back and went to flower! We had hoped to stretch these greens to CSA season but usually flowering plants mean the taste is now bitter.

The back tier with yellow flowers are our greens. The bees are crazy for these flowers so we have not pulled them. The flowers buzz with many different varieties of bees..so we will wait until the fuss is over and then pull all and feed to the pigs. After we taste test for bitter/sweet...