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Greens and groans
Apr. 19th, 2006 09:31 pmTomorrow another Master Gardener and I are giving a talk to the assembled Master Gardeners on unusual summer and winter greens. It's going to be fun, but I'm exhausted now. We had a last-minute PowerPoint crisis that I helped her work out. At least, she assures me it's worked out. Hope so. I've cleaned spinach beet and chard and prepared them for tasting. Spinach beet is wonderful -- a perennial green that tastes like mild beet greens. Chard is not unusual, but the variety I grow is. I got it from Nichols and it has the widest (and tastiest) ribs I've ever encountered. Truly, they are 4-5 inches wide. The green leafy part is practically an afterthought with these babies. I've made a lovely gratin with them. I washed some frisée but decided it was good enough to eat, but not excellent enough to give to first-time tasters. I really believe that if you're going to give a beginner a taste of something unusual, you should make sure it's the best exemplar. First impressions count.
In the morning I'll pick some Oriental Giant mustard for tasting fresh -- it's zippy but tasty. Unless it's gone bitter in the last couple days. With the recent sunny weather (hallelujah!), all my winter greens are bolting for the skies. Oh, and I need to divide up some spinach beet plants that I dug out of my community garden for giving away. That'll be a mess. Don't know if I'll get to it. We'll have seedlings for summer greens like purple orach, magentaspreen, Polish amaranth, and an amaranth that one of our MGs has been saving that looks like a red and green coleus -- beautiful and tasty.
And then, if this wasn't enough, my sustainable gardening group is meeting afterwards. So I've been madly going through materials, preparing an agenda, reading the various pieces of literature I've picked up so I can talk about them coherently, etc. I really ought to write out some notes about the meeting I had with Bay-Friendly last week so I could report on that effectively. But I think I'll go read Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners instead.
In the morning I'll pick some Oriental Giant mustard for tasting fresh -- it's zippy but tasty. Unless it's gone bitter in the last couple days. With the recent sunny weather (hallelujah!), all my winter greens are bolting for the skies. Oh, and I need to divide up some spinach beet plants that I dug out of my community garden for giving away. That'll be a mess. Don't know if I'll get to it. We'll have seedlings for summer greens like purple orach, magentaspreen, Polish amaranth, and an amaranth that one of our MGs has been saving that looks like a red and green coleus -- beautiful and tasty.
And then, if this wasn't enough, my sustainable gardening group is meeting afterwards. So I've been madly going through materials, preparing an agenda, reading the various pieces of literature I've picked up so I can talk about them coherently, etc. I really ought to write out some notes about the meeting I had with Bay-Friendly last week so I could report on that effectively. But I think I'll go read Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners instead.
