Greens and groans

[vgqn]

Tomorrow 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.

Comments

[rutemple.livejournal.com]

Because Kelly Link's writing is also zippy and tasty.

Where might an innocent find seeds for yon spinach beet, any fave suppliers or varietal within that cognate?

Our strawbales are cooking up warm with the Nitrogen and water we (and the skies) have been giving them; I think we'll plant into them around the next firest-quarter moon. The peppers from the MG plant sale, especially that Padrone I got from the Happy Quail fellow, are not waiting, merrily taking to its larger interim pot, the padrone has several flowers and at least one fruit going already.

Amaranth intrigues.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

For spinach beet, I commend Nichols to you again. I adore them. Ask for a printed catalog -- it's easier to browse than the on-line one, until you get used to them. But since it's perennial, you might want to wait until your bales decompose and you're planting in the ground. It's best in the winter anyhow, too prone to insect problems in the summer.

Amaranth, now that's a summer crop! Pick up a packet of Botanical Interests Een Choy Hiyu as a good starter. Harvest the tender tips frequently for continuous harvest. Pretty and yummy.

Yes, flowers on peppers despite chilly weather! Some people say that peppers will produce more in the long run if you pinch off the first ones that form, but I can never bring myself to do so. That would be a good field project for some future year.