Growing Kale

I grew kale for the first time this year. It grows so well from seed. I chose Dinosaur kale and Red Winter kale. I've read that if kale goes through a frost that it is sweater and better tasting. I think I will plant kale this fall and over the winter since the Bay Area doesn't get snow but some freezing and frost.

We have been juicing a lot so I knew that I wanted to add kale to my garden. Amelia and I go out in the backyard to pick kale leaves for our green juices in the morning. She loves helping.

 

{Dinosaur Kale}

{Red Winter Kale}

Besides green juices we enjoy kale chips, sauteed kale, Portuguese kale soup and kale salad. 

Kale Waldorf Salad

4 cups finely chopped raw kale

2 large crisp apple like honey crisp, pink lady, or fuji, chopped

1 cup thinly sliced celery

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup golden raisins

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2-4 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

salt to taste

Add the chopped kale to a big bowl. To the bowl of kale, add one and half of the chopped apples, sliced celery, 1/4 cup of walnuts, and 1/2 cup raisins. To make dressing, add to blender, 1/2 of one of the chopped apples, 1/4 cup of the toasted walnuts, 2 tablespoons golden raisins, mustard, vinegar, 2 tbsp water and salt to taste. Blend until smooth. Add more water if it wont blend well. Pour dressing over kale salad and toss well. Chill for about 30 minutes.

  

This garden box was a an experiment. This side of the house doesn't get much sun so I was surprised to see the kale growing so well! It has actually done better here than in the other areas of the garden. You can see that the alyssum flowers have spread to my vegetable boxes. Those flowers will grow anywhere and spread like crazy.

Edible Flowers

Today is my 7th wedding anniversary! 

My husband surprised me with yellow roses today. I love yellow flowers and prefer yellow roses over red ones. Did you know that rose petals are edible? Of course you will want to eat pesticide free edible flowers only. Always know for certain that the flower is edible. Remove the pollinated parts and eat the petals only.

Our new favorite thing is using edible flowers on our salads. We pick our lettuce and edible flowers from the garden to serve for dinner that night. When Amelia and I are out in the garden she always asks if she can eat a flower. (I told her to always ask first before eating anything in the garden.)

I remembering being interested in herbs and edible flowers at a young age. I read about edible flowers used in Colonial Williamsburg. Tulip petals filled with an herbed goat cheese served at tea time sounds delightful! Sugared pansies placed atop petit fours would look beautiful for Amelia's 4th birthday party. I listed below some, but not all, of the edible flowers out there. You can learn more about edible flowers and their flavors here, here and here.

Edible Flowers

 Sweet Flavors
• Chamomile
• Dandelion
• Daylily
• Elderberry
• Linden
• Okra 

• Pineapple guava 

• Red clover
• Yucca 

Spicy/sweet

• Anise hyssop
• Bee balm
• Dianthus
• Fennel
• Pineapple sage

Floral

• Honeysuckle
• Jasmine
• Lavender
• Lilac
• Rose
• Scented geranium
• Sweet violet

Minty

• Johnny Jump-up
• Mint
• Pansy

Citrus Fruit Flower
• Hibiscus
• Lemon
• Lemon verbena
• Orange
• Signet marigold • Tuberous begonia

Peppery/spicy

• Arugula
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Mustard
• Nasturtium
• Radish 

{Nasturtiums}

{Chive flowers}

{Violas}

{Harvested lettuce and edible flowers from the garden.}

Growing Lettuce and Spinach

This is my first year growing lettuce and spinach. I started some time in February. It has been so easy especially once I controlled the snails. Amelia loves picking lettuce and spinach with me. She actually loves eating the spinach while we are gathering it for our salads.

 I'm growing two different types of spinach and a heirloom leaf lettuce in this raised box. Both grew so fast. I now know that I should have planted one row and then a week or two later plant another row. It all came in at the same time.

A few days of warm weather and the butter crunch lettuce took off! I Should have harvested them when they were much smaller but they are still good. They seem to be more fragile when they are bigger and crispier when they are smaller. I planted 3 types of butter crunch lettuce. The red one is my favorite.

I've made several spinach salads. My favorite is with strawberries, toasted walnuts and goat cheese. We've used the spinach in smoothies and for juicing too.

Our new favorite thing is a salad made with the heirloom leaf lettuce and edible flowers from the garden. Violas, nasturtiums and chive flowers. I made sure Amelia always asks before she eats a flower! She picks a nasturtium flower and runs inside to ask if she can eat it. lol

 

 The heirloom leaf lettuce holds up best with a light dressing. I like to make a lemon and herb vinaigrette.

Lemon Herb Vinaigrette

Juice of 1 medium-large lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon dill or combination of dill, parsley and chives

salt and pepper to taste.

Put everything into a jelly jar. Cover and shake well.

 

Sweet Pickle Relish

Each year that I grow my own garden I learn what works best for my small backyard.  When it comes to gardening, trial and error makes me sad because I put so much care and attention into it that it breaks my heart when a plant doesn't do that well or an animal "steals" a long awaited vegetable.

When things go right and I'm able to harvest enough of one vegetable I love to can something with them. This time I canned sweet pickle relish.  I love relish with so many things. Potato salad, egg salad, tuna fish, etc.  I think I get that from my Nana.  She loved relish too.  Especially on a good hot dog. She used to make what they called hot dog relish which is different than your basic sweet pickle relish. 

I was able to gather enough cucumbers and onions from my garden.  Unfortunately my bell pepper plants are just now getting blooms on them because of our cool summer.  We recently had a heat wave so everything in the garden is bolting.

I want to plant more pickling cucumbers next year.

Spanish onions coming out of the ground by themselves!

Spring onions on the left and Spanish onions on the right.

Sweet Pickle Relish

8 medium sized cucumbers
2 large onions

2 sweet green peppers

1 sweet red pepper
1/3 cup sea salt
2-3cups sugar depending on your taste
3 cups apple cider vinegar
2 T. whole celery seed
2 T. whole mustard seed

Chop up the vegetables in a food processor. Cover vegetables in cool water. Cover and soak for 2 hours then strain the vegetables well in a strainer.

Add in the rest of the ingredients to the vegetables, bring to a boil and simmer in a pot for 10 minutes. Stir often. Add the hot relish to the prepared jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. You can print out the hot water bath canning instructions from the Ball Canning website here and keep it with your canning recipes.

The finished, yummy, sweet and sour product! Sweet pickle relish.

Our tiny garden.

My heirloom tomato plants having a late start after a cook summer.  They have gotten bigger since this picture was taken.

Tomato blooms mean tomatoes are coming!

My green beans did way better last year. :-(

Tomorrow we are heading to an Apple Farm!! I'm so excited.  It's been awhile since I've been in an apple barn. I love the smell. I hope to bring back a few bushels of different apples so I can freeze some, can some and dehydrate some. Fun, fun!

4th of July Weekend 2011!

It felt like we celebrated the 4th of July all Weekend! Busy swimming and barbecuing on Saturday, lunch and shopping with friends on Sunday and then Monday we slept in and laid around until the afternoon. We walked around a local small town called Los Gatos and then Monday night we went to another BBQ where we swam and watched fireworks. We ate and we ate and we ate.

I spent Saturday lounging by the pool in my retro inspired bathing suit and the wrap skirt I bought while I lived in Guatemala. My garden hat is from Colonial Williamsburg! I love that hat!

Amelia wanted to learn how to swim so bad.  She has no fear of the water.  That's good and bad.

My honey trying to rest from his horrible sciatica pain. :-(

Hot and tired on the 4th of July.  We are wearing matching milkmaid braids! I love them!!

Making wishes in the fountain. She started singing Snow White's wishing well song! So cute!

Amelia loves picking the blackberries and eating them straight from the bush.

Our blackberries are ripening everyday! I tend to pick them too early though.

My cucumbers are growing nicely.  I planted pickling cucumbers this year. I would love to make relish and pickles. Amelia just loves pickles!

Planted my sad heirloom tomato plants that I grew from seed.  The cool weather we had here in Spring and the beginning of Summer was not working for my seedlings. I hope they aren't stunted now. My green onions and Spanish onions are doing good though.

You can see my green beans growing on the trellis I made. My green beans always do really well. We enjoying cooking them and making dilly beans.

I hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th!