Kale Krazy

Baby Red Russian Kale in our garden

You may have noticed that some people are krazy for kale these days.  I couldn't be more pleased that this long under-appreciated, nutrient-packed vegetable is finally getting the love and attention it deserves.  Some folks are simply obsessed and are trying to get as much kale as possible into their diets-- there are plenty of recipes floating around out there these days for everything from kale chips to kale smoothies.  There is, of course, some comic relief as well.  I knew kale had finally made it big this past year when I visited a neighborhood restaurant and there were three kale dishes on the seasonal menu.  Shortly thereafter I popped into the natural foods co-op to buy more kale seeds (because I didn't feel I had planted nearly enough kale in my garden) only to find that all varieties of kale were the only seeds completely sold out.  Now it's farmers' market time and everyone's clamoring for clean, local kale; if you don't get to the market within an hour of it opening each week, there's a good chance the mounds of kale will already be sold out (or at least picked over.)  Kale has a boatload of health benefits, but I truly like it for the flavor.  Here are the most common ways we use kale around the homestead:

(In no particular order)
1.  Juicing
2.  Sauteed on a pizza
3.  In a smoothie
4.  Kale chips
5.  Boiled with pasta
6.  In veggie lasagna
7.  Sauteed in a quesadilla
8.  Shredded in a massaged kale salad
9.  As a substitute for spinach in a savory spinach and cheese quick bread
10.  Shredded and added to Salad Mix along with red cabbage.

Recently I made some kale chips with several bunches of organic kale I got for next to nothing.  But they were too many chips for us to eat before they got a little "stale" so I ground some of them up to make "kale salt."  Of course, I knew I couldn't possibly be the first one to think of this idea...and #4 above proves that.  Now I use the kale salt to season popcorn, add to homemade ranch dressing, or to sprinkle in soup or on pizza.  Wherever you want a little more kale (if you're not already getting enough) and would be adding seasoning anyway.  It's so versatile and definitely another way to get kale into little ones' bellies if they're not otherwise willing.

This is another kale recipe I tried this past week and was pleasantly surprised by how well the flavors went together.

Kale Salad with Toasted Coconut and Sesame Oil (Gluten Free)
Serves 4
Adapted from Super Natural Every Day.  The original recipe calls for farro, but I used gluten-free steel cut oats.

1/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil
1 t. toasted sesame oil
2 T. shoyu, tamari, or soy sauce (I make sure mine is gluten-free and organic)
3 1/2 lightly packed cups chopped kale, stems trimmed, large ribs removed (and reserved for juicing)
1 1/2 c. unsweetened flaked coconut
2 c. cooked steel cut oats or other whole grain

Preheat oven to 350F with two racks in top third of oven.  In small bowl or jar, whisk or shake together olive oil, sesame oil, and shoyu.  Put kale and coconut in large bowl and toss well with about two-thirds of oil mixture.  Spread kale evenly across two baking sheets.  Bake for 12-18 min., until coconut is deeply golden brown, tossing once or twice along the way.  If kale mixture on top baking sheet begins to get too browned, move to lower rack.  Remove from oven and transfer kale mixture to medium bowl.  Taste.  If you feel it needs more dressing, add and toss.  Add steel cut oats and combine.  Serve warm, room temp., or straight from the fridge (this makes great leftovers.)

Kale Salad

The Eve of Summer Break

We are bursting with excitement to officially being our summer break from school after tomorrow.  We're hoping to start our days gradually then explore the city, enjoy concerts in the parks, wading pools, free kids activities, the public libraries.

In the meantime, I've been blogging less and doing more outside.  We had a short weekend stint caring for V's classroom chickens one last time (though they're now settling at her teacher's home instead of school), we've camped along the Might Mississippi, and have spent time hanging out with friends by the lakefront.

Mickey and Maggie pecking around the backyard.  The LUH looks pretty
good with a couple of hens.

One other item I've added to my summer routine is walking by the lake early in the morning in lieu of the gym.  Beautiful sunrises!  I've always dreamed of having this early morning time in the summer all to myself.

I never get tired of this view.

And beautiful sunsets too

My most recent project:  turning an olive oil can into a pot.

Poked some drainage holes in the bottom with a can/bottle opener

Made sure there were no sharp edges around the top

Planted some flowers.  We'll see how weathered the
can looks by summer's end.

I've been hanging on to this recipe for too long and now the ramps in the woods are probably all gone.  But if you're interested, bookmark this for next year.

Ramps in Saffron Brine

Pickled Saffron Ramps

And how does our garden grow?

Purple Mizuna and Scarlet Frills Mustard

Salad Mix 

Shungiku (Chrysanthemum Leaf)

Red Russian Kale

Salad Turnips in need of thinning

Part edible, part annual

Sugar Snap Peas

Our little evening hangout at the homestead

In a Rush to Relax

The homestead thus far.  With all this rain, it's a jungle
out there.

As we've scrambled around this week to prepare for a Memorial Day weekend outing in nature a recurring thought has crossed my mind.  It seems that before every escape, no matter how near or far, we rush through the week making lists, running errands, getting supplies, and working ahead till we come to a screeching halt at our temporary relaxation site where we need an entire 24 hours (at least!) to unwind before we can really settle into the quiet, calm, unscheduled beauty of it all.  This is a topic covered a bit in Zero Waste Home, a book I mentioned in my last post.  If we all didn't have so many possessions to manage, organize, maintain, and store then wouldn't we have more time to just enjoy life?  I'm hoping to find some time in the great outdoors this weekend to really ponder that question.  And I'm hoping the feeling of taking it slowly and enjoying the journey will last once we start our routine next week.

The last week and a half have found me outside quite a bit more.  We've had some gorgeous weather which allowed me to get V and a friend out in the woods as well as really zone in on my garden.

Girls being girls.

My early seeds have sprouted and are well on their way.  I can nearly taste the salad greens and have already used many herbs.  Last year we didn't do much with the garden because we'd just come off of our kitchen remodel and were drained in many ways.  I guess now I'm making up for that lack of garden expansion.  We've incorporated a lot more perennial foods this year.  We replanted asparagus (for the third time, which will be a charm, right?), planted a Nero Aronia bush (which I THOUGHT I read was a.k.a. chokeberry, but now I'm not finding that information) which should fruit this first year, planted a variety of hops (the gateway crop for my husband to join me in urban homesteading)--our trellis/hops crop a few years ago was ripped down in a wind storm so here's to a second try, started some hardy kiwi (also planted for the third time--another charm), added more rhubarb, and put in more strawberries to join the golden raspberries, elderberries, gooseberries, thornless blackberries, red currants, grapes, sunchokes, tart and sweet cherries, and heirloom apples already in place.

Sink full of muddy, soaking sunchokes.

Mt. Hood hops beginning to vine towards the trellis.

Three-year-old blackberry bushes join our
already prolific 6-year-old bushes.

Grapevines really starting to leaf out this week.

Enterprise apple blossoms

Sunchokes already proliferating

Red Lake Currants

Original rhubarb patch

Strawberries and Golden Raspberries on the ground
and new strawberries in the raised bed

The big project this week was to finally--after 3-4 seasons of procrastination--dig up our parkway (or as some call it "hell strip") and plant edibles.  I chose some sturdy rhubarb, red and green cabbages, broccoli, flowering kale, and perennial lovage.  I currently have it blocked off with a little garden edging (in white, which I'm not crazy about), but am hoping to keep dogs off of it at least until it's more established.  I knew I was taking a risk when I did this--the city can also tromp on it without notice or compensation if they need access.  It's a risk I'm willing to take in the name of food production.  At least I won't have to drag my rotary mower to the front now.  There's a tiny strip of grass on the north side of our front steps that I also hope to turn into edible space someday.  For now I can trim that with a manual hedge trimmer.

Before

After--I'm not crazy about the white edging, but it works
until I find something better.  At least it's a temporary visual
for dogs and people.

The path I created from some pieces of busted concrete we had from a
pathway project in the backyard a few years ago.  Creeping thyme will
hopefully fill in the cracks in a couple of seasons.

I'm also having fun with more container veggies this year: determinate tomatoes, peppers, and mixed brassicas.

Lacinato and Red Russian Kale, Red Orach, Treviso
Radicchio, and Baby Mustard greens add color and
texture to the front stoop. 

V's upcycled clementine boxes with chamomile, nasturtiums,
radishes, bachelor buttons amid some little ceramic
friends we found at a church rummage.  We'll see what
actually has enough depth to grow.

And just some other unique odds and ends this year:

Potted Curry plant, French tarragon, and Italian parsley

Arugula, radishes, and peas on a trellis
upcycled from my neighbors' broken and
discarded drying rack

V wanted to grow some popcorn near her
garden.  We'll give it a shot, but only under
protection from the birds.

View from the greenhouse

We're looking forward to the beginning of summer and relaxing a lot in our backyard sanctuary.  Everyone have a safe and happy holiday season.

On Top of It

3 cubic yds. of mulch is always more than I think when
I order it.  But we were able to put a nice 2-3 inch layer
down to help retain moisture during another
potentially hot, dry summer.

By now I'm doing my best to look at the bright side of all this rain and gloominess over the last two weeks (with more to come next week, apparently.)  The upside is that I've been forced to wait to plant vegetable seeds.  The ground's been too wet and I don't particularly want to crawl around in the rain to do so.  We've taken this opportunity to work on the careful choreography that is preparing the garden for the season.  Normally, when we have the first rush of warmth in March and the ground thaws, I'm in a tizzy to get radishes, peas, arugula, and other leafy greens seeded.  That burst of excitement is always temporarily tabled as I realize I must first spread last year's compost onto the garden then scrub out the tumbler before filling it with the winter basement compost.  Then I must procure any additional organic topsoil I need to either top off the raised beds or cover up any spread compost that's not completely broken down.

The work is done for today.

We also took advantage of the one potentially sunny day last weekend to have our biennial 3 cubic yards of bulk mulch delivered (it wasn't as sunny as originally predicted and on April 12 I was pitching mulch in 3 layers of clothing with little snowflakes falling.)  But now s eeds are started indoors and Ben even rigged up the grow lights in the garage inside of the odd bay window with a blind that's there.  We still aren't quite sure why the original owner installed this window, but the bay between the awning and the window makes a perfect spot for seedlings.  With the light on a timer, it's a pretty low-maintenance set-up thus far.

The glow from the garage reminds me of early parts from the movie "E.T."

Ben's building a new passive solar upper awning for the front of our house and our replacement recycled soda bottle outdoor rug arrived this week (the last one had a good 7-year run although with the way it was disintegrating, B would have rather gotten rid of it at least 2-3 seasons ago.)  So we're pretty much ready to roll.

It feels good to have all of that base work under our belts.  I did plant some greens yesterday in the partially shaded end of our original raised bed.  As I defined the nine rows for green stuff I tried to strike a balance between the excitement I feel at this point in the season--really craving lots of greens--and the anticipated overwhelmed sensation we'll feel in a couple of months as we deal with a bottleneck of baby lettuce, frisee, mesclun mix, and Asian greens.  I would rather err on the side of bottleneck and just plan to do a helluva lot of green juicing this spring and summer and give the surplus to friends and neighbors.

Indoor projects include sewing, a new knitting project, spring cleaning, and making homemade gummy vitamins.  V has been religiously taking her "Yummi Bears" every morning, but I recently learned that I could make my own.  I found this goofy Jell-O bean mold at a thrift store last year and after making one batch of Jell-O beans for Easter I realized why someone had discarded it (Oh yearh, P.S. I, admittedly, forgot to lightly spray the mold as indicated.)  It makes the perfect portion size for gummy vitamins.  I added Vitamin C powder--which I buy in bulk at the natural foods co-op and sometimes use as an anti-browning agent (if not plain lemon juice) when preparing canned peaches in the summer and for keeping avocado mayo and herbal oils (like basil oil) from turning drab green.  I also added probiotics and local honey.  With an unsweetened, basic juice (or homemade juice if you can) these gummy vitamins might now only be just as tasty as the store-bought kind, but probably much cheaper.  I have yet to do the math.  V likes them so that's all that matters.

At least this goofy mold is good for something.

Homemade Gummy Vitamins--no packaging waste either

Kid-tested, Mother-approved.

Rain Rain Go Away

I've been thinking this week how I wish we had a cistern on our property to collect all of this rainwater to use during what will likely be a drier than average summer once again.  Fortunately my husband got our rain barrels up last Sunday when we found a few hours to start getting the yard cleaned up for spring.  But the barrels quickly filled up and are already in overflow mode.

On a positive note, some of my brassicas have germinated and I hope to start more seeds this weekend. I planted peas, arugula, and radishes on Monday just before the rain.  Don't know if they'll rot before they germinate, but we'll see.  We were hoping for that one sunny day this weekend to spread compost and shovel mulch, but I am feeling slightly pessimistic that the weather will cooperate.

On another positive note, the video from a recent student project at Milwaukee Area Technical College has finally been posted.  I was thrilled to be featured in "Home Sweet Homesteading" along with my colleague Gretchen from Milwaukee's Victory Garden Initiative.  Enjoy...and keep smiling if you can.  The rain can't last forever (I don't think.)

Introducing Spring...

Louise Erdrich's beautiful bookstore where I found a book that's rocking
my local food world.

It's supposed to be 55 degrees F here today and I'm just giddy.  There's laundry in the machine right now that I'm planning to hang completely outside today.  We hang a lot of laundry in our basement all winter so it's really the thrill of the peaceful calm of hanging wash on the line in the morning that excites me today.  It's my therapy.

My daughter's on spring break this week and yesterday we finally started some seeds--mostly brassicas.  She played in the composted potting soil, planted a crayon garden, and helped me make labels for my seed starting containers while I prepped the egg cartons I use to start seeds.  I realized I'm not as far behind as I thought I would be.  Whew!

Upon returning from an awesome 4-day getaway to Minneapolis with my husband, where we ate and walked until we dropped, I was really looking forward to a home-cooked meal so I've jumped right back into cooking this week.  If you've been following this blog for any length of time you know that this time of year that I get a little squirmy because I'm trying to use what local food we have left in the pantry and cellar rack.  I've certainly bought plenty of food at the grocery store this winter, but when it comes to what we can buy locally my farmers are still providing winter squash, onions, carrots, beets, rutabaga and the like since ours have run out.  Last night I pulled a butternut squash out of the cellar and came up with this recipe.  I'm trying to run with my urges lately--I knew I wanted to make something with the squash, but I also wanted to incorporate some oats and other supplementals for a nutrient-packed crust.

Winter Squash Crumble (Gluten-Free)

As you can see I made some jam yesterday too.  We finally ran out so I
grabbed some frozen berries and made a batch of freezer jam to get us into
strawberry/rhubarb season soon.

Serves 6-8

I served this as a side dish.  It's not too sweet, but something about it tells me that I could also throw a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top and have it for dessert.  It's one of those dishes that will get kiddos to eat squash--in case that's ever been a problem for you.

2 lbs. winter squash like butternut, acorn, kabocha, peeled and seeds removed
Salt and black pepper to taste, just a little
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
4 T. unsalted butter
1 T. olive oil
1/4 c. pure maple syrup

Crumble Topping:

2 T. jaggery powder (a little more info here and see note below), brown sugar could be substituted
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
4 T. all-purpose gluten free flour
4 T. gluten-free rolled oats
2 T. chia seeds,
2 T. hemp seeds
2 T. flax seeds
6 T. cold butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 375F.  Grease a 9x9 glass baking pan.  To cut the squash, either slice thinly (1/4" thick) or cube evenly (1/2" cubes).  I sliced mine quickly via the food processor.  The slices were more irregular, but it doesn't matter when it's all put together.  Toss the squash with salt, pepper, and cinnamon and set aside.  In a small saucepan, heat the butter, oil, and syrup.  When it's melted, toss with the squash and pour into the prepared baking dish.

Don't bother with layering the slices like a gratin.

Combine all topping ingredients except the butter.  Mix well.  Cut in the butter either by hand or with a pastry blender.  Sprinkle on top of squash and place in oven.  Bake about 35-40 min.  Test with a knife for doneness.  If you can pull the knife out easily, the squash is cooked.

Generous topping packed with nutrients.

It was good.

Note:  jaggery can be found in solid or loose form.  I purchase it at an Indian market, but it can also be found in solid form as piloncillo at Hispanic markets.)

Speaking of cooking by urges, I found this lovely book, The Flavor Thesaurus at Louise Erdrich's Birchbark Books on our trip.  It

's going to change my world this summer as I cook from the garden and farmers' market.  I often stand there with a couple of random veggies/flavors in hand wondering what I can make.  This book offers a lot of leads to being more creative with flavor combinations.