Great Greens! Part II

Inspired by our recent stretch of 60+ degree weather in the Boston area, a few days ago I went over to my plot at the community garden to remove the plastic sheeting and PVC pipe that had been serving as "hoops" to hold up the sheeting all winter long. True confessions: the picture below is actually the second hoop tunnel I constructed; the first collapsed under the weight of our first wet snow in early December. It looked something like this. Then all that snow thawed and refroze with inch-thick sheets of ice over the top of the plastic. Luckily the vegetables underneath didn't seem to know the difference.

Anyway, fast forward three months to mid-March, when a wonderful surprise awaited me: 5 raised beds full of vegetables and herbs that were ready to be harvested!

Here's a list of all the things growing in there: arugula, rutabaga, beets, turnips, carrots, cilantro, parsley, escarole, chives, green onions, chard, kale, collards, garlic. Plus the rye, vetch and field peas I planted in two of the beds to be turned over for green manure. The root vegetables are small, so I will let them grow for a couple more months until it's time to turn over the soil for the first summer plantings.

This was the first year I tried overwintering vegetables planted in the early fall, and I am so excited to do it more systematically next year! My inspiration was Eliot Coleman, whose books describing his commercial growing operation in Maine share detailed information about the various methods, planting schedules, etc. for 4-season gardening.

In gratitude for the kale and collard greens that are amazingly ready to pick in my garden in mid-March, below is a delicious green smoothie recipe that we have been enjoying every day for a couple weeks now. Despite one website's claim that eating more greens will make your beard grow in without the gray hairs, S. hasn't seen any changes in that department yet. We'll keep checking and let you know. This green smoothie is so tasty, even kids love it!

Kale or Collards Green Smoothie

Blend together for 30 seconds:

1 banana, peeled

1 organic apple, cored (skin on)

1 orange, no seeds (skin off)

1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger (peel removed)

1 cup water

Add about 4 large leaves of kale or collards. The stem can be added as well. Wash the leaves well and chop roughly before adding to blender. Push them down into the liquid a bit to make sure they get incorporated. Blend on high for about 1 minute. You may need to add a little bit more water or apple juice.

Makes about 3 glasses' worth (it will completely fill a standard blender).

Great Greens! Part I

Before we know it, the farmers’ markets will be open again and we’ll face the annual June glut of local greens. In previous years I've bemoaned this period before the "real" vegetables start to ripen in the fields, but this year I'm trying a new approach. Each week I buy several types of greens at the grocery store and road-test them on my family. (Yes the greens come from California, but what can you do?) Now my family has been eating kale puree hidden in their pasta sauce for a long time without comment, but I decided to get them involved in this little experiment. So during the initial week we tried a different green smoothie each day, which I will share more about in the next post, and those recipes all used swiss chard or collard greens.

This past week I bought mustard greens for the first time and was unsure about what to do with them. As it turns out, mustard greens are much more, shall we say, delicate than kale or collards and as a result, after nearly a week in the fridge about half of the bunch was too rotten to use. It’s a shame, but thankfully they will still be able to contribute to our household in the form of compost. And with the remaining half bunch, I improvised a quick recipe that turned out to be quite good. As my time was very limited, no chopping of garlic or onions for this one. No picture either, sorry!

Capellini with Mustard Greens and Sundried Tomatoes
Serves about 4
30 minutes or less
Skill level: Easy

1/2 bunch mustard greens, chopped roughly and washed well, then dried
1/3 cup sundried tomato slivers, packed in oil
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
2 cups prepared tomato pasta sauce

1/2 lb capellini pasta

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted (optional)

1. In a wide skillet on medium heat, add the sundried tomatoes with a teaspoon of their oil. Stir in the greens. Sprinkle garlic and onion powder, stirring the greens to coat. After a couple minutes, turn the heat down to low and cover. Let cook about 10 minutes until greens are tender.

2. While the greens cook, bring a medium pot of water to boil and cook capellini according to package directions. Drain, toss with a small amount of olive oil and set aside, covered.

3. Once greens are tender, stir in pasta sauce, cover again and let simmer another 5 minutes.

4. While pasta sauce is simmering, toast the pine nuts in either a small skillet or toaster oven pan. Watch carefully to prevent them from burning. Shred the parmesan cheese.

5. Serve sauce over the pasta, with parmesan and pine nuts on top.

Storage/Leftover tips:· Store leftover sauce and pasta separately.
· Sauce can be used over eggs, as a topping for veggie burgers, or over polenta.
· Pasta can be mixed with quiche filling in place of using a crust, served as cold sesame/peanut noodles or added to stir-fried veggies and tofu.