Yesterday morning was beautiful. That was before the winds whipped up and coated the entire city in a gross, dusty haze (we really, really need some real rain). Before the haze, though, I got some work done in the front yard (when you wake up at the crack of dawn you can get a lot done before 10am)
I started off by checking on our “wagons”. Everything in the first wagon (a 4X5 foot raised bed) is doing great! The spinach is happy, the few carrots that are left are limping along, the onions and garlic are happy (and smell so good!), and the baby beets and snap peas in the back are now a few inches tall!
When I made my way to the side of the bed to continue lifting off the plastic sheeting, I came across an invasion! I have no idea what is trying to take over and trash our bed, but I hope it goes away! It didn’t seem to have eaten anything, just dug a nice hole! Stinkin’!
I then checked on our second “wagon”(a 5X6 foot raised bed). The kale had exploded all over everything! Definitely time to harvest!!!
We got a total of 2 pounds 12 ounces of yummy kale!!! And that’s not counting all the kale I threw to the chickens because it got zapped by some frost (?) and was a little yellow/not so pretty. The ladies seemed to like it just fine.
Once I’d harvested all the kale, I pulled up a few of the plants towards the back of the bed and left a few to see if they’ll sprout some more green yumminess for us. The one random cauliflower that came up (we planted an entire row of cauliflower last fall at the same time we planted the kale) had been hiding under all that kale…I left it in there too, just to see what it’ll do. The lettuce in front is just starting to take off! Yay! I threw some Yum Yum mix on top of it all, mixed it up a bit with my hands, watered it down and closed it all up before the winds came.
I’m toying with the idea of putting some of my tomato and pepper seedlings in there next weekend. They don’t get enough sun on my little table in the dining room and I am thinking that if I mulch them really well, the heat in the wagon might just be enough to give them a really good head start on the growing season. We’ll see. I’m also thinking about putting some lemon cucumbers along the back of this bed so we can trellis them like we are the snap peas.
Before I went inside, I picked some baby spinach (3 ounces) to add to some scrambled eggs for breakfast. Magic!
So, what do you do with almost 3 pounds of kale??? Well, to start off, I tore some up, tossed it with some olive oil, sprinkled on some sea salt, placed it on parchment paper on cookie sheets and baked it at 350 for 10-15 minutes to make…Kale chips!!! This was my first try at kale chips and they were pretty good! Even our 5 year old friend likes them! Score!!! A healthy random snack we can eat as long as the kale holds out!!!
After all the business of the day, Bo the Cat decided it was time for a nice little nap…IN the egg collecting basket! Silly kitty 🙂 Wish I could fit there, too!
