Yard Food

A small morning pleasure -- found this nice chard leaf . . .



. . . in the chard "forest" this morning . . .



. . . bent over from the night's rain. So I clipped it, took it in, added some shredded broccoli and carrots, lentil sprouts, a sliced mushroom, chunks of polenta, some (oil-free) mustard-base dressing, laid the stalk (crunchy like celery) down the middle (should have clipped some of Priscilla's spinach leaves to add, but forgot), and finished it with some garlic and herbs. Rolled it up burrito/wrap style and ate it for breakfast. Admittedly, not all those ingredients came from my yard or kitchen (sprouts), but they could have. So nice to eat out of the yard:

Brussels Sprouts Sprouting

There's always something new to learn in a garden. A couple of Brussels sprouts that were buried in my garden soil along with my other vegetable scraps found their way near the surface of the soil — and took root and sprouted. I've had other veggie scraps do this (onions, garlic, tomatoes, etc.) but these are the first Brussels sprouts to do so. They appear to be growing into full-on Brussels sprouts plants. Only time will tell if they mature and bear sprouts of their own. I wonder if individual sprouts can be broken off the main trunk (I have bought the intact trunks filled with sprouts at EarthFare rather than buying loose sprouts) and rooted in transplant medium, getting a head start on creating seedlings for planting?

I'll update this post with progress shots to see what happens. But for now, they are looking like real-live Brussels sprouts plants:

CSA Bounty Keeps Getting Better

The CSA return just gets more bountiful every week—and this is still May! In today's box (L. to R.): two HUGE heads of broccoli, beautiful (18" tall) lacinato/dinosaur kale, bag of braising greens, head of cabbage, bag of spinach, HUGE head of red leaf lettuce, bunch of carrots, bunch of white and black radishes, another head of the BIGGEST-ROMAINE-I'VE-EVER-SEEN lettuce, and a large bunch of red beets. All picked fresh at New Town Farms this morning. Thanks for your hard work, Sammy!

I'll be fixing salads tonight for the guys in our small group -- this is way more than I can eat by myself in a week. (Each share of the CSA is for a family of four, thus the quantity. So stop by for a salad or "green meal!")