Great Donations!

It was a great week for donations to the garden.

Friday Joan and I went to an alpaca farm to pick up two truck-loads of manure and some straw bales. What fun it was to watch the alpaca, and to play with the kittens and dogs running around.

Sunday, I went to Grazeland Farm to pick up a generous donation of Woolch. For those of you that are interested: Woolch™ is a blend of wool fibers and wood shavings. The wool is waste fiber from the yarn/blanket making process at a Minnesota woolen mill. The wood is a waste by-product created from virgin timber as it goes through the sawmill process near Cloquet, MN. These fibers are blended, sprayed with a green vegetable-based dye, and then fused together via a roller and heat process at a small industrial plant on the edge of Minnesota’s Iron Range region. See this web site for more information: http://www.mlwp.org/woolch.htm

More information will be coming on the straw bales and how the Woolch works. Happy Gardening!

Tilled!

A big thanks again to Ron, Bev's husband, for tilling the Giving Garden!

Now we just have to get out there and start planting.

Till We Till

The onions couldn't wait for us to start planting - they have already sprung up in their old row! Don't worry, we won't waste. We'll pick before we till. The thyme and oregano are already up, too, so we'll deliver spaghetti sauce seasonings to the food shelf.


We won't till under the onions and the herbs, but we'll have to put the kale to the test since it's in the wrong row. But that kale - it survived winter; it can survive a plow.



By the way, I tried the kale chips! Go easy on the sea salt- because somehow the kale tastes a little salty anyway. But, wait till you taste the crispy curls. Delish.

Kale Chips?!

And speaking of kale... Just saw this on the smitten kitchen a post for kale chips.  Sounds strange but says they're very tasty even for someone who may not like kale.

Recipe from the smitten kitchen
1 bunch (about 6 ounces) kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 300°F. Rinse and dry the kale, then remove the stems and tough center ribs. Cut into large pieces, toss with olive oil in a bowl then sprinkle with salt. Arrange leaves in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp. Place baking sheet on a rack to cool.

We'll have to pass this recipe along when we deliver the kale to Lewis House and the food shelf.

Planning to Plant

The snow has melted off the garden, and Candy's already gone out to check spring's advance guard. Irises poking out a little, strawberry vines running all over, and the mysterious, indefatigable kale that we keep getting told is not a perennial is already sprouting! Our tilling volunteer with the fabulous John Deere has already spoken up again for mid April - that will save some time and backs. And - we have seeds waiting in the window!

One More Harvest

We were out in the garden yesterday enjoying the sunshine, spreading manure, planting some more bulbs, and amazingly found some more vegetables to harvest.

There was bok choy, cabbage, broccoli, onion, and kohlrabi. So one more delivery of garden produce to Lewis House.

Delivered cabbage, bok choy, kale, green beans and herbs to the food shelf around the corner. The kale is still going to town, so here's the Portuguese Kale Soup in case you need to use your kale up:

2 med. onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 potatoes, diced
2-3 carrots, diced
1/2 head cabbage, chopped
Bunch of kale, chopped
16 oz. can white beans
5 tomatoes
46 oz. can chicken broth
Salt & pepper to taste

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Add potatoes, cabbage, carrots and half of the can of chicken broth. Cook until almost tender. Add kale, tomatoes and the rest of the broth. Simmer 10-15 minutes. Season to taste.

Or you can donate your kale and any other excess produce to your local food shelf! For Minnesota food shelves, you can search here.