Using What You Grow: Kale Crisps

Picture from the Chicago Botanic Gardens (CBG) of an organic veggie bed with different types of veggies intensively planted. Artichoke is in the middle.

This last Saturday on the way back from the CBG, I had deep-fried okra for the first time. Last year, I grew the green type for someone because of its ornamental qualities. I was amazed with how prolifically it bore its fruit. This year, I hunted down the burgundy okra after seeing a recipe for dilly okra. I really like dilly beans and am thinking the aesthetic qualities of dilled okra alone makes it worth growing.

It is important to grow those fruits and veggies that you actually use and eat. My sister-in-law and I really like salads. I planted lots of greens this year, but I am always looking for other ways to enjoy our harvest. One of the recipes both of us have been eyeing is one for kale crisps. I grew from seed and planted several of the trendy dino kale, also know as Italian black kale, Tuscany kale, or di Toscano. We both enjoy it and so far have been able to keep it eaten down so the leaves are fairly juvenile or immature.

The recipe calls for a couple cups of the kale with the mid-ribs removed, because they cook at such a different rate. The cleaned and dry leaves torn into sections the size of small potato chips and are tossed with a tablespoon of sherry vinegar and a tablespoon of olive oil. They are then placed in a thin layer on a couple of baking sheets and salted with sea salt to taste. They are cooked at 300 degrees for 35 minutes.

Ours were definitely done in about 20 minutes. (We prepared a cup of Savoy cabbage in the same manner and they burned in about 10 minutes!!!)

The color was nice. The flavor was much stronger than in the fresh kale. The two-year-old twins enjoyed them. I think the twins were into the tactile and crispy qualities (I don't think the twins have had potato chips yet.) As a munchy, they were fairly addictive. My brother didn't care for them.

Considering that the recipe said 35 minutes and ours were done in half the time, I have to assume the recipe really calls for mature leaves (which it did not mention), possibly those harvest after a light frost which would improve the flavor in the fresh leaves and, I would assume, increase the flavor in the crisps as well.

I wasn't sold on the value of kale crisps, but both my sister-in-law and I decided we would try the recipe again with mature leaves later in the season. Both of us are looking for the best method to preserve our kale harvest. Possibly, kale will make a better addition to dried soup mixes than as kale crisps. Until then, we'll continue to enjoy the immature leaves in our garden greens salads.

Oh! This and That

A sunny day in central Wisconsin and my camera and I do not know how to act. We have barely caught the beauty of this Siberian iris 'Caesar's Brother'.


Weigelia 'Carnaval' starts out with a red bud, and blooms white fading to pink and eventually maturing to red.



Having this blog has been an interesting journey. I occasionally get out and sell my perennial plants and shrubs I have propagated directly to gardeners. I am always amazed at the differing concerns they have and how a little of the right experience can go a long way. Knowledge is power and I hope all of you who read this blog can find some small bits of information that might make your lives better or minimally easier.

I'd like to share some little tidbits of information that I have come across that while not all are duh! moments; they are things people are trying to find out.

Yes, "Virginia" you can eat Red Bor kale. In my experience, tender young leaves are wonderful, but there is a middling phase that lasts a lot of the summer where the taste is a bit strong and bitter. Then after we have had frost the taste mellows and improves dramatically. There is, I am sure, a chemical basis for this. I do not pretend to know it, but I'm sure the bio-chemists out there can elucidate me and give me my duh! moment of the morning.

I was in Menard's (a local Wisconsin-originating box store) looking for fertilizer, 10-10-10. Yes, I wanted phosphorus. Root crops and flowers need phosphorus. New plantlings do, too, and I grow them to sell. No, I do not put it on my lawn. Yes, I know most yards have excess phosphates in the soil here. But, it might be of interest to you that I do not have large accumulation of phosphate in my soil.

My son, the junior environmental scientist, took a sample into his lab section in environmental science class and actually tested my soil. Zero on the phosphorus. I really wanted to see how much lead there might be as my garden was the middens for the early settlers' homestead here. (They didn't have the testing supplies for that test on hand. Drat!)

Anyway, the 'helpful' garden center person asked what I was looking for.

I replied, "10-10-10." He looked at me balefully, like I was speaking in code. "You know, garden fertilizer."

"I can't sell you that," he said, "it's illegal."

Yup. I'm a dangerous gardener!

"I don't want it for my lawn (you ignoramus, I was thinking) I want it for my potatoes, root crops, you know."

"I can't sell you 10-10-10. All we sell is lawn and garden fertilizer and that can't have phosphorus," he schooled me smugly.

Crap. I hate that. You see, in Wisconsin if it is labeled "lawn" the law does day no phosphorus. The trouble is veggie gardeners do need to come up with ways to get phosphorus to their plants. If you are organic and have this wonderful composting operation going, praise heaven. I garden on a scale and with no real land of my own, that to develop enough compost with good phosphorus levels, well... It truly boggles my small mind.

For you of the organic persuasion, the best source of phosphorus is of course bone meal. This probably goes sort of counter to the tenants of those of you that are also strictly vegan. I worry about prions, those things that cause mad cow disease and from my reading don't seem to ever go "away".

Other good sources of phosphorus are cantaloupe rind, cotton seed hulls, bat guano, cucumber skins, incinerator ash, paint processing waste, sardine scraps, oyster shells.shrimp waste, raw sugar...you get the idea. A lot of those things are either hard to come by or seem a bit worse than the phosphorus I so innocently want to purchase. (There are places that do sell "garden fertilizer" (Lowe's, Home Depot, Farm & Fleet), I didn't want to make another stop.

Other tidbits:

Annual cuttings: Yes, flower gardeners, you can make cuttings of those pricey annuals for your own use in your gardens. The root best with some sort of bottom heat and rooting hormone.

Plants for rock face walls: The list is long. Anything that grows on those "green roofs", sedums, sempervivrens, ajugas, ground creeping junipers, achillea, dianthus, euphorbia, geums, rugosa roses, carpet roses, calamintha, nepetas, lavender, oregano, veronicas, geraniums (particularly the drapey-viney ones like 'Orion' and "Rozanne'). One of the secrets is to plant in a pocket of good soil, even if you have to funnel it into the crevice, and water well the first year. If you have sever drought, it will look better if you do water, but everything will probably survive even if you do not.

Plants for a drainage field: Okay. Big, bold, letters! NO SHRUBS OR TREES! It is your drainage field, people. Don't mess with it. My rule of thumb, in the late fall, you should be able to put your lawn mower on a very high setting and just mow the darn thing off. If you are thinking of planting something you can't do that to, don't plant it there! I have done beautiful cutting gardens for people, on their drainage field, but you don't want a veggie garden there, nor do you want to disc it over.

April 22, 2011: Today in a Zone 4 Garden, Central Wisconsin

This afternoon, the sun is beginning to peek out. It seems like forever since we've had that much light! It is not supposed to freeze for at least the next several days, although we are supposed to have some wind today. It is pretty wet to work in the garden.

I did move three flats filled with kale, cabbage, and onions out of the cold frame and under a storm door screen. I have found the screen provides just enough sun, wind, and torrential rain protection to serve as the perfect cover when hardening off plantlings. One edge of the screen is on the cold frame the other two corners are supported by a stack of bricks. I tucked three flats under one edge next to the thermal mass of the cold frame.

This frees up space for three more flats in the cold frame. At this point with temps in the mid-30s at night, I don't want to bring out peppers, eggplant, coleus, or tomatoes; but dino kale seedlings, radicchio and head lettuce starts may do well in the cold frame.

I started some peas indoors and after they have germinated and grown true leaves, they will be candidate to bring out to harden off. There's still no sign of those I planted in the ground. I also planted some yellow onion sets before our major spring snow storm. Onions are pretty cold hardy and even wet, cold ground should not deter them.

This activity has also freed up space on the grow racks. The average last frost date is about 4 weeks out. I am thinking of getting some more spinach started, including a climbing spinach.

After May 1, I will start some heat lovers, like melons and pumpkins. These won't go into the garden until almost June 1 here, well after any chance of frost.

Intoxicating Artwork on Seed Packets

I have oodles of tiny seeds that have sprouted and are growing under lights. Tomatoes, celery, peppers, leeks, onions, cabbage, broccoli, kale, and coleus clippings all busy doing their photosynthesis thing.

But, I walked into a garden center selling seed. I thought I would just look...

Yeah, right!

Like I said, the artwork was intoxicating. They say you should never grocery shop when you're hungry. Seed shopping. These drawing on the seed packet put out by Botanical Interests are good enough to eat.

So what did I pick up?

A couple combo packs (more than one cultivar in the same packet): Artichoke 'Green Globe' and 'Purple of Romanga', Onion 'Ringmaster', Melon 'Charentais', Kale Italian Lacinato 'Nero Toscana'. I also picked up okra 'Red Burgundy', acorn squash, sweet red pepper 'Marconi', marigold 'Tangerine Gem', a dwarf sunflower 'Incredible', and the pumpkin 'Big Max'.

The kale is one I saw growing at Allen Gardens last fall. The marigold is a bushy, frothy one with a different growth habit than most marigold typically sold as transplants. The pumpkin 'Big Max' I thought would be incredible fun for my brother's now 1 1/2 year old sons who live where my garden will be.

Kale

Edible ornamentals were everywhere this year,botanical gardens, horticultural testing stations, public parks. In northern gardens, when you get past grasses and the perennials that "look good dead" as Piet Oudolf says in praise of our Midwestern native prairie plants, there's just not a lot going on with annuals. Yes, fall mums put on a big show, but for over-the-top-unusual ornamental kale is where it is at.

This first kale is the Red Peacock hybrid kale. Supposedly it grows 8-12" tall. Not here! This specimen is easily 2 feet tall and 2 feet across. It is a sensational specimen with its extremely lacey, finecut foliage. Purpley-blue outer foliage embrace a hot pinky mauve center making this a standout.

This next photo shows a traditional kale in the foreground with what is referred to as "dinosaur kale" behind the purple fountain grass.


Another of the cole family I recommend is Savoy type cabbage. My favorite ornamental for its mild almost lettuce flavor and wonderfully textured leaves that make a good ornamental, structured border.

In the last picture, you can see the dinosaur kale in the foreground. This picture actually features many different edibles which are highly ornamental. Red Bor kale is right behind the dinosaur kale. This picture was taken at the Allen Centennial Gardens on the UW-Madison campus in mid-September.