With the weather warming up our greens have started to bolt. For those unfamiliar with bolting as a gardening term, it means the plant is no longer producing mostly leaf but is forming flower heads and starting to go to seed. When vegetables and herbs bolt their flavor can change, so if you are planning on eating them then it is best to harvest before it bolts. A. and I noticed our kale and spinach forming flower heads. So on Sunday, A. did a mass harvest of the greens, and as a result, three heaping bags of kale, a bag of spinach, and a bag of baby carrots found their dirty way into our kitchen. After some creative rearranging, I managed to squeeze them all into the refrigerator.
Since then, I've sat down and done some trimming to make everything less invasive. Please note the salad spinner beside my foot. I highly recommend investing in a salad spinner if you are a fan of eating greens. Greens can pick up a lot of dirt in the garden and gritty greens make for an unpleasant mouth feel. Having a spinner handy helps to shake off clingy dirt and gets rid of the extra water from washing. I usually do 2-3 rinses and spins to make sure I have removed most of the grit.
So now what do we do with all of these greens? Well, there are the recipes from last week's kale post. We made Creamy Barley Risotto with Tomatoes and Greens, a recipe from Real Simple Magazine, and used kale as the greens. Our spinach has been used as the foundation of many a salad this spring. We have enjoyed topping it with strawberries, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, and chicken. As a dressing we found that wisking together some of our blueberry syrup that we canned last sumer along with balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper makes a nice dressing.
The last thing we've been doing with our abundance of green is giving it away. Knowing that this much vegetation is too much for us to enjoy at once, we love being able to share some of our "wealth" with friends and family.
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