Friday, April 25, 2014

The Super Food for a Super Supper


Omgoodness. What is it with so many of us coming down with cancer these days? Not cool. Not cool at all. Something must be done.

Enter Lacinto kale, otherwise known as one of the top "super foods", cancer fighters, and The Green Thing That Makes An Appearance Once A Day Now On Our Table. This stuff is delicious, quick to cook, and practically grows itself. Really. 

Wednesday evening, in lieu of... anything else, I harvested, blanched, and froze a bumper crop of kale. Took us a few hours, but with his superb chopping skills and my so-so washing-and-dunking-in-boiling-water-and-freezing skills, we were done. It was so worth it. Yesterday after a long day of work, I browned Italian turkey sausage, onions, celery, garlic and red pepper flakes in a big soup pot, and then added a few crushed tomatoes and chicken stock and herbs. I simmered that for 20 minutes and dumped in a few handfuls of our kale and some white beans... and woohoo! Supper!

While we're scanning real estate sites and hoping to buy a small country place soon, for now we're living in the city, about three blocks from the local college. Our little fenced yard already had deep existing flower beds, but we've added two more and are planting them full of food. And a few flowers and herbs. But mostly food. And honestly, they're quite pretty.

If you have the means, hop on over to Seed Savers and snag some seeds so you can be ready to plant in a few months. Or look for it in the store or farmer's market or CSA or wherever you find produce. I promise you'll be glad you did.

It's time we show this cancer nonsense who's boss, eh?

Happy weekend!  -Brin

Update: Oh! If you're looking for a good tutorial on how to deal with all your super kale, go here. This is how I learned to do it and the clearest I've seen it explained. Enjoy! 

6 comments:

Betty said...

Kale..yes!! It's a wonderful green to have in your diet. Your kale soup sounds delicious.
I want to plant lots of kale this summer.

Betty said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lulu said...

so glad to see you again..cant wait to see pics of your new dogie..

Kristie @ Comfy Cozy said...

I grew kale last year but the worms took over. Any advice to keep them away? I don't like to use chemicals if I can avoid it.

Brin said...

Thanks, ladies! :)

Betty- oh, you should. You should plant some for sure. I think I'm going to do a LOT here this fall, since in Texas I can grow it over the winter. Let me know how yours turns out if you go ahead with it!

Lulu- Thank you! Right now the challenge is getting the little dear to be still for a picture. Almost all of them I've taken so far are of a doggy blur. :)

Kristie- hmmm. What kind of worms? Sometimes with slugs and wormy things you can bury a jar lid or shallow dish into the ground and fill it with beer to ground level. Do it in the evening. They'll crawl in that and you can throw them out in the morning. Or, I've heard to put orange slices near your plants and let them crawl to that...and then toss those. If they're different kind of worms, you might need to squash them,spray them with organic soap, etc. Try starting here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg011739051898.html. Gardenweb forums are usually really helpful to me. Hope you can get those critters dealt with! Kale really is worth it. :) Happy growing!

rachel said...

I love kale in green smoothies. Bananas and kale, zapped in a blender with some water or milk. Nommy.
I've only ever managed to grow it successfully one year, the last couple my seedlings have been eating by something before they got a chance to establish. *pout*. Maybe I'll try again...