We were on vacation last week, and came back to find big changes in the garden! Given that my last post was on the garden as well, it’s pretty fun to see the changes from just nine days ago …
The garden is going beautifully strong. The cool weather and constant rain early on has made our lettuces and kales grow like crazy, and now that the sun has peeked through at least a couple of times, we’ve got flowers and blossoms coming out, too!
We had a huge harvest of a particularly bitter and strong type of broccoli raab called di rapa novantina broccoli this week. I cut and gave away a whole bunch of it, but also used a lot myself with this recipe that cuts the bitterness of raab with, basically, fat.
Our overwintered kale has already bolted, leaving us with flowers and buds on every single plant. This is what happens when it’s so rainy and cold we aren’t harvesting and giving away a ton! While bolting can cause leaves to be less tender and more bitter, the good news is that the kale flowers, buds and stems are actually really tasty – very similar to a broccoli raab! It’s also been such a delayed spring here in New England that the kale leaves are still tender. So by luck, we’ve got the best of both worlds … here are three ways the kale stems and buds are great to eat …
We’ve been planting the seedlings we started last month any time the sun shines here in Massachusetts … which means that during our two days of sun in the last month, we’ve been very, very busy! Here’s how it’s coming together.
We’ve been doing a ton of work starting to establish our veggies and herbs for the year! Here’s what we’ve got in the ground and what’s almost ready to plant …
This weekend I found (via Instagram) this beautiful antique house for sale in Essex, MA. It is chock full of garden and landscaping inspiration!
I’m very excited because we’ve started working with a landscape designer to solve some of our persistent problems around the property! While I’m pretty confident with interiors, when it comes to the outdoors I know how to grow food and flowers, but nothing about drainage, yards and hardscapes.
In early spring my grandmother used to forage a ridiculous amount of dandelions on her morning walks and make amazing dandelion salads. You may be prejudiced against dandelions because you’ve bought them in the supermarket when they’re mature, and bitter, and generally gross. BUT – stick with me, because new spring dandelions are a different beast altogether …
We got a little lucky with how unseasonably warm this winter has been – I was very late with mulching to repress weeds in our kitchen garden come spring, but now the job is done!