What I'm planting right now

This past Saturday was a cool but sunny and dry day. Nothing like the forecast for the next 10 rainy days. So I took advantage of the weather to get some plants and seeds in the ground.

I started by moving the hay off my beds and filling one that had settled quite a bit.

I then planted beet and parsnip seeds, with a few radish seeds sprinkled in the rows. Both beets and parsnips are slow to germinate (but we'll see with all this rain :), so adding a few radish seeds in helps identify the rows and makes for easier weeding.

I covered the beds with remay cloth to help keep them moist, keep birds off and help keep any warmth the soil may take up during these cool days ahead.

I also planted brussels sprouts and kale plants that I started and a few brussels sprouts of a variety I haven't grown before that I purchased from the Mifflin Street Planthouse (just two doors down from our own house!)

Finally, I planted onions (Copra and Redwing), two varieties that are good keepers for storage. I planted them quite a bit closer than the instructions call for because I just don't have a lot of space in my community garden. I think the only downside is I will get smaller onions.

I then put hay between the onion rows, and finished up the day by mulching between the rows of garlic that is up. Last fall we planted 120 garlic cloves and it looks like most of them survived the winter.

Our goal this year is to have enough onions and garlic to use generously with canning this summer, and have enough to last until next year's harvest in July and August. I think we'll make it!

Are you at all concerned about your seeds rotting in the forecasted wet soil?

Getting through the gray time

Onions and leeks.

As I've said in a previous blog post, there are some good things about winter. But even the optimist in me gets down when the first day of spring brings 30-degree weather, and I hear that northern Wisconsin is getting up to a foot of snow.

That's when I go into my basement.

Peel back the cardboard reflectors.

And gaze upon the greenery.

I like to start seeds. It gives me something to do deep in the winter when the satisfaction of having planted tulips in the fall wanes. 

But mostly, it's to get something green green in my winter life. To add something living. And what offers the hope of spring more than putting a seed in dirt and within a week, something green pushes out of the soil?

My grow table with lights, seed mats, home made reflectors and leftover foam insulation.

In a corner of the basement, I built a table on which I have some 1" foam left over from another project. I put some heavy duty aluminum foil on a large piece of cardboard to keep every photon of light in where the seedlings can use them. Overhead, I have four 2-bulb shop lights with normal fluorescent tubes. I did splurge and three of the eight bulbs are special "grow" lights.

Seeds like tomatoes and peppers like it warm. I use seedling mats under the trays. I think the foam helps maintain the warmth, and enclosing it in the foil/cardboard reflectors can't hurt maintain a microclimate in my otherwise cool basement.

The photo at right is my pepper and tomato collection. Now that they have sprouted, I took the clear plastic dome off so they can get some air. Yes, in the lower right that's some moss growing. This generally isn't a problem.

Kale chip recipe, first harvest of the spring

Kale! I discovered kale last year. I know, but until then, I didn't really know what to do with what we got in our CSA box except give it all to Jeff and Erin (sorry guys, that explains ALL THAT KALE last year :)

Until we discovered kale chips. Then I was all over kale and started two varieties from seed this spring. After an unfortunate early spring sunburn when I killed four plants by putting them out without properly hardening them, the four replacements are growing and I harvested leaves after work today.

Little known fact I can't prove but have heard - up until recently, Pizza Hut was the largest user of kale in the U.S. What for? Decoration around their salad bar. My bet is they don't turn them into kale chips at the end of the day.

Kale chip recipe

• Preheat oven to 300f
• Rinse kale leaves and tear into "chip" size pieces. Tear the leafy parts away from the thick stem (compost the stem). 
• The leaves don't shrink much, what you tear is pretty much what you get.
• Pat dry, though this is not really necessary. Maybe give them a spin in a salad spinner, or don't worry. They are about to get very dry.
• Oil a cookie sheet, I use an olive oil mister. You don't need much.
• Lay kale leaves flat on sheet.
• Oil the leaves.
• Sprinkle a little salt on the leaves.
• 10 minutes in the oven; watch them, they can go from chips to charcoal quickly.
• Turn them over for the last 5 minutes. The don't hold heat, you can do this with your fingers. Some may be flattened on the tray, a little nudge with a spatula will get them off.
• I had enough for two trays, and I swapped the racks after turning chips over.
• After they are light and crispy, let cool on the trays.
• Store in an airtight container so they don't get stale.

First harvest of the season, kale chips.

What are your favorite kale recipes?