Greens in the garden

We went away for a long weekend and came back to a garden bursting with greens.  The swiss chard above is interplanted with leeks.  I chopped it down, and pulled some plants out to give the leeks more room to grow.

The other green I pulled out was the vitamin green.  I had such high hopes that it would push through the bug problems but I was wrong.  Or maybe I'm just too lazy to deal with all the bugs.  Hole-y leaves aren't that appetizing anyways.  So I pulled it all out and planted basil in it's place.  I'll try planting it again later this year and keep row covers on to keep the bugs out!

We have a lot of other vegetables growing in our garden, like the scallions above.  Aren't they cool looking when they emerge?  Our garden neighbor is growing a lot of mesculn mix (above right).  I counted at least five varieties of greens.  Can you name any of them?

Salad greens in the garden

About a month ago, when salad green production in the greenhouses was starting to slow down I had a bad thought:

"What I am going to eat when the salad runs out?"

I  took some of the flats of greenhouse greens that had been harvested, divided them up and stuck them in our outside garden.  You can see the swiss chard above is still planted very close together - not at all the recommended 4-6 inch spacing between plants.  I wasn't about to untangle all 150+ plants that were in the flat.  Since the plants are so densely packed we harvest leaves are still pretty small - about the size of my hand.     

I also squashed in a flat of red russian kale.  Given more space to grow its leaves are much broader than when grown in the greenhouse.  Hand-sized leaves mean it's still tender enough to eat in salads or on sandwiches.

Lastly, vitmin green.  Like red russian kale, vitamin green really spreads itself out when given more space.  The broad leaves are mild and tender.  Beetles seem to like eating them just as much as we do.  If I had been smart I would have covered the plants right away with some lightweight row cover.  Now it's too late.  Covering the plants would probably trap pests in.  I don't mind the holes since I'm not trying to sell these greens.  Other brassicas that beetles like include arugula, mustards and napa cabbage.  See here for more information on managing flea beetles in brassicas.

Organizing salad greens by yield

When looking at yield data collected this past spring, I found the salad greens I've grown could be roughly categorized into three groups: heavy, mid and light weight.  These distinctions could be useful when building a unique salad mix with some lessor known salad green varieties.

The highest yielding greens were the lettuces and loose headed cabbages.  These make a good basis for a salad mix because they are a) heavy and b) mild tasting.

Medium yield greens contain some of my favorite greens.  Ok, they are all my favorites and when mixed together they make a nice salad.  None of these have any spicy-ness, but they do offer good tastes and nice curvy leaves.  And beets and chard just so pretty.

Spicy mustards, arugula and kale make up the light weight category.  They are 'lofty' and add texture, color and interest to salad mixes.  Often, these are the greens that you don't want too much of in a salad anyway.  I've tried the mainly-mustard-greens salad and it was too much. The keyword there was 'tried.'  Other varieties of kale may produce a heavier yield, but the russian kales have rather spindly leaves when they are young.

What would you choose to put in your salad mix?

Salad mix of the week

 I wanted to focus on spinach this week due to the evil spores that are slowly killing all of the spinach I have growing.  This weeks salad mix features spinach with two other dark green leaves: komatsuna and vitamin green.  I've already written about both of these greens, so they should sound familier.

I used baby sized vitamin green in these pictures.  Since taking them I've found 'grown up' sized leaves are better because of the stems.  This salad mix has no spice and would really benefit from exciting, colorful toppings like feta cheese, radishes, pomegranate seeds or all three.  (Last week I bought some feta and my salad eating life has changed!  Also, calling it a 'topping' sounds like I'm making an ice cream sundae.  Dried cherries in salad wouldn't be such a bad idea. . . )

Right now there are spinach seedlings that are not yet showing signs of downy mildew.  I know it is only a matter of time before they will, but until then I'm holding on to them.

viridescent vitamin green

Many weeks ago I took the baby vitamin green plants, which I posted about here, and transplanted them out of their small cells and into a big tray of compost.  I want to grow some greens and see what all the fuss was about.  Recently, I commented on how I preferred komatsuna as a baby green compared to vitamin green.  That's still true, but I am getting on board the vitamin green boat too.

Vitamin green

Why? Mainly because of the stems.  Usually stems are considered Undesirable in salad.  They stick out in unpleasant ways, making it hard to get bites into your mouth and then have they have the audacity to poke you.  Vitamin greens stems are totally different.  They are thick, crunchy and contain so much water that I would even call them juicy.  I frequently graze while I'm working, and they are now my favorite snack. 

Vitamin green

The fun part is definitely the stem, but the leaves are great too.  They are tender and in their old age seem to have lost the brassica, mustard-y flavor that I tasted in the baby leaves.  I've read people call vitamin greens 'bitter' but haven't found that at all - yet.  Perhaps if they are grown outside they could become bitter.  I brought the bunch of greens above home with the thought  of eating some raw and some stir fried, but I never made it past the salad.  The leaves disappeared into my usual mix of lettuce, spinach and mizuna, and the stems added perfect crunchiness.

Have you used vitamin green before? Did you cook it? Was it bitter? Tender?

Thanksgiving salad mix of the week

No one wants to eat salad on Thanksgiving.  Or so I heard on a radio program a few days ago.  I totally understand that there are already plenty of foods to eat during Thanksgiving dinner.  And, if you're a purist, the pilgrims and indians probably did not have salad at their dinner (but I'm sure they didn't have marshmallows on their sweet potatoes either).  There are still plenty of opportunities for salad eating in the next few days.  Namely, the snack before Thanksgiving when you're hungry, but want to save your appetite for the Main Event, or the day after Thanksgiving when you're feeling guilty for eating those marshmallowed sweet potatoes and calling them a vegetable.

This weeks salad mix is full of such pretty greens.  My mom says the best thing about beet greens is that they taste like beets.  I think their color is the best part (maybe you've noticed by the number of pictures I've taken here, here, here and here).  Swiss chard is almost as beautiful, if not quite as photogenic.  Vitamin green adds volume to the salad, without adding distracting flavor or color and tatsoi leaves are perfect, small circles.

vitamin green or vitaminna?

Vitamin green is the number one thing people are searching for when they find this blog.  When I found another green that had 'vitamin' it's in name I knew I had to try it out.  Can a tell a difference?  Nope.  Do I really know if they are the same variety? Not at all.

Perhaps vitamin green leaves are rounder than vitaminna.  

They both are mild tasting brassicas that I would use interchangeably.     

Salad mix of the week

The hurricane blew away all the remaining fall leaves, and now it looks like winter in New England.  Namely, there are bare, brown trees, empty fields and bleak skies, which, secretly I like as long as I can spend lots of time reading books.  

This salad mix isn't really that summery since it has kale and spinach in it, but the muted colors made me think of late August.  I don't really think of lettuce as very hardy winter green either, more of a fair-weather-only kind of green.

komastuna

I thought vitamin green would be the favorite green this fall since everyone in the internet world is so enthusiastic about it.  But then I tried komatsuna.  How can there be a difference between one dark green brassica with oblong leaves and another you ask?  Probably not much. But komatsuna doesn't have much mustard-y taste the way vitamin green does.  In fact, it's almost sweet!  

Baby vitamin green

Information on vitamin greens seems to be the number one thing people are looking for when they come to this blog.  So I planted a few of my coveted seeds a few weeks before starting the variety trial to see what they were all about. 

Right now my plants are at the four leaf stage, which means they are just about perfect baby size for salad mix.  The picture above shows leaf number three and the beginnings of number four.

I tried a leaf and it tasted - green.  That might sound anti-climatic, but vitamin greens are known for being tender greens without a strong mustard-y taste.  Below is a seedling from the variety trial.  You can kind of see little hairs, or spines on the edges of the leaf.  I'm hoping these will disappear as the plant gets older, but I'm not sure yet.  Since the days are so short now they  won't be ready to harvest (and eat!) for a few more weeks.