What to Do with Stems from Greens

I made a delicious recipe one day and it's my new favourite for getting rid of stems from kale, chard, spinach etc. Don't throw them away!!  People throw them out, did you know? It's crazy! Don't waste perfectly good food!

Steam the stems until partway cooked.

Blend fresh tomatoes into a sauce or use a can/bottle of passata.

Blend the two together in a casserole dish, top with cornmeal (my gluten free version) or breadcrumbs and grate cheese on top.

Bake until cheese in melty delicious and enjoy!

A Beautiful Day

I spent the day today planting a bunch more of my garden–so revitalizing!

I planted a few herb seedlings: basil, rosemary, and lemon thyme (soooooo tasty!)

I also planted a bunch from seed: calendula, korean mint, callaloo, more radishes, a few mammoth sunflowers, basil, feverfew and sorrel, more spinach, more kale, more swiss chard, and more romaine lettuce. Phew!












The day was beautiful, the sun was shining, and I had 3 friends helping me–it worked out so that as one friend left, the next came!  I shared a meal with each one and we planted and dug together!  I'm realizing how tied together community, food growing, bartering, and questioning our current economic model are...  Work doesn't seem like work when I'm with friends, things go faster, and there is something so soul nourishing about being helped and helping in return at another time. The knowledge that we can give when we have the capacity and will be supported in times of need. What a beautiful day it was indeed!

First seeds planted outdoors!

Today was an exciting day: the first of my seeds got planted outdoors!
Heirloom Organic Romaine Lettuce
Organic Ruby Red Swiss Chard
Pak Choi
Organic Russian Red Kale
Organic Bloomsdale Spinach
I was going to plant more but ran out of time...  Tomorrow maybe?

Seeing as all my cold hardy veg are nitrogen hungry, I mixed in a bit of extra coffee grounds into the soil before I planted my seeds.

For speed of planting, I used a tool that I don't know the name of that I got from my parents house to make narrow troughs to lay the seeds in.
I spaced the rows according to the directions on the seed packets or information that I found online and recovered with the displaced soil.

After I finished and lightly watered the ground where I planted, I covered the plot with a floating row cover (with rocks on the corners) to keep the soil warm on the still cool nights:

So soothed :)