Greens

Spinach season is officially over in my garden; I'm just waiting for the seed heads to mature and then I'll pull up the plants and save the seeds for the next planting. Most of the wild lambs' quarters are in the same boat. They're towering over the planter boxes, so I need to go ahead and clear them out, freeze or use whatever leaves I want to use, and make sure there's seed either for them to re-seed themselves for next year or for me to do it. The beauty of lambs' quarters is that they are slower to bolt and grow beautifully in this climate, which gives them a slightly longer season than spinach. The leaves are smaller than spinach leaves, though, so it's a trade-off. Or it would be, if I'd deliberately planted lambs quarters instead of spinach or kale. The fact that they planted themselves is actually pretty great. They're by far the most prevalent weed in my garden, just by dint of my pulling all the others and leaving the lambs quarters mostly alone. I mean...why eradicate something that's perfectly edible? If you don't want it in the garden, just let it get big enough to put out some nice tender leaves and then pull it and eat it. Seems like a shame to waste perfectly good food when so many people out there are so worried about the perceived "scarcity" of food nowadays. Food's all around us, people. It's just that we might have to give up our dependence on corn and actually eat some greens.

With spinach and lettuce season going out, kale, collards and chard are definitely coming in. I've also got some wonderful heirloom snow peas--those are the edible pods--and they're right in their prime, with blossoms coming on all over. Looks like it won't be terribly long before my largest broccoli starts to form heads, and I have one green cabbage that looks like it might actually form a head. If it does, it'll be my first successful standard variety cabbage. The michili is done. I pulled the last of the plants a couple of days ago, we stir-fried half of it and I have half in a bag in the fridge. So we got several meals from the michili I planted way back in February, though I'm still not sure whether I'll plant it again next year. Darned tasty, but spiky little monsters! Huge leaves though, which with a family of four is always a plus.

Bean plants are looking good in the three north fence beds, so I expect good things from them later. The thing is that even with all the various heirloom veggies I put in this year, I'm still a little stymied for options right now. Lately it's "Would you like greens for dinner, or greens?" "Oh, by the way, do you want greens with that?" If it weren't for grains and animal proteins, I think dinners might be a truly daunting experience. Thank goodness for the berries becoming ripe! Variety is good whenever possible, even on a mostly locavore diet. I only know so many ways to cook greens, and I'm really looking to expand my repertoire. Obviously I need to go buy Deborah Madison's Greens cookbook. Don't get me wrong; I'm very grateful for the success of the greens and for the food they're providing for me and my family. I'm sure I'll miss them terribly come winter when the only greens we have are frozen or canned.