Halfway through August and some of our spring favorites, like kale and Swiss chard, are still growing strong. We are also just starting to have tomatillos, tomatoes, blackberries, and peppers, with more expected, soon!
Kohlrabi is also remaining slow and steady. We grow two varieties: Blauer Speck (purple) and Early White Vienna (white). We like to harvest them while they are still small, as they are generally a little more tender for eating. At the farmers market, we often get asked what it is, followed by, “how do you eat it?”. We generally respond that we like to chop it up and add it to salads or soups, but we also recently tried cooking it on the grill with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and we highly recommend it!
Kale is something more people are familiar with, but a general response we get is “I don’t like kale”. We usually ask people how they’ve tried eating it. Many people share that they have tried putting it in smoothies or made chips, but that’s using the typical, grocery store variety. We grow a Dazzling Blue variety, and we like to harvest them young, so the stems are not as thick.
Besides sautéing or eating the kale raw in a salad, a trick we learned to help make the kale more tender and appealing to many, is to take a couple of minutes and massage the leaves. Yes, you read that correctly- massage! Here is process we follow:
- First, you wash the leaves; shaking off excess moisture.
- Next, you slice the leaves into strips about 1/4 inch thick. We leave the stems in, but you may consider removing them.
- Finally, you add a little olive oil and pinch of lemon juice and salt, and then you squeeze the kale with your hands for about 2 minutes, or until the leaves are tender and uniform in color. They are now ready to enjoy or add to your larger salad!
We hope you find new ways to enjoy a mixture of vegetables this summer, and we encourage questions and recipe sharing!