a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Month: October 2015

The Benefits of Thinning

What are these? These are the delightful leaves of baby napa cabbage. The Japanese name for napa cabbage is 白菜 – hakusai, which translates as “white vegetable”. Baby napa cabbage is anything but white. Like swans, their beautiful white leaves don’t develop until they grow up. What is peculiar is that the word “napa” comes from the Japanese word 菜っ葉 which means vegetable leaves.

I have these baby napa cabbage leaves on the kitchen counter as it is time to thin the rows of napa cabbage that are growing in the garden. Thinning is fun because you get to eat all sorts of baby greens. I doubt anyone else in the state had baby napa cabbage leaves for lunch today, which made today a very special day.

Making this week special is a pullet which started laying lovely light blue eggs. I haven’t seen which hen is laying these special eggs. Why settle for plain white eggs when chickens can lay eggs in so many colors?

King Richard is strutting in front of a chicken barn, acting like a royal. He’s trying to impress a hen which is inside checking out the barn. She’s not impressed. He should have brought her a dish of baby napa leaves.

October 6, 2015
Odd Potato

Just because a potato is odd doesn’t mean it won’t taste good. It may be that the oddest potatoes have the best flavor. If you want funky, funny potatoes, you’ll probably need to grow them. Funky, funny potatoes don’t make it onto store shelves. Their destiny is compost bins and factory foods. To make it onto store shelves, potatoes can’t look like they have a mind of their own.

This odd potato ended up turning into hashbrowns for breakfast. Now they don’t look so funky.

There are plenty of other odd vegetables in the garden. It’s time to glean leftover vegetables to prepare the beds for overwintering vegetables like shallots and garlic. These odd little onions and carrots, gleaned from a vegetable bed, will make a number of happy dishes.

October 5, 2015
The Mystery of Kohlrabi

Some things are inexplicable. Like why isn’t kohlrabi served at every meal? Why isn’t kohlrabi seen in every shopping cart in supermarkets? Peeled and sliced, it is crisp and juicy, sweet and mild, the ultimate snack food, the most refreshing salad, the optimal side dish to any meal. It is so delicious, parents could use it to make their children behave. “Put that down this minute, or there will be no kohlrabi for you!” That would work one hundred percent of the time.

October 3, 2015
Kohlrabi at Sunset

Crowds gather along the shores to watch the evening sun set on the ocean, to see the fading light pull its glow over the islands and waves. Who rushes into the garden to see the sun slip its last rays through the kohlrabi? The evening sun makes the kohlrabi seem even more sensual. Could these possibly be the first photos ever posted of kohlrabi at sunset? I did several queries and didn’t find a single picture of a kohlrabi lit by the setting sun.

There is a dearth of photos of vegetables glowing in the setting sun. No photos of cabbage, carrots, rubystreaks, or dried bean pods at twilight. During my search, I did learn that in Vermont, the night before Halloween is called Cabbage Night. Children go out into the fields to collect rotten vegetables, so that when they go trick or treating, they can toss the rotten vegetables at those who don’t give them a treat. Hopefully they leave the kohlrabi behind. A spoiled kohlrabi will crack a skull wide open.

Maybe if they went out before sunset and saw how beautiful vegetable plants are when lit by the evening sun’s gentle rays, they wouldn’t think of throwing rotten vegetables.

I better stop telling how beautiful vegetable plants are before there are hoards of photo snapping tourists, lined outside the gate, clambering to get in to photograph the vegetables at sunset.

October 1, 2015