Today’s harvest is just a bowl full of collards

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Today's harvest of collards

Brazilian style Collards with rice and dal

Today was a good day to catch up in the garden, and at the end of it, I collected a big bunch of collard leaves. That makes it a good evening to cook dinner again. Having cleaned out the fridge, I turned to the pantry for some rice and dal to make  a meal.

Collards with garlic

Brown rice

Urad (Black lentil) dal

Might be a good time to plant fall vegetables

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Late summer, July, August, is about when I start thinking it’s a good time to plant some fall crops. There’s a whole list from broccoli to carrots that are supposed to grow quickly in the warmth and rain, which lets you get another harvest in. But I never look at the list any more. I just wander up the hill and hey look! the collards are reseeding themselves again. And one of the plants that got eaten to nubbins by turkeys last March, is ready for another harvest right now.

Collards are the best.

In which I enjoy my spring green collards

Collards trying to turn into broccoli

I got my spring harvest of collards today. Just in time, as they are about to bolt into shoots of skinny broccolini style flowers. I would have gotten them a lot sooner, but the turkeys got them first. Just the same, all four plants survived. I found plenty of leaves to gather, and the greens cooked up tastily while I cooked the rest of a frugal, fridge-clearing dinner.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my collard plants?

Turkeys got you down?

Look what the turkeys did to my collard plants! I don’t think I’ll be cooking any home-grown greens for a little while yet.

More crocuses springing

Collards: When turkeys attack

I’ll survive. The collards will survive.  Like crocus, they spring annually.

Sure looks springlike

There are crocuses smattering on the hillside.
The collards have survived so well, they look like flowers.
I saw a hawk again this morning, distinctly red-tailed as it circled high overhead.
Not only is today the vernal equinox, it actually looks like spring around here.

Robust collards

Skinny crocus

But tomorrow, it’s going to snow.

January Collards

My New Year’s collards harvest was a little late this year, but here it is. There was just enough bare ground to walk on to get up the hill and reach that big collard plant under the pear tree. As I climbed, I’m afraid I didn’t see any of the other plants poking out.

Droopy collard plant

Perky collard leaves

Collards alive!

A sturdy clump of collards

What’s that up on the hill? You know, the green clump at the foot of the pear tree with the plastic grocery bag caught in its scrawny branches. Could it be?

Scragglions

Scallions scraggling all over the snow

The storm was not very nice to my cold weather plants.  The snapdragons are munged, the collards are covered, and the scallions are barely hanging in there, all scraggly on top of the snow. I’m sure the scallions will be fine, and the snapdragons will grow back. But I worry about the collards up on the hill, covered over with snow. No home-grown collards for New Year’s Day this year!

Cold customers

The cold snap has melted, but there’s some still greenery in the garden.

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The snapdragons are looking a bit water-logged, but they’re standing up to the rain. With flowers even. Scallions are on the march. And the collards looked a bit lumpen this morning, but perked up by the afternoon.

These guys can really tough it out.