Gorgeous Greens In and Out of the Greenhouse

I steamed these lightly and dressed them with soy sauce and toasted sesame oil.  Aren't they absolutely beautiful?! And all from our greenhouse, though several are also growing outside right now (none ready to pick at the moment).  They are:

• Red Choy Sum
• DaTaglio Chard
• Ruby Chard
• Red Russian Kale (photo bottom right)
  
• Arugala (including the flowers in the photo)
• Broccoli Raab
• 3 types of Beet Greens
• Red Mustard

And we're growing a half-dozen more besides several lettuces: Collards, Tatsoi, Bok Choy (center of photo right, surrounded by Red Mustard and Collards), Spinach, and two types of heading Cabbage. Oh, come to think of it: also Tuscan Black Kale, a rotating variety of Turnips (one crop in the greenhouse, already finished), and Mibuna, too

There really wasn't enough at the moment of any one of these to pick, what with our harvesting so much of late (it's the second time this week I harvested the Red Mustard... a simply wonderful plant). They made a beautiful melange. The amount in the photo cooked up three servings.

Up here in the northeastern US, most of us don't eat a lot of cooked greens, nor do we eat a wide variety of them either cooked or raw. But there are so many luscious types, and they don't even include the myriad gorgeous and tasty lettuces available today.

Many greens grow beautifully in our climate, some better in the cooler months, others enjoying the heat.  Some can grow from April through October (and beyond -- several even taste better after a frost) outside, and year 'round in an unheated greenhouse, hoop house or coldframe (check back on this blog soon for more about year 'round growing in our climate).  A couple of types can stand through several killing frosts, and come back again for you in the spring as soon as it's warm enough to start growing again. How can we turn our backs on this glorious bounty?

It's important that gardeners each find the ones that they not only like to eat and grow, but that do well in their garden's microclimate. The only ones of the above I wouldn't grow again  is the Ruby Chard. Pretty as heck, but sloooow growing and fussy as a  seedling. Who needs someone taking up space and not producing? I will not grow Mibuna outside again -- it's too hard to clean; every stray leaf and pine needle gets tangled up in it, but it's fine in the greenhouse. But most types of greens we grew produced so quickly and tasted so wonderful both raw and cooked, that I don't know how we'd get by without growing them each regularly!

It's a real eye-opener to many of us to see that the vegetable gardening season doesn't just start at the last frost in May, and end with the first one in September or October. With good planning, even outdoors there are about 4-6 weeks more on either end of the season that we can be growing fresh food outdoors -- right at our own doorsteps. And the harvest can be 12 months a year -- even in Concord's central New England climate -- if we give the plants just a little protection and we choose our crops wisely.  More on this topic here very soon.

Photos: ©2009 Deborah Bier