13 May 2017 Collards

[Durgan]

http://durgan.org/2017/May%202017/13%20May%202017%20Collards/HTML/ 13 May 2017 Collards
Four collard plants were moved from the small greenhouse to the outdoor garden. These plants grow about three feet tall and produce green edible leaves all Summer. Basically a cabbage that doesn’t form a head. What I don’t use fresh is added to any juice being made at the time.

 

[headfullofbees]

In the UK we don't tend to grow collards per se. What we tend to do is to grow small cabbages close together, at 4-6 inch (10-15cm) spacing.
We sow them in July/August, over-winter them and harvest April-June the following year, calling them, "spring-greens".
I also grow small, pyramid type cabbages like greyhound in the summer, and have ten in the ground right now.

Since the outer, darker, more strongly flavoured leaves are the ones we like best, I really should look into collards, as, from what you say, they are very slow to run to seed.

 

[Doelman]

Do your greens not bolt in the summer up there?

 

[Durgan]

I only get three months of growing season and it is spectacular. Those plants don't have enough time to bolt usually. Cold weather has advantages in that the Sun is just enough and the cold discourages harmful insects except for short periods. Some of the harmful bugs prevalent in the warmer climates I never see.

 

[headfullofbees]

I agree, and would suggest that, barring tundra and dessert, all growing climates have their own advantages and disadvantages; in brassicas, I can take direct from the ground the whole year round, with varieties of sprouts, savoys, greens, sprouting broccoli and the like, standing in the ground all winter.
Leeks too are winter hardy here, and potatoes, with some hilling up to protect from frost, can be harvested from late May onwards, whereas, you're probably later, and in warmer countries, like Spain, Cyprus and Greece, potatoes are grown as a winter veg.
I suppose that's one of the reasons you have to be more versatile and inventive in your methods of preservation, especially if you don't want shop-bought crap.

 

[Durgan]

From my observations few people preserve anything. They still ape the methods of old, except they now believe everything can now be frozen. Frozen food with a few exceptions is lousy except for meat.

Example in a gardening forum there is not even a preserving section. Some relatively modern equipment make preserving easy. Hand blenders, table blenders, pressure cookers, good screening food mills, electric grinders to name a few. There is little requirement for sweating over hot stove anymore.

In most of the northern parts of the planet, there is no growing anything for around 8 months of the year. I suggest most of what is grown on a small scale is garbaged
.
I generally preserve almost enough for consumption during the off growing months. The effort is not too onerous.

 

[headfullofbees]

From my observations few people preserve anything. They still ape the methods of old, except they now believe everything can now be frozen. Frozen food with a few exceptions is lousy except for meat.

Example in a gardening forum there is not even a preserving section. Some relatively modern equipment make preserving easy. Hand blenders, table blenders, pressure cookers, good screening food mills, electric grinders to name a few. There is little requirement for sweating over hot stove anymore.

In most of the northern parts of the planet, there is no growing anything for around 8 months of the year. I suggest most of what is grown on a small scale is garbaged
.
I generally preserve almost enough for consumption during the off growing months. The effort is not too onerous.

You in N. America are way ahead of us in UK as far as preserving goes.
I looked into some of your preserving methods, and found that most of the equipment required has to ordered from US!!!
It's almost impossible to find ringed jars with replaceable caps, and as for the necessary pressure cooker? No way.
Preserving in this country extends only as far as freezing, jams & marmalades, & pickling a few veg.
Having said that, I do find some of your produce unappetising, but that may merely be cultural.

 

[Durgan]

Nobody I know uses a pressure cooker. Nobody I know preserves food. My case is not cultural only me being me. Almost nobody I know grows a garden.

As to unappetizing, I agree, but nutrition is always in my thoughts. Within walking distance of where I live there is every fast (fats) food business available and they are well frequented. It is apparent in the physique of the people. Taste and appearance prevail.

The most astonishing revelation was my introduction to the FAST diet. It made immediate sense to me Yet the reviews were and are mostly negative. It only takes a bit of will power to implement and is effective.

My ramble for today.

 

[headfullofbees]

I don't eat fast food, as in food-chain muck; I cook.