Kale
Our first year as share holders of Trillium Haven Farm is coming to a close. Only one month left. This summer flew by! I have loved being a part of such a wonderful community of people.
I really would recommend a CSA(community supported agriculture) to anyone, who loves a variety of fresh organic produce, but does not really have it in their blood or time schedule to plant their own garden. I don’t have it in my blood by the way. I tried that for two summers, it was, quite frankly, a disaster. This summer I planted three tomato plants and some herbs and that worked out fabulously for me.
I loved everything about going to the farm except one thing. There is one thing that would just get my stomach in a knot and my pits a pouring sweat. Kale. I hated the kale. Every week there it was. Laying in it’s nice basket, all clean, pretty, and green waiting for me to take it home and love it. I HATE IT. I can’t stand kale. It would not go away. It was never ending.
Does kale have no season??? Tell me people. I need to know.
I few times I acted as if I didn’t see it. I scooted right past and ignored it. Then I had kale-guilt. Another time the nice woman that is always there to help us fill our baskets and bags, pointed out that I had passed the kale by. “oh, you forgot your kale, here ya go.” “Oh oops, thanks”, I lied. On occasion there will be someone at the Farm cooking when you pick up your share, one day there was a women there showing the many ways to use kale. It helped, I tried a few, but really I couldn’t get past it. Kale-guilt. And there is always so darn much of it! Sheesh give us kale haters a break would ya.
This is what I really want….
Beets and potatoes…
Beautiful carrots!
Radishes, green onions, lovely lettuces, which I was given…but always with this….
kale. Is this a lesson in…”with the good there always comes the bad”? Oh man….and how do I take the “bad” and turning it into something good?
Flippin’ kale…trying to teach me life lessons! Who does he think he is? Blast!
Somewhere along in my blog hopping I read something about a Kale Chip. What? What did I read, and where did I read it. I couldn’t remember for the life of me. Did I dream it. Kale had been haunting me in my sleep.
Dream #1: I went to the farmers market and all anyone was selling was kale.
Dream #2: I went to the grocery store and everything was kale.
Dream#3: I woke up and I was sleeping on a bed of kale!
I love chips. Potato chips with plenty of French Onion Dip. But how could one turn kale into a chip. I did what all good people do these days….I googled, kale chips. And what happened next is not to be explained. The heavens opened up and a beam of light shown through the window onto my keyboard. True story. Then I clicked on the second choice that was given, cause that’s just what I do. I rarely choose the first one. To my good fortune it was Smitten Kitchen. Who is also not a fan of kale and therefore sought out the chip and it was life changing, for her, and for me too.
Yes, it is true the Kale Chip has transformed me. I have taken something that I believed to be horrifically yucky. And transformed it relatively easily into a thing of wonder.
I will leave you all to ponder how wonderful a kale chip is. I will be back later to post how to make kale chips. Or if you have a mound of kale and are desperate need of a recipe for kale chips then go to Smitten Kitchen, she has a lovely site, with lots of good stuff you may like.
Be back in a few.
This is our first year as Trillium Haven CSA members too!!! I have LOVED how many veggies I have learned to use and actually enjoy this summer!! I often use my kale to make Zuppa Toscana Soup and then freeze it for winter (It's not really a summer soup).