What did you do in the garden today?

[CNJ]

I'm cooking collard greens tonight! First time. We'll see if I like them...

I tried growing them once, but no one in my family like them. However, that was before You Tube recipes became available. I think liking them depends on the recipe and cook. I also want to try them again.

 

[Acre4Me]

Wow, where, or WHERE have collard greens been all my life?!?!

I freakin' LOVE these!

Growing some, for SURE this next season!

Have I used up my daily allotment of exclamation points yet!?

How did you cook them?

 

[Sally PB]

How did you cook them?

Ingredients

¾ - 1 pounds collard greens
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Separate the stems from the collard green leaves. Dice the stems, and cut the leaves into thick ribbons.

Turn the Instant Pot on Sauté and heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the onion and diced collard green stems and sauté until tender, about 7-8 minutes.

Add the garlic and Cajun seasoning and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Turn the Instant Pot off, and stir in the apple cider vinegar, water, honey, salt, and black pepper. Stuff in the collard green leaves.

High pressure for 20 minutes, QPR. (Might try 18 next time...)

Season to taste with more salt and pepper. (Nah, it was fine as is!)

I ate the entire batch. I think I had about 3/4 pound of greens in the bunch I bought at the store. For my second helping, I added some rice because the pot liquor was delicious!

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'm gonna have to dig up my Dahlia bulbs... The chickens keep digging in that bed and pulling them up....

Also hoping I didn't inadvertently kill my baby lettuce sprouts. We were gonna get a hard freeze with temps down to 20 degrees. The lettuce had just barely broken through the soil. I don't have my cold frames put together yet so in an effort to protect them I covered them with straw. Hoping that burying them under the straw didn't suffocate them out.

 

[Birdsonghill]

When I last planted my tomato seedling, I notice that there were a lot of just born tiny knats wiggling around in the peat. I did a search and found that 2TBS of Spinosad per half gallon of water will kill them and it's safe to use on edible plants.

Yay no more fungus knats.......................

I have controlled fungus gnats and some other insects(thrips) using tsp. rosemary essential oil and a bit of soap in a





























































































































































































































Qt. of water as well as using Spinosad. The essential oil is expensive and may not save you any $$ but if you have it, it works. BT species, Spinosad and soaps with essential oils are regulars in my gardens and are cheaper than Pyrethrums and works on many problem bugs. I also use pepper and garlic extracts with soap sometimes as both insecticides and repellents, but be careful with homemade extracts as some will burn leaves up, especially when used on hot sunny days. I always spray late in the afternoon to avoid harsh direct sun and avoid spraying on hot days if possible. Happy Gardens!














member: 586843"]
I'm cooking collard greens tonight! First time. We'll see if I like them...
[/QUOTE] I thought I would tell you how we season collards in the mid south, typically. Red pepper flakes to taste(at least a pinch)), garlic, a spoon of sugar, salt (careful on the salt if you use a salty ham), a bit of ham/smoked pork jowls/bacon and/or olive oil and important, some apple cider vinegar, all to taste. The amounts of each are varied by cooks here but all the ingredients are typical. Cook very well because collards can be a bit tough compared to some greens but the slight chewyness is liked by many rather than the very softness of say, spinach. I frequently mix several greens together like mustard, turnip, collard and kale.

 

[Birdsonghill]

Tomatoes don't really get going until their soil temperature hits 70'F. Until then they are very susceptible to disease and under great stress.
There are varieties that do better in cooler weather, usually determinate ones bred for short season production.

Ingredients

¾ - 1 pounds collard greens
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Separate the stems from the collard green leaves. Dice the stems, and cut the leaves into thick ribbons.

Turn the Instant Pot on Sauté and heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the onion and diced collard green stems and sauté until tender, about 7-8 minutes.

Add the garlic and Cajun seasoning and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Turn the Instant Pot off, and stir in the apple cider vinegar, water, honey, salt, and black pepper. Stuff in the collard green leaves.

High pressure for 20 minutes, QPR. (Might try 18 next time...)

Season to taste with more salt and pepper. (Nah, it was fine as is!)

I ate the entire batch. I think I had about 3/4 pound of greens in the bunch I bought at the store. For my second helping, I added some rice because the pot liquor was delicious!

Very similar recipe to how I was taught to cook them in Tennessee, but we did not use instant pots and usually added ham, pork jowls/bacon and cooked them down for a while. We used red pepper flakes to taste instead of the Cajun spice mix. I often only use the olive oil these days but love them cooked traditionally, with a bit of ham, bacon or smoked pork jowls. They are frequently mixed with other available greens here and called a spring tonic when you include some wild greens like dandelions and cress or even par boiled poke salad greens early in the year. The honey is usually replaced with sugar and more water used to cook down the meat and greens till tender with a longer cooking time. The apple cider vinegar is the taste catalyst often neglected by cooks. As you stated the pot liquor is great and goes good with the corn bread used as a mop! Yum! I eat them every week or some other greens cooked in a similar fashion. Collards can be year round greens here in the garden and many others nearly year round, but the collards stand up to summer heat and winters snows well. I grow Alabama blue heirloom collards mostly these days, but have tried others and liked them all!

 

[Birdsonghill]

One more word on collards, a good source of some heirloom collard varieties is Southern Exposure Seed Exchange of Virginia. There is some real nice variety among their varieties! They run from light green to dark green and blue and all have some frost tolerance but others are safe down to about 5F degrees or less with row covers, having had them survive brief periods O degrees under the medium weight row covers for me. They are at their tasty best in the winter after frosty weather has set in!

 

[saysfaa]

I can crack walnuts now!!! Whoo hoo!!!

My dear son-in-law found this for me! It works wonderfully. I can very easily control how much pressure I apply to crack without shattering. It seems to have plenty of range beyond what I need. I am delighted.

I can also crack the pieces as needed.

 

[jerryse]

Yucky weather here. Tried to snow but rained.

 

[Sally PB]

Very grumpy hubby due to no snow. And not really any in the forecast, either. Maybe a mix of precipitation, but he wants inches of snow.