It doesn't start freezing here untill early december or the end of November, we have recently dumped a bunch of lime on the garden and disked it all in, and want to put in some chicken fertilizer from the chicken farm, it will be fresh though.
Think we should hold off on the chicken litter till after we plant?
also, I wanted to know, is it too late this time of year to plant turnips, mustard and kale, they are all cold weather plants, I think they'll produce before freezing, and may do well during freezing shouldn't they?
Another question, Can you freeze Kale? will it be ok? never grew it before, but want to plant some.
thanks for the advice in advance.
kathy_ann
Is it too late
I would have disked in the chicken litter with the lime. As long as you can avoid direct contact with seeds you should still be ok. It will hard to put down after you plant. Yo should have time to plant Mustard, turnips, and kale. Kale is very cold hardy and should handle the winter in your zone. Mustard and turnips can't take a hard freeze.
All of them freeze well, but they are bulky and take up a lot of freezer space.
Edited to mention, that there is a winter mustard. Use to grow it Virginia, but it has lot more bite than other varieties.
http://www.localharvest.org/store/item.jsp?id=6350
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/herbhunters/mustard.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/med-aro/factsheets/MUSTARD.html
This message was edited Sep 9, 2006 6:02 PM
Regular mustard has enough bite for me LOL
WE would have disked in the chicken litter won't be able to get it till next week. we waited a bit late on asking about the litter, we lost out on the last batch, now we have to wait. I doubt he'll be able to disk it in deep enough to avoid direct contact in some sort of way, I htink he's getting a l6 foot trailer with about 2 foot sides on it, full of litter. That's alot of poop LOL
thanks for the help farmer dill
Mustard grows just fine here all winter and I love it! No problems whatsoever unless it's one of those single-digit periods of winter, which is very rare.
I sow mustard (two kinds), turnips, turnip salad, and kale here and eat off it all winter. Love it!
KathyAnn, I'd go ahead and sow your seeds. I bet you'll have a good crop whether you throw in the chicken poop or not. (As a matter of fact if you disked in the fresh chicken poop you might not have as good a crop as you think cus if the weather is warm enough the breaking down of the fresh poop will steal nitrogen from the plants, and if the soil is cold then it won't break down much at all, thereby not really contributing to the plants you are growing. However, it will sure help your Spring and Summer crops!)
As for freezing kale, I never have...I just pick it as needed.
Shoe.
Well, since you say it grows all winter, I probably won't freeze the kale, just pick it and eat it all winter. WE do have mild winters here, it may snow once a winter or twice,
DH said chicken poop won't come till the first week in October, and we want to plant before then for sure. so we're gonna go ahead and plant this week hopefully, got to get the seeds monday.
Thanks for the help guys.
Yes Kathy_ann, ...you can freeze kale. After rinsing the kale with cold water, roll several kale leaves together and slice thinly, no more than 1/4th inch width wise. Spin dry, freeze in freezer bags, and be sure to express all the air out before the final seal. Then on a very cold day, you can just add some kale to your beef stew, tomato soups and even corn chowder when cooking. Gives a good yummy taste and flavor. Also, when cooking kale alone, you can add a tsp or so of dark brown sugar to your kale in the last 15 mins of cooking, it will balance the bite. Also try using your chicken broth from baked chicken to cook your kale in, also a clove or two of fresh garlic helps as well. Just my little red cent and hope it helps.
kale must have a strong taste to it, ha? I had it recently in a soup and it was delicious. it was a tad old though, but used it anyway, it won't freezer burn not blanching it and freezing it in some sort of juice like mustard and turnip greens?
kathy
Thanks,
I will,
DH planted the kale, mustard and turnips and we also planted spinach, and now it's raining, just in time, I think they'll all germinate, hopefully we'll have a bounty, mixed in with all the weeds LOL
kathy ann, I grow kale, mustard, chard, collards, creasy greens, and turnips all winter long. As long as the plants are 5 to 6 inches tall, they can withstand a hard freeze. After I turn my summer crops over, I plant turnips as a cover crop. I'll cook with them all winter,and then turn them under in late March, treating them as a cover crop. Also, I mulch all my cole vegetables with 2 to 3 inches of straw or hay. This keeps the ground from "heaving" during thaws and freezes. In the spring I'll till the hay/straw into the garden. If you have an abundance of fall leaves, shred them finely, and use them as mulch. Now is the perfect time to plant cabbages and collards, as well as lettuce and the fancy mixed salads [ mesclun]
I blanch and freeze kale, and some of the other greens, but I cook them all together, so they won't have such a strong taste. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks Arias, I appreciate your 2 cents and everybody elses. the way DH planted al l the greens their gonna be all mixed up anyways LOL
I didn't plant collards though, should have.
I am also trying mache this year. It's a somewhat cold tolerant spinach like green. http://www.reneesgarden.com/seeds/packpg/veg/mache.htm
I love mache! One of my favourite greens. Has a bit of a nutty flavour.Easy to grow, expensive to buy. You might like to plant some rampions too. These have tops like mache and product a root that looks like a radish but is more nutritious. Rampions are known as "ramps" in old English literature and are called Rapunzel in German. This is the salad green that Rapunzel's mother craved so badly that her father stole some from the witch's garden (which caused her to be held prisoner in the tower).
Scroll down on the gourmet greens page here to see a picture and description.
http://www.felcopruners.net/Gourmet%20Greens.0.html
Interesting. I see that rampion is biennial and sometimes perennial. Have you ever harvested them for more then one season?
"known as "ramps" in old English literature".
Hehehe...well, they're still known as ramps in NC! They grow wild in the mtns and are considered by many to be something worth waiting for!
There is a yearly "ramp festival" here and people come from miles around to attend. (You can smell it for miles around!) :>)
If you ever eat some ramps people quite a ways off will know you did, too. They are quite "smelly" but they certainly are tasty (if your tastebuds go that way!).
Nataraj, the ramp patches are kept somewhat secret around here, but they always produce yearly. As for being biennial/perennial, that would be hard for me to say...they could be both! Next time I'm in the mtns I'll check it out.
Shoe
PS...thanks for the reminder on the Rapunzal story, Mermaid. That kind of stuff really lures me into the life of plants.
Looks like I'll have to visit NC during the ramp festival one of these days. I've never thought of them as "smelly" though. Perhaps the soil and climate variations affect the strength of flavour? I like them because I get to eat both the leaves as greens and roots as, well, roots! Plus they are healthy! Modern society has gotten away from the traditional winter root crops like rampions, burdocks, salsifies, scorzonera and parsnips. Most of these are tasty, natural liver cleansers, which is the nourishment we need when eating the heavier winter foods. I haven't seen the white or black salsify in the market here in ages. This year, I'm growing my own.
nataraj, I've never harvested them for more than one season because I get too greedy and gobble them all up in the first season!
This message was edited Sep 18, 2006 10:32 PM
Ok, now I see where the confusion is happening. Apparently there are two plants that have been known as "ramps". One is a type of wild leek like the sort that heralds spring in the Appalachias et al and is sometimes called "ramson" and the other is the rampion from the campanula family.
Check out the link below for a photo of winter roots:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/publications/pubs/garden0303/rootveg.asp
Item number 4 are the rampion/ramps that look like mache with a radish at the bottom.
Compare with these entries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_leek
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Alli_urs.html
Checking literaty references, it appears that both plants have been referred to as "ramps", but the campanula will usually go by "rampion" or "rapunzel".
scroll down to the "what is" section:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapunzel
Ahah!...Thanks, mermaid.
Earlier I began to wonder if we were talking about the same thing, especially when you mentioned you grew them from seed each year. (and also that you never thought of them as "smelly".) I was also wondering how you could grow "ramps" (Carolina ramps/onion/leek) in your zone 9...they normally only grow well in the cooler climates.
Thanks for taking the time to look this up. Now it all comes together. And now, maybe I should get some seeds of the rampions and give them a try!
Shoe.