50 Bags of Green

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Today the children and youth took home 50 bags of greens.  We are growing collards, dinosaur kale, rainbow Swiss chard, and a bunch of different kinds of mustard greens.  Today we harvested collards, kale and chard.

Dinosaur kale and wrapping lettuce at our free farm stand

The kids in our Kids Working to Succeed program planted the seeds back in April and May.  Throughout the summer, the kids and adult volunteers have carefully watered, and weeded, and fertilized with catfish-gut-tea and Milorganite.  For the last month, we have been able to cut many pounds of greens to give away at our free farm stand.  Today was the day for the kids to learn how to harvest and to bag up the greens for their own families.

Harvesting is done by gently cutting the largest leaves and their stems away from the center stalk.  The plants continue to produce new leaves for harvesting off of the main stalk.  The children use small scissors and are learning to be gentle with the plants, to cut one leaf at a time, and to stack the leaves gently so they don't become bruised.

Family recipes for cooking greens are plentiful - and we invite families to share those recipes on this blog by emailing them to the church office!!  Some of the children specifically wanted kale to put into smoothies.  Some of the children asked if they could just eat greens raw (and they nibbled bits of leaves to see if they liked raw greens.  Some of the children had no idea what to do with the greens, so we offered to post one simple recipe which can be used for any kind of greens.

Simple Skillet Greens
submitted by Miss Linda

Ingredients:
Greens - washed and chopped into large chunks/strips (about 4 cups but any amount is really OK)
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic (or use garlic salt if you don't have fresh)
1 large or 2 smaller potatoes
Or, if you are using turnip greens, 1 or 2 turnips
Fresh or dried herbs (such as parsley, chives, basil)
Black pepper
Salt (to taste)
Olive oil (or whatever kind of oil you have)

Optional Additions:  Bacon or ham or sausage, mushrooms, pasta (cooked ahead of time)

Process:
1)  Wash the greens by filling a big bowl or your sink with cold water and put all the greens in for a bath.  Wiggle them around until they are clean and put them into a colander or on a towel to dry.  Repeat this step if the greens are really dirty.

2)  Cut the greens into slices or chunks - not too small because they will cook down.

3)  Wash and chop the onion into a medium dice.

4)  Smash and peel the garlic and chop it up small.

5)  If adding mushrooms, wash and slice them. If adding potato or turnip, peel and wash and chop into small cubes.

6) If using bacon, cut raw bacon up into 1/2" chunks (remember to use a different knife and board for meat/bacon or wash everything really well with soapy water after it touches the meat)

7)  Put about 2 - 3 Tablespoons of olive oil into a big frying pan or skillet.  Turn on medium heat.  Add onions and bacon first.  Cook and stir for 4 minutes for bacon or ham, cook a little longer for raw sausage.  Keep stirring!

8) Add mushrooms, potato or turnip, and garlic or a few shakes of garlic salt.  Add fresh ground pepper to taste.  Cook for about 10 minutes or until the veggies are getting soft.

Turnip greens with chopped turnips, bacon,
potato, onion, celery, garlic and herbs

9)  Add the greens all at once.  Just pile them into the skillet.  If you need to let some cook down so you can add them all, that is OK.  Stir quickly to cover the greens with the oils in the pan.  Drizzle a little more olive oil over the greens when you add them if you need to. Cook until the greens wilt. Add herbs.  Stir well.  Cook until the greens are soft.  Each green will cook differently.

10)  Add pasta and cook just until pasta is heated.  Add salt last and taste.  Eat while hot!