I envy your gentler winters, sir! A few years ago, one of my students, a farm boy from northern Minnesota, told me about a tradition in his family. Each year on New Year's Day, his mother goes out and frees up a bunch of snowbound kale for their meal. Your beautiful Bon Appetit piece brought this back to mind, and helped me to appreciate why his family starts each year that way.
How lovely! My own winter tradition has been to cook a big pot of lentil-kale stew the day of the first snow. Maybe this year I'll actually plant kale in time to use my own.
Here in Eilat we went from a very cold winter to suddenly very hot weather in the same week about 2 weeks ago, now we are getting some spring weather, but my broccoli bolted to flowers and i am waiting for the seeds. Since summer temperature here reaches the 100 degrees, not everything survives it, even with irrigation. I had fennel surviving last summer and it self-seeded all over the place and in the neighbor's garden too. I am enjoying the surplus of fennel, i hope the neighbors like it too. I try the hardy herbs, i have basil year around despite this cold winter, lemongrass, the eggplant also overwintered and i will get some soon, salvia, mugwort, zaatar (middle eastern kind of oregano), micromeria, and the kales survived last summer since I have found them a shady spot to be. Funny how you worry about vegetables surviving the winter and i have to worry about them surviving the summer. Happy spring gardening!
I envy your gentler winters, sir! A few years ago, one of my students, a farm boy from northern Minnesota, told me about a tradition in his family. Each year on New Year's Day, his mother goes out and frees up a bunch of snowbound kale for their meal. Your beautiful Bon Appetit piece brought this back to mind, and helped me to appreciate why his family starts each year that way.
How lovely! My own winter tradition has been to cook a big pot of lentil-kale stew the day of the first snow. Maybe this year I'll actually plant kale in time to use my own.
Here in Eilat we went from a very cold winter to suddenly very hot weather in the same week about 2 weeks ago, now we are getting some spring weather, but my broccoli bolted to flowers and i am waiting for the seeds. Since summer temperature here reaches the 100 degrees, not everything survives it, even with irrigation. I had fennel surviving last summer and it self-seeded all over the place and in the neighbor's garden too. I am enjoying the surplus of fennel, i hope the neighbors like it too. I try the hardy herbs, i have basil year around despite this cold winter, lemongrass, the eggplant also overwintered and i will get some soon, salvia, mugwort, zaatar (middle eastern kind of oregano), micromeria, and the kales survived last summer since I have found them a shady spot to be. Funny how you worry about vegetables surviving the winter and i have to worry about them surviving the summer. Happy spring gardening!
So lovely to hear from you, Alessandra! Your eggplant overwintered! That is indeed a different climate. And what do you cook with micromeria?
I make tea with micromeria, it has a mellow minty taste. How are you doing?
I didn't even know overwintering was a thing! I definitely feel overwintered myself. ;)