Summer harvest

There have been a lot of cruciferous veggies coming out of the garden these days! We’ve been eating a steady diet of kohlrabi, kale, and cabbage, and now broccoli. I had to prematurely harvest my little garden last week, because excavators came to start digging the foundation of a future greenhouse. So, I raced out at 7 a.m. to collect my baby cabbages and broccolis, armloads of kale, and one single beet. My cabbages looked big and beautiful, but the heads only ranged in size from golf balls to tennis balls. Ah well.

Later that day, Doug Croft harvested more kale and cabbage from his garden. So, with the bounty of veggies leftover this weekend, I made kale chips and a simple cabbage salad (recipe below). My recipe called for candied almonds, but I didn’t have any almonds lying around, so I made a simplified version. I never knew how much sweeter home-grown cabbage was! Though I had to fight off the cabbage worms from chewing through them all, I’ll definitely be planting cabbage again when I have the space again.

Simple Cabbage Salad

• 1 head of green cabbage (or 3 baby heads), shredded or julienned
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 c. slivered almonds

Cook almonds and sugar in a pan over low heat until sugar melts and begins to stick to the almonds. Set aside to cool.

Mix cabbage and onions, and then add cooled almonds. Toss with dressing below.

Dressing:

• 1/8 c. rice vinegar
• 1/8 c. olive oil
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• garlic (optional)