Tonight's Supper from the Garden

Purple, red and white turnips.

I went to the grocery store today, rather, to the garden for some produce. We have 3 small beds of turnips, planted in mid-August. Turnips are best after a bit of cold weather and these are the first we've pulled. On the left is the old-fashioned purple top, this one weighs about 2 lbs. In the middle is an heirloom variety called Red Round, a sweet, mild turnip. On the right is a white Japanese turnip, incredibly mild and tasty.

On the left, some Russian kale, some lettuce, turnips, tomatoes.

I picked some Russian kale, on the left. That's just one head of lettuce from the lettuce bed. Next are the turnips I just pulled. Behind those are the last of the green tomatoes that have been ripening on the kitchen counter. I think we may still have 3 or 4 for salad on Christmas day. And in the background are jars of the applesauce Josh canned yesterday.

The red turnips are white inside. 

The old fashioned purple top turnips are best with the peelings taken off but I didn't peel the red ones as the outside is tender and not bitter. All 3 colors of turnips were sliced up into a pot with a little bacon and buter and simmered slowly for several hours for supper.

Russian kale.

My friend, Olee runs Spring Fever Greenhouses.

My friend, Olee Jobe, at Spring Fever Greenhouse, told me the other day he'd made kale flakes. I've eaten them before but don't remember if I've made them myself. So today I picked several leaves and made a batch.

Olee's method, which is better than what I did, was to cut the leaves up into bite sized pieces in a bowl and sprinkle a little oil and toss. I thought this would be a short cut, I sprayed the leaves with cooking oil on both sides. The next step is to put the leaves into the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 1/2 hours.

They may look odd here in the photo, but the leaves are crisp and tasty. I sprinkled salt over and they make a nice snack. Next time I will spray a lot less oil. I think they'd work in the food dehydrator, as well. Oddly enough, kale flakes are good with sweet, red grapes! Or cheese. They'll keep crisp in an airtight container but I doubt these will last past suppertime.

Molly and her packrat.

You may not want to know this - but it is part of farm life. Packrats get into chicken feed, tunnel into the garage, carry off shiny objects and store them in their nests. They're a pest and between Squeak, the cat, and Molly, our Jack Russel, the two harvest a pack rat a week. If they didn't, we'd be over run with the varmints. Molly got one last week and this week, another one. When she offs a pack rat, she carries it around to show everyone - not unlike the guys who strap their just-killed deer across the hood of their truck and drive around the neighborhood. Molly is standing in the driveway, waiting to show me her trophy.

The next part of the trophy demonstration is, you are supposed to go see the rat and attempt to pick it up. Molly, of course, is ready since it's her game and she grabs it and runs off a few steps, drops the rat and looks back to make sure you're still playing the game.

Steve, June, Barbara, Sarah and Josh.

This is part of our Friday night dinner group, getting ready to eat, recently. Certainly not everything came from the garden, but we're grateful to have food right outside our door. I can smell the turnips cooking right now, they'll be ready for supper.