Greens, Greens, Fabulous Greens...

If you're like me, you're always looking for the new "green" to spruce up your menu.  Smoothies with spinach, kale, and collards are a thing of the past (well, not really - those are always staples to drink by), but we've moved on to parsley, spearmint, pak choy, bok choy, and even pineapple sage to spruce up our smoothies these days...  These beauties have been bringing smiles to our faces and filling our tummies with a more exciting dose of nutrition.  Above, you'll see our new swiss chard growing, and it's literally taken over our garden...rainbow chard, to be exact.  It's on the pungent spectrum, and sometimes overpowering, so for smoothies, include super sweet fruits like mango or very ripe pears to help balance it out. Also, for swiss chard, replacing water in the smoothies with a sweet tea (herbal peach, etc.) helps. 

At 11:00 we have radish tops...the tender smooth tops are actually more palatable than the "adolescent" greens which have a bit more fuzzies on them, but I love them each way.  Again, if you're like me and you've over seeded (very excited once spring came, and I just put them everywhere), you can reap the reward of two crops - first, the little leaves with no radishes, and secondly, harvesting the radishes when they're mature. The best of both worlds! At the 2:00 spot you'll see the water-rich pak choy greens...very succulent and again, strong in flavor, but I love just picking them and eating them right from the garden.  Excellent in salads too. And at 6:00, you'll see the beginnings of butter lettuce.  

Don't forget your herbs...we've got rosemary, thyme, chives, and (not seen here) parsley, cilantro, pineapple sage, spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint, stevia....the whole world of herbs at your fingertips.  They're not just for adorning plates any more....forget that. Go crazy and really give them a shot to create delicious green soups in your blender. Or try what we had this morning... a whole head of parsley, bananas and strawberries...simple but super satisfying and it gave us a megadose of "multivitamin" nutrition. 

And last but not least, Kohlrabi leaves.  These have become my new passion.  Not only is the bulb absolutely delicious (recipes to follow!) but the greens are very tasty too.  Look for the new mint/kohlrabi greens recipe in the next week.  They're milder than kale but have a taste of their own, reminiscent of radishes a little bit.  You can use the greens in shakes and chiffonade in salads.  Excellent green and incredibly underutilized.  


So enjoy...a little walk through our garden to show you the possibilities are literally endless.  Have fun, get your hands dirty, and enjoy all that spring has to offer!