Kohlrabi-how to harvest, cook & serve

Kohlrabi: low, stout vegetable; slightly sweet taste; can be served alone or used in place of turnips, potatoes or rutabaga.
Days to Harvest: 55-60 days after planting seeds in soil.
Species: Brassica-which means its from the same family as turnips, broccoli, cabbage, collard greens, mustard plant etc.
Back in April we planted several kinds of seeds in our freshly tilled garden plot. Among them was Kohlrabi. We waited and waited to see how well they would do and finally we saw these tiny leaves sprouting up in the row. Such pretty little leaves all in a row.  As time went on I noticed a bulb was forming on top of the ground.  Digging under and around the bulb, I checked if there was a root. Sure was! Covering it back up, I waited some more. Finally, after about 55 days (after sowing the seeds) I pulled the bulb up out of the ground and shook the soil from its root.
All the light green, long stems were soft, but firm and I simply snapped them off, laying them in a pile.
Here’s a recipe I used to serve this delicious vegetable.
Pinto Beans and Kohlrabi

• 2 C dried pinto beans
• 3 kohlrabi
• 4 T real butter
• 6 C water
• S & P to taste

Wash, rinse and clean beans; place in large cooking pot with butter, S & P, water; bring to a rolling boil. Meanwhile, clean kohlrabi and peel as you would a potato (as below). When your bean are about 20 minutes away from being done, add the kohlrabi to the beans; stir gently and cook until semi-soft; NOT mushy. Add additional water if necessary.
Serve with fresh green beans, steamed carrots, fresh potatoes and Johnny-cakes (corn bread sticks)

Cut in half

Cut ends off

Peel as you would a potato

You’ll notice that the outer skin is very woody, although it peels very easily.  Be careful to observe that if the meat of the bulb is woody, it may be too hard to eat. So cut that part off before cooking.

The inside of the bulb is tender and almost has a sweetened flavor. Not enough to really be sweet though.  You can cut into cubes or cut into julienne slices(as in baby carrot sized) and use with your favorite veggie dip, fresh and raw. 

Home made corn bread sticks are the perfect addition to this garden-fresh meal.  High in protein, fiber and potassium.  Low in fat and salt.

Thanks for visiting!
Kimi

One of the benefits of summer...

...is enjoying the fruit of your labor. I was checking the garden and noticed the watermelon looking very nice. The kids were just begging to pick one and I wasn't sure if they were ready yet. Guess who won that little battle?!?! Haa-Haa~we all did! Here's the real deal. And yes, it was absolutely deeee-lish! It was crisp, juicy, very sweet and wasn't stringy at all. I can not eat melons with that stringy texture! Eeuuuwe!!! The kids even commented how there were no strings in it. The peas are coming along very well and so are the additional green beans we planted. The tomatoes and 1st set of green beans are pretty much finished, so we are pulling up the plants this week. The carrots, peppers and lopes are still doing great. As well as the other watermelons. I've picked so many peppers I think I'm going to make jalapeno preserves. We're having stuffed peppers for dinner tonight. We checked the carrots last week and they are looking wonderful. Amazing!!

Fresh picked vegetables!

Good Morning!! I just had to take a minute to share this with you...like every morning, the children and I went outside to do all our chores. Among them is checking the garden for vegetables that are ready to be picked. Since we just picked some a few days ago, I didn't bring my bowl out. We were so amazed to see all the things that were ready again. As we were checking the beans, we just kept picking. Our hands were overflowing with beans...I decided to go get my bowl. God is soooo good to us and knows what we need before we even ask. I'm so thankful for His bounty. Here's what we picked a few minutes ago. It hasn't even been washed yet, but I think it's so pretty. I love the look and smell of fresh produce and I love it even more because my family and I prepared the soil, planted the seed, watered the ground and then prayed over every inch of that garden. And we have continued to pray over every inch...God gave HIS increase. Now, we are havesting it. You know, it's just like that with our lives and how we touch others. I want everyone to know how much God has done for us. In order to do that I must share it. When I do, it's like planting a seed that God can then give the increase for. If you have a story, I wish you'd take a minute and share it on here with me...I would love to add it to this post. Have a great day!! Kimi

My compost has a cantaloupe!

Over the past several months, I've been working on cultivating my compost. I've added cut grass after we mow, manure as it dries out, lots of fruit and veggie scraps from the kitchen and generally adding this and that to make the compost ready to use in the fall. I've been turning it regularly and keeping it 'aired' well. But, about a month or so ago, I noticed a pretty little plant growing in there! In fact it now has blooms all over it and has vines growing in all directions. Needless to say I stopped turning the soil and put the whole thing on hold for a while. I wanted to see what was growing in there. It was beginning to look like something we planted in the garden and now the compost plant has outgrown the one in my garden!! I checked the leaves, vines and blooms on my garden cantaloupe to see if they looked the same as the compost plant...Yes! They sure did. Exactly the same. Great! The little compost plant is huge with gorgeous, lush leaves, and shoots and runners going everywhere that are covered in blooms! YAY!! It even has a lemon-sized, green ball growing and four more little, fuzzy ball-shapes coming along also. My garden cantaloupe has some also...they match. It's blooming so beautifully and growing rapidly. I remember cleaning out the frig and had the kids run some kitchen scraps out to the compost. There was a cantaloupe in the mess I sent out. It was left when we went out of town and so I threw it into the compost. I think it laid there for a good while. I thought it was rotting away...ha! Here's the little lemon-sized thing. We'll wait until it and the others grow into the right size and see how they taste. I'll be glad when it gets done growing so I can use that compost to make some 'compost tea' and fertilize my 'real' garden...if it did this well by accident I can't wait to see how it does on purpose!! I think I'll start another compost and make it bigger...wonder what could grow in that.

Things are growing in my garden

Here's our garden for the summer. We've got green beans, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers and little hot peppers. Along with carrots, squash, cantelope and watermelon. After the cantelope shoots grew long enough, I tied them onto a trellis. When the lopes grow larger, I'll make a fabric swag to hang them on. I'm trying this idea out. We'll see how it goes.

The green beans are really blooming and have been producing lots of beans. We had them for dinner, cooked with onions 'n crispy bacon...yummie.

This was a complete experiment! Ha! I had no idea how easy it was to grow watermelon. Here is one of my first ones starting to grow. The little thing started as a 'NUB'. Below are more that are getting larger by the day. You can see the little melon swags in the background. I've tied the shoots onto the fence like the lopes. We've already counted 41 watermelons. And we only planted 3 plants...this just amazes me. God is sooo good to us!

Here's a few of the peppers. I don't think they've done as good as they were supposed to. We've got lots of peppers off them though. I just don't think the plants look very healthy.

This is a carrot plant. We started them by planting seeds just 1/4 inch in the ground. After a week we saw these little leaves coming up...so tiny. Now, they've grown into such a pretty little plant. For the fall, we plan to plant more. Pumpkins, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, and a few others. I guess we won't know if we can if we don't try.