Just before the cold snap we had a few weeks ago, I set up my hoop houses to extend my harvest season for my chard and kale.
I have a couple sizes of hoops, both made from lengths of galvanized conduit and bent into nice curved shapes by another garden enthusiast.
I don’t seem to have a lot of energy for seeded starting in August, mostly I just want to go to the beach and swim after work, so most of my young chard and kale plants are self-seeded this year from nearby adults planted last year.
I keep the best-looking plants and let them go to seed. I usually choose the easy method, and just cut off the mature seed stalks and lay them down where I am hoping for some young plants to grow for the next season. This seems to work very well, some winters I have a good selection of greens through most of the winter.
In really cold winters there is not much production but once things warm up in the spring the plants start pumping out leaves again.
In my greenhouse I have a growing box with an old skylight I can lower over the plants to provide a second layer of protection, and outside I set up my hoops, put a vapour barrier over the conduit and hold it on with short sections of old hose split length-wise and forced over the plastic covered conduit.
This fall I have lots of baby rainbow chard seeded from the plants I planted in the spring of 2018.
I am hoping many of the kale babies will be likenesses of the beautiful curly kale plant I left for seed. It was a beautiful big plant whose leaves I used mostly for kale chips. I make a marinade from tahini, soy sauce, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast and garlic. After coating the leaves in the marinade, I put them in the dehydrator on a low heat to keep everything raw until they are nice and crispy.
By keeping the heat below 118 degrees Fahrenheit the natural enzymes in the food are preserved.
I first started seeing the benefits of raw foods when I started feeding my old cat a raw diet, then the dogs, and after seeing remarkable improvements I started eating much of my food raw as well. There are a lot of different opinions about raw versus cooked, hot versus cold, but for myself I feel well eating lots of raw, whole, organically grown food. Many of my garden greens are used in my first daily meal, a smoothie with greens, avocado protein powder, tahini, half a lime, a few berries and water.
If you want to try some delicious raw food without investing in all the necessary kitchen equipment, Tao Organic Plant Cuisine on West Esplanade is a great place to sample and shop for a selection of delicious raw food.
Heather Schamehorn is a certified residential landscape designer, educator, sustainability advocate and acupressure therapist. Contact via perennialpleasures.ca
