Monday, April 23, 2012

Growing And Cooking Up Your Own Greens

Growing nutritious greens is so easy. You should eat your greens and they are so easy to grow and bring in fresh and cook up quickly.

urban garden, spring gardening

Just a little updated pic of the garden. It is coming in well.  With our heat some things are bolting.

This is the first year I have grown bok choy. I am trying to feed us fresh greens once or twice a week. They are so full of good things. This bok choy was easy to grow. I will always have it in the garden from now on. Year round rotation is the plan. For now I just cut off what I want and they grow new leaves.

bok choy

This is the blue kale. I cut leaves every week and it just keeps growing more.

kale, city garden

This is the second batch of lettuce I planted. We are already eating the first batch in our salads.

lettuce, garden lettuce

Here is my way of cooking the greens. Chop up and pour olive oil over it. Add some sea salt and pepper and a splash of water. Cover and cook until tender stirring every few minutes. Greens can be tough so add the water and let them steam with the lid and they will be wonderfully tender. I love that they are organic and picked right before we sit down to eat.


16 comments:

  1. Beautiful garden! I grew bok choy a few years back and it WAS easy and grew huge and kept coming. I had way too much for myself! After a family of 6 for years I have a really hard time cutting back on quantity still! LOL!
    Do you cook your bokchoy like your greens or fresh in a salad? I wasn't sure what to do with it as I'd never had it. I think I cooked mine with other greens but I haven't grown it since.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lucky you!
    Your gardens are growing strong, and beautifully.
    We are weeks, and weeks from our gardens growing.
    We can't even plant until after Mother's day.

    Thanks for sharing your tips to prepare your greens :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are a country girl in the city, gardens, chickens. Thanks for your tip on preparing greens. I sadly must buy mine at the store.
    blessings to you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh wow! your lettuce looks great!
    Our lettuce didn't do so well. I replanted and it is coming up now. Don't know why before...it was just puny.
    Last year our lettuce did WONDERFUL in that bed. Not sure what the problem was.

    I'm going to try the recipe. Thanks!

    ~blessings, Pat

    ReplyDelete
  5. Elaine, your garden is so beautiful. I love the idea of the greens and the way you are preparing. I love greens and could eat them everyday. YUMMY stuff. I clipped my first lettuce over the weekend!! but not out of the garden, in my container on the patio! YAY

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your garden is looking great! I planted kale too. Need to go clip some and make kale chips. Can't wait for the fresh tomatoes!!!
    They are saying greens are SO good for you!!! Love Q's outfit in previous post. And your Mama's potato salad is very like I make mine...which is Nana's recipe.
    Have a great day. Crazy it is raining today, after such a hot weekend!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your garden looks great. NOTHING going on here yet-it is just too cold. Your garden is marvelous! xo Diana

    ReplyDelete
  8. I grow greens and letuce and spinach in my garden practically all year. It is all so good for us. I have never tried kale, I will have to plant some. Your garden looks great.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Elaine...

    My friend, your garden looks great! We are just now beginning to plan ours. I haven't ever tried growing bok choy. It sure sounds good though. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us! I may have to give it a try!

    Warmest spring wishes,
    Chari

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great greens Elaine - I'm feeling hungry now ;o)
    Rose H

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lovely! I looked at the first photo and thought, 'Where does she live? Oh yeah, Southern California. No wonder.' :-) We have to wait until about June 2 to set our tomato starts out. But I've got them growing and can't wait to do it! They're getting nice and thick little stems.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Elaine! Your garden looks wonderful. So green and healthy! Good for you having fresh greens to pick from your garden.
    thanks for popping in to see me.
    be a sweetie,
    Shelia ;)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Elaine, is there anything you cannot do? Your garden looks great. I cannot believe it is already producing vegetables you can eat. Very cool!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Adding you to my garden inspiration saves!

    ReplyDelete
  15. wow your garden looks amazing Im so jealous!!!! bok choy is also really good stirred into soups.....but I never thought of growing it, brilliant...cuz its pricy!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I envy your garden Elaine. When I was little we had a huge garden and two greenhouses...and even had chickens for a while too. Now our subdivision doesn't allow for a garden, and my whole family misses those days.

    Guess that means I have to live vivaciously through you, so thanks for sharing your posts at my party! It looks like you are doing a great job of keeping your garden growing well and your family healthy with all this delcious food.

    ReplyDelete