Tips from the Potting Bench

March is well under way and I am happy to report that we still have onions and garlic from last year’s harvest. It’s definitely on its last legs, some of the garlic is getting soft and some onions are sprouting but there’s still a lot that is edible. Out in the garden we have overwintered carrots and beets, kale, collards, kohlrabi and chard along with the end of the broccoli. The main heads of the broccoli have all been harvested and now they are producing handfuls of tender side shoots. Most of these I will let go to flower for the bees. Oh, and did I mention the first asparagus is up and already eaten! More on that next week, this week I wanted to let you know about a new discovery that I am really pleased about.

At Flying Blue Dog Farm and Nursery we are always on the lookout for new and unusual plants, be they veggie, flower, shrub or tree and last year some of the seed catalogs were carrying something called Beira Couve Tronchuda. Sounds different doesn’t it? Its common name is Portuguese Kale or Cabbage, well that sealed the deal. Being of Portuguese ancestry I had to try it. So we grew it for sale as a 6-pak veggie and offered it for fall planting. We like to grow out everything we sell at least once to see how it does, what it tastes like and to determine if we want to continue offering it. So I planted a row sometime in August and didn’t think much about it. By the October and all through the rest of the winter we were harvesting big tender green leaves by the handful and using them in soups and stir fries.

The plants grew huge, almost 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. I gave them plenty of space because I read that they needed it and they sure did. If you crowd them they won’t produce well. The leaves were really big and roundish shaped with a light green color and a thick white midrib. They kind of look like a big, lighter green collard. To harvest we picked the outside lower leaves. This encourages the plant to produce more leave at the top. First thing we did is try them raw. Wow, the flavor was not what I was expecting, it was sweet and tender and not at all like the collards or kale I was used to and it definitely didn’t taste anything like a cabbage. No wonder it is the main ingredient in the national dish of Portugal, Caldo Verde, and why every Portuguese person, no matter where they live, grow them.

On with the growing story. As you are all too aware we had 3 or 4 days in early December where the night time temperatures hovered around 15 degrees and it didn’t warm up all that much during the days. Well the Portuguese kale looked horrible. In fact it looked worse than the kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower and all the other wither veggies. The outer leaves were frost bitten and turned to slime and I thought, I guess it isn’t so frost hardy. I left it in though because I wanted to see what it would do. I stripped the dead gooey leaves and fed them to the chickens and then left them to see what would happen. By mid-January they were fully recovered so that you would never know they looked like they were on death’s door step. They re-grew into gorgeous plants; the leaves were as sweet if not sweeter and tender as they had been. A few weeks ago they started to go to flower and I’m letting them so the bees have something to eat and then I will collect seed. We harvested and enjoyed fresh greens all of October, November, January and February from these plants. We loved it so much that the collards, kale and chard went to the chickens! The next part of the trial is to see how it does planted out now for spring and summer. It is supposed to be heat tolerant and very adaptable so I’ll let you know how it goes. If you want to try some for yourself we have it here at the farm or you can find it at Mad River Gardens, Pierson’s garden Center, the Arcata Coop, Wildberries and over in Weaverville at Trinity Nursery.

Caldo Verde or green broth is a hearty winter soup served throughout all of Portugal. There is no one recipe as it varies from region to region with what is available in each. Essentially it is a hot broth, I’m guessing it is chicken based, that is thickened with mashed potatoes, or beans and spiced with onions, garlic and coriander. Delicious linguica or chorizo sausage and sometimes smoked pork is added. At the very end of cooking very thin shreds of couve trunchuda are added and cooked for just a few minutes. The best way to get very fine shreds is to roll up the leaves and slice them carefully as thin as you can.

Join me again next time where I hope to tantalize you with tales of asparagus.