I got my groceries at Meijer today and while I was in the produce section I diverted from my list and bought something unusual - kohlrabi. When I saw it there I couldn't pass it up. It brought back many memories of Grandpa and Grandma Klop planting them in our garden in Gridley. There was nothing better on a summer day than a nice crisp slice of kohlrabi and a glass of sweet tea.
I was excited to get started on a garden this year since we have the space for it, but I'm just not sure where to put it at. Hopefully by next summer we'll have our 'homestead' more established and I'll be able to find the best spot for it. So I'm dedicating this summer to research.
Which leads me to my questions for you... who all out there has a garden, what do you plant in it, and what do you do with it (eat it fresh, freeze, or can)? What have you found to be your favorite, easiest, or most prosperous plant? Please share!
7 comments:
You might shake your head in wonderment at my ignorance. . .but exactly what is kohlrabi? Is it in the turnip family? You eat slices of it raw? What does it taste like? I don't think people grow that here, just like you never hear of anyone here growing rhubarb. . .nor do you hear of people growing okra in Illinois, do you?
I love kohlrabi - so good sliced with a little salt on it. I believe it's in the cabbage family. I'll have to go to Meijer and get some.
Sorry I have no hints about gardening for you. All I do is a few pots of flowers on the deck.
Oh, yum! Ann, I think it is something you have to grow up with and acquire a taste for, which was easy in our family, since Mom and Dad were obsessed with kohlrabi ever since we were kids. It's an early summer harvest, and is similar to turnips/cabbage, but has a unique flavor. Not quite as strong as turnips. Dad would plant seeds early and then transplant the plants. We would eat them as fast as Mom could peel them. They can also be cooked, stir-fried style, but with seven kids, we had them gone before they could hit the frying pan. I always tried to grow them too, but my gardening skills were strong in the spring, and fizzled out pretty quick after the planting season. I do miss a good tomato, though. Shelley, if you plant a garden, you can put in an extra tomato plant for me!
I remember going to Wyoming to spend the day with the Nog Blog family, and one time we picked kohlrabi from your garden. I’d never heard of it, and if I remember correctly I was pretty neutral about the taste—didn’t just love it or hate it immediately. I don’t think I’ve had any since then.
I usually post garden updates on my blog throughout the summer. Tomorrow is "rhoda-tilling" day and planting the potatoes. We also already have some tomato and pepper plants that we are going to plant and then put milk jugs over to act as a kind of greenhouse. That's our new experiment this year.
Shelley, I have a garden with my friend at her house. It measures about 24 x 45 or so. We try to grow something new every year—last year it was popcorn. This year we are doing onions as our new item, and we aren’t going to do popcorn. Sweet corn must be at least 500 feet away from popcorn so we are going with sweet corn again this year.
This is what we typically grow: tomatoes, beans, broccoli, peppers (green, red, and yellow), carrots, potatoes, lettuce, squash (various kinds), zucchini. We also have rhubarb, asparagus, strawberries, and raspberries as our perennial “crops”.
Last year we also tried the upside down tomato hangers which we made out of 5 gallon buckets. We aren’t doing it again this year as we found it hard to keep them watered. They dried out very fast. Our tomatoes overall were quite as prolific as other years so that may have been a factor for the upside down ones, but we didn’t think they produced as much as in ground plants.
This may seem obvious, but we also have learned to put the tomato cages up right when we plant the tomatoes. I always think it’s a great visual aid of faith—kind of a Noah building the ark before the flood--because it certainly looks funny to have a cage to support a tomato plant that is only 4 or 5” high.
I freeze green beans and carrots for soups in the winter. We have canned spaghetti sauce but you don’t get much for the work. And most importantly we also can salsa. It’s fun for me to eat it or give it away and think about having grown most of the stuff (tomatoes, peppers, corn and this year the onions) that goes into it. I think the salsa is pretty good as I don’t dare go south without several jars of that or jam to share with family.
I planted a 2x2 foot garden for the first time last year. The only thing that really did well for me were cucumbers. For obvious reasons, I didn't plant anything this year. Next year, I want to try tomato plants and making my own spaghetti sauce.
Well, maybe next time I'm in a produce place with unique things I'll have to try some kohlrabi. Don't know if you'd find it in a supermarket around here. . .
As to gardening - I'm just like you, Judy - an avid gardener in the spring and then it peters out when the weather gets hot and humid. Mike fusses at me every year. It's hard to have a big garden where we live now, because deer would get a good bit of it. But inside the fence I usually put in three or four tomato plants and the same number of summer squash plants. Maybe a zucchini plant and some cucumber vines. One year I put some cantaloupe vines in and they took off on their own, doing really well.
So I'm a small-scale springtime gardener. I don't usually try to put anything up. We make a lot of squash sautes, casseroles, and stewed squash in the summer. I also love tomatoes and cucumbers together with just a touch of mayo, vinegar, salt and pepper.
p.s. Rhoda also makes great cherry jam, though I don't think she grows the cherries. She's truly the food producer from the LCK family.
yummmm, kohlrabi and white radishes sure bring back a lot of memories of growing up. I don't remember Grandpa being big on kohlrabi, but I remember eating the white radishes with him A LOT!
We tried a garden once when we had our first little house in Cooksville. The only thing that actually made it to harvest were carrots. A lot of carrots. Never tried it again after the first year. Normally, I just wait until the middle or end of the "season" when the real gardeners are giving everything away just so they don't have to eat another stinkin tomator or ear of corn. Late in the summer I ususally bring a bag of tomatos home every sunday from church.
With 3 acres here, we really should have a garden or at least plant some sweet corn, but who's got the time for that. EDK
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