Planting mustard greens today !

**Jellybeanz** · 10-01-2005, 12:13 PM

I'm so happy. It's that time of year where I live ( southeast MS) to plant greens. We do this every year . My son and I will be planting mustard greens, some turnips, and tendergreens. Tendergreens are sort of like mustard greens, except they are hardier and last thru frosts for months .

Last year, I put up greens in my freezer. I have one more bag left in the freezer, so needless to say, I'll be putting up more as soon as they are ready. Oh ya, I forgot, we are also going to try growing collards from seeds too.

Does anyone plant greens? They are super easy to plant and grow, just gotta keep the bugs and where I live, deer, away from them. lol

**forestdale** · 10-01-2005, 03:52 PM

Good luck with this year's crop, Jellybeanz. I always feel excited when I start my planting for the year. There's so much promise in all those seeds.

I don't plant any of the things you listed but I always have silver beet growing, nothing kills it. lol Are your greens vegetables that you cook or are they a salad vegetable?

**Jellybeanz** · 10-01-2005, 04:20 PM

Rhonda, they are a vegetable that I cook. When I cook them fresh, I start off with a little bit of bacon drippings and a bit of water and sort of steam them. For putting the freezer, I blanch them and then put them in freezer bags.

I do think however, that they could be used for salads when they are very young and tender.

I have no idea what silver beet is, but I'm going to look it up. You have me curious. lol

May I ask how you prepare it also?

**forestdale** · 10-01-2005, 04:41 PM

Silverbeet is a spinach-type of vegetable, full of iron and other minerals. You can cook it pretty much like spinach but I usually wash and chop it up and cook it in a little olive oil with salt and pepper. I also put it in vegetable soup or make a silverbeet soup that I cook in vegetable stock with a few potatoes, When it's all cooked I blitz it in the blender and add a little cream. It's delicious.

**Jellybeanz** · 10-01-2005, 06:27 PM

Silverbeet sounds delicious :-) I love spinich, so I'm sure I'd love this too.

**forestdale** · 10-01-2005, 06:31 PM

Jelly, I just realised why you don't know it. It's also called Swiss Chard. Sorry, that slipped my mind until now.

**jlxian** · 10-03-2005, 02:10 PM

I tried for the first time growing collards, kale, and swiss chard in my garden this year. I planted these in the spring but had pretty bad luck. Aside from my ignorance on how to grow and/or harvest, was spring the wrong time of year? Are these a better winter or cold frame crop in my area (zone 6)?

**Sara Noel** · 10-03-2005, 02:26 PM

I just saw a great recipe for collard greens and corn bread dumplings for greens. I've never made them.

The recipes looked delicious and I can't wait to try them.

Corn Bread Dumplings

1 1/2 cups of white or yellow cornmeal
4 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 cup of boiling water

Mix the cornmeal, flour, salt and sugar. Add the boiling water while stirring constantly, until the mixture is stiff. Spoon up enough to make a small ball, wet your hands and roll the mixture into a ball. Drop them into the greens, cover tightly and simmer for 1/2 hour.

sorry to hijack...but Darlene was this the recipe? I thought i bookmarked it, but now don't see it. Of course, it's probabl buried in my bookmarks.

http://fitdv.recipezaar.com/99843

**Mom23boys** · 10-03-2005, 02:50 PM

Goold luck with your planting. I hope you have a crop that provides lots of collards for you to enjoy!

**Darlene** · 10-03-2005, 03:35 PM

Yes that's the one. Here's a little info on some greens.
http://sarasota.extension.ufl.edu/FC...are/Greens.htm

**Jellybeanz** · 10-03-2005, 09:06 PM

Originally posted by jlxian
I tried for the first time growing collards, kale, and swiss chard in my garden this year. I planted these in the spring but had pretty bad luck. Aside from my ignorance on how to grow and/or harvest, was spring the wrong time of year? Are these a better winter or cold frame crop in my area (zone 6)?

I'm not sure about the zone, but I do know that collards can only be planted here when it cools down. They can't take heat at all. They last thru winter.

**Jellybeanz** · 11-11-2005, 09:05 AM

Update :

A couple days ago I picked three grocery sized bags of greens. I literally had to press them down in the bags to get them all in.

They didn't all come up either. I was thinking to myself while picking them, this has got to be one of the most frugal vegatables to plant in terms of what you get out of it .You can get quite a crop out of a small space and the good part is, they continue to provide. I planted mustard/tendergreens. The tendergreens will survive thru pretty cold weather.

They do take some work though. All those leaves have to be washed. lol I cooked some and washed the rest. Those are then blanched and put in the freezer for later. Actually I find they come out better from the freezer if I cook them 2/3 of the way then freeze.

I do have some tiny little black bugs and grasshoppers nibbling at them, so I've got to treat that problem, or they will eat them down. I also had to string up lines around them, and tie old sheet strips with perfume to repel deer, who liked them too. lol

But all in all, I'm very pleased with them.