I have some very beautiful Swiss Chard and Kale in my garden right now. I feel silly asking but, will they continue to produce all summer? I am not sure if they are considered cool weather crops.
I mainly use them to make green smoothies. One more question, anyone have any luck freezing them? I spend a lot of money in the winter at Whole Foods buying these organic greens.
I've not had Kale in the summer months but I've had Chard and it takes the heat better than spinach or most other cool weather leaf vegetables.Yogas wrote:I have some very beautiful Swiss Chard and Kale in my garden right now. I feel silly asking but, will they continue to produce all summer? I am not sure if they are considered cool weather crops.
I mainly use them to make green smoothies. One more question, anyone have any luck freezing them? I spend a lot of money in the winter at Whole Foods buying these organic greens.
As for freezing them, the only way I do that is cooking them down similar to how I fix collard or mustard greens. I'll fill a 5 gallon bucket of the greens, wash them well and cut the leaves in large squares and set aside. Take a diced onion, 3 cloves of garlic minced, about 1 lb. of chunk seasoning ham or good smoke sausage, salt, pepper and about 1 cup of chicken stock.
Heat about 2 tbsp. oil (I use bacon grease) in a large pot, add the onion and cook for a few minutes, then add the meat and garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. Next add the stock and cut up greens and let this cook over a medium flame for about 1 hr. in a covered pot. Stir it often to get the greens cooking off the bottom and to allow the upper leaves to replace them for even cooking. What I don't eat in a couple days, I put up in quart freezer bags for later use.
They don't grow for me when it's hot, they just go dormant.
I've never frozen chard but I freeze kale, collards, turnip greens, beet greens, mustard greens, and amaranth every year. Just blanch for 2 minutes, drain, and seal them in ziploc bags. When thawed in a pot of water on the stove, they taste just like they would if freshly picked.
I've never frozen chard but I freeze kale, collards, turnip greens, beet greens, mustard greens, and amaranth every year. Just blanch for 2 minutes, drain, and seal them in ziploc bags. When thawed in a pot of water on the stove, they taste just like they would if freshly picked.
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PunkRotten
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rainbowgardener
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I haven't grown kale (need to try some!) but my swiss chard just grows and grows and grows all summer and well into fall. The early frosts don't even slow it down, only when it gets really hard frost.
So it is a cool weather plant in the sense of being planted early and frost tolerant. But unlike all the other cool weather plants it is also heat and drought and anything else you can throw at it tolerant. My favorite stuff to grow.
Treat it like spinach to freeze- blanch in hot (boiling) water, then in very cold water to stop the cooking, then drain and freeze
So it is a cool weather plant in the sense of being planted early and frost tolerant. But unlike all the other cool weather plants it is also heat and drought and anything else you can throw at it tolerant. My favorite stuff to grow.
Treat it like spinach to freeze- blanch in hot (boiling) water, then in very cold water to stop the cooking, then drain and freeze