Garlic, Onion, and Kale Oh My!

Well, Guy Fawkes has come and gone. Somehow we ate 60 potatoes, a couple dozen hotdogs, 5 lbs of halloween candy, and who knows how many marshmallows. Even our dogs got in on the marshmallow action by becoming real-life hoovers the next day, vacuuming up all the errant marshmallows out of the woods. You would've thought that we were using pigs to locate truffles given the amount of rummaging and snorting going on. Luckily, the marshmallows didn't really give them that much of a sugar buzz and while my shoes may be covered in the gooey stuff, my kitchen floor, thankfully, is not.

It was also great to see some many people enjoying the fruit of our labor - the pit of despair. Our fire pit was a roaring success and I know of a few unhappy husbands who now have to build their own pits if their wives have their say. Sadly, I took few pictures from said festivities, but I thought I'd share a few passing moments here:

Themis and Jon tend the fire	Watching the Guy burning
Our Guy Effigy

Meanwhile, on the topic at hand, today I am planting our garlic and onions for the spring. Yes, I am probably about two weeks late on this and I hope that my tardiness doesn't cost me next year's harvest - that would really suck especially as last year's harvest was a bit of a letdown. Not so much garlic bulbs as garlic bulbettes that I affectionately called "garlic spring onions". I planted at the completely wrong time of the year last year and suffered for it. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice . . . well you know how that goes.

What we're planting is -

• hardneck garlic (Romanian Red)
• softneck garlic (Red Toch)
• shallots (Grey Griselle)
• yellow potato onions
• Egyptian walking onions (over a year old)

Unfortunately, I waited too late to buy my onion and garlic sampler from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and so I ended up with a hodge podge of varieties that I haven't planted before. The walking onions are left over from last year's purchase so they may or may not grow. I am seriously tempted to plant them under a tree and let them be, but I may just pot them up and stick them in the greenhouse for now.

And on the kale front, I made kale chips and then proceeded to eat too many. I love kale chips. You may like them too. Here's a recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale (I prefer curly)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (or a light spraying of Pam)
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 250 degrees.
2. With a knife remove the leaves from the stems and tear into bite size pieces. Alternatively, you can just rip kale off the ribs/stem by hand.
3. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner (or spread out on paper towel to dry).
4. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt (or spray with Pam instead of olive oil if you're prefer less oil).
5. Spread out in one layer on a baking tray or cookie sheet.
6. Bake until the edges are brown but not burnt, 20-25 minutes. You may need to check on them at 10 minutes and use a spatula to move them around on the cookie sheet.

This is just the basic recipe. You can substitute seasoning salt for sea salt. Try it with garlic powder or curry powder. Very tasty. There are endless combinations. If you get a combo you really like, let me know!