kaybee
03-10-2009, 02:35 PM
hi--
I was just in spain for five weeks and want to track down the variety --in English-- of a particular green so i can try to get some organic seeds and plant some... I wrote down the name in spanish from a shop there, but alas, i lost it. all i know is that it is a common winter green, EVERYONE has it growing in their gardens, and you can eat it chopped up raw in a salad. it is not regular collards or regular kale, it is more tender than them raw, and its growing habit seems to be closer to the ground, maybe a foot or so high, rather than the ten-foot tall collard and kale plants. its a medium green color, and i think it had kind of raggedy edges, big leaves, but they sort of came in almost to the stem towards the bottom, then flared out a little bit. its about the color of green mustard, but its mild, not hot. it doesnt look like the common mizuna we have here, so i dont think its that either. i think its flavor was more mild kale-ish, or mild cabbage-y, if anything. anyway, i would LOVE to know what it is so i can try to grow some. this one place i stayed at (on the camino santiago), they had a community meal every night for anyone staying there, and the man who ran it got most of the veggies from his garden. he made this both nights i was there in a layered salad with this on the bottom, then a layer of chopped onions, then grated carrot, and olives on top, with some kind of what tasted like lemony dressing. SO GOOD
Also, any idea how they get their collards and kale to grow forever there? some of the collards and kale were taller than me, no joke. they seemed like they MUST have been living for much longer than just one season. Mine here always go to seed....how do they get theirs to do that? i would LOVE to keep them as perrenials rather than just annuals...
Thanks much
kaybee
I was just in spain for five weeks and want to track down the variety --in English-- of a particular green so i can try to get some organic seeds and plant some... I wrote down the name in spanish from a shop there, but alas, i lost it. all i know is that it is a common winter green, EVERYONE has it growing in their gardens, and you can eat it chopped up raw in a salad. it is not regular collards or regular kale, it is more tender than them raw, and its growing habit seems to be closer to the ground, maybe a foot or so high, rather than the ten-foot tall collard and kale plants. its a medium green color, and i think it had kind of raggedy edges, big leaves, but they sort of came in almost to the stem towards the bottom, then flared out a little bit. its about the color of green mustard, but its mild, not hot. it doesnt look like the common mizuna we have here, so i dont think its that either. i think its flavor was more mild kale-ish, or mild cabbage-y, if anything. anyway, i would LOVE to know what it is so i can try to grow some. this one place i stayed at (on the camino santiago), they had a community meal every night for anyone staying there, and the man who ran it got most of the veggies from his garden. he made this both nights i was there in a layered salad with this on the bottom, then a layer of chopped onions, then grated carrot, and olives on top, with some kind of what tasted like lemony dressing. SO GOOD
Also, any idea how they get their collards and kale to grow forever there? some of the collards and kale were taller than me, no joke. they seemed like they MUST have been living for much longer than just one season. Mine here always go to seed....how do they get theirs to do that? i would LOVE to keep them as perrenials rather than just annuals...
Thanks much
kaybee