Kale bonanza

We've got kale on the brain today...lots of it, as a matter of fact:

So much, that we pulled 95% of it out of the garden today, because it grew much faster than anticipated, blocking the French Nickel beans' sunlight and stunting their growth. It's still pretty young in their season, so we're hoping this drastic measure will help us get another bumper crop of haricot vert. They're one of our favorite vegetables, so keep your fingers crossed.

Back to the kale. I selected a Wild Garden Mix from one of my favorite suppliers, Abundant Life Seeds out of Cottage Grove, Oregon.  

One of the great features of growing kale is that it can be sown outdoors as soon as the danger of last frost has passed (about mid May for Minneapolis) and can be repeatedly sown throughout the summer and fall.  A light frost actually improves the flavor, which is why it's one of the crops I like to keep going all year.

Kale is one of my newer loves, as I only really learned to appreciate it within the past five years. Once you've have stir-fried garlicky greens, or steamed kale drizzled with great olive oil and shaved parm, or three-corners filled with chopped kale, feta, dill, and pine nuts, you'll love it too.

This steam-freeze method of preservation will be perfect for using it as an ingredient in some other dish, such as the aforementioned three-corners, or even baked with cheese in a veggie calzone!

Since I had such a large amount that I needed to remove right away but couldn't possibly eat before going bad, the husband and I decided to steam the kale ever so slightly and freeze it. The method is ever so simple: 

Wash kale:

Steam kale:

Spread out on sheet pans to cool more rapidly-this helps keep the color bright:

Freeze it up!

Thanks to my genius friend Farmer Josh, who suggested that my pea plants were probably just done, versus dying of some horrible disease, I can remove the plants and make room for another crop. But of what?