Pale Green Things
This morning I had the pleasure of doing a massive greenhouse cleaning spree, while the rain pattered away on the roof. I did it mostly to organize stuff and clear up bench space for new flats of seedlings that I’ll be starting in the coming weeks, and also to get a sense of what goes where. To get anything done, I need to know where to find the tools, and it seems like every five seconds I’ve thought of something else. Duct tape? Rubber bands? Rebar? PVC pipe? I spend a lot of time poking around.
The major event of the day was the completion of the plumbing in the camper. SUCCESS. Oh how sweet it is. On more than one occasion, I was so frustrated with the whole project I thought I might burst into tears, which may have been a good move – purifying, cathartic, you know. Instead, out of fear of being found out as a total weenie, I cleared my throat, pushed harder on whatever it was (the saw attachment on the cordless drill, the stupid wrench, the barbed pipe fittings) until I finally got what I wanted. I got a lot of help with everything, from Allen and from the guys at Ace Hardware, but I also did most of the work myself, and I’m proud of that.
Here’s the front line in one of our big plans for the growing season – broccoli raab. We aspire to be the queens of broccoli raab. Some might say it’s bitter. Even yucky. Maybe kids don’t like it. But we do. And we’re going to grow tons of it. It’ll be one of the first things to move out of the greenhouse and into the field, when it finally stops raining.
3 comments
I love broccoli raab.
Also “Pale Green Things.”
Also you.
Where have you disappeared to broccoli raab queen aspirant – I planted italian raab seed (my favourite veg) in mid-July in Shropshire, UK. It’s supposed to be ready in 28-40 days – so, round about now – but it is currently covered in little yellow flowers, like wild rucola. I am wondering when it will start looking like broccoli raab…
I do still love the broccoli raab, will have more on the way in the fall….it sounds like yours bolted. In farming the word ‘bolted’ means gone to flower. In the summer heat broccoli raab is nearly impossible to grow – it doesn’t form those nice edible heads, it just skips all that and bolts, flowering on the way to making seed. Vegetables usually don’t taste very good after they’ve bolted, they become woody and bitter. But don’t despair, you’re not a bad grower, you just picked the wrong time to plant that particular vegetable. I would recommend that you pull that stuff out and plant more now (really, now’s the perfect time), you should get a nice harvest in early October, and in the future plant broc raab only for spring and fall harvests, avoiding the summer heat.
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