Category: Greens

Spinach Downy Mildew

Downy mildew on winter spinach in a high tunnel. Photo by Eric Sideman By Caleb Goossen, Ph.D. Winter-grown greens have increased dramatically in popularity, and subsequently in ubiquity, over the past couple of decades. We are miles beyond the era of my grandmother’s childhood in northern Vermont, where the “hungry period” set in during the end of winter

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Kale and Kin

Young kale plants companion with leeks. Will Bonsall photo By Will Bonsall Some years ago I commented to a friend in the seed business about how few kale varieties were available in the marketplace. He hastened to object that there were more kales around than ever, and spouted off a bunch of names, like Red

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Collards

A lush planting of collards (front row) and kale at the Johnny’s Selected Seeds display at the 2010 Common Ground Country Fair. English photo. By Jean Ann Pollard Collards. Until a few years ago, this big, paddle-leafed member of the cabbage family – Brassica oleracea, Acephala group – was considered strictly Southern in the United

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Wild Greens

Cut dandelion greens before the plants flower. English photo. By Chris Knapp There is something intrinsically wonderful about wild food. Over the years my wife and I have shared wild plants with countless people. Folks bend down to the earth, pick a plant and put it in their mouths. Aha! An essential truth about our

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Spring Greens

Toki Oshima drawing By Beedy Parker I’ve been making a list of the edible greens that come early in the vegetable garden, as weeds and bonus vegetable greens. Here’s how it goes: Dandelion greens are the earliest, just the rosette out of the soft beds – and you might want to break off the root

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Winter Greens

Cold-hardy greens sown on Aug. 18 by Johnny’s Selected Seeds and displayed five weeks later at the Common Ground Country Fair. English photo. By Roberta Bailey A Maine (northern) garden is always in transition. In my mind, I can visualize it as if through time-lapse photography. In spring we rapidly progress from young garlic and

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Grow Your Own: Mesclun

By Roberta Bailey The National Gardening Bureau deemed 1997 the “Year of the Mesclun” and from my vantage point in Palermo, they called it right. The cool spring and well-timed rains of summer created ideal conditions for growing salad greens. The year is not over yet: A bed of mesclun seeded in September could feed

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Lambsquarters

Lambsquarters, a common garden weed, is edible. Harvest it before it goes to seed. English photo. By Jean Ann Pollard Lambsquarters! Pigweed! Fat-hen, goosefoot, bacon weed, dirty Dick, Muck Hill weed. Despite numerous, often odoriferous monikers (and this little list is only partial), Chenopodium album is a delicious, nutritious delight for foragers, and a summer

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Cool Kale

Johnny’s ‘Red Russia’ kale. Photo courtesy of National Garden Bureau. by Jean Ann Pollard In Maine, kale comes into its own in autumn. Healthy and tall even in November, it barely shivers when ice and snow decorate leaves and stems. In fact, cold weather seems to improve its flavor without deleting nutrition. According to The

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Glorious Greens

Tat soi, sown 8/11/07, was ready to eat at the Common Ground Country  Fair on Sept. 21. English photo. by Jean English No surprise: I came home from the Common Ground Country Fair with a cornucopia of gardening ideas; and the lush results that came from taking a little time, space, seed and compost that

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