Forks in the Dirt

With early planting and adding a few varieties, we can get you growing spinach all season long!

A few tweaks and tricks can strengthen our spinach growing skills and save us from buying those—very expensive and oh so wasteful—plastic bags of half-wilted greens shipped across the country.

Not to mention the multiple recalls for listeria and E.coli outbreaks…

And, as we know that produce loses around 30% of its nutritional value within days of harvesting, growing our own makes sense both to our personal health and the health of the planet.

Plus, crunching sweet spinach leaves is one of the joys of an early season garden.

I started growing leeks about 8 years ago and now can’t imagine the end of a harvest season without them!

Plus—leek powder is a must in my spice rack now (more on that later)!

Leeks are like the cosmopolitan older cousin to onions—graceful lines compared to round and squat stature. They have a more sophisticated flavor; and yet somehow easier to grow for me!

If you want to make a recipe that will turn ‘kale no’ into ‘KALE YEAH’ – here it is.

This is the perfect balance of healthy kale hiding in creamy cheesy perfection, finished with a crispy topping. This has become a holiday family meal favorite- and that’s saying somethings with all those kale haters out there 😉

Bacon fat is an amazing addition but not necessary for this recipe.  And as with all my recipes there’s room for making them different each time, or just to make them your own. Sometimes I’ll add in the bacon, or if my family ate all the bacon, I’ll just use the bacon fat to sauté the leeks and onions… a bit of pancetta or even smoked ham would be delicious too. If you like it spicy, add in the hot pepper flakes or even some dashes of hot sauce. If you don’t use bacon fat, taste test and add salt as needed.

Find your new favorite by comparing twelve tomato varieties with me.

Did you know that tomatoes have been bred for different purposes for centuries?

Some are perfect for popping in your mouth, like cherry tomatoes. Some are meant to balance out that bacon on a BLT, like the huge heirloom slicers. And some are best for making sauce, like the thick and meaty paste tomatoes. And then there’s a million variations in between!

With over 10,000 known tomato varieties this is of course a very limited list, but also based on my nearly 20 years of growing tomatoes in the north.

Nothing says fresh summer flavors more than Green Goddess dressing!

Grabbing handfuls of all the herbs and creating a magically delicious while nutrient dense topping for things from salads, to chips and sweet potato fries couldn’t be easier. It is literally dump, blend, and pour (or dip).