Cold Morning!! 1/24/13

Temps got pretty close to zero this morning, the coldest it's been in a few years! Good thing I moved my potted blueberry bushes, blackberry bush, and Rosemary plant into the shed last Monday...the last time it was ABOVE FREEZING!

Growing a Good Complexion: My Latest article on Hubpages

I haven't been writing on Hubpages.com that often lately but finally got around to writing a new article the other night!  After the continuing traffic success of my article Growing Vegetables from Kitchen Scraps, I thought I would write another article about gardening.  So I decided to write an article connecting the benefits of growing your own healthy food and a better complexion.  I have to admit my skin isn't flawless, as I am sure many of you reading this also have some skin aliments.  Eating some of the foods listed in my article will dramatically improve your skin problems, it may not solve them but it will definitely help!!  The best thing is  I have listed fruits and vegetables that you can grow in your own backyard, eating them at peak freshness when the nutrients are the best!!! The new article is called:

Growing a Good Complexion: A Gardener's Guide to Healthy Skin

Kale Chips Recipe

I finally got around to making Kale Chips for the first time ever!  Go figure it would be in the middle of winter.  I first discovered recipes for Kale Chips this past summer and was very curious to how they would taste.  However I wasn't growing any and never got around to grabbing a bunch at the grocery store.  Now that I have my new Juicer I needed to make a healthy green juice, so I bought some red curly kale and some Swiss chard at Whole Foods.  Well, I've been juicing with both of them all week and they make an excellent green juice, then it dawned on me to try making Kale Chips!

Kale Chips are just torn up pieces of kale baked in the oven to make a crispy treat similar to potato chips but so much more healthy!  Curly kale is the best variety to use for kale chips because it won't lay flat on the baking sheet.  Besides being an healthy alternative to potato chips, it was a very easy and simple recipe.  And just imagine how simple it would be if you are growing Kale in your own backyard (which hopefully I will be doing this coming summer!).

Kale Chips Ingredients-

You only need three ingredients: 

Kale 

Salt (Sea Salt is the best) 

Olive Oil (although coconut oil would work and might give an interesting taste!)

Kale Chips Prep: 

10 minutes: 

• Wash and dry Kale leaves (wash good if not organic) 
• Cut leaves away from stem (Save stem for juicing or place in compost bin) 
• Tear leaves into small pieces the size of potato chips 
• Grab your salt and olive oil
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

Kale Chips Directions: 

1. Place dried, torn up Kale leaves in a bowl
2. Drizzle olive oil (a little more than a tablespoon) on to the leaves
3. Toss leaves with hands to coat all in oil 
4. Sprinkle salt on leaves (as much as you desire but be careful too much salt isn't healthy!) 
5. Toss leaves again to get salt on all leaves 
6. Lay leaves individually and spaced out evenly on a baking pan (non stick)  
7. Place baking sheet in oven for 10-15 mins depending on how moist the leaves are 
8. When leaves begin to brown on edges, remove from pan and scoop onto a plate or bowl for cooling 
9. Enjoy the delicious and crispy Kale Chips!!

January Thaw brings out some Mint!

After a few days of mild temps and foggy days it seems the January thaw is coming to an end. However with the few days of warmer weather I found some mint growing under old branches! This tends to happen a lot in January thaws, if it gets really warm some early blooming flowers like crocus and of course weeds. This being the first year I have mint growing in my backyard I was surprised to see the the green little leaves! Of course with snow forecast and much colder temps this mint will probably die back again.

Berry plants in a snowstorm

My blueberry and blackberry bushes got covered in the snow over the weekend. Although the marshmallow like blanket of snow that the storm left behind on the shrubs may look cold, I'm actually hoping the small layer of snow will keep the plants warm the next few nights as temps dip down into the single digits!!! Snow can be an insulator and keep temps slightly warmer! With single digit temps I'm not sure my rosemary bush will make it through the winter but you never know!