John's (Paula Deen) Collard Greens

John has recommended Paula Deen's collard green recipe.  He cuts the salt and uses a smoked turkey leg (cut in three pieces) from the Dekalb Farmer's Market.  Below is a link to the recipe and the recipe.   

Enjoy!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/collard-greens-recipe/index.html

Ingredients
1/2 pound smoked meat (ham hocks, smoked turkey wings, or smoked neck bones)
1 tablespoon House seasoning, recipe follows
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
1 tablespoon hot red pepper sauce
1 large bunch collard greens
1 tablespoon butter
Directions
In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and add smoked meat, house seasoning, seasoned salt and hot sauce. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour.

Wash the collard greens thoroughly. Remove the stems that run down the center by holding the leaf in your left hand and stripping the leaf down with your right hand. The tender young leaves in the heart of the collards don't need to be stripped. Stack 6 to 8 leaves on top of one another, roll up, and slice into 1/2 to 1-ince thick slices. Place greens in pot with meat and add butter. Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. When done taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve with favorite dish as a side.

House Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

This week in the garden, July 29th

Whatever is affecting the butternut squash seems to be spreading :(

The summer squash are few and far between, the cucumbers are dwindling, and the swiss chard is withering, but other plants have been producing plenty for our tables these days.  There seems to be an endless supply of green beans, tomatoes and eggplant to add to the kale and collards.  

The excitement of my colander full of tomatoes and gallon bag of green beans was trumped by a (possible) first sign of brussel sprouts in our future.  This is the first year we have planted brussel sprouts.  And we planted them in the very beginning of the Spring season.  We have been watching them grow for a while and have been unsure if anything was going to happen.  Well, today, on one of our brussel sprout plants I spotted little buds that look like they may actually transform into brussel sprouts.  It may have worked!  

With all of these great summer veggies and persistent greens, it is hard to imagine that we will have to find space in the garden for new cool season plants in just a few weeks.

This week in the garden, July 22, 2013

This week in the garden, I am still fretting over the squash.  Last weekend, we pulled out about half of the squash plants because they stems were hollowed out by squash borers.  As a preventative measure, we wrapped the remaining squash stems in tin foil and sprinkled diatomaceous earth.  Still, none of those plants seem to be producing squash.  There have been a few rotten squash and a lot of cucumber/squash beetles.  For the second year in a row, I am afraid our squash crop might be done prematurely.  I am still hopeful for a few more squash, but I need to let go and start thinking about how we could do it better next year.  Crop covers?  Hay bale gardening?  Just skip squash? 

All but one of the butternut squash plants still look healthy.  (You can see the dying plant in the middle of healthy ones in one of the pictures above.)  While there are still beetles to kill on the leaves, there are many butternut squash growing amongst the vines.  I hope we can hold off the bugs long enough for them to ripen! 

The cucumbers are ripening well in decent numbers despite the beetles.  A new row of cucumber seedlings has come out of the ground and will hopefully be ready as soon as our current row dies off.

Of the greens, the kale and collards look extremely healthy and may last through the fall.  The swiss chard is not looking as vibrant as it has been.  In the fifth row, on the left side, we have broccoli rabe growing.  Rumor has it that these leaves can be picked as greens as well. 

Keep an eye out for okra, eggplant, green (pimento) peppers, tomatoes, basil and green beans.  I did have to pull off a couple of rotten tomatoes today, but there were still many healthy tomatoes, especially cherry tomatoes.  

In addition to seeding a new row of cucumbers at the last weekend, we also put in more turnip seeds in some of the spaces were we took the squash out.  

The garden blog

At the garden, we are all really excited about our vegetables.  We gardeners are always sharing our tips on bugs, picking the best veggies and recipes. We need a place to catalogue all of this information.  With this blog, members of the garden can share all of this info in a place we can keep coming back.