Thursday, February 20, 2014

Kohlrabi... ups and downs

Over the weekend, I harvested my first Kohlrabi bulb.  I was so excited.  I was going to sauté the leaves and eat them with onions and garlic, but I decided to use them as salad greens.  They are much firmer than lettuce, but they are just so yummy.  I added some tomato, cucumber, carrots, green onions, radishes (also from the garden) and served it with an Asian sesame dressing, and oh man, it was so good. Of course, The Guy, who loves salad, declined.  I was a little disappointed, but seriously, I think he was afraid.  He just didn't want to admit it....  That's okay, honey, the next batch is getting sautéed, and I KNOW you won't eat that!!!

 So here is the stuff I pulled from the garden for that salad.  If you've never eaten Kohlrabi, it's kind of like the cross between a radish and a broccoli stem in taste, and a bit like a carrot in texture, although less firm.  Does that even make sense?  It's really like nothing I've ever eaten before, but I do love it.  Once you cut the leaves off, you have to peel it, and it's not easily done with a vegetable peeler.  I used a paring knife, which make the job quick.  I julienned the Kohlrabi and served it with carrot sticks.  The Pipsqueak was not impressed.  Green, bad.  Orange, good.  Ugh. 

This is the bunch of leaves that I got from this one Kohlrabi bulb.  Aren't they beautiful?   See the one leaf at the bottom of the picture that is ripped?  That's the one I took a bite out of...  ha ha.  No, really.  I really did.  I read ( on some blog, somewhere) that you could sauté them like collards or chard, so I wondered what they taste like raw.  Broccoli stems.  That's what I think.  When I offered a bite to The Guy, he said, "Lettuce".  So I made salad, and like I said, he didn't eat it.  Men!


So that's the good.  When it's good, it's really good, and I am so happy and love gardening.  Seriously, when it's bad, it's really bad.  The photos above are from Sunday. 

Yesterday, I went back out to check on my other Kohlrabi bulbs, and look for caterpillars, which I do about every other day in this weather.  Things have been a bit crazy this week, so I didn't get out on Tuesday.  This is what I found:


Complete and utter APHID INFESTATION.  In four days!!!  I don't know if I can save it.  I'm going to have to try to figure out what to do.  I'm going to try some cayenne pepper and water in a spray bottle today and see if they leave.  Sure, I get aphids here and there, and I usually pick them off.  I don't want to use chemicals...  but this?????  This is bad. 

So when it's good, it's really good; when it's bad, it's really bad.  The life of a gardener. 
Update later: save or pull?  I'll let you know.

Green Thumb Out.


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