I can’t get over how fantastic this big cold frame is!! Its overflowing now with green. I didn’t plant seeds any earlier this year than previous years, but things never grew this fast before.
(If you click on the top photo and mouse over, there are notes to show whats growing where.)
This weekend, I’ll transplant half of the little tomatoes, eggplants and pepper seedlings into larger pots to give away. I’m planning to plant mine out into the garden early next week under hoops. The squashes, melons and cucumber seedlings are growing fast. My sweet potato slips that I transplanted into dirt against the expert advice seem OK. Its been easier for me to have them out in the frame and not inside in jars of water. It won’t be warm enough to plant these out until the end of May.
And then there’s that giant patch of kale! I have to start eating kale every night I think. Got any recipes?
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This is great, great pics. I need to get a cold frame going for next year, so I can get the seedlings out of the house and into natural light sooner.
I really enjoy your blog. Hope you can visit mine.
WOW your plants look fantastic! I started some seedlings indoors. Good thing because we had a little over 5 inches of SNOW last night! It was nearly 80 last week ~ CRAZY!
Question ~ was that through the "Flick'r" program itself that you were able to label them individually? If it was another program, please share. I love it!
I make this barley risotto with kale. It is an amazing side dish.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/barley-risotto-with-beans-and-greens/
I have a Moosewood cookbook with a great recipe for winter green risotto, but it's packed away in a box in preparation for our move.
I'm so jealous of your cold frame! We close on our first house in 2 weeks – we may need to build one.
It looks like life is good in the cold frame. Enjoy the early harvest!
I really like your cold frame. I've been thinking about making one but I'm not sure where to put it in my garden.
As for the kale, my favorite kale recipe is toasted kale. It makes a terrific snack. It's sweet, salty, and crunchy. Here's a link to my toasted kale recipe:
http://katieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2010/04/first-harvest-of-year.html
KALE CHIPS…really, if you have tons of kale, these are great. Plenty of people have blogged about them, and they were featured in a food mag last year, so it will be an easy search. With the chilly week ahead, I would say make a kale, bean and sausage soup, or even a ribollita! I'm hoping my husband will be building me a cold frame now too!
kale – sauteed with 4 cloves of smashed garlic in 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup really good veggie stock (Better than Bouillon rocks!!) for 10-15 mins. this is fantastic..
Your cold frame has worked beautifully! Whoohoo! I built mine this winter and I am having the same results. Happy eating! BTW: Love your website!
We certainly are having crazy weather. Brr….
The photo notes here are done with FlickR.
I'm looking foward to trying these kale recipes! Thanks.