Recently @lovely.logic and I picked our asparagus that was emerging from the ground. Picking it early before it forms leaves is when its best for eating. So with a few stalks in hand we got to making a dish. We are growing two kinds of asparagus "Jersey Giant" and "Purple Passion" The green ones tend to get bigger but I think the smaller Purple ones are great too. You can see our happy kale plants behind forming flowers. Most of it is flowering but a few are just forming leaves, we will collect some of them.
Our kale did very well this year as well, the solitary mason bees, carpenter bees and honey bees all feeding on the flowers. There were a few plants that did not bolt (form flowers) so we picked some of that kale to go together with our dish we would cook. We have had the kale for a few years now, and amazed how easy it grows and drops its own seeds. It is a plant you can just add to your garden and forget about and it will flower and form more
We used some of of the stalks on the kale and cut up the leaves as well. The asparagus was trimmed at the bottom getting rid of the most dense parts of the stalk. Otherwise it will make them quite hard to chew up.
Cutting the asparagus into small pieces it will cook faster, the kale does not need long at all to cook so @lovely.logic had some precise cuts to make sure it all cooks good. I leave it to them to cut it all up. I am not as consistent with the cuttings so best for them to do it.
The way we cook them is in a pan with some lemon juice. The acid helps to break down the leaves as they cook on the stove.
After a few minutes of stirring and cooking they start to steam and cook off some of the water stored in the plants. Being so fresh it released a lot of water.. Nothing is better than fresh veggies, picked no longer than one hour from time of cooking.
Once it was all cooked we served ourselves some on plate, I added some salsa rice, kimchi and some pork to my plate. I enjoy using my smoker and bbq to cook most of my meat, and then save it through out the week to consume with my meals.
My mayonnaise and some mustard was on the side of my plate for dipping. We were quite satisfied by how well the asparagus and kale came out. We ate it all up and our bodies felt really good consuming food directly from our own garden. We are looking forward to enjoying more, and glad we tried growing this plant even if we had to wait a few years to grow before we could consume any.
I added @lovely.logic to this posts beneficiaries so they will get half the rewards for this content.