KALE (Brassica oleracea)

 

A year ago, I planted two Kale plants with a few perpetual spinach (Swiss Chard) plants in a large tub and hoped they would cooperate with each other.  After a few months it was obvious that one Kale was the dominate plant and overpowering the others.  As it grew bigger and bigger I decided it needed the whole tub to itself, so the other plants got pulled up and eaten.  I have included a few photos of my Kale plant in this post.  It is the first one I have grown to get so big, and I am thrilled with it.  I looked with envy at Kale I saw growing in a community garden on Bainbridge Island, Seattle a decade ago (Oct. 2014) but now I have one of my own!  One plant is all I need to keep me fed.  I use it in soups, curries, stir fries and salads.  I would never have thought to use it in salads until Costco introduced us to their wonderful kale salad.  I have also heard of Kale chips but have never seen or tasted them yet.

Kale is a cruciferous vegetable and like cabbage and broccoli etc. in that family, it is said to have anti-cancer properties.  It is high in fiber, calcium, vitamins C and K plus other antioxidants.  Kale is native to Europe and there are three main types:  Curly, Tuscan (also called Lacinato or Dinosaur) and Red.  You sometimes see a colorful ornamental type grown in city landscapes too.  No doubt they are edible in a pinch.  My Kale plant is the Tuscan type.....usually called Dinosaur around here and seems to be the best in local gardens.

Kale is a biennial plant so in our warm climate it will last two years even though it actually prefers cooler weather.  It likes rich loam which is kept moist but well drained.  It loves high Nitrogen and compost.  Grow it in full sun or partial shade.

When harvesting use the older leaves first leaving the center top ones to keep the plant growing upwards.  The leaves stay sweeter if the plant is kept watered and not stressed and allowed to dry out. The stems on the leaves are rather tough so I usually cut them off when cooking.

You can see in the photo that my older plant is now getting lots of small Kale heads growing up its stem.  I do pick these small leaves for cooking too, but I have also started removing the whole keiki and planting it up in potting mix.  This should give me some new Kale starts for the garden.  Kale can also be grown from seed and takes 2 1/2 to 3 months from seed to harvest.  The keiki taken from the stem will be faster.

You will notice I have some netting over the kale.  That is to prevent white butterflies from landing on the leaves and laying their eggs.  I have had to pick a few of their little green caterpillars off and check for them if I see any holes in the leaves.

Aloha

SPEARMINT (Mentha spicata)

One always hears how easy Mint is to grow and that once you get going it will take over your garden.  I wish!  It took me several years to get a decent Mint supply in my garden and I learned a few lessons along the way.  One day I was at a garden center, and I could hear a lady telling the store attendant that her Mint kept dying on her.  So....I was not the only one having problems with the plant.

I am just going to call this plant Mint even though the proper name for the common Mint used everywhere is Spearmint.  Most of us just call it Mint.  There are many varieties of Mint that are similar although they have different scent and flavor.  Mint is native across Europe and the cooler parts of Asia with a long history of use by many cultures.

Mint needs to be grown in rich, well drained, but moist, soil.  Compost added to the soil is very important and give it an extra sprinkling at dirt level every few months.  Low release fertilizer is good too.  In Hawaii I make sure that the Mint is shaded from the hot afternoon sun.  The key is to not let the plant dry out so make sure it is watered at least twice a week.

If you have strong healthy plants Mint can get aggressive and spread beyond its boundaries so it is wise to grow it in a container.  It also can get quite leggy and bushy so sometimes it needs a good haircut that lowers it down to 3 inches or so to promote new lush growth with stronger leaf flavor.  Give it a feeding at this time with a light layer of compost and mulch.  Although a perennial, in the hot summer Mint can go dormant to protect itself.  I am not sure if my plants were just dormant in the past and I thought they were dying.  Maybe if I had just mulched and watered, they would have come back. On the other hand, maybe I was just not watering enough.  Either way I ended up buying a new plant.  My Mint is so much happier now that it is under the light shade of the curry leaf tree.  Just picking leaf sprigs for kitchen use keeps it trimmed most of the time but every several months I give it a haircut.  Harvest the leaves in the morning when they are fresh, and you can keep them perky by standing the sprigs in a glass of water.

Mint is easy to propagate.  The easiest way is to just divide up a mature plant.  You can cut through the root ball with a knife like you are cutting up a cake then easily plant up each of the slices. It is good to divide up your container plant every few years.  Mint naturally spreads by sending out root runners that send out new roots at the nodes (joints). Find healthy growing runners of several inches that you can cut off and plant in potting mix to get started.  You can also get cuttings rooted first in a jar of water before you plant them up if you like doing it that way.  It is possible to buy Mint seeds online, but I have never known anyone to propagate Mint from seed in home gardens.  Cuttings are the way to go.

Mint is not just a garnish for your fruit salad but a nutritional green leaf we can use in our daily diet.  I love it in salads or in spring rolls.  It can be blended into plain yogurt for a dressing.  The leaves can be used fresh or dried to make peppermint tea or just add the fresh leaves to your black tea as they do in the Middle East.  In Nepal I was introduced to a homemade green lemonade where a hand full of Mint leaves, lemon juice, ice water and sugar were all thrown into a blender. The result certainly hit the spot after a hot day of exploring and I love making it a home now.  My childhood memory is the very Kiwi mint sauce that you could not eat roasted lamb without.  Home cooks made it from minced mint leaves, vinegar and sugar.

Aloha

KAFFIR LIME (Citrus hystrix)

Kaffir Lime is a citrus tree native to tropical S.E. Asia.  Unfortunately, its common name is also used as an ethnic slur in South Africa although the name is thought to originate in Ceylon... deriving from the Arabic word kafir meaning infidel. There is a gradual PC movement to have the lime go by its Thai name which is Makrut Lime although I have used the old name up top because most of the world still knows the plant by that.

Kaffir Lime leaves are synonymous with that flavor of Thai curry that we all love.  Thai restaurants seem to be in every city of the world these days, so we have got used to this exotic leaf.  I realized how much it had conquered the world when I saw fresh Kaffir Lime leaves being sold in a supermarket in Iceland.  I am not much of a cook but have always fancied being able to try my hand at Thai cooking.  I even took a cooking class once in Thailand where I realized it was a rather complex task to prepare the spice base.  Thankfully now I can buy Thai curry paste already prepared at my supermarket and make up an easy Thai meal in 20 minutes or so.  Just cook together the paste, vegetables, canned coconut cream, and some cooked meat together in a pan. Then of course you can add a few Kaffir Lime leaves to the mix, and you really have that authentic taste and appearance.

I have a small Kaffir Lime tree growing in a pot.  It is several years old, but it is still small and bonsai like, because of keeping it root bound in a small pot.  Some years ago, I spied a Kaffir lime fruit on the ground at a botanical park and took it home with me to see if I could get some seeds growing from it.   This gave me my first tree which I planted out in the garden.  However, it became such a gangly, sprawling tree with big sharp thorns that I decided I did not want it in my yard.  That is why I now keep my Kaffir Lime as a small tree in a pot.  It is not as if I am using the leaves on a daily basis, so this small tree is just a nice addition to my herb garden.  I could see it doing well on a patio if you live in an apartment.  If it grows too big it is an easy matter of pruning it down to size and then you can freeze the removed leaves for later use.

The rind of the small bumpy fruit can be used for flavoring as well as the leaves.  The actual inside of the fruit is rather fibrous and sour with lots of seeds so not usually used.  When making your Thai curry you can add whole leaves to flavor it, or you can cut up the leaves in thin strips after removing the midrib.

Healthy leaf on the right while the two on
the left have leaf miner problem.

The Kaffir Lime has a different looking double wing leaf appearance.  I believe I am right in saying that this shows it to be of ancient citrus origin.  There are a few other citrus trees that show similar leaves like my Jambhiri Lemon. (June, 2013 )  The Kaffir Lime flowers in spring to produce its fruit in the summer.  I am still waiting for that to happen on my tiny tree.  Trees can be propagated from seed or cuttings or even from a single leaf.  Like all citrus trees, it likes water and extra feeding at least a few times a year.  I do have a problem with citrus leaf miner on the leaves sometimes. At first you see the silvery trails of the leaf miner in the leaves and then the leaves curl up.  I usually just pull off the old, affected leaves and the plant will grow healthy new ones.

Aloha

SEEN IN KERALA, INDIA

  Recently I spent four weeks traveling slowly around the state of Kerala in the south of India.  It is very tropical there and maybe not what you think of for India.  I moved from coastal towns with waterways and rice paddies up to forested hills and then mountains covered with tea gardens.  A wonderful trip and finally I got to India.

One evening in Fort Kochi I shared a restaurant table with a young Irish backpacker who had been traveling for several months and was feeling a bit jaded about the vagabond life.  He asked me if traveling lost its appeal even more when you are older. After thinking about it my answer was no.  In fact, as we grow older, we pick up so many interests in things that we just passed over when we were young.  When I was young, I was just traveling to see the sights.  When you are older you are exploring things that now interest you like history or arts or religion.  My acquired interest in plants and how people in other countries grow and use them gives extra depth to my travel experience.  I enjoy learning from gardeners out in their yards and cooks in their kitchens.  I also enjoy taking a few photos that I can share here with you.  Click on any one of the photos to see them enlarged.

 A house near my homestay in Fort Kochi/Cochin

A vegetable store in Mattancherry

These walls covered in small pot plants were very popular
 in crowded commercial areas and gave some green relief.

Krishna playing on a flute in the public waterfront park at Ernakulam.

Street view in Mattancherry

A vegetable seed seller and his stall by the road.  
Alleppey/Alappuzha

Flowers being sold for temple puja.
Alleppey/Alappuzha

Container garden at my homestay.
Alleppey/Alappuzha

A quiet home garden in the back lanes of Alleppey/Alappuzha

Cardamom and using some old forest trees to give shade.
These cardamom plantations could be seen for miles along the road
 through the hills near Kumily.

A modern looking house and garden in Kumily.

A fruit stall in the hill country town of Munnar.  
Passion fruit and tamarillos hanging in front.

Tea gardens covered the hills around Munnar.

Aloha

GARDENS IN NEGOMBO, SRI LANKA

 Negombo is a coastal town a few miles north of the international Colombo airport.  It was a good place to spend a few quiet days to adjust to a new country on arrival.  I was eager to explore the reminders of Sri Lankas colonial past as the Portuguese, Dutch and English all used Negombo as a trading port for Cinnamon harvested from a tree that is native to Sri Lanka.  What I did not expect was the amount of fishing going on in the town.  Hundreds of small boats bring in fish to be sold at the markets or cleaned and dried on acres of coconut mats spread over the sandy beaches.  It was an amazing and fascinating sight.  As always, I also enjoyed walking around town exploring the quieter residential lanes and looking at family homes and gardens.  Here are a few photos from that to share with you.  You will see them much clearer if you click on one and get the slide show.

Plants for sale at the street market

Green leafy vegetables that are chopped up and added to a
 rice porridge eaten for breakfast.

Aloha

SHOPHOUSES OF SINGAPORE'S CHINATOWN

 On my recent trip I stayed a few days in a hotel in Chinatown.  I fell in love again with the shophouses there so am sharing a few photos of them here .....along with the small garden ideas they used.  The shophouses are from the late 19th, early 20th century era and were very practical buildings that allowed families to live above their businesses.  These are considered heritage buildings now and since the 1980s there has been a movement to restore them to their former grandeur.  The budget hotel I stayed at was formed from several of them.  New generation restaurants are moving in next to the old school coffee shops and community temples.  Young professionals are buying up old dilapidated shophouses, and moving in after restoration work is done.  Note the old Peranakan style tiles that are part of their beauty.  You will see them better if you click on one of the photos to see an enlarged slide show.

Aloha

FLOWER OFFERINGS AT THE TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH

 I have been off traveling for a few months in Asia and am now back home and going through my travel photos.  I will be posting some of them over the next few weeks as I get myself organized.  Today is just a quick one about my visit to the lovely city of Kandy up in the mountains of central Sri Lanka.  At the center of the city is a royal palace complex next to a man-made lake.  The most important building of the complex is Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.  Buddhists, both local and international, arrive as white clothed pilgrims with floral tributes to offer along with prayers at the home of the Buddha's tooth.  There are many stalls outside the temple gates selling flowers or you could bring your own from home.

Aloha