Bet You Can't Eat Just One

Looking for a different way to prepare leafy greens? Try kale chips, which, through the simple magic of baking, transform kale leaves (which we love) into crisp, light snacks (which we also love).

No need to stop at salt and olive oil for toppings; experiment. We've seen kale chips made with nutritional yeast, Parmesan cheese, and soy sauce.

1 bunch lacinato kale
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner.  Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Kelly's Garden Update - July

As I was weeding the herb spiral in the lower garden at Slide Ranch on Friday, I said to myself in a partially silly, partially serious way: “Can thyme save us?”

The herbs in the Slide Ranch garden are a great way to invite children and other visitors to deepen their experience with the outdoors and connect to home-grown food. Intensely aromatic scents of rosemary, thyme, sage, basil, savory, marjoram, and oregano all speak to senses and are part of some of our favorite culinary dishes, and they remind us that every satisfying pleasure sources from primary elements like sunlight, water, soil, seeds… and, of course, time.

This connection is one reason our camp cooking projects are so exciting. Campers can follow their noses in our organic garden and harvest herbs to add their wood-fired pizza, scallion pancakes, lemon verbena tea, mint lemonade, and more. Through this farm to fork experience, campers of all ages see how a small amount of herbs can make a big impact in any dish. It plants the seed that one potted thyme, basil or mint plant can provide a large quantity of herbs for a huge array of homemade dishes, and the best news is that this fresh produce can be grown at home in pots on a porch or in window boxes.

What a great way to empower children to participate in creative meal preparation at home. Let them follow their noses the next time you’re wondering what those potatoes need. Perhaps a bit of dill or cilantro or rosemary… or maybe it’s thyme that will save them.

Kelly's Garden Update - June

Last week, our Slide Ranch team celebrated Summer Solstice with bountiful bouquets and words of the season read at sunset. As a gardener, it is most relevant to be aware of this lightest time of year and maximize growing potential on either side of it, as each annual crop demands a certain amount of exposure to the sun’s radiant glory! As the time of greatest light slowly wanes, however, both air temperature and ground temperature will tend to be warmer than during the time leading up to the Solstice (hence thinking of summer as the time from mid-June to mid-September); most plants benefit from this as well, so long as they’re receiving due water!

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At Solstice, we also celebrated completion of the first week of camp! With campers, carrot seeds were sown, rhubarb crisp was made, and teas of mint, raspberry, and lemon soaked in the sun! Walking through the Slide Ranch garden, campers and visitors are always welcome to taste the myriad herbs and even flowers that live there: from oregano to calendula and rosemary to nasturtium. As a community, we also harvested lettuce, collards, kale, and artichokes—all of which love generous doses of summer water. As new carrot seeds went in, our first carrot crop emerged bright, orange, and sweet! We gobbled them up in no time, and additionally, we’ve just begun to enjoy a summer crop of zucchini, squash, radishes, and amaranth greens—did you know that the foliage of amaranth is edible? They are an excellent source of Niacin, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc, Copper, and Manganese and can be prepared just as you would kale, chard, and other leafy greens.

Stay tuned for more updates from the garden!