Greens Every Day

This year we've focused on growing leafy greens such as Kale (lacinto), Swiss Chard and Beets. With the Kale and Chard especially, we've probably harvested the tops of each young plant once a week or more since the beginning of May. That equals to over 20 times each plant. The leaves quickly regrow and are ready to be harvested again within a couple days.

Our breakfasts have greatly benefited from this. We've been able to add nearly a gallon-bucket worth of greens to our shakes every morning, in addition to water, hemp protein, maca, cashews, spirulina, raw honey, raw cocoa powder, ice cubes and occasionally Wisconsin ginseng. I can tell you that getting a large amount of fresh greens (and the other goodies) every morning has had a positive impact on our health. Plus, if we would have purchased those greens, we would have easily spent hundreds of dollars. And, the shakes are actually delicious and smooth!

I attribute the ability to harvest the greens so many times to the high-quality compost that we are directly growing them in. Essentially, we're using compost that is from brewer's mash (a good source of nitrogen), wood chips (a good source of carbon) and then various other items such as coffee grounds, vegetable waste, and mowed up leaves. The main thing is that you want about 75 percent of your materials to be a high carbon source and 25 percent to be from a high nitrogen source. Ultimately, a good compost will have a C:N ration of about 25:1 to 30:1.


If you're interested in learning more about composting, building compost bins out of recycled materials, or acquiring quantities of grow-ready compost, let us know how we can help!