Warming and full of flavor, this savory dressing served hot on your favorite winter greens is a classic, yet still in-line with today’s food trends. Always source local if possible.
As a child, growing up in a midcentury home just down the street from where I live today, I remember fondly my father Lou Mech–“Mr. Blue Island”–teaching me the methods of gardening with a master’s vision.
Dad showed me how to till the soil. He introduced me to the Burpee Seed Catalog. He demonstrated how a gardener can use an old kite string to dowel pins to make sure the furrows for seeding were straight. Sourcing the old Better Homes and Garden master-gardener book for ideas, and confirming the planting cycles, Dad explained how anyone could acquire a “green thumb.”
Besides the onion sets and radishes, “greens” were an exciting planting for me due to the quick sprouting and different varieties, tastes and colors. From spinach, to kale, endive, and collard greens, each seed claimed its own row. Eventually, each would find honored recipes at our family table. The “greens” we always called a “plus-two planting,” due to a second planting late in the fall that gave us a second helping of the gardening season.
Thanks, Dad, for the gift of gardening you passed on to me.
Kale is easy to grow, and so nutritious!
Click on the next page to view a recipe that features one of our favorite garden greens.
Wilted Kale Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing, Fingerling Potatoes and Fried Egg
A Sustainable Blue Island 