This makes me reflect on the meaning of life. The kale eater will have left behind a long trail of excellent compost. He will have consumed and produced. He will have loved and hated and been loved and hated. He might have left offspring who will carry on in the same way for a while. It all seems rather pointless. Vanity of vanities. But there is a point and it’s exactly and no other than whatever point God gives it. What do you have that you were not given? God gives us whatever meaning and significance we have. We can’t… Read more »
And when I was young we were supposed to eat fried grasshoppers. That was the highest moral good. ????
Dunsworth
7 years ago
I think it’s sad that some people don’t enjoy kale. I don’t eat it because I think it’s key to extending my life, but it is quite nutritious, and can be prepared in ways that are genuinely tasty.
Toasting the buds or sprouts or whatever with a bit of olive oil and sea salt is good.
I was gratified by some genetic research that suggests some people who don’t like green vegetables like brussell sprouts have a taste receptor on their tongues that makes them taste foul. This made me feel better about my childish attitude to greens. A vegetarian who detests most vegetables is indeed a sorry creature.
Hated, loathed Brussels sprouts for 40+ years of my life.
Then I learned how to cook them properly. If you roast them, they don’t overcook and they don’t get that “cabbage in the garbage can” flavor that’s so revolting. In fact, they become sweet and crunchy and my favorite veggie. Well, except for asparagus maybe but that’s too expensive to have more than occasionally.
Now maybe there’s a taste receptor thing going on that means that some people won’t like them regardless. But properly cooked vs. overcooked sprouts are two entirely different things.
I like turnips, too, but I’ll eat them boiled and mashed, or roasted. Either way is fine. But I do enjoy strong, bitter, and sour more than the average person, I think. So I can see not liking them.
I don’t have them often because they’re rather tedious to work with. I don’t even peel potatoes except on special occasions but you really can’t get away with that, with turnips.
Asparagus grow beautifully in zone 4 at 4500 feet. I grew a bed from seed about 4 years ago, and seeing them pop their heads out of the ground every spring is such a delight.
Somehow I would have imagined you as the gardening type. Flowers? No? Books about gardening? Surely books. English novels? Can’t think “English” without thinking about gardening. :-)
True, I wouldn’t have made a good English novel character, unless I were of a class to have a gardener. ;-) I like a pretty garden, but I don’t like the work.
Jilly, I think I have diagnosed the problem. Apparently you are not a child of the South. You need to come to our home for a few days (or more) and we can eat some hickory smoked baby backs (they will make your eyes roll so far back that you’ll be able to look at your brain) with my wife’s delicious turnip greens and corn pone. We’ll wash it down with some good bourbon or scotch and listen to some good 60’s music (I’ve got more good 60’s music than Pharaoh had frogs)! Hopefully you can do this in the… Read more »
Send directions and I will begin to prepare my wardrobe. Scene one: a white dress with 12 yards of muslin forming a hoop skirt, and a picture hat. Scene two: a green velvet dress and matching hat, made from a pair of drawing room curtains from Tara. And a whole bunch of parasols and fans.
Although I almost never drink alcohol, my attention reached a high pitch when you mentioned bourbon. Yes! With a bit of tonic and a slice of lime.
Dang, y’all are makin fun of me. I’m serious. Also y’all can’t wear the white dress before Memorial Day or after Labor Day (not proper). If you don’t eat good meat and veggies etc., and listen to the right kind of music you’re gonna live three years longer and miss out on all the good stuff! It’s the ribs, sprouts, burgers, okra music and football-although my wife teaches heirloom sewing at her shop and believes that when you die if you’ve been good you go to Tara (at least for a little while, misbehave and you go to Vanderbilt where… Read more »
Be still, my heart! You said the magic words: heirloom sewing. If I can master the art of sewing pin tucks with a wing needle before I shuffle off this mortal coil, I will be a happy woman. Could it be that your wife has met Martha Pullen, the sweet seamstress of Alabama who holds up lacy and smocked confections for my admiration on PBS? Who can do flawless French seams on a curved armscye? And your wife actually teaches it! I hope she would like me and not find me beyond the reach of instruction. I am slow but… Read more »
Linda and Martha have been friends for roughly thirty years! Martha has been in our home. She was an Alabama cheerleader back in the 60’s. She’s been through Martha’s classes three times and bought her first sewing machine from Martha. Just a small world. http://www.smockingshop.com
So much I don’t know. When I was a young woman ordering a drink in a bar, I thought it was the height of sophistication to order a Southern Comfort, tonic, and lime. Gin was a bit too much like Mother’s Ruin.
Well, now, this is where we part company. I see no point in making good food into unpalatable goop and then finding ways to make it palatable again, or being excited that the goop is actually palatable after all. Just eat the stuff already. (This opinion worth what you paid for it and as binding upon you as any opinion of mine.)
Oh, heck no, blended frozen bananas with yogurt might be better than ice cream. Add berries and you have a close approximation to manna. The kale is just to make it substantial enough that I can convince myself I’m eating a meal. When I was living with a friend who had the blender, freezer, and fruit to make it happen, this was my everyday breakfast.
Like the old joke about the couple in their nineties who tragically die in a car crash, and while being given the tour of Heaven by St. Peter, the man sees the banquet table….notes he can’t eat all that because of his heart….and St. Peter tells him “no, this is Heaven, you can enjoy it all”. He then says that he needs to hold back on how much he eats, and Peter says “no, this is Heaven, you won’t get fat.” He then turns to his wife and says “you and your bran muffins….we could have been here 20 years… Read more »
It’s not about when you die; it’s about how well you live until you die.
Eating poorly may end your life early, but eating well won’t keep you from death.
Do you use good gas in your nice car? Why?
I expect it also makes nice compost; so that’s two points in its favor.
Wendell Dávila Helms
7 years ago
I haven’t seen 40 acres the last few times I’ve checked into Wilson’s blog. 40, are you around? Not that I generally agree with 40 any more than I do with Wilson, but I think 40 contributed a significant part of the value of this blog.
40 proof said he was signing off for some personal reason. A month ago?
He commented a few more times under another name, then, has dropped off completely.
He had a diabolically acute memory for everything people had written in the past. There was no point in trying to get away with a contradiction of what you had said before!
I’ve often said this: “When I die, I want it to be with a cheeseburger in one hand and a box of fries in the other.” In the meantime, when I’m at church potluck, I always go to the dessert table first–for two reasons. 1) I might die before I make it to through to the end, and I don’t want to have missed out on cherry cheesecake, and 2) by the time I DO make it through to the end, if I haven’t already snitched that cherry cheesecake, two hundred million kids will have scarfed it all…while their plates… Read more »
This makes me reflect on the meaning of life. The kale eater will have left behind a long trail of excellent compost. He will have consumed and produced. He will have loved and hated and been loved and hated. He might have left offspring who will carry on in the same way for a while. It all seems rather pointless. Vanity of vanities. But there is a point and it’s exactly and no other than whatever point God gives it. What do you have that you were not given? God gives us whatever meaning and significance we have. We can’t… Read more »
http://babylonbee.com/news/satan-claims-responsibility-kale/
But kale is so good for you…
And when I was young we were supposed to eat fried grasshoppers. That was the highest moral good. ????
I think it’s sad that some people don’t enjoy kale. I don’t eat it because I think it’s key to extending my life, but it is quite nutritious, and can be prepared in ways that are genuinely tasty.
I agree! A bit of garlic, salt, and chili go nicely with it.
Chili fixes most things
…as does bacon grease.
Butter is also good to flavor many vegetables, and dip or ranch dressing helps others.
Toasting the buds or sprouts or whatever with a bit of olive oil and sea salt is good.
I was gratified by some genetic research that suggests some people who don’t like green vegetables like brussell sprouts have a taste receptor on their tongues that makes them taste foul. This made me feel better about my childish attitude to greens. A vegetarian who detests most vegetables is indeed a sorry creature.
Hated, loathed Brussels sprouts for 40+ years of my life.
Then I learned how to cook them properly. If you roast them, they don’t overcook and they don’t get that “cabbage in the garbage can” flavor that’s so revolting. In fact, they become sweet and crunchy and my favorite veggie. Well, except for asparagus maybe but that’s too expensive to have more than occasionally.
Now maybe there’s a taste receptor thing going on that means that some people won’t like them regardless. But properly cooked vs. overcooked sprouts are two entirely different things.
Very true. I was introduced to vegetables by my English mother who boiled everything for at least half an hour. Yet she loved them that way.
I like turnips, too, but I’ll eat them boiled and mashed, or roasted. Either way is fine. But I do enjoy strong, bitter, and sour more than the average person, I think. So I can see not liking them.
I don’t have them often because they’re rather tedious to work with. I don’t even peel potatoes except on special occasions but you really can’t get away with that, with turnips.
Asparagus grow beautifully in zone 4 at 4500 feet. I grew a bed from seed about 4 years ago, and seeing them pop their heads out of the ground every spring is such a delight.
Hate gardening, and don’t have good soil here anyway. I’ll settle for it as an occasional treat — I probably appreciate it more that way anyway.
Somehow I would have imagined you as the gardening type. Flowers? No? Books about gardening? Surely books. English novels? Can’t think “English” without thinking about gardening. :-)
True, I wouldn’t have made a good English novel character, unless I were of a class to have a gardener. ;-) I like a pretty garden, but I don’t like the work.
My favorite kale recipe:
http://www.paleocupboard.com/zuppa-toscana-soup.html
Added bonus: Turnips!
Turnips are proof that this is indeed a fallen world.
I don’t buy them, but they’re fine in soups.
I think most veges are boring if they are just boiled or steamed.
LOL.
Jilly, I think I have diagnosed the problem. Apparently you are not a child of the South. You need to come to our home for a few days (or more) and we can eat some hickory smoked baby backs (they will make your eyes roll so far back that you’ll be able to look at your brain) with my wife’s delicious turnip greens and corn pone. We’ll wash it down with some good bourbon or scotch and listen to some good 60’s music (I’ve got more good 60’s music than Pharaoh had frogs)! Hopefully you can do this in the… Read more »
Go to Chicago and head south. When you smell hickory, stop and ask! Zeke the Lab might bark but he’s generally friendly. Come on in the back door.
Send directions and I will begin to prepare my wardrobe. Scene one: a white dress with 12 yards of muslin forming a hoop skirt, and a picture hat. Scene two: a green velvet dress and matching hat, made from a pair of drawing room curtains from Tara. And a whole bunch of parasols and fans.
Although I almost never drink alcohol, my attention reached a high pitch when you mentioned bourbon. Yes! With a bit of tonic and a slice of lime.
Dang, y’all are makin fun of me. I’m serious. Also y’all can’t wear the white dress before Memorial Day or after Labor Day (not proper). If you don’t eat good meat and veggies etc., and listen to the right kind of music you’re gonna live three years longer and miss out on all the good stuff! It’s the ribs, sprouts, burgers, okra music and football-although my wife teaches heirloom sewing at her shop and believes that when you die if you’ve been good you go to Tara (at least for a little while, misbehave and you go to Vanderbilt where… Read more »
Be still, my heart! You said the magic words: heirloom sewing. If I can master the art of sewing pin tucks with a wing needle before I shuffle off this mortal coil, I will be a happy woman. Could it be that your wife has met Martha Pullen, the sweet seamstress of Alabama who holds up lacy and smocked confections for my admiration on PBS? Who can do flawless French seams on a curved armscye? And your wife actually teaches it! I hope she would like me and not find me beyond the reach of instruction. I am slow but… Read more »
Linda and Martha have been friends for roughly thirty years! Martha has been in our home. She was an Alabama cheerleader back in the 60’s. She’s been through Martha’s classes three times and bought her first sewing machine from Martha. Just a small world. http://www.smockingshop.com
That is amazing! I am sure she is as nice as she appears.
Is this one of those Canadian English/American English things? Here, what we call the spirit consumed with tonic and lime is gin.
So much I don’t know. When I was a young woman ordering a drink in a bar, I thought it was the height of sophistication to order a Southern Comfort, tonic, and lime. Gin was a bit too much like Mother’s Ruin.
This looks nice, but I’d use cream
I’ve tried both, and either works well.
Kale is an amazing base in fruit smoothies. I thought it would ruin the taste, but it actually improves the texture without hurting the taste at all.
Well, now, this is where we part company. I see no point in making good food into unpalatable goop and then finding ways to make it palatable again, or being excited that the goop is actually palatable after all. Just eat the stuff already. (This opinion worth what you paid for it and as binding upon you as any opinion of mine.)
Oh, heck no, blended frozen bananas with yogurt might be better than ice cream. Add berries and you have a close approximation to manna. The kale is just to make it substantial enough that I can convince myself I’m eating a meal. When I was living with a friend who had the blender, freezer, and fruit to make it happen, this was my everyday breakfast.
Like the old joke about the couple in their nineties who tragically die in a car crash, and while being given the tour of Heaven by St. Peter, the man sees the banquet table….notes he can’t eat all that because of his heart….and St. Peter tells him “no, this is Heaven, you can enjoy it all”. He then says that he needs to hold back on how much he eats, and Peter says “no, this is Heaven, you won’t get fat.” He then turns to his wife and says “you and your bran muffins….we could have been here 20 years… Read more »
I laughed out loud at this. Oddly, my husband did not.
lol
It’s not about when you die; it’s about how well you live until you die.
Eating poorly may end your life early, but eating well won’t keep you from death.
Do you use good gas in your nice car? Why?
The only good thing about kale is that you can freeze it.
I expect it also makes nice compost; so that’s two points in its favor.
I haven’t seen 40 acres the last few times I’ve checked into Wilson’s blog. 40, are you around? Not that I generally agree with 40 any more than I do with Wilson, but I think 40 contributed a significant part of the value of this blog.
40 proof said he was signing off for some personal reason. A month ago?
He commented a few more times under another name, then, has dropped off completely.
I thought he was too obnoxious and overdone.
Yeah, what g’ said.
You might say that 40 acres was the kale to Pastor Wilson’s Filet Mignon.
at least as far as kale makes good compost, that is…
I think of 40 more like the guy that reveals that Wilson’s steakhouse is actually sourcing its filet mignons from horses.
Wendell Berry, cannot, as of yet, be reached for comment!
; – )
He had a diabolically acute memory for everything people had written in the past. There was no point in trying to get away with a contradiction of what you had said before!
Or “textured vegetable protein.”
Off topic but possibly of interest: How to Accuse the Other Guy of Lying with Statistics.
I’ve often said this: “When I die, I want it to be with a cheeseburger in one hand and a box of fries in the other.” In the meantime, when I’m at church potluck, I always go to the dessert table first–for two reasons. 1) I might die before I make it to through to the end, and I don’t want to have missed out on cherry cheesecake, and 2) by the time I DO make it through to the end, if I haven’t already snitched that cherry cheesecake, two hundred million kids will have scarfed it all…while their plates… Read more »
AMEN!!!