Tasty Ending to Collard Growing Failure

Sunday, November 08, 2009

In September I was all excited to plant cool weather vegetables in my garden for the first time. Then a flock of caterpillars and goodness knows what it was bug settled in on the collards and avoided all my efforts to dislodge them (sharp sprays of water, Safer’s, plucking them off). I waved the white flag today and harvested what remained of my lacy green leaf patch. Combined with beautiful leeks and potatoes from the farmers market at Greensgrow, parsley and chives from the garden, and Wisconsin bratwurst (ok, local only to where I used to live), I made a pretty darn good gratin.

Being from the upper midwest, I’m aware that I should be making casseroles, not gratins. But having “freelanced” a few dreadful corningware dishes of mushy veg, way too al dente grains, and unappetizing combinations, I switched to making “gratins” and have experienced much greater success. I do not know why. Similar stuff + some cheeses (bits of leftover cheese are perfect) + broth or milk. I should stop questioning it and just hope that my grandmas are ok with the high-falutin name.