Garden Treasures

I am always excited to find and learn something new in the garden.  

This was my first year of planting Yukon Gold potatoes.  

Not only did they make really pretty blossoms

but look what else.

After the plants flowered, they produced a small green fruit

that looks a lot like cherry tomatoes.

Each fruit can contain from 300 to 500 seeds.

And I bet you thought potato plants only came from 

planting other potatoes.

I smashed the fruit,

soaked it in water for about a day.

and the seeds sunk to the bottom.

The fruits are poisonous and shouldn't be eaten,

and I read that the seeds
do not produce true to the parent plant,

but I am curious to try planting them anyway.

Not all potato varieties or plants produce these seed fruits

so I was delighted to find them on my plants.

Another new thing for me this year
was making kale chips.
You have got to try this folks.

Any kind of kale you have will work,
Just pick some fresh kale,

wash and dry it well,
and place a single layer on parchment paper.
If the kale is mature, you will want to tear the leaves
from the thicker stems and then tear into bite size pieces.

Drizzle a few table spoons of olive oil on the leaves,

toss, and sprinkle with a little sea salt.

Be careful not to overdo the oil or the salt.

The leaves shrink and a little goes a long way.

Bake at 350F until the edges of the leave start to brown.

These taste so good you will swear they can't be healthy.

p.s. make lots - they are that good.

And lastly - for this post anyway - I have one more

garden treasure to share.

You have no idea how tickled I was to see this.

My first home grown green grapes ever.

Someday...I will be able to post about wine making : )

.