When your veggie cousins are broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cabbage, you might just be kohlrabi! This plant grows well here, is fast-maturing and has a mild flavor that can be eaten cooked or raw.
If you're looking for something new and unusual to grow this season, try kohlrabi. It's an old vegetable resembling a turnip and hails from Eastern Europe and Russia. In the garden, it looks like a broccoli seedling with a great big ball at its base. You want to harvest when that ball is the size of a small tennis ball — that is the edible portion.
Harvest the whole plant at ground level, peel it, then slice and eat raw as you would carrot sticks. You can grate it raw, make slaw or even cut matchsticks and bake or fry them like French fries!
Kohlrabi likes cool temps, so hold off a bit until you plant. Your best bet is to wait till August, start some seedlings and then in about a month, you'll be eating kohlrabi!
It comes in many varieties, like purple-skinned Purple Vienna, True Vienna, and the giant Superschmeltz variety — these grow to the mammoth proportions, roughly the size of a newborn!
Q: I have a patch of goutweed on my brook bank, which leads right into Lake Eligo. I had dug it out over past couple days … but have a follow-up question: Because it is on a slope, can I wait to prevent the soil from washing down into the brook? Can I mulch the area before putting down the plastic, in an attempt to hold the soil in place? I am also planning to dig in the 10-inch plastic barrier at the lower edge of the area. — Penelope, in Craftsbury
Dig out and create an area there, so if you get erosion, all the soil will collect there and not run into the lake. As far as organic matter, put down some shredded bark that won't wash away easily. Cover it all up with plastic and seal it well.
That will help next spring when you head back out to pull up any more goutweed that has sprouted.
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Hear All Things Gardening during Weekend Edition Sunday with VPR host Mary Engisch, Sunday mornings at 9:35.
