Edible Gardens

Contributed by Johnny Graves

When I want to have a salad, luckily I have a green thumb and a thriving garden to help me achieve that goal. Store bought is a backup for this gardener, and I'm always looking for the next best thing to plant in my garden. Since winters seem to come a bit early in my region, I keep an eye out on satelite tv of programs on gardening. I have gotten some great tips on what to plant and how to utilize my crops once they are ready to harvest.

Escarole is one of the most under rated greens of the salad world. It plants just like lettuce and is harvested when they mature enough to be picked. They are normally bitter when eaten raw, but as soon as they are introduced to cooking with heat, they turn into this luscious sometimes sweet tasting vegetable akin to spinich.

Great in soups, I've added this into my chicken soups and found that it is just so wonderful. It is chalk full of vitamins and no other preparation is needed other than washing it, chopping it and putting it in the cooking broth. It flavors soups with a delicate spinich taste, and not one hint of bitterness is left in the soup.

Whenever anyone gets sick, I whip up a batch of homemade chicken soup with escarole and serve to them with a side of programming from www.directstartv.com.