Kakahead

Did I mention I never get tired of spring?  The peepers are peeping, the crocuses are croaking, the rhubarb is rhubing and the garlic is garlicking.  Even the wild cabbage is cabbaging!  Yes… the wild cabbage survived the winter and is already feeding us.

What’s this with the wild cabbage you say?  Well, my lovely girlfriend bought a pretty good sized package of seeds several years ago that were labeled “Broccoli for Sprouting.”  They sprouted nicely but the flavor wasn’t as remarkable as we had hoped, so into the fridge they went to sleep until another day.  Month.  Year.  Long time.

So last year, I got a bit adventurous.  I wanted to see just what kind of broccoli we’d get from these “broccoli for sprouting” seeds.  This is what we got:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Brassica_oleracea0.jpg

It’s brassica oleracea or more commonly called wild cabbage.  Apparently it’s the “mother of all cabbages,” meaning it’s an ancient food plant that’s been grown for many thousands of years; and has been bred into other variations like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.

A tough plant!  It survived the winter just fine and is making new leaves in our garden already.  I picked several of those and also plucked some newly sprouted elephant garlic leaves.   Rinsed them off a bit, then dropped them in the pan with some shrimp, onions, a dash of thyme, parsley flakes, chili powder, and soy sauce.  The result was very delicious indeed.  We threw the shrimp in the garbage and devoured the greens in nothing flat.

OK maybe we didn’t really toss the shrimp…

Anyway, the wild cabbage is cabbaging, at least for now.  Next step in its life cycle will be to send flower spikes up and go to seed.  Very nice because I’d love to grow it again!

Last week I wrote about the peepers peeping, and a few days ago I heard a lovely ruckus coming from the back of our property.  The hooters are hooting!  OWLS you silly… barred owls I believe.  I haven’t actually seen them but I know they live in these parts.  Plus, I found a recording of their call after a search on the web.  Thanks very much to Bob Pearson, whose recordings I’m using with permission from here.

I’m certain that this is what I heard:

barred_owl_male

barred_owl_female

I’m pretty sure they were pitching woo… they were chattering pretty vigorously.   I believe they were singing the owl equivalent to “Who’s Your Little Whozit…”