Another vote for kale chips. You won't believe how good they are. I mean, you won't think they're potato chips, but they are crunchy and chip-like, not veggie-like. I made them for the first time about a year ago and my youngest, age 11, asks me to make them all the time! I had contractors here once when I made them and they saw me taking them out of the oven, so I had them try them, too, and they loved them. A funny story about brussels sprouts. My DD went on a field trip to a farm w/ her class and they were served brussels sprouts with one of the meals. The kids all loved them! I think they were roasted. About a week later, the chef at school made them for lunch the same way -- no one ate them. Guess some vegetables are destined to be eaten only in certain settings. ;)

Part of the reason for the recent increase in the price of corn, wheat, etc. is because we have been building several plants that'll ferment the grains and turn them into alcohol, that we then mix with gasoline to use to move not only our asses but our goods from place to place, e.g. tomatoes from Calif. to Ontario in January (that look like tomatoes, but taste like cardboard). Recently, world supplies of grains have dropped to enough to feed us for only a couple of months ... some say ... and others say that it's not as bad as that: but the threat, whether real or imagined, has pushed prices up. Plus ... subsidies on U.S. grains have meant that they're being shipped to a number of subsistence farming areas at prices that are below the local farmers' cost of production - even using far less scarce and increasingly expensive fossil fuels than our farmers do. Without regard for the fuel used to ship them there. Plus ... as a small portion of the large populations of India and China become more affluent, they change some of their consumption patterns from rice-based to bread, etc. ... plus, they like some pork and beef ... to produce which uses even more grain. For years we in Canada, with 34 million or so population and doing much of our trading with the U.S. have said that when the U.S. economy (based on population of 350 million or so) gets a sneeze ... the Canadian economy gets pneumonia. For generations people in those poor areas who wanted to get ahead felt that they had to come here (they called the U.S. "gold mountain") but recently there's a change in approach. The smart ones realize that, with the advent of the computer and the internet, they can avoid the economic deprivation for a generation and cultural disruption of moving here, but do very well by staying at home, e.g. call centres in India. And the poor ones (the economic peons) can benefit by having their masters, whether local or U.S.-based, set up factories to have the 3 billion or so of their impoverished numbers make stuff that the westerners'll buy that are built a lot cheaper there than in the western countries, resulting in the closing of many western factories. And with free trade allowing the cheap goods to be imported here with minimum tax at the border ... the factory owners/businesspeople are bringing it off. Or so it seems to me. As someone who lived for a number of years among people where there was probably 35% unemployment and where, after cobbling together a tiny shack of scrap materials, one found it really hard to find enough income to eat and feed one's family, one hoped, each day, I find it hard to deny such people a chance to make enough to get by on. The next generation here will be living much less high on the hog, it seems to me. ole joyful

I think its a great idea! Too bad that I have no kids. I would like to do that to my partner though, he's not fond of his greens. Thanks for the laugh! I read the post before I looked at the picture. The mule comment was pretty good too!

...and they hide well too, this season I have 2 kinds, one of which camouflages itself by lining up with the main stem of a leaf, it's a perfect match in green to blend in. The other one has a dark stripe up it's back and sometimes hides on the underside of the leaf. With the extra long warm Sept and early Oct they hung around longer than normal. Hand picking them off daily on 30 brocs and cabbages was a back bending/eye strainer. Any leaf that has a hole needs to be examined on both sides. They can hide in a developing cabbage, look for their poop trail. If uncaught a the worms (loopers) can web up the interior of a broc head making it nasty. An organic product called Dipel is specific for looper type problems, but up until this season I've never had use for it.