I used to love eating Portuguese sausage when I lived in Hawaii from 1980-82 and yes, it was on the McDonald's breakfast menu! Isn't saimin still on the regular menu too? Haven't been to Hawaii in years. Yes, there is a large Portuguese community in New England and linguica is easy to find. I used to go on 3-week instructor tours for my agency in Andover, MA and was delighted to find linguica. It's the sausage required for caldo verde which is awesome. There are a lot of Portuguese-Americans in California too. Anyway, I have been raising kale for at least 6 years now. My sister-in-law who is originally from Utah, makes this wonderful kale dish. Here it is: Sautéed Kale Two bunches of kale. Cut off the stems and tear up the leaves into smaller pieces. Tear it up like you would lettuce leaves for a salad. Take four strips of bacon and chop it into small pieces or use a 1/2 cup of diced ham and pan fry lightly with a couple tbsp of olive oil. When the bacon is almost done or when the ham has been lightly cooked take a quarter cup of chopped onions and 1 or 2 cloves (chopped) of garlic and add to the mix cooking lightly until the onions are transluscent. Now add the kale and stir it around until it starts to reduce (about 5 minutes on medium flame), put a lid on the skillet and reduce the heat to low and let it sit for about 3-5 minutes. Then sprinkle balsamic vinegar to your tastes and stir everything up. Turn off the heat and let the mixture sit for another 3-5 minutes. Serve immediately. It's delicious. Kale is also great sautéed and mixed with eggs for an interesting flair to a Sunday morning omelette. Kale in many types of soup is good. Kale is great in Italian Wedding Soup, in plain old American vegetable soup, sautée kale with smoked turkey wing for quick greens. I've grown the Red and White Russian varieties, Blue Scotch curled and of course the Lacinato which some now call dinosaur kale. Ick! Hate that moniker because that's not what it is at all just some name some marketer gave it a while back. The Lacinato Nero di Tosca has a sweeter, subtler taste but I like all of them. America needs to eat more kale. Here's a link to Kale's health benefits. http://healthmad.com/nutrition/health-benefits-of-kale/ My sister is a survivor of breast cancer now going into her 5th year cancer-free and her nutritionist recommended eating kale for its cancer-fighting properties. Here's another link. http://whatscookingamerica.net/LindaPosch/Kale.htm You can freeze kale too for eating in the winter. America needs more kale!

I wonder the same. I planted six in various places in the landscape and they never fail to brighten my early spring landscape. They also make a nice green shrub the rest of the year, with what can be interesting branching in the winter. I've had mine for 7-8 years, and they seem to have topped out at about 3-4 foot tall. I don't have to really worry about these getting too big, though they do take pruning well. My only real complaint is that rabbits seem to like them too, and one of my plants had half of the blooming branches eaten from it during the winter. I know that they are related to cherries, so I wonder if they are short-lived or something.

And I do not buy, not in the least, that these residents around Ft Worth, TX, have had great well water for years , until they began drilling into the Barnett Shale. What I think happened, is that people found a way to blame their bad water quality on a on oil company, that they perceive had deep pockets , and they could file a false claim. It was proven in a Texas court, that a resident near Ft Worth, rigged his water well so he could post a video on Youtube, of flames comoing from his well. The people in that area, have always had problems with shallow gas in their water wells, the water well drillers in that area, attest to this FACT. But these people want to make money off the oil company, Range Resources, and will go to any length to get into their pockets. This has all played out in Texas courts, this claim of Range polluting their wells, has been thrown out of court, and in fact, counter suits have been filed by Range Resources against these liars, who have have pressed these fraudulent claims. I mean really, these people are a notch below some lawyer who spends his day hanging off the back of an ambulance, they just lookin for money for nothin and their chicks for free.

I have raised Red Wiggler worms and also Night Crawlers for over 20 years. Both here and in the other places I have lived. To me it is second nature. If I have a garden, then I have a worm bed or two or more. I don't use any other kind of fertilizer at all, either for vegetables or for houseplants or flowers. What I have done is kept at least one outdoor "trench system" type of worm bed containing red wigglers during the summer and the smaller beds are in boxes in our basement. The outdoor one is where I place all of my garden refuse. (No diseased please or high acid vegetation) I just open up the trench and put it in there and then cover it back up and put a nice thick layer of hay (alalfa or wheat straw) over the top of that. When I want to add vegetable matter, I just pull back the hay, push back some of the soil/castings and lay it in the trench, re-cover and go on. The thick layer of hay keeps the worms from "cooking in the soil" in summer and freezing to death in winter and when the weather is rather dry, I just water them. Keep in mind we are now in zone 7 so the depth of your hay would vary according to location and time of year. Clare, if your worms crawled out of your bin, then they were nightcrawlers. You need to keep a light on over the bed and keep a lid off of it. Nightcrawlers do NOT like light, so will remain buried and away from the light. However, if kept in the dark, they will crawl. That's probably why they are called nightcrawlers. lol If I can be of any other help, just let me know. To me getting that "black gold" fertilizer for free is wonderful. Plus it is all organic. At least ours is. Helen