Our school garden is a recreational area for many neighbors, including a very shy fat orange kitty who almost ventured close enough to say ‘hello,’ yesterday morning when my friend Emmy, came along to harvest some kale with me. We brought the kale home to my kitchen for a dry run preparation of massaged kale salad. I think the kids at camp will enjoy making and tasting this yummy way to eat kale.
While we were in the garden, Emmy posed for a picture under the arbor. By next September, when school begins, this arbor will be covered with morning glories. The traditional viny entrance to our garden goes back twenty years to a time when parents put together an arbor of tree boughs to support it. Then one year we had a student in our class whose father was an imaginative plumber. Since that time his sculptural pipe arbor has graced our garden entrance.
Yesterday the garden was also visited by a few generations of garden alums, friends and their babies. The boys (triplets) were engaged in discovering what was left of our spring raspberries. For little ones, they were very persistent. One of the boys had fun investigating a zucchini until mom intervened. Darn!

MASSAGED KALE SALAD RECIPE (Suitable for many diets, including the ‘Paleo’)
1 lb. kale (de-ribbed and cut into 1” sq. bits)
Roast:
¼ c. raw sunflower seeds
¼ c. raw sesame seeds
¼ c. raw pumpkin seeds (Irene left out the pepitos)
Slice and Measure:
½ med.red onion sliced thinly
1/6 c. Braggs or soy
1/3 c. lemon
1/3 c. olive oil
Combine and massage above ingred. for 10 min.
Add any:
avocado chunks
pomegranate seeds
fennel slices
clementines or orange chunks