Potato Kale Bacon Grease Chard

Everyone needs a skillet, it's true. It is also true that bacon grease should never be dispatched before befriending some potatos.

Kale is in abundance always in this climate, but most especially now. Same with chard. People are giving it away. Whole wheel barrows brimming with kale and chard are slowly pushed around the neighborhood, the people are calling out in desperation, "Please take this kale. It shouldn't be wasted. I would hate to compost all of this, because my family and I can eat it no more." And so friends and aqauintances grudgingly haul off the kale in old grocery bags and by the handful. It gets home and it...it wilts. Because no one can eat that much kale and chard, not that often. Perhaps they had kale and chard as recently as last night.

So what do you do when vegetables began to wilt and get droopy on you, when vegetables get sad? Working in the produce aisle as I once did, you learn that the quality, edibility, of shipped produce must be sustained through refrigeration and repatriation at the store before it hits the shelves, and perhaps during a rotation. Running a produce aisle means never sitting down. Sometimes greens are soaked in water before and after they are put out. This engorges the starving leafy greens such as kale and chard, but also lettuce, endive, whatever. The sad greens become emboldened and crisp once again, like they would be if separated from a backyard garden. While kale is known as the Chuck Norris of greens (maybe nettles would be the Charles Bronson of greens?), it benefits from rehydration and can keep for quite awhile, I don't know...several days? More? Maybe a week. Rainbow chard is the northern lights of the backyard garden. Nevermind.

So I was lucky enough to receive a bale of both kale and yellow chard the other night, right off of the plants, and both were varieties I did not have in my garden stable. I always say yes to backyard greens.

Then it came together as I took inventory of the pantry. Some red potatos. Extra Bacon Grease, and these massive greens. So I fried the potatoes in the skillet first. Then I added the greens. Too easy. Then I added a little salt and pepper, and turned off the stove. As I was wrapping up, I spotted the jar of sun dried tomatos, and added those too. It was tasty before, real tasty, but then it got crazy good. Chewey conssistency provides an extra texture. I imagine basil or fresh oregano and parmesan would be alternate additions, but that isn't new.