L2 – Day 22: Black & Silver

Let’s go from yesterday’s green (grass) to today’s black (with a silver lining)…

Have you ever heard of Cavolo Nero? …it’s Italian:
Cavolo = Cabbage
Nero = black

So, Cavolo Nero is black cabbage, sort of…

Cavolo Nero

If you’ve been following the blog this year, you’ll have heard me speak numerous times about the garden. We didn’t have tons of things, but we had a great deal more that what we’ve ever produced in a home garden.

Most things are, of course, quite finished and have been for a while. However the cavolo nero is just coming into its own.

While the Italian name translates as Black cabbage, it’s actually a Kale (though both are part of the Brassica family). It goes by a few names:
– Black Kale
– Tuscan Kale
– Italian Kale or
– Palm Tree kale

Basically, you use the leaves as you would, say, swiss chard, chopped, cooked and mixed into a dish, since they’re too tough to eat like salad greens. Beautiful structure in the garden & packed full of nutritional goodness.

I have several in the garden and they’ll keep us well stocked with fresh greens throughout the winter. Below is a photo of some in an apple-twig basket I made during lockdown #1 (the ‘no internet’ lockdown… had to keep occupied!).

Silver Lining

In 2012, our church was going through a most difficult situation. In the midst of that time however, a couple came to church for the first time. They were oblivious to anything that was going on and just wanted to get closer to God. That couple was a silver lining to the dark clouds that abounded, and continue to be a blessing to our home church.

I’m wondering if the Lord is doing something similar…

On Monday, I mentioned that we’d been put in contact with someone in the region who was interested in getting closer to the Lord. We were able to speak for a bit by telephone today and get a first glimpse into how the Lord has been leading this young lady up to this point.

This time, the days are ‘dark-ish’ because of Covid, but in the midst of it, Laura is a bit silver lining.

How ’bout you?

The two parts of today’s post have something in common… They reveal the Lord’s faithful hand at work even in the midst of dark-ish days: Whether at present or in the future.