I'm giving away a collection of seeds to get you started! by Lara Alexander from Food. Soil. Thread. A fifth generation Seattlite, Lara grows, cooks, eats and writes about food in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. You can find her at www.food-soil-thread.com.

I know it's odd to be thinking about Thanksgiving dinner in the middle of summer. The thing is, I am hoping to still be eating out of the garden, even after the sun disappears and the rain returns.

Fall and winter harvests mean summer planning and planting, so it's back to the seed racks for more browsing. I am certainly not complaining! The real challenge is not getting carried away. Heard the phrase, "my eyes are bigger than my stomach?" Well, my excitement is always bigger than my raised bed!

I read recently that if one wants to eat out of their garden through all four seasons, then they better learn to love eating greens. This is especially true in the Pacific Northwest.

Maybe you are fortunate enough to already love greens. Maybe you already appreciate their crisp freshness and nutritional benefits. Or maybe you have bad memories of overcooked soggy greens, that keep you from jumping on the kale bandwagon. If so, let me dispel any mistaken notions you have about the need to cook your greens to death. A minute in a pan of hot oil, minced garlic and a dash of salt and chili flakes is all they need.

In fact, why cook them at all? To enjoy raw kale, beet greens, or chard, stack the clean leaves on a cutting board, roll them up like a cigar, and then slice thinly from one end of the "cigar" to the other.

Toss your green confetti shreds with pasta salad to add texture and taste. Or, toss the shredded greens with a vinaigrette for a hearty salad that will hold up wonderfully for a picnic on a hot day. PCC, a Pacific Northwest organic co-op grocery chain, has a great recipe for their Emerald City deli salad, using raw greens. Check it out here.

On a recent beach picnic, I brought along a salad made of cooked penne pasta, raw rainbow chard, and feta cheese. I heated a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and sauteed two cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of dried herbs, and a dash of chili flakes. The flavored oil was a great dressing for my simple pasta and greens salad.

Whether you have a full urban farm in your backyard, or a few large pots on the patio, it's time to figure out what you will be growing for the fall and winter. I'm giving away a collection of seeds to get you started!

Visit my blog to put your name in the hat to win the collection.