First harvest of the year...lettuce, chard

[nctomatoman]

What a joy to walk out to the garden and snip outer leaves off of young lettuce and chard plants and whip up a nice salad to go with dinner. I have a few different lettuce - Carmen and Magenta, Orielles du Diable, Bronze Arrowhead - and Bright Lights chard. Amazing, intense deep red color of Carmen. (this is the first year in many that I have other "stuff" in the main garden aside from tomatoes, peppers and basil! this year, all tomatoes will be in pots in my driveway.)

I think that we finally will have consistenly warm weather - so tomorrow the plans are to plant basil, maybe a row of bush beans, and the squash and cuke seedlings that are anxious to escape their 4 inch pots. And even a few tomato, pepper and eggplants in pots if I have any energy left!

[Gimme3]

Craig, it Truly is...a Joy...to go out there, and pick some good Greens, Lettuces, to finally get into a timeframe that we know that what we plant is gonna be happy in the soil temperatures, and yesterday (Saturday)...was a Day.. a man caint buy...in its Beauty, he can jus dwell in the lush Beauty of it...)))

Here, the Webb's Wonderfull lettuces are starting their inward heart curl, the Red Batavian ( that a dear trader, T'Viller sent me) are expressing their maximum Beauty, and that means on the Plate..and in the Belly, as much as it does...in the Garden, the sweet corn is lookin Sooo Pretty...an efforts are bein staggerred....its all.. a Blessing. Thank God...for surface water, and wells bored ...Thank Him even More,...if a drill hit a vein...i got a feelin..we gon need all the water we pull, from below this season, cause i dont think its gonna fall from the sky a whole lot.

I can sit down an eat almost a gallon of serving of a salad, grown from naturally grown lettuces, radishes, onions, kale, Bloomsdale spinach, broccolli mini-sprouts, sweet carrots....lol, its a Blessin...to our Body, Craig...Believe me..winter an early Spring garden growings give our body so much Goodness....when i indulge ...i can feel it...inside, within an hour. An that dont even count...the Beauty to the eye...of the active growing of them.

i know u had a recent tough loss...we all gonna face that, sooner or later...it Aint the End...Believe That...))) Mighty happy you are seein Beauty again , an Eatin It...)))

Today is lookin like another Blue Ribbon day, so is the coming next 4-6 days. Pray for rain...cause..it might get scarce...an..there are people, that dont have..enough.

as far as Plantin goes..."git er Dun"...)))

[shelleybean]

I just started pulling radishes and cutting lettuce this week. It'll be a while for the peas yet but onions will be ready soon and probably a week or two until I can cut some spinach. I'm just planting my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and the last of my herbs in the garden today so it's great to have something ready while I wait for those summer things we love so much.

[mdvpc]

My lettuce, chard, kale and spinach season will be over in less than 30 days. I cannot grow them in our intense heat during the summer. My season is from October to end of April-I grow them outside in containers. It is truly wonderful to have a salad every day during those times of fresh, organic produce you cut and eat. No worries about contamination, and it tastes heavenly!

[barkeater]

Don't know if this counts but I had my first harvest of the year too - last fall's Sugarsnax carrots. There were more left than I thought, about 10# worth.

Also pulled the row cover and pine straw off the garlic, and every one of them are up. So far, so good.

I've got some Bright Lights and Oak Leaf lettuce started under lights with the tomatoes, but its at least 2 weeks before they can go out.

[dokutaaguriin]

Funny you should post this Craig as I, too, was finally able to have some baby greens- lettuce, komatsuna, spinach, mizuna, tatsoi, arugala, swiss chard-from the greenhouse for a salad last night. My wife and I love the taste of Arugala but the kids thought otherwise. However, when I was snipping the leafy greens my son tried each one to see if they were good enough to eat.(lol).
Barkeater, did you cover your fall carrots with mulch over the winter? How do overwintered carrots taste?
Jeff

[barkeater]

Jeff, yes I'd covered them with a couple inches of shredded leaves. Plus the snow was a perfect mulch too. As soon as the snow melted off I pulled them.

I don't see any difference in quality between the ones pulled in November and those overwintered. This year was by far the latest we've had snowcover in the last 4. They must go into some kind of suspended animation while the soil is so cold. I'm not even sure the ground really froze with all the snow.

[Ruth_10]

I too harvested carrots that had overwintered in the garden. They were covered with straw for protection--most years we don't get enough snow to server as insulation. Carrots turn some of their starches into sugar under the influence of cold weather. This makes them sweet and to my taste, more delicious than ever.

[ddsack]

I used to be able to overwinter carrots, but the last time I tried it, a mouse colony nested under the hay and feasted heartily on the carrots all winter. Come spring, all I had left was a few root bottoms deep in the soil.

[Granny]

I noticed a pic of your's over at Feldons from a link you posted that shows your greens growing in hay bales. How about directions for that? Looks dead easy

[nctomatoman]

The lettuce is really cranking (we are eating salads every day) - with the current 90 degree days my feeling is that it won't be long before the plants start to bolt. I started some additional seeds last week (they are already up), as this year I am going to attempt to grow additional plants throughout the summer, perhaps in the shady part of our yard in pots. The Swiss Chard is really kicking in and we are going to have to be really creative with the amout that will be coming in from the garden.

Next crop - Summer Squash (set fruit on Raven, Zephyr and Sebring). Blueberries starting to blush, bush beans starting to blossom.

[Grub]

Hi Craig,

I found that if I blanched, with a touch of salt to help hold the colour, my Swiss chard and froze it in ziplock bags, it came up superby many months later.

Great for a winter lasagne

[nctomatoman]

What a great idea! A few days ago, as a veggie, we just wilted Chard in olive oil with some garlic, black pepper, salt and lemon juice - served over grilled swordfish, with couscous....I think I enjoyed the chard more than spinach. And since we have 16 plants of it going strong, the blanch and freeze technique may answer our problems of what to do with it all!

We got a much needed 3 inch steady, gentle rain over the last 12 hours, so I am assuming pickable summer squash out there - will be the first of the season!

[angelique]

Craig. That is great news that your Swiss Chard was able to handle the heat. I planted mine in the Fall and it made it through early April. One 80 degree day, I came home to limp chard. I deep watered it and it perked up. This happened for about 3-4 days. I gave it a try and it just wasn't as tasty as before, so I pulled it.

[Earl]

I blanch and freeze chard too, when you squeeze the air out of the ziploc the chard is frozen in liquid and it will stay fresh for a very long time.