Spring is Coming

Suddenly the weather has turned spring-like! Here in Greenfield, where the elevation is low, the snow is all gone. The crocuses are coming up in the yard, and chives, rhubarb, and garlic are coming up in the garden. Another growing season is upon us. We might still get some more snow before we're through, but all these plants can handle a bit. In the meantime, the sun and warmth are pulling us outdoors to clean up the garden and prepare for planting the earliest crops - this year it will be snap peas, snow peas, fava beans (a new crop for us that I am excited about; they are so yummy), carrots, radishes, and a slew of cold hardy greens. And we need to get seeds started indoors for the warm weather stuff. We're a little behind on that this year, but still within the window. The Johnny's order just came yesterday. This year we're also going to experiment with using some row cover material over hoops for some of the early plantings, like peas, to see if it helps them along a little faster.

On the culinary scene, last night I made squash and sweet potato soup (slightly varied; I added a bit of ground cinnamon and nutmeg, to good effect). The squash that I used was one that I bought at the farmers market back in October and have been storing in a cardboard box in my mudroom ever since. It was in perfect condition. There a few more squashes left in the box and they're all doing fine - we don't have a root cellar, but this storage method seems to be working well.

At the same time, we are still working through veggies and fruits in the freezer. I am actually starting to wonder if we'll end up with more than we need when the spring crops start showing up - but then I remember that it's nice to have a bit more to work with than greens and asparagus. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes, but it is gratifying to see that our fairly small, 10-cubic-foot chest freezer has stood us in such good stead.