Early Spring Planting

With the snow no long gone and the soil starting to warm up a little, this weekend was the time for planting the early spring crops - all those things that can either get an early start or that don't like the hot weather of summer. Lots of greens fall in this category, along with radishes, peas, and a few other things.

Yesterday we planted: snow peas, snap peas (sugar snaps and extra-early dwarf varieties), fava beans, kale, chard, spinach, bok choy, mizuna, arugula, sylvetta arugula (an extra-spicy "wild" variety), claytonia, mache, Persion cress, carrots, radishes, cilantro, fennel, scallions, and lettuce.

Today we are working on starting seeds for the warm weather crops that will grow inside from now until Memorial Day: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melon, pumpkins, summer squash, basil, parsley, etc. I am probably forgetting a few. And at some point we are going to plant potatoes, a new crop for us. Yippee for spring!

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.

Thanking the Weather Gods

This weekend, I planted radishes, carrots, kale, Swiss chard, arugula, spinach, lettuce, mizuna, and a few other kinds of cool weather greens in the garden, which is free of snow and dry enough to work the soil. Normally I think of this as an early-mid April activity, so I can only say thank you to the weather gods for providing a nice snowy winter followed by a quick melt without too much rain at the same time. Peas still need to go in, though we do have some very early ones getting started in the greenhouse.

The bigger job remaining to be done now is to get seeds started indoors for all the warm weather veggies--tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, herbs, and all that good stuff. This means giving over 1/3 of the dining room table to flats and lights, which is less than ideal (but the only available space safe from the toddler), but the results are so good it's worth it.

Growing Sprouts

Looking for an easy way to get a little more in the way of local greens into your diet? Try growing sprouts on your kitchen counter. All you need is a mason jar and a perforated lid. You can buy seeds for sprouts, of several varieties, at Green Fields Market or through any number of seed catalogs. You don't need (or want) direct sunlight, so they're great for winter. And you don't need dirt, so they're great for indoors. Even better, they don't have to grow very much, so you can go from seed to plate in just a few days.

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds

We finally got our seed orders in this weekend, after ogling several catalogs for weeks. Each year, our garden ambitions grow larger, though we are constrained by the confines of our yard and the available sunlight. We live in town, on less than two tenths of an acre. While we have a great Southern exposure, there are some tall trees, and neighboring houses, that limit the amount of space that gets enough sunlight to grow vegetables. Far from the traditional rectangle, our garden's perimeter meanders and curves to take maximal advantage of the sun. Each year we see how much more we can cram in, and whether there are any other little pockets of possible growing space that we hadn't taken advantage of previously. Perhaps this is a little obsessive, but the joy of growing delicious food is so rewarding, we keep at it.

And, of course, one way to ensure that your food is local is to grow it yourself! We make no pretenses of supplying all our own needs from the garden--that just wouldn't be possible. But we grow things we like, and things that are expensive if you buy them (heirloom tomatoes, for example), and we freeze what we can for the winter. This year will mark our first full harvest season with a chest freezer, and I am looking forward to being able to put away more than I did last year.

So what will be going into the garden this year? Well, off the top of my head...13 kinds of tomatoes (one plant each), two kinds of sweet peppers, four kinds of carrots, four kinds of eggplant, lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, bok choy, mizuma, arugula, some other specialty greens, fennel, winter squash, summer squash, parsley, basil, cilantro, hot peppers, parsnips, rutagaba (my husband insists!), celeriac, three kinds of cucumbers, snow peas, snap peas, pole beans, and undoubtedly several other things that I can't think of right now. I can't wait! When will the snow melt?