4th week of April 2008

Spring Bouquet After a winter without fresh flowers, our children are working hard to overcome their flower deprivation. Today our jr high age son come in with a bouquet using 17 different kinds of daffodils, a tulip and a king's crown frittilary coming out the top. Currently there are four vases of spring flowers on our kitchen table and a ban on bringing more flowers in till these wilt. They are also giving daily reports on the progress of the daffodils and tulips they used some of their Christmas money to purchase in the fall. Flowers are a wonderful thing for children to love and be able to share with others.

Spring Salad While they are gathering flowers, I am out foraging for edible weeds. We've been including things like dandelion, chickweed, stinging nettles (it loses it's sting when cooked), lamb's quarters and watercress in our spring meals. Unfortunately the kids aren't nearly as excited about the greens as they are the flowers. Most of these wild greens end up tasting like spinach when steamed and are full of vitamins and minerals. We also dug up some sassafras roots to make delicious tea - another "spring tonic."

A beautiful week of warm weather made for plenty of time in the garden. Hundreds of lettuce transplants, spinach, beets, onions, carrots, broccoli transplants and potatoes went into the ground last week. I also put out half a dozen early tomatoes in Water Walls and even a few under plastic barrels hoping the weather will remain mild. The Water Walls reportedly will protect tender plants down to 19 degrees and keep the ground and air warm to give the tomatoes a head start. The apricot tree is in full bloom also so we're hoping not too many cold days are ahead.

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