Karen's Garden Delights Journal
4th week of April 2011

Spring Cold Frames The daily rain continues and we struggle to find times to work in the garden when we aren't digging in mud. The temperatures are warming up though. Here is the garden at the beginning of the week with our new perennial bed in the foreground and several coldframes still in place. By mid-week most of the structures were removed and as soon as we can plant some summer crops like beans, cucumbers and zucchini, the cold frames will help them get started. We also had times of high winds this week and one night wondered if we would all blow away. It did knock over several water walls on the tomatoes, snapped off an ancient trumpet vine plant on my parents' house and bedraggled the poor daffodils. We were hoping the wind would be beneficial in drying things off but every evening it still decided to rain...

Fennel Despite the slow spring planting, the salad crops are still progressing and we are making lovely salad bags for customers. Right now the salad begs are half spinach, several small heads of winter lettuces with a handful of greens like arugula, ruby mizuna, sorrel and chervil. This week the new green was bronze fennel (pictured) which has a delightful licorice flavor. Some visiting children especially enjoyed snacking on the fennel this week and we dug up a plant for their garden. Topping off the salad bags are edible flowers like arugula blossoms, kale blossoms, violets and johnny jump ups. A few extras like garlic scallions, winter onions and radishes finish off the bag. Other greens that are producing enough to send to Local Roots are sorrel (lemony flavor), lovage (celery tasting herb) and stinging nettle. Yes, I do consider some of my weeds to be a "cash crop" and I attach a recipe for nettle soup to the bag. When they get larger, I like to dehydrate 2 gallons or so of nettles for winter tea brews.

Early Radish This week I harvested the first radishes and gave a handful to our two year old to transport to the house. When I reached the porch, there was a path of scattered greens and I discovered that he ate about half of the radishes on his way in. I started to scold him but then decided it was better to be thankful he liked veggies so I took a picture and returned to the garden to find more radishes for my salad bags. Really, it is a blessing when children grow up knowing the taste of real food and liking vegetables straight from the garden. I hope that is something that will continue all their lives.