Continuing on with our year of wacky weather, April seems to have returned to New England. We’ve had about 2 1/2 inches of rain in the past week, and on Monday we had a high temperature of 57 degrees! It’s hard to believe that in March we were worried about drought. Though we have had a few breaks of sunshine, there have been a lot of cloudy, dreary days lately. The tomatoes and peppers are growing slowly, but the greens don’t seem to mind this weather much. Continue reading
I spent a week in San Francisco and it seems summer arrived while I was gone. When I got back yesterday I hardly recognized the place. We had a few rainy days and some hot and sunny days, and then a little more rain, and everything really took off. The picture up top was taken just before I left. I took the next one when I got home yesterday. Everything has just about doubled in size. Continue reading
I inherited the gardening gene from my mom’s side of the family. Back when Queens was still the country my maternal grandfather’s family grew vegetables there while the city grew up around them. My mom never really grew vegetables, but her flower arrangements won many a ribbon in the local garden club’s flower shows. She had a big herb garden in one corner of the backyard that was a little wild and overgrown. I spent a lot of time in that garden as a kid, picking big handfuls of spearmint and chives, and plucking honeysuckle flowers off the vines that grew along the back fence. Continue reading
In early March I started several kinds of lettuce, red Russian kale, chard, tat soi, and two different packets of mixed greens. I sowed them thickly in big containers, the idea being that I would eat the thinnings while they were in the cold frame, and whatever was left could be planted out in the garden. Now the cold frame is packed with greens that are ready to be transplanted. I’m hoping to get them in the ground this weekend. In the mean time I’ve been going through and snipping off leaves once a week or so, and enjoying the most delicious salads of baby greens. This afternoon I harvested two big handfuls of greens, which we proceeded to eat one leaf at a time, straight out of the salad spinner. This salad is so fresh and delicious, it doesn’t even need any dressing.
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