The Kitchen Gardener

Gardener’s spring nightmare: it snows.

That’s what happened. After days of rain, snow flurries and then snow covering all those baby seedlings. Turns out the bed of snow actually saved the seedlings and seeds by insulating them from the 20 degree weather and a killing frost next day.

Here’s the microgreens thriving and the same spinach pictured last week. And, despite the weather, now the peas are up.

Go figure.

Rhubarb, a perennial, sprouts early in the spring. Don’t you want a new spring frock of the same intense colors?

Last year, spring was five to six weeks slow. Spring 2016 seems to be coming more quickly than last.

As you may recall from earlier posts, I plant by soil temperature, not length of day. This spring the soil is already warm enough for planting.

So I planted this week. I put in seeds for all the early spring vegetables: lettuces in abundance, spinach, French arugula, microgreens galore, kale, Swiss chard, pac choi, radishes, peas.

As I pull back the blanket of leaf mulch from herbs and other perennials, I am finding nubby spring sprouts everywhere. Here is the first asparagus. Since this is the third year for my asparagus plants, it will be the first year for eating these delicacies.

I also harvested brussel sprouts which I overwintered. Somehow the cold enriches and intensifies the flavors. Most of them made it through the winter without rotting or dying. I learned too that the best sprouts come from survivors who were more deeply buried in leaf mulch.

I also wintered over a crop of parsnips that are now pushing up new green plumage. I will harvest these when the plants are fully leafed out, perhaps for Passover next month. For parsnips too, winter concentrates the flavors of an already flavorful parsnip.

Happy Spring!