Quote of the Day: A Carrot is a Carrot
“Even though most people can easily discern the quality difference between brands of automobiles or appliances, that same astuteness, with the exception of visible cosmetic quality, does not seem to be applied to vegetables. The myth has been successfully planted in the public mind (possible for the benefit of the homogeneous supermarkets) that biological quality differences do not exist and a carrot is a carrot is a carrot.”
Eliot Coleman (The Winter Harvest Handbook)
Once you start eating fresh local or homegrown vegetables, you can easily tell the difference between them and homogenous supermarket vegetables. The ones at the grocery store may be more perfect, without blemish, all shaped the same and all look the same. But an ugly tomato from my garden is certainly more lovely than a supermarket tomato. And can you get any better than fresh sweet corn from the side of the road?
Can you tell a difference between supermarket fruits and vegetables and those from the farmer’s market or your back yard?
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The Art Weeds and Salad
This time of year salads are the vegetable of choice from the garden. Lettuce is particularly delicious since it loves the coolness of spring. Many of the wild spring greens are still tender and sweet and they can be added for more taste and texture. We’ve been eating our share of salads from the garden, although many of the greens that make them up I didn’t plant. Our salads include wild garlic mustard, and invasive weed that has is great in salads. We’ve also been adding some dandelion greens, some cardamine and a few wild violet leaves. I also love to add herbs to our salads, they not only add a wonderful flavor, but they add even more nutrition.
Wild flowers have been added as well, they add beauty and extra vitamins & minerals. Who wouldn’t want to eat a salad so lovely? These wild violets add extra vitamin C (for more info on the nutritional benefits of wild violets read this)
This salad included: mache (corn salad), garlic mustard, overwintered lettuce, lemon balm, blue stocking bergamot. The dressing was made with fresh chives from the garden, some white balsamic, a spoonful of dijon mustard, a spoonful of honey, olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper. We topped the salad with wild violet blooms, which are very plentiful in our front lawn.
Dandelion greens can also be eaten, I’ve seen them for sale at Whole Foods for around $4/pound. Pricey considering most of us have them growing in our gardens. The blossoms can also be harvested and used for many things; muffins, jelly, wine and of course eaten raw on salads (make sure to remove green stem and bits, they can be bitter). For more info on the health benefits of dandelions check out this article.
With all these lovely healthy weeds thrown in, who wouldn’t want to eat these lovely salads? There are also many other edible flowers that you can add to salads, we like the starry white arugula blooms, nasturtiums add a slight peppery tang, pansies can be eaten as can many other flowering herbs. Any of these would be a perfect addition to cupcakes or tiny shortbreads as well. I’m thinking for my next tea party with my nieces I’ll have to make some wild violet cookies.
Do you ever harvest flowers and wild plants for your salad plate?
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Seed Starting 101 Series
After many requests from readers, I’ve decided to do a Seed Starting 101 Series. I figured this would answer many of the questions readers have, and be a good resource for new gardeners. Of course I’m not an expert seed starter, I’m still learning as well. This is where you come in, all you experienced seed starters. You’ll be able to add valuable information in the comment section (so make sure to read the comments if you’re new to seed starting and gardening).
I’ve been thinking about what to include in the Seed Starting 101 Series and so far I have a few ideas:
Type of Seeds (pelleted, OG, heirloom, hybrid)
Seed Starting Supplies (lights, heating mats)
Specific Seed Needs (stratification, light, heat)
Containers (soil blocks, flats, peat pellets, peat pots)
Soil Mix (options, my own mix)
Diseases (dampening off, fungus)
Do you have any specific questions or things you’d like to see discussed in the Seed Starting 101 Series?
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Rocks: My Gardening Nemesis
I’ve talked about our rocky soil before. Everywhere I dig I find rocks of all sizes. From tiny pebbles to boulders I have to get Mr Chiots to help me dig out, they’re everywhere! I spend more time removing rocks from the garden areas than I do on any other garden task, even weeding. It’s especially bad in new garden areas that haven’t been worked before.
Last spring I worked up this new area in the garden and I picked out tons of big rocks while preparing the area. This spring we reworked the soil with some amendments and I picked out several bucketfuls of smaller rocks, only a few large ones.
Next year I’ll still pick out a several bucketfuls of smaller rocks and probably the year after that as well. I still get a bucketful of rocks from the front foundation bed when I weed and I’ve been picking rocks out of it for the last 9 years!
I’ve always got a bucket by my side to throw the smaller rocks into. I make piles of the bigger rocks around the property and we use those for rock walls and for stepping stones in the garden.
I’m currently saving them to edge the driveway in my efforts to keep the driveway gravel out of the garden on the lower side garden. (yes I have to pick those out of the garden as well *sigh*)
What’s your gardening nemesis?
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Around the Neighborhood
This time of year it seems like everything is bursting in bloom. It’s been quite warm here, warmer than usual. We’ve been having temperatures in the 80’s so all the blooming trees bloomed at the same time. We often take the Chiots on a walk in the evenings right at dusk and the trees in the neighborhood are particularly lovely. One evening I took my camera on one of our walks to get a few shots.
The flowering pear trees are particularly lovely, although I’d much prefer one that produced fruit!
The magnolias are quite lovely this. Often here in Ohio the buds get frozen off by a late spring freeze. This year we were lucky and now we’re enjoying the lovely magnolias.
The star magnolias are lovely little trees as well!
The forsythias are really lovely this year as well, sunny shrubs that are most lovely when left to their natural weeping habitat (in my mind).
Here are Chiot’s run some of our fruit trees are blooming as well. The apples trees (what’s left of them after the deer nibbled them all winter) are blooming beautifully.
The nectarine tree went through the winter unscathed by the deer and it looks like we might have a nice crop.
The dogwood are blooming as well, they’re native here and grow all over. These are probably my favorite spring blooming trees. All these flowering trees are great for the bees, they’ll be taking advantage and making us lots of honey with all the pollen and nectar!
What’s your favorite spring blooming tree?
