The Bounty Begins
I love salad season. After a long winter of eating lots of root vegetables, salads really make my palate happy. Around mid-February I start to crave leafy greens but usually refuse to buy salad that’s not locally grown or grown in my own garden. Hopefully I’ll have a greenhouse someday to allow for a few green salads all winter long, until then winter means a famine of salad.
I’m extremely thankful that every evening I can head out to the garden to harvest a bowl full of various greens for our dinner. This year my focus was on red leaved salads since they contain more nutrients than green (for more information on healthier varieties of vegetables read Eating on the Wild Side.) There are also tiny French Breakfast Radishes to eat, I actually don’t like radishes, but I grow some each year.
Last night we also enjoyed Acadian Redfish as our maine course. I was reading an article about how this fish isn’t sold much because it’s considered “lobster bait” or a lesser species. Fisherman don’t make much on it. Our local fishermans co-op featured it and I decided to give it a try. Buying it helps the local fishing industry and it helps lessen the need for other popular fish. Here’s an interesting article from The Portland Press Herald about encouraging people to eat more Redfish.
What are you harvesting from your garden this week?
Filed under Around the Garden, Edible, Going Local, Lettuce | Comments (13)
I’m harvesting asparagus, lettuce, mustard(s), kale, cilantro, french sorrel, tarragon, and various different onions and chives. I could also harvest some of the garlic that I planted from seed (from the scapes) if I wanted – it’s tiny and planted close with the intent of early harvesting but I’ll let that go another couple of weeks. Strawberries are beginning to form so I’ll be eating them soon!
From the wild: lambs quarters, violets, and sorrel… I may try milkweed shoots again – the first time I tried them they got a bit mushy but I’m not giving up!
I love salads this time of year!
to Joan's comment
My favorite part of this post was that you called the Redfish your “maine” course. ;-) Very clever ….
As for a salad famine… I couldn’t do it! I love salads, greens, etc. I’m glad we do have access to them year-round. (Though sometimes in the winter, the selection is pretty poor…)
Can you remind me (and your readers) why you “refuse to buy salad that’s not locally grown”? Is it more about supporting local farms/families/businesses, or seasonal eating, or something else?
Perhaps a response would be a blog post for the near future? :) (And I’ll do a quick search to see if you’ve already answered me…)
Anyway, enjoy your fresh greens from your garden! Those are definitely always better!
to Greg's comment
PS… we are probably just about ready to harvest our strawberries! We’re excited. There are LOTS of them! And fairly good-sized ones!
to Greg's comment
Greens, greens and more greens! Some from the garden (kale, lettuce, spinach, mustard) and some from the wild (chickweed, violets and dandelion). I was ever so tempted to eat my pea shoots! but will be planting the extra seed for some microgreens now that I know my peas are all up and doing well.
I also plant LOTS of radish, mainly to sell at market since I don’t really care for them either; although, I do like radish in kimchi or fermented just on it’s own, and pickled is nice too–just not my first choice :)
to Lorna's comment
I got a handful of strawberries today! And greens here too, spinach/lettuce/kale. Picked our first pea pods this week, they mostly haven’t made it out of the garden, we eat them right there. I am not the biggest salad eater but I so appreciate eating it this time of year.
to Sara's comment
I have always hated radishes but then decided to try them like the French do and cook them. Oh my how good they are like a very mild turnip cooked in butter and browned slightly.
to Nancy Settel's comment
We’re harvesting several cucumbers every day, along with lots of herbs, and just beginning to pick string beans, squash, and cherry tomatoes. The first blueberries are ripe too, so we’ll be picking them in earnest in a few days! Such an exciting time to garden!
to Sam's comment
Susy, you always have such creative meals. We do not have redfish here. I’m reluctant to eat any fish caught in the local lakes because of the water run off from the farm fields. I would say that a high percentage of the farmers are GMO chemical big AG farmers. My thoughts are that the run off that goes into the local recreation lakes have the chemicals that farmers put on their land to grow the crops so the fish that come from those lakes certainly would contain some of those chemicals as well. Clean chemical free fish is becoming more difficult to find especially in the Midwest.
I too have been eating salads out of the garden. The lettuce and radishes are winding down now as the tomatoes are in full bloom. I’m really surprised at how fast they started blooming especially after having to be replanted.
Have a great bounty begins day.
to Nebraska Dave's comment
Have you ever cooked radishes? They dont have that same bite or flavor when they’re cooked… or if you ferment them, they’re a whole other beast as well… I dont like them raw.. but enjoy them fermented or baked.. I’ve heard that frying them like potatoes in a skillet is good too.
to KimH's comment
I too love the fresh salad time of year. We are harvesting lots of lettuce, several varieties, spinach, beet greens, radishes, garlic scapes (made garlic scape pesto for the first time, yum! ), lots of herbs, strawberries and more rhubarb.
to Colleen's comment
I harvested the first ripe tomato this morning! Lettuce is being grown on the shaded patio and will be added to the salad bowl later this week. Enjoy your greens (or reds)!
to daisy's comment
I harvested our radishes this weekend, too, though I don’t like them myself. The husband will eat radishes on buttered slices of bread so I mostly grow them for him.
(Beets, on the other hand, I love but can never seem to grow more than one or two small ones each season despite planting 15-20 seeds)
to Marie's comment
I too am harvesting greens and reds. I tried a lettuce this year called ‘Merlot’ that is the reddest I have ever seen. The other red I planted was Red Velvet. Gold Rush lettuce contrasts nicely with this. Arugula is new for me this year. It adds such a nice tough of flavor to the salads! Cilantro in the salad as well adds a nice flavor pop. Finally, green onions are added to the mix. We had some salad last night, and my sister said it was better than what she gets at the farmer’s market!
I have also been picking the outer leaves of Kale (Lacinato and Russian Red).
to MN Reid's comment