3 posts tagged “greens”

A harvest lunch

I thinned the winter greens a bit today, so I made myself a gourmet lunch. These tiny seedlings are often referred to as "micro greens" at fancy restaurants. Here the combination is arugula and spinach. I tossed the greens with a touch of extra-virgin olive oil and salt. The eggs are from my own chickens (of course). I've been saving a dozen eggs for about 3 weeks now just so I can make some into hard-cooked eggs. I did use the trick of putting a pinhole in the air space (through the round end), too. This combination of techniques worked: I was able to peel the eggs fairly easily.

Of course it was incredibly yummy! I still have a lot more thinning to do, so I hope to enjoy more salads like this over the next few weeks.

Brrr, it's getting colder! It was 29 F last night, but the baby greens seem to be doing OK under their frost protection row cover.

Mache_arugula_chard_claytonia

Lettuce_dandelion_mizuna

On the left, is the bed the following (L to R): mache (barely visible), arugula, chard, and claytonia. The argula sprouted very fast!

On the right is the bed with the following (L to R): winter lettuce mix, dandelion, mizuna.

I neglected to take a photo of the spinach in the cold frame today, but it is already starting to form the first set of true leaves.

All need thinning, but I didn't have a chance to do that today.

I've thinned the beds only a bit once, but those arugula sprouts are incredibly tasty! I hope to keep these greens going for another month or two. It's likely they won't reach full growth, but I started them rather late. This was an experiment, and I'm happy to see any type of growth on them, frankly!

Winter beds

I'd really like to continue eating fresh, locally grown greens over the winter. So, I'm trying to grow them myself.

Actually, this isn't a totally personal effort. Rachael came by to help me plant these beds a week ago, and Mark helped me put the beds together a few weeks ago and cut the PVC for the hoops. Planted in the far back is a bed of garlic. This should overwinter just fine with no protection, but I added the hoops and bird netting to keep the chickens off of the bed. They like to dig in the beds, and I don't want them digging up the garlic.

In the next closest bed, Rachael and I planted mache, arugula, chard, and a row of claytonia and radish. Again we added hoops and bird netting to keep the chickens off.

The next closest bed we seeded with a winter lettuce mix, italian dandelion, a mixed row of mizuna and radish. More hoops and bird netting, too. Finally, the bed with the cold frame has spinach in it. I added bird netting over that, too. I have some poly row cover for frost protection that I've been putting on during the really cold nights. I plan to keep it on permanently if I have something really growing that needs the protection.

All of these greens are supposed to be hardy and should sprout in cool soil. Although we've had unseasonably warm temps, wouldn't you know the temps dropped off right after we planted the beds. I'm pleased to see that we have some sprouting action, though.

Sprouting Mache

That's mache sprouting up there. Yay! It appears that the winter lettuce mix is also sprouting, so if I can at least keep these going we'll get a few salads.