Salad days

I am sure some variation on this theme has happened to just about every gardener who's ever planted lettuce at this time of year.  You know, the time when it all starts to grow.

One day, you have a little.  Tear it up, rinse it off, run it through the salad spinner and leave it stored in the fridge.

Then, you have even more.  It won't fit in the spinner, because that is already full of lettuce that you haven't finished yet.

Around this time, you are realizing that while you do really love eating salad, you are maybe feeling burned out on eating it every single day.  You are running out of ideas.  Especially since the tomatoes you're getting from the store aren't really that great in June.  Your spouse simply begins declining every offer of salad.

Then, if you are me, and decided to join a CSA, you receive even more lettuce.

Which means you now have to find a tertiary location for it.  The salad spinner is full, the crisper drawer is full, and pretty soon the entire bottom shelf of the refrigerator will be filled with greens.

And you still kind of don't feel like eating any more of it.  So you try to give some away, but have a real concern that your mother-in-law isn't actually going to come over and pick up the giant bag you have made for her (far left, above).

That is what I am discovering is the problem with salad/mesclun mix.  It has no other application.  While you could enjoy spinach and kale raw or cooked, cooked lettuce seems very, very gross. 

On the bright side, the succession planting sure is working!

And in other news, peas!  Finally!

Not enough to share, but I was flying solo for dinner that night anyway.

 You'll be shocked to hear this, but those peas were chopped up and joined some of their friends....

IN. A. SALAD.

Who knew these inexpensive Ikea pasta bowls would be getting so much publicity?

Vegetable Confessions

Oh, it has been such a busy week, with jobs and rainstorms and sinus infections!

Butch is like, "I know you are busy but where is my second breakfast?" 

So there's been a lag in blogging, but not for lack of action in the backyard!  Expect some updates.

But first, I'd like to come clean on a few things.  Not everyday things, but things that most gardeners would keep as deep-dark-secret kind of things.

1) I never knew that pea shoots were edible until this week
2) I learned about pea shoots from the CSA that we joined and received our first bag from this week.  I know, I know, what about all the stuff I am growing out back?  Well essentially, I can't grow everything.  I am limited in time, space, and expertise.  I intentionally decided to focus on just a few crops this year that I've had success with in the past.  And also - a CSA is a great chance to try some new things.  Every week is like an episode of Chopped! Money well spent.
3) I do not actually enjoy pea shoots, at least not raw.

I was a little thrown by the pea shoots, but thanks to Google I discovered www.peashoots.com!  Yes, an entire website devoted to pea shoots! I found a recipe for Pea Shoot and Strawberry Salad that sounded delicious (and for which I had all of the ingredients, excepting cucumber).  I also added salt and pepper.

So pretty, right?

Sadly, we did not enjoy it one bit.  It is one of the worst things I have ever made.  We mainly picked out the strawberries.

I'm wondering if perhaps our pea shoots were too mature to be eaten raw.  The pictures on the Pea Shoot website appeared to have much smaller leaves.  The tendrils and stems were very hard to chew.  Dan deemed it "too raw" and I said it was "too much work to eat."  Both were apt descriptions.

Next time, I'll cook the pea shoots.
(but that balsamic-honey-strawberry combo was lovely)

Oh, snap!

I was so ready to publish some pictures of the cute little pea plants reaching their way up to the sky.  See how much they have grown?

I was then planning to express some concern over the state of the cucumber plants.  It's been chilly and they don't look too healthy to me.  See how the edges are a little curled?

But, as it turns out, there are more pressing things to discuss, like the fact that it is May 13 and tonight we are under a "Freeze Warning."

So instead of doing whatever else I may have done when I got home from work today, I had to tuck my plants in for the night in a desperate attempt to save them from the frost.  Honestly, I'm not sure the peas need it, as they are pretty cold tolerant.  And I'm not sure the cucumbers weren't already beyond help... so it may or may not have been necessary, but it's done:

But seriously?  The frost free date is supposed to be in 2 days! 

Peas!

Yay!  This past weekend we were finally without snow and blessed with weather in the 50s.  The perfect time to finally plant one of my favorites, peas.  

Given the issues I had last year with these plants ending up much larger than expected, I decided to go with a trellis/lattice (I don't actually know the difference between the two...) system.  It will certainly be better than the tiny little bamboo stakes I used last year:



The gnome did not do a very good job of keeping these peas in line

Anyway, our new system is based on wooden stakes and twine.  I learned about this in the gardening class I took, and am hoping to apply it to tomatoes and cucumbers as well.  It seems like a way to keep things neat and linear.

The stakes are sturdy - they are hammered about 2 feet into the ground.  I placed the lower "rungs" of twine closer together, and then spaced them out more towards the top.  I can easily add in more if needed.

I planted one pea seed (sorry, I did not take any pictures of them... but picture a dry, shriveled-looking pea) a few inches in front of each stake about one inch deep, and one in the middle... for a total of 7.  I put two seeds in each hole, hoping at least one will germinate.

I also planted some spinach and salad mix in one of our raised beds... but it's not really anything to look at just yet.

Back at it!

There is something about February, especially late February, that is just...awful.  The shortest month sure does seem to go on forever, doesn't it?  And while March in Northeast Ohio is no picnic, there's a lot to be said for turning the calendar page to the month where spring does officially start.  With that comes the hope that, okay, maybe I will not be wearing a down parka every day this month.  Maybe this month I won't regularly get caught in blizzards while on the way to work (although it is actually quite possible this will still happen).  Maybe my car will look its actual color, rather than chalky salty gray.  And maybe, just maybe... I will plant something!

To kick off the return to blogging, and the return to gardening, I'd like to share my to-do list for this month:

1. Attend gardening class. This, my friends, is awesome.  A series of 5 workshops entitled "Home Grown Food," hosted by one of the local public libraries.  Week 1 was 90 minutes on just soil, and I was captivated.  You don't know what you don't know until someone tells you that you don't know it.  This is doing to be a valuable endeavor, and I look forward to sharing.  If you are local and interested, it looks like there are still some openings.

2. Compost.  Compost.  Compost.  I'm working on my own (more on that in a future post) but this year we probably need to buy some.  Can you believe we've never added this to our garden?  Anyway, I am hoping to buy and spread that this month (a girl goes to one class about soil and now wants to buy a truckload of rotten stuff... go figure).

3.  Peas!  My new favorite vegetable to grow.  And along with the purchase and planting of pea seeds, I need to get some better stakes, now that I know how these things grow!

4.  Greens!  My new second favorite vegetable to grow.  Kale, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard... they can all be started early, and I am excited to do so.

5.  Investigate some organic (aka "safe") pest control options.  Especially if I want to grow leafy things (and I do), I need to better protect them.  The hot pepper spray did not cut it last year.  I look forward to learning about this in my class, and also seeing what the garden stores offer.

Preservation.

"How to Grow Vegetables" is one set of lessons that I have learned somewhat and am still picking up in bits and pieces.  But what to do with the vegetables after you've grown them?  That's another topic entirely. While I love growing these vegetables every summer and enjoying them in as many dishes as I can dream up, there is also something really great about being able to pull them out of the freezer in December and still enjoy a little taste of fresh summer food.  Not to mention that when two people plant enough food to feed an army, it becomes kind of necessary to figure out something to do with it all.

Pea season has ended.

...and it did so in spectacular fashion.  I am not sure what happened... on Monday we were in the backyard, picking peas and eating them right from the plant... and then on Thursday, this:

You can see that the plants were starting to yellow, and upon closer inspection, even the leaves that were still green had turned a little... weird.

...and then there were peas

This year is the first time I have planted peas.  I wanted to try some more early/spring crops this year and peas sounded easy.  Plus, you can plant them in March so it gives an earlier start to the growing season.  Well, I can say with certainty 3 months later that the peas are a success!

(this morning's harvest)

They are just growing and growing and growing... everything I've read suggests picking them every 1-3 days, as they just continue to produce.  And boy, have they grown...  When I first put the seeds in, I planted them in two rows.  Once the seedlings popped up, I put in some 2-foot stakes (actually more like little sticks).