Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Cooking from the Garden, Early March
I never expected to be cooking anything from the garden early in March, but that's exactly what I've been doing over the last couple of weeks. I've written up three spinach meals over on my food blog.
The overwintered spinach (Bloomsdale Long-Standing) is in very good condition - sweet and tender leaves, but with a good substance that's excellent sauteed. I pulled up one green garlic stalk to mix with the spinach for last night's frittata.
I can't decide whether the one radish (French Breakfast) was a garnish or a salad, but it was very mild in taste. They're still a bit too small to harvest.
I expect to get one more good harvest of spinach from my winter experiment and then I'll pull up those plants and replace them with some transplants currently in the cold frame.
14 Comments:
Entangled, maybe next winter I'll try some greens like spinach as a cool season crop - you're making it sound worth the trouble.
My only crop so far was the thinned radish seedlings, washed & tossed into tuna salad for a little crunch and bite.
Happy Spring!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I grew French Breakfast radishes last spring for the first time and enjoyed them greatly. Some got very large and were a comical sight, but they were still good to eat.
Annie: Happy Spring to you as well!
I would think spinach or chard might live through the winter unprotected in Austin? We had a very easy winter, but the spinach showed almost no frost damage at all under its floating row cover. It didn't really grow much between, say, December and February, but as soon as the weather warmed up it really took off.
Barbee: I was wondering how big the French Breakfast radishes would get. So far the biggest ones I've pulled have been about an inch long. They're very mild compared to the other one I'm growing - Shunkyo Semi-long.
Really? You overwintered spinach? I have seeds for that Bloomsdale Long-standing, but I have so many greens in the garden that I haven't planted them yet. Is there a trick to timing the seed-starting for overwintering?
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Sorry, I fumbled my last comment. Made such a mess I deleted it to start over. Regarding the radishes: I kept thinning and eating, but there were so many that the last ones grew to be longer than my fingers, but fatter around. Some forked if they hit a rock or something. Critters nibbled the shoulders of some, but I just trimmed that off and used them. They were planted around my Japanese Tomato ring and had plenty of water and food. I wanted them to grow fast so they would be mild and juicy and crunchy, and boy were they. Delicious!
Isn't it great to be harvesting food from your garden at this time of year? Must check that spinach variety out, perhaps I can buy it here too.
My radishes are merrily growing along, sheltered as they are in a cold frame. They need shelter now as we had snow, hail, sleet and night frost too. I've heard a rumor that it is spring now, did you hear that too? ;-)
Blackswamp Girl: This was an experiment and I'm really pleased with the results. I had some freebie seeds that I planted in mid-September, I think. Must start keeping better records. But we had really strange weather last fall - very warm (hot even) into October. I covered the plants with Agribon floating row cover soon after they germinated, and added a second layer of Agribon after the first one developed some holes. I planted lettuce at the same time. It didn't survive the winter quite as well, but the thicker varieties did better than the thinner-leaved ones. I'm planning to try a lot more overwintering of cool weather veggies this year, and WILL keep better records.
Barbee: Thanks for the tips! These particular radishes I started in pots in the cold frame at the end of January, and then moved the pots outside a week or so ago. I planted a few more out in the garden a couple of weeks ago. I'll be interested to see what differences there are in the ones grown in pots vs. in the garden.
Yolanda Elizabet: I saw your snow post - Yikes! I sure hope that doesn't happen here before next winter. I've read that Bloomsdale Long-standing spinach has lower levels of oxalic acid than other spinach varieties. Don't know the truth of that, but I can attest that it has very good flavor.
I thought spring was here, but the rhododendron leaves are clamped down in their cold position this morning. I just read something in an old book about spring "making promises one day and breaking them the next".
I see one of our swiss chard managed to survive being partially sheltered by an Austrian pine. But this very mild winter had something to do with its survival. I'm amazed your spinach didn't turn to green mush with the first frost. Spinach salad with sliced mushrooms and shaved parmesan reggio is our favorite. Bet those sweet leaves would make an excellent salad.
Good for you. I have also been harvesting cooking greens and today will be making for the third time this month, mixed greens tart. I love radishes, have been growing French breakfast but ordered a fresh packet of seeds (Spanish black or something like that) from seeds of change. My mother used to grow these hot long white Asian radishes for pickles and pepper sauces!
I'm trying to grow food on the balcony this year, but I think spinach might need a bit too much space ... A pity because i love it. So I'll be checking out your recipes even though I'll have to get mine from the supermarket.
Ki: Thanks for the salad idea! We've been adding a few spinach leaves to lettuce salads from time to time, but the shaved cheese is something I haven't tried. And I almost always have some in the fridge because I buy it in big wedges at Costco.
Swiss chard is going to be part of my winter greens experiment next year.
Nicole: The mixed greens tart sounds great! I should try that. My spouse says the radishes he ate while growing up were white and carrot-shaped, but he couldn't tell me which kind they were. I ended up ordering White Icicle, but I think I really should have ordered one of the Asian daikon types. Let us know how the black Spanish radishes turn out.
Sue: That's one of the drawbacks of spinach, I suppose. It takes so many plants to get enough leaves to cook. Maybe one plant just for salads?
Thank you for the spinach recipies! I love the stuff, but I'm low on ideas.
Hmm. Interesting! Thanks for the answer, Entangled... I am already planning some of my own (similar) experiments for the fall. :)
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