In the garden. . .

Beets, oh glorious beets! The seeds were sown on October 15, 2011, germinated in the fall, and survived the winter. I transplanted the seedlings to another section of the garden this spring and harvested them on June 2. I modified a recipe from America's Test Kitchen for the beet greens and used my favorite beet recipe from Jack Bishop's "Vegetables Every Day." The gist of the recipe is to use oven roasted beets, slip off the skins once the beets have cooled, and cut into 1/4 inch slices. I use a pie plate to combine some olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper with a whisk or just pick up the pie plate and swirl it around. I add the beets and top with chopped parsley and kalamata olives. The perfect summer beet salad!

The carrots, sowing date March 21, needed to be thinned. I planted three different varieties, all from Fedco Seeds, by the way an absolutely amazing seed company in Maine, 'Mokum', 'Red-cored Chantenay', and 'Shin Kuroda'. I observed the fastest germination and top growth for the 'Mokum' variety. The photo shows thinnings of the 'Red-cored Chantenay' and 'Shin Kuroda'. I had already thinned the 'Mokum' seedlings and just harvested some fabulous, luscious, early carrots yesterday, June 9. The taste of home-grown carrots is amazing. Grocery store carrot flavor is just a mere shadow of a garden carrot's along with differences in texture and knowing how that carrot was grown.

Garden failure/re-purposing of the week- I planted two white turnip varieties similar to the 'Hakurei' type on April 7, between two rows of trellised peas. The germination rate was great and I thinned the seedlings. However, the roots were lackluster, small, dry, and hairy. I ripped them all out and used the turnip greens. The poor, blighted roots are still languishing in my refrigerator.

Winter gardening in Wisconsin?

Since I walked into a minimally heated greenhouse, absolutely bursting with winter greens, in mid-February, I have wanted to grow in the winter. This wasn't a Georgia greenhouse, it was at Hampshire College's Farm Center in Western Massachusetts. Greens grown in the winter have deep flavor.

After several salads of deliciously crisp, sweet claytonia, mache, and mizuna, I started by reading several of Eliot Coleman's books. Cold frames were too expensive for a college student's budget and required tools along with skilled hands. I didn't have those ingredients. Several years later, in graduate school, a small greens patch in my community garden plot went through a zone 5 winter with a double layer of row cover. Then, I learned about unheated low tunnels on Johnny's Seeds website. Again, the crafty, wily, inventive Eliot Coleman had a solution. I found an article about a low tunnel workshop given at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener's Association annual event, The Common Ground Fair. This was it- low tech, minimal investment.

Top, Tat-soi and arugula on December 11, 2011; Middle, Spinach, lettuce mix, and mache on January 6, 2012; Bottom, 'Tyee' and 'Bloomsdale Long Standing' spinach on March 20, 2012