Saturday, April 11, 2015

What's In Season Now?

Onion family crops to harvest in June.  Tulip to enjoy now.
I spoke with a guy last week who was looking for farm-fresh produce for a project at a local Senior Center. He was hoping for tomatoes and corn, and it was hard to get across the idea that those crops are not currently in season.

When we finally had that notion sorted, he asked about yellow squash. Let me just say now that the conversation went on in that vein for several minutes.


When he finally asked exactly what might be "in season" this week, I didn't have much to offer. April is one of the reasons we dehydrate, can, and freeze.
Peas! They are a lot greener "in person" than in this picture.

Some local farms will have greens and other cool season crops ready for harvest at this point in the year, but my yard is "in-between."

Kale and collard greens have bolted to flower. The parts of the crop I haven't yet pulled up are so busy with bees and other pollinators that I haven't had the heart to remove them.
Sprouts emerging from the March-planted spuds.
On sunny weekends, this is how we cook.

Lettuces and beets that were planted in March are still too small to make much of an addition to our meals.

The onion family crops in my yard survived the cold winter in good shape , but most of them are still a couple of months away from harvest.

The only onions ready for harvest now are the green onions.
The peas are putting out tendrils and just beginning to "run." When the slivers of white petal first begin to emerge from the folded-up flower buds each year in late-April, I start to get impatient for the new vegetable addition to our meals.

Unfortunately, the plants don't usually provide peas for the table until closer to mid-May.

The March-planted potatoes finally have sent up some nice, thick-stemmed top-growth. There will be tiny, new potatoes that could, in theory, be harvested in May, but I usually wait for the plants to begin dying down in June to harvest the crop.

Really, "what's in season now" is a lot of waiting.


2 comments:

  1. I feel his urgency. I keep snipping off leaves off the Romaine to toss in pasta. Fortunately their are still plenty of dandelion greens to pick wild, along with the lady's thumb and lamb's quarter "weeds". So we can usually cobble together a fresh salad if pressed

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the dandelion greens are growing well and staying relatively un-bitter in this cool and rainy spring. The chickweed is all gone to seed, though, and we don't actually have any lamb's quarter in our yard. There is lady's thumb in the side yard, but I haven't eaten it before. I will have to go look for it soon.

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.