Greetings from the Garden! This CSA box has onions, garlic, squash, carrots, parsley, salad mix, and the first spinach from the mobile high tunnel!
Field Notes. The days are getting longer and we look toward next season. Ken has planted t onion seed – the first of the full season crops. This starts a succession of seed plantings and shifting from warm germination chamber to sunny window, to outside with protection to transplant. And the crops start with onions, then brassicas, then nightshades, and then cucurbits. Those plantings are interwoven with herbs and flowers.
Spring is busy as Ken starts pruning and trimming fruit crops like apples, plums, grapes, and berries. And in his spare time he is starting to wrap up the winter pottery studio projects – last call for requests.
From the Kitchen. This week marked a chicken population reduction day. The cockerels from a late hatch finally sized up AND the weather was good. This starts a succession of food items: liver and hearts the first midday meal, gizzard chili or spaghetti sauce for supper, chicken meat from the simmering back and breast bones to go with the soup stock I will pressure can. Most of the meat is packed away in the freezer.
I also start cooking the winter staples in a different way – squash kinpira for example.
We are still making meals of baked and roasted meats and vegetables. This time of year I also hit the freezer for variety – cream of asparagus soup, corn with ripe bell peppers, peas, green beans with slivered almonds. This also makes space for the coming season.
And we have the first of the “outdoor” crops – spinach from one of the greenhouses!
‘Til March 22, Judith and the Gang
