Spring on the homestead

There are signs of spring everywhere we look!  We've been out hunting for greens, buds and shoots - in the garden and around town.  We see:

~ wild edibles: like dandelion, nettles, and ramps starting to peek out tiny green tips from the undergrowth;
~ in the garden: shoots of garlic, green walking onions, sorrel, and herbs like mint, lemonbalm, motherwort;
~ on the trees: buds of service berries are gorgeously pink against the dark branches;
~ in the cold frame: our spring crop of micro kale, chard, spinach, mizuna, arugula and lettuce leaves.

What is greening up in your yard?  What are you harvesting?  What are you planting?

First snow today - beautiful and fleeting

Thankfully this morning's beautiful dusting of snow has already melted.  We still have so much to do around here!  The barn/greenhouse reno needs to be closed up - the roof is on, the greenhouse glass is being put on today, one door is framed, a few others need to come...

But the yard and garden were beautiful none the less, and quite thrilling to our daughter, and maybe even the chickens who were not quite sure what to make of it.  Some of the herbs (like the mints, chives, parsley, dill, sage, thyme and savory) are still looking just fine for harvesting, and our cold frame still holds kale, chard, spinach, and fresh cilantro, and we have planted to covered grow beds with meslun and other greens for late winter eating.  I also found a few handfuls of the sweetest wild grapes still left clinging to the vines on the back porch.  However, it does feel like we are coming to the ending of this season.

First spring greens salad

Even though spring has been so slow in coming it's astounding what is already growing all around us.  This is what our first spring greens salad looked like yesterday - dandelion, spinach, lettuce, kale, chard, tatsoi, endive, mizuna, chives, nodding onion, oregano, thyme, parsley, and some violets added in.  A mix of sweet fresh young leaves from the cold frame, with the deep bitter wild dandelion that our bodies crave after our long cold winter, what a taste of spring!  No salad dressing needed!