In the May garden...

May is a busy month around here. We're getting into full swing as we plan, plant and tend the garden...the early plantings in the garden are coming up: peas, mizuna, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, rhubarb, parlsey, dill, garlic, green onions, chives, kale, all the perennials and wild edibles (red orach, sorrel, nettle, lambs quarters, dandelion); fruit trees & berries are flowering: cherry, apple, currants, gooseberries, strawberries; greenhouse brimming with seedlings, just waiting for a few more weeks before tomatoes, peppers and eggplants can be taken outdoors...a lovely, busy, vibrant time these days.

In our November greenhouse

We are still harvesting greens (kale, chard, tatsoi, parsley, bunching onions) from the cold outdoor garden, but in our mini garden inside the greenhouse new young exciting shoots and sprouts are starting to come up.  We'll be eating from these over the winter months (some as sprouts, some as full leafy greens) -- kale, chard, mizuna, lettuces, green onions, radish, cilantro, beet greens, spinach -- and we also have pots of herbs, kale, marigolds and calendula, and a few delicious sweet and precious strawberries that are still flowering.  Outside we'll put in our grow tunnels (greenhouse grade plastic pulled over a frame that sits on the raised beds), and I have filled a raised box with soil to use as a cold frame under old winter glass. A good standby for winter or cold hardy gardening techniques is Eliot Coleman's Winter Harvest Handbook, or the Four Season Garden.

A taste of spring - salad greens, edible flowers and rhubarb

The incessant April rains seem to have eased off a little, now that we have moved into May.  We've been watching everything green up with this warm weather, and have been enjoying first harvest of garden goodies.  A rabbit has been visiting our garden, and we just discovered it's been overnighting in our grow tunnel which provided a wonderfully cozy home under the raised plastic sheeting surrounded by rows and rows of young fresh lettuce to nibble.  We've taken off the plastic as the grow tunnel was overheating with the sunny days, and hopefully now the rabbit will move on.  Upon taking off the plastic I noticed the one end of the bed was at it's prime (we've been trying to eat up the salad greens in the greenhouse to make room for trays of tomato seedlings in there, so we haven't been checking the grow tunnel as much lately) - cilantro to full height, full heads of lettuce ready to harvest, swiss chard and red kale perfect for steaming, and chives ready to burst out any day into purple flower.  Today my young daughter and I sat in the garden path and had a feast of fresh salad "burritos", with chives, cilantro and parsley which she loved rolling into several layers of colourful greens.  Mmmmm.

Also some baking, to make room in the freezer and use up the last of our pumpkin from last season.   These moist and delicious gluten-free pumpkin cupcakes (see recipe below) for the various friends we have who are eating gluten-free these days, garnished with fresh violets picked by my little helper!... and since that same visiting rabbit, or maybe some squirrels, had neatly chopped off several stalks of rhubarb that were just starting to shoot up and left they laying in the path, I decided to make the first rhubarb pie of the season - topped off with a gorgeous dollop of Mapleton's organic ginger icecream (our best 100-mile source for icecream if you like dairy).  Happy spring eating!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I used 1 cup brown rice flour + 1/2 cup sweet sorghum flour)
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups pumpkin, pureed
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
3 tsp spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt
1 tsp xanthum gum (optional)

Mix all ingredients until just combined.  It will be a thick mixtures.  Scoop into lined muffin pans (makes 18).  Bake at 350F for aprox. 30 min.  I served them with cream cheese icing (cream cheese sweetened with maple syrup and a hint of lemon juice).

Spring farm quiche

Here's a quick and easy recipe we love to make, using up several eggs and loads of garden greens and herbs.

Spring farm quiche

Crust:
1 1/2 cups spelt flour (or wheat, etc)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup chilled butter
3-4 Tbsp cold water

Blend into soft dough using food processor.  Form into ball, and roll out using extra flour on table.  Makes one large crust.  Press into pie pan.

Filling:
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 lb greens (arugula, spinach, mizuna, mache, mustard), lightly sauteed
herbs for sprinkling (chives, parsley, cilantro)
1 cup shredded cheese
red pepper slices, optional

Blend filling ingredients mixing well.  Pour into prepared crust.  Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes or until top and crust are golden.  Serve warm or cold, with fresh green salad.

These days, leading up to Spring Equinox

These days...seeding, waiting, hoping, dreaming, planning, tending...happy spring equinox to all of you (just a few days away).

We just picked up our portion of 10 bags of certified organic potting mix, ordered through a friend who was getting a whole skid (70 bags) delivered from Pefferlaw Peat Products (located near Pefferlaw, Ontario).  Exciting to stack up this large pile of (frozen) soil next to our greenhouse, knowing in a few weeks the weather will have warmed up and we'll be needing much of this soil to transplant our seedlings.

Below, feasting on greenhouse greens (arugula, mache), planting eggplant, hot peppers and basil...and chickens warming themselves in south-facing soil patches around the yard that have warmed up to the sun!  New chicks for this season will be ordered and picked up in just a few weeks.  We'll be getting our chicks from the nearby Frey's Hatchery (in St. Jacobs) again this year.

Spring walks & a spring greens quiche...mmm

I was desperate for a taste of spring today! I had already been out for a long ramble with our dog and baby, looking for early signs of spring and the bright sun was making us feel giddy. We discovered snowdrops peeking out of the soil in a neighbours front yard, a few buds sprouting on trees, and the rose bushes in our garden shooting out green runners to the sky. When we got home I let the hens out, and they happily roamed through the garden, pecking for seeds and taking dust baths in their old favourite sunny spot near the back patio.

With the warmer weather, the hens have been back to their more regular laying routine, meaning plenty of fresh eggs again for us! With the hens on my heels, I wandered through the garden beds hoping for some fresh green shoots - I came up with just enough for a tasty quiche - nettle tops, new garlic fronds, and parsley sprouting in the coldframe. The greens in the coldframe were also growing nicely, but not quite ready to be salvaged for a salad yet, but by April we should have fresh salad greens again for regular meals.

Herb Seedlings Started Today & Winter Sprouting

We planted herb seeds for this season a few weeks ago, and are on round two today. Basil (four varieties), sage, thyme, lavender, marjoram, fennel, coriander, parsley (both curled, and Italian), rosemary, marigold, anise hyssop, and NEW this year Stevia! Many herbs take a few weeks to even germinate, let alone the amount of time these slow-growing plants take to become actual sturdy seedlings. If all goes well, we should have more than 500 herbal seedlings ready by May - many of these will go into our gardens, but most will be for sale during our May long weekend seedling sale.

Greg planted greens (lettuces, Asian greens, kale, chard, spinach) in our greenhouse last week, and the coldframe greens are already several inches high. With the low light levels of winter and the cold, these greens don't grow much - we would have to heat with wood or electric sources, both of which aren't available right now. However, by March-April we'll be back to eating fresh greens and daily salads. For now, I'm doing a regular weekly hydroponic sprout garden, rotating through cress, arugula, spicy lentil mix, salad booster mix (alfalfa, radish, red clover), as well as some greens in soil (sunflower, chives, wheatgrass, cilantro sprouts) so we get tasty fresh greens packed with nutrition this way during the cold months.

Our chickens also love getting a few handfuls of these sprouts too, if we care to share them. They have been spoiled by us with greens, as we've lately been getting kale at the grocery store for them! (after our winter kale garden supply was depleted). Of course, we still feed them shredded carrot, compost veggie scraps, stale bread, sunflower seeds, and their usual layer crumbles and scratch grain, but they do love any fresh greens the most! A few days ago, when we had a bit of a warm spell, the hens were all out about the yard, pecking excitedly at anything slightly resembling a green shoot (even wilted leftover greens from last year's garden). They are longing for spring weather, though don't seem too phased by the snow - they trek around with snow upto their ankles and venture around their small yard when it's sunny.

April Salad Greens

Weather was around 15 C today! Here' s an inside shot of the grow tunnel, which was planted full of seeds in October. The tunnel felt like a sauna when I opened it up, and as our greenhouse was over 30 C today the tunnel was probably that or even warmer. It really heats up well on sunny days. There are herbs, various lettuce varieties, tatsoi, choho, chard, arugula, and more! Ready to harvest soon. That's a soaker hose running through the middle of the bed. We also planted our first spinach in the garden, under another cold frame today.

Winter Greens

October 21 - also planted our crop of assorted winter greens in the double raised bed that acts as our coldframe. We have thin black PVC piping curving over the bed to create a frame - the plastic pipe is set on metal stakes which are dug into the ground for sturdiness; then we cover this frame with plastic sheeting to create a grow tunnel that acts as a small greenhouse on the sunny winter days.

This year I planted cilantro, basil, red winter lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, mizuna, mesclun, tatsoi, spinach, arugula, swiss chard, dill and green onions. The herbs will grow slowly, but the greens are already coming up nicely. We also keep kale in various beds in the winter, carrots are still in the ground (nice and sweeet now after our frosts), and the greenhouse is packed with hot peppers, eggplants, and basil in pots, plus chard, arugula and other greens in the beds. We don't need many leafy greens in the winter, as we are fine with eating seasonally (going more toward root veg in the winter, or greens we have preserved in our freezer), as well as sprouted indoor greens. However, it is heartening to peek into the tunnel or lounge in the greenhouse on cold days, enjoying the fresh green colours and flavours, and dreaming of spring again.