April Harvests

It’s April, and that usually means it’s asparagus time here in our part of the world. Last year things were running super early and we got our first taste of asparagus in March, but this year our first harvest was on 4/10, which is much more typical. In my spare time I am now reading Ruth Stout’s classic Gardening Without Work, and chapter two is titled “Asparagus is the Easiest Vegetable To Grow”. I can’t disagree with that one bit! With a little effort, you can have a perennial vegetable that can easily live for 50 years.

Asparagus isn’t the only game in town though, with the overwintered spinach giving us some nice leaves for salads and pizza. Most of that in the below photo is the Giant Winter variety, with a little Viroflay as well. Viroflay has the reputation of making big leaves, but I have to say in our garden it isn’t any bigger than Giant Winter, which remains my favorite spinach for fall planting.

Some of that spinach wound up in a lunch salad creation, along with some grapes, feta cheese, walnuts, homemade croutons and a raspberry balsamic dressing. I love spinach salads!

Other harvests here included some green garlic that went into a chicken dish my wife fixed last week. I planted a little bit of garlic in a bed for harvesting early as green garlic. Green garlic is a nice treat for early spring, with a mild but garlicky flavor. You can read more about growing it here. All parts of the garlic are tasty and edible.

We’re enjoying the last of the overwintered lettuce from the greenhouse while waiting for the spring planted crop to size up. In the below photo we have Canary Tongue, Double Density and Simpson Elite (from left to right). They starred in several salads, including as a base for chalupas we had for dinner last night.

Of course, once the asparagus starts popping out of the ground, it keeps on coming up and giving you more to harvest, usually on a daily basis. It kept on popping up after that first harvest, and our little patch (about 75 row feet long) should keep on supplying us with asparagus until Memorial Day. The spears in the below photo went into a frittata yesterday for lunch.

Though it’s not edible, asparagus wasn’t the only thing popping out of the ground last week. Our variegated hosta was shooting up as well. That is another sign that spring has finally arrived here, and I for one am ready for it!

I hope you enjoyed a peek at what we are harvesting here in April. To see what other gardeners from all over are harvesting from their gardens, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, where Daphne hosts the Harvest Monday series.