It's that time of year where we start to get more than leafy greens! Those early salads are such a welcome change after the heavy, stick-to-your-ribs meals of winter, but there is something to be said for the addition of more colors, textures, and flavors in late spring and early summer. This is the beauty of seasonal cooking and eating!
We're finishing up harvest of the second to last wave of radishes right now, and in another week or two we'll be done with the last one. They bolt (and get bitter - yuck!) as soon as we get consistently warm weather, which happens really suddenly around here. With their space clear I'll be sowing more kohlrabi and carrots. We still have so much baby brassica mix, which grows back in 3 or 4 days after we give it a "haircut". Besides this mix we also have lots of young spinach, chard, and buttercrunch lettuce.
Yesterday we noticed the first few pea blooms, and today there are many more. This means we'll have sugar snaps in about a week with most of our harvest in 2-3 weeks. To be honest I find it so hard to price these because many farms do it differently. I'm going on the low end this year because it's been quite a good year for them so far, what with the very chilly, damp, England-ish weather. Same as strawberries, $3/pint or $5/quart. Speaking of which, we will have a few strawberries next week (most likely for our own use) but should have them at the stand in two weeks. Rhubarb is dwindling; I can't stress enough how sluggy and snaily this wet spring has been. It's been hard to manage them.
We should also have bunched (aka greens attached) kohlrabi, carrots, and beets within the next month as well. Carrots are a mix of orange, yellow, and purple Nantes types. Beets will be separated into Cylindra (wonderful, earthy reds that make great pickles) and golden beets (Chris's favorite because they are "Beets Lite"). Beets are $2/bunch and kohlrabi and carrots are both $3/bunch. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but the kohlrabi greens, one of my favorite cooking greens, are in wonderful shape so far!
I'm hoping to have some broccoli and kale in about a month, too. Cabbage will take a little longer but it's a great type for summer slaw and sauerkraut alike. It's hard to believe I'm already thinking about July harvests...
A quick note on cut flowers: Snowballs and Star of Bethlehems are just finishing up, but peonies are on the way. Keep an eye at the stand for these; they're so pretty and smell so amazing. Variety unknown since they were here when we moved in.