
The list of crops we have available looks much the same as it has the past few months, but trust me - if you haven't eaten any greens lately, it all tastes so different it might just be a whole 'nother vegetable. Over the past week or two, we've mowed down and turned under the last of the over-wintered greens. Our offerings are all still heavy on the leafy greens, but instead of scrounging through frost-bitten plants that have been in the ground since last August for a few good leaves, now we're cutting through heaps of tender new growth. Baby chard so sweet and delicate you can use it as a salad green. My favorite crinkly-leaved heirloom Bloomsdale spinach that no, is not baby spinach, but has an incredibly meaty, rich flavor sauteed with a little garlic. The new collards aren't sweetened by frost, but are grown quickly and cut small to keep them on the sweet side, too - try using spring collard leaves to make gluten-free sandwich wraps or stuffed cabbage rolls. Sweet Red Russian kale bears no resemblance at all to the bitter green crinkly stuff you find at the supermarket year-round: the leaves are almost like tissue paper now, perfect for juicing or green smoothies. We're still taking the first cuts off of several beds of baby mixed lettuce - and those first cuts always bring the sweetest, smallest leaves.
Late spring and summer brings an endless barrage of even sweeter vegetables: sweet sugar-snap peas and sugary beets, sweet Sungold tomatoes and sweet corn, sweet peppers and sweeter-still melons...and by the time fall rolls around, I usually feel like a gluttonous kid who has indulged in way too much at the candy store. Our spring greens are sweet, for sure, but be sure to enjoy the last of these fuller flavors before the even sweeter sweet stuff rolls in. Get some greens on the table for just a little while longer!
We still have quite a few tomato, basil and pepper plants for sale, but we are already running low on a few varieties. If you haven't gotten your garden in, get those plants in soon!