My focus for this year's cool season garden is the salad bowl. I have at least a half dozen salad greens, along with beets, radishes and red and green scallions. I am also going to try a fall crop of snap peas, which I have not tried before. Does anyone have an advice for the fall snap peas?
Here is what I hope to be eating in my Thanksgiving salad bowl:
"Redina" leaf lettuce
for color
"Mache" winter lettuce
if all else fails, this should survive
"Samish Savoy" spinach
for iron
"Mizuna" mustard green
for its great taste and mild spice
"Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled" Cress
for its peppery bite
Arugula
for its enjoyable mellow bitterness
Parsley
for its great health properties, and for the taste and structure it will add
Except for the cress, which needs light to germinate, I like to mix all of my salad bowl seeds together. I use an empty spice jar, with the sprinkle top still attached. Then I use it to sprinkle the seeds into the bed and let everything grow together. This makes a mixed harvest easy: just use scissors to sheer off the leaves, two inches above the ground.
To get you started on your winter salad bowl, I am giving away a collection of seed packets, including my very favorite, "Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress," a delicious Mizuna, Red Winter Kale, and Arugula.
To enter the drawing for the seed collection, simply leave a comment telling me your best tip for a good salad (special green? favorite dressing? anything!). Since its about time to get these greens growing, I will randomly draw a name on August 5th and get them in the mail ASAP! Be sure to include your e-mail address when you sign in to leave a comment.
Happy Gardening!
9 comments:
Ish-da I'm idgie about leaving my e-mail address on a public place (I already get a ton of junk) so I am not an official entry I guess.
My best tip, There is no such thing as a tomato-lettuce salad in the PNW. Use fresh berries for sweet-tart color instead.
I'll dive in! Best tip for winter salad (at our farmlet) is the cold frame. We get a killing frost around the end of October (like KILLING, in the teens if you can believe it, in Stanwood??). I wish we didn't but there you go. So I set up the cold frame at the end of August with various salad greens, and leave the top open in the daytime, close it at night. Usually it's all good till after Turkey day, then it's just not enough to keep the stuff from "crisping". I am hoping to try some Mache this year... adam at adalynfarm.com
Thank you Rainsong for letting me know that I was not clear: you need not leave your email in your comment, just sign in with your email address to leave a comment (see below? where it says "comment as"? that is where you will log in) and I will be able to contact you! You are entered! Thank you everyone.
My experience with fall peas:
Don't start them too late! I've started snap peas in mid September, only to find that they never produced, due to cold weather.
I'm still experimenting here, but I am going to start my fall peas in mid August this year.
Fingers crossed,
Kate
Best tip for a good salad? Always make your own dressing! Even if it's just oil and vinegar, it's a big improvement from anything bottled. Cool giveaway!
My favorite store-bought dressing in Annie's Naturals Lemon & Chive. SO good! I also love throwing in something that adds a little crunch: sunflower seeds, walnuts, or something sweet like glazed pecans. (@posiegirl on twitter)
I like to make a lettuce-less salad of cucumbers, green onions, tomatoes, perhaps even an avocado thrown in. Toss with garlic, balsamic and olive oil and voila... a nice change from lettuce greens.
A tip for your tomatoes. Before the heavy rains of late September/October hit and the threat of blight sets in, you can cut off all the clumps of GREEN tomatoes and leave them on the vine. If the tomato has a light green star on bottom, it will ripen in your cool garage. Makes your harvest last through November - and they still taste great. (Also, if you stick thick copper wire through the stalks of your plants, they will be more resistant to blight anyway.)
XOXO, Lisa Cope Kelly
I love different colors and textures in my salad, so I often mix cheese, seeds or nuts and different hard or soft veggies in my salad. That way each bite is a bit different and interesting. Love the giveaway and love the blog... I keep wondering if I'm going to find you at CC Coffee since we appear to be "neighbors" here in the Leaf.
this summer it is salad dressing made from white wine vinegar and dijon mustard and olive oil plus lemon
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