Eating Year Round from the Garden

I am always conscious of my real gardening goal– to eat from the garden year round. That is no small thing when one lives in Minnesota. I was talking to a woman I work with who lives in Florida and she harvested her first tomato yesterday! And her basil plants have doubled in size in two weeks. Wow. I just transplanted my tomato plants to the greenhouse beds last week, in the hopes of having a tomato before August 1. Right now they don’t look too promising!

But Saturday I harvested the first asparagus of the year. And I still had one little baggie of potatoes left from 2017, this interesting variety that have purple skin and a purple core surrounded by a ring of white flesh. While many of them sprouted in the storage boxes in the basement and got replanted, these have been in the fridge for a few months now. And so — Fall 2017 meet Spring 2018. Also consumed this week the last of the garlic, though if I wanted to, I could start eating “spring garlic” from the garden now, the green shoots (not scapes yet) that grow off the young bulbs. I have spring onions and greens and lettuce as well. The pantry will be empty (save a couple jars of jam) after I use the last half jar of tomatoes in tonight’s dinner.

Add a little salmon and you have a gourmet meal!

It is hard to describe the pleasure these meals give me. Asparagus season is an amazing time of year. This little yellow “produce bag” is kind of miraculous. Even though I only harvest a few spears a day, when I go looking for asparagus for dinner I usually have a full bag! It seems to reproduce in there, making what seems like an insignificant harvest into a feast.

And so you have it. Canned tomatoes, meet a frozen package of winter squash for soup. Dried garden beans, meet garlic and thyme and “Old Roosty’s” broth. Last bags of frozen shredded zucchini, you can be a fritter with some chicken eggs. Life is very good.