The header image has been adjusted accordingly. Winter Sunshine is both a good photograph and a good crappy old book,* but it’s time to move ahead.
In fewer than 50 days we will have fresh lettuce for salads. Today is also the day I begin harvesting fresh asparagus. That investment of time and energy eight years ago is paying off. It was a good decision!
I am not going to join the crowd in telling you what to do, but you may want to consider putting in a small garden this year. It’s awfully nice being able to go outside, pluck a few radishes, a stalk of celery, a few lettuce leaves, come inside, rinse, and make your family a nice salad.
*
Winter Sunshine. John Burroughs. Hurd and Houghton, New York. 1876.
The photo from which the Winter Sunshine banner was made.
I suppose it might be time to plant lettuce here too…but it probably won’t happen due to the soggy ground and untilled garden. Perhaps I might sneak a few seeds into the butterfly garden flower bed…
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Asparagus = pee perfume.
It was cool when we were in Germany to see the asparagus fields…they build up the rows to bleach the stems, so it looked like a big empty field with the rows build up high and the people picking (digging?) the asparagus walking in between. The rows were about knee high or higher, as I recall. It was one of those neck cranking things as we drove by at about 60 mph and tried to see what they were doing. I’ve never found the bleached (yellow) asparagus particularly appealing, but they were considered very desirable (as in expensive) over there. The asparagus harvesting period was only about 6 weeks, and it was established by law! That always seemed odd to me – it was as if they thought the farmers didn’t know that they couldn’t cut after a certain time or they’d lose the producing shoots that made for next year’s plants. But…they’re Germans. They like rules.
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I don’t care for blanched asparagus. I just do not get the point, and I like chlorophyl.
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I suppose it might be time to plant lettuce here too…but it probably won’t happen due to the soggy ground and untilled garden. Perhaps I might sneak a few seeds into the butterfly garden flower bed…
Asparagus = pee perfume.
It was cool when we were in Germany to see the asparagus fields…they build up the rows to bleach the stems, so it looked like a big empty field with the rows build up high and the people picking (digging?) the asparagus walking in between. The rows were about knee high or higher, as I recall. It was one of those neck cranking things as we drove by at about 60 mph and tried to see what they were doing. I’ve never found the bleached (yellow) asparagus particularly appealing, but they were considered very desirable (as in expensive) over there. The asparagus harvesting period was only about 6 weeks, and it was established by law! That always seemed odd to me – it was as if they thought the farmers didn’t know that they couldn’t cut after a certain time or they’d lose the producing shoots that made for next year’s plants. But…they’re Germans. They like rules.
I don’t care for blanched asparagus. I just do not get the point, and I like chlorophyl.