My favorite farmers market...

...is my backyard.  From left to clockwise: kohlrabi coming in slowly now just a few at a time, spinach, baby potatoes from one yellowed plant, one garlic bulb from a late mistake transplant that already died back, one small red onion bulb that kept getting broken off, and one green onion that couldn't survive the rabbits.

Basically all blunders and random vegetables.  Fried up in an egg scramble you'd never know it.

Kohlrabi and early garlic

Kohlrabi may look like a weird Star Trek vegetable but it was very easy to grow. Kyle sowed it early and that's all the work it took. Not every single plant swelled up like they should, but it was still a decent amount. This first two pickings wasn't all that much, but after peeling them they went very well sauteed with scrambled eggs.

Smelled like cabbage, was supposed to taste like mild broccoli but instead it blended nicely in with the potatoes in my egg scramble. I would say we plant an entire box (16 sf ft) next year rather than just the portion (6 sq ft).

This first batch doesn't really help you see what they look like....I cut the leaves off first.

This second batch shows the leaves. You will notice that the vegetable is just a swollen steam basically.

Two of my garlics have already dried out and fallen over. I was aiming for the 4th of July, but I figure I better take these out. From what I have read you don't want to let the leaves completely dry out because you need to make sure the bulb has enough viable "papers" to properly store. These two are smallish (about the size you normally get at the store). I hope the rest are bigger!

Hail and lemonade

This is the second time this week we got hail....much worse this time than last.

Some damage to lettuces and quite a bit to the onions. To turn these atmospheric lemons into lemonade I gathered all the broken onions and garlic leaves. These will cook up very nicely..and with great delicate allium flavor.

And several pounded radishes.

The Garden Awakes!

After a bitterly cold winter with far above average snows, Northwest Arkansas is getting a taste of a traditional spring. We had several warm days that saw 70 degrees and sun. We have had several VERY rainy days complete with thunderstorms and hail. Cloudy, mild days into the 50s feel like normal. It's enough to warm the hearts of gardeners and the soils of their gardens. Seed orders are coming in and we are already procrastinating on the indoor seeding. I took a walk around the garden and realized that it has awoken, despite the hard winter.

Garden looks pretty boring here...depressing even. Notice the newer beds on the outer edges. These additions add 176 sq ft of raised beds, bringing the total close to 400 sq ft.

Garlic is up and ready for warm days. As opposed to last year, I got these in the ground in the late fall rather than waiting until the spring. That is the way it is supposed to be done evidently. These overwinter just fine. I have a challenge among a few friends for the best garlic to be pulled on July 4th.

Parsley overwintered just fine and is starting new growth. Curly leaf parsley on the left, flat leaf (Italian) parsley on the right. You can't see it but behind the parsley the chives are pushing up mounds of soil in their effort to break through.

This bed is the permanent strawberry bed. It was started last year with just one row up front of everbearing plants. The rest of the box was filled in the late fall with first year transplants from our friend's borrowed box in our garden and his pots. We needed to dump a lot of new compost in his bed and I feared the small pots would not protect the plants during the winter. The potted strawberries also had many runners that had rooted into the rest of the box. The whole thing was a mess....the friend hadn't visited his plot in months. So his have now filled the back of the bed. Some were everbearing and some June. Kyle added 3 or 4 inches of compost right on top of the plants and the existing mulch.....I feared that this would hurt the strawberries, but I think it actually provided great insulation. He was careful to make sure he gathered the plant leaves up and spread the compost all around them. I imagine as perennial plants with quick rooting, the strawberries will just gradually raise their root level and thrive. Let's hope.

Brand new growth of strawberries. They are ready for spring!

Mint. This is a 2x5 raised bed that is completely segregated from the rest of the garden. Mint can be very invasive, so we planted it away...in the shade...and we kind of ignored it as it is just far enough out of sight and hard to reach with the hose. It didn't do very well at all last year, but we sort of don't mind. We dumped 3 or 4 inches of compost on top and just let it sit during the winter. All kinds of new growth...but we may have killed one or two of the varieties planted in this box. We will see.

Is anything waking up in your garden/farm?