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Early produce not just peas, carrots anymore. Greens get exotic
By Denise Ellsworth
Special to the Beacon Journal
Published on Saturday, Apr 19, 2008
Are you eating enough vegetables? After a winter of bland produce — sometimes shipped from a thousand miles away — nothing tastes as good as a fresh salad or a vegetable side dish straight from the garden. Many early-season vegetables can be grown and harvested in the spring in Ohio, including the usual cast of characters — peas, carrots, and radishes — as well as some lesser-known edibles, like mesclun, parsley root and Swiss chard.
Lettuce is commonly one of the first crops of spring, planted as soon as the soil can be worked in April. Instead of just green leaf lettuce, the discerning gardener is now likely to grow mesclun — a colorful mix of leaf crops cut small for a gourmet salad. Mesclun is Provencal for a ''mixture'' type of salad harvested from wild greens in spring in the south of France. A mesclun seed mix may include arugula, mizuna and cervil along with baby lettuces.
For your own baby green mix, experiment with Asian greens, such as red mustard or loose-headed Chinese cabbage, radicchio or garden cress. These leafy greens can be harvested when leaves are 4 to 6 inches long, or use the tiny, thinned out plants in salads. Mache, also known as corn salad, is another tasty choice for salads. Unlike other baby greens, mache is harvested once it forms baby heads.
Parsley root is getting a lot of press lately, or at least a lot of attention from area gardeners. Several calls have come in this spring to our horticulture hot line asking how to grow this cold-loving vegetable. Also known as Hamburg parsley, parsley root has an edible root like a slender parsnip, while the leaves can be used for flavoring or as a garnish. This vegetable is a variety of the more commonly grown leaf parsley, but it has a tender root, unlike the woody root of leaf parsley.
Parsley seed of any sort is notoriously difficult to germinate. Chemicals on the seed not only prevent germination of neighboring weed seeds, but also prevent the germination of parsley itself. To speed along the germination, soak seeds overnight to wash away some of the inhibiting chemicals. Seeds can be sown directly as soon as soil is workable in the spring.
One of my favorite vegetables for the garden is Swiss chard, especially the Bright Lights cultivar. Easy to grow, Swiss chard can be eaten raw in salads or cooked like spinach. Essentially the same plant as the beet, Swiss chard has been bred for its leafy tops. The Bright Lights cultivar has colorful red, yellow, orange, and pink leaf stems, making this an attractive addition to both the garden and the table. Stems are edible, but need to be cooked slightly longer than the leaves.
Chard is easy to grow in full sun in average soil. More heat-tolerant than spinach, Swiss chard will continue to produce leafy greens through the summer instead of bolting in the heat of summer.
Many other vegetables are cold tolerant, including broccoli, cabbage and onions. These crops can be started from seed indoors in late winter, or they can be purchased as transplants at garden centers and planted in spring. Fresh, tender broccoli harvested from the garden has converted many broccoli-phobic children into broccoli lovers.
Green Comet is a fast-maturing cultivar that will produce many side shoots once the main head has been harvested. Broccoli raab is broccoli's cousin, planted in spring from seed. Shoots can be harvested about 60 days after planting.
According to folklore, peas should be planted on St. Patrick's Day. Dig a little deeper into the folklore, however, and this piece of gardening advice falls apart. From coast to coast and from Ohio on south, the same date is offered as the best time to plant peas. Clearly, the conditions in California on March 17 are much different from those in Ohio!
In our climate, peas can be planted once the soil has thawed and drained. Soil in raised beds will drain and warm faster in spring, allowing for earlier planting. Some gardeners prefer to grow sugar pod peas like Sugar Snap, which are sweet and can be eaten pod and all. While peas tolerate cool temperatures, they don't grow well in hot weather, so get your crop in now.
Denise Ellsworth is a horticultural educator with Ohio State University Extension. If you have questions about caring for your garden, write: Plant Lovers' Almanac, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640. Include your phone number.
Have a gardening question? Ohio State University Master Gardeners operate a horticulture hot line from 9 a.m. to noon each Tuesday and Thursday. Call 330-928-4769 (GROW).
Are you eating enough vegetables? After a winter of bland produce — sometimes shipped from a thousand miles away — nothing tastes as good as a fresh salad or a vegetable side dish straight from the garden. Many early-season vegetables can be grown and harvested in the spring in Ohio, including the usual cast of characters — peas, carrots, and radishes — as well as some lesser-known edibles, like mesclun, parsley root and Swiss chard.
Get the full article here.
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