Mid April: what produce is in season in your area?

[organicgoddess]

Hi~ I'm fairly new around here and didn't see an thread about this yet (please steer me in the direction of that which might already be here).

I'm in the southern interior of BC, Canada. We'll be getting our first harvest of radishes next week. Quite exciting, our first fresh field produce of the year! We've also been getting spinach from a local greenhouse and we'll have greenhouse lettuce in the next couple weeks. Both are about a month earlier than usual due to the extra sun we've been having.

What is the fresh, in season produce where you live?

[jodicalhoun]

dear og-

I live in much the same neighborhood, San Juan Islands, Washington. I picked some miner's lettuce for my lunch salad the other day, the rhubarb is ready, the chard and spinach are crisp and sweet. That seems to be it so far. The fruit trees and berry bushes are full of promising blossoms

[jackal10]

UK.

From the garden I'm eating leeks, chard, purple sprouting broccoli, the odd beetroot, wild garlic, greenhouse lettuce, store potatoes. Jusy sown the radish, but could have been eating them if I was more organised. Soon we will have Asparagus

[offcentre]

UK - I have an allotment and am always a little late getting going in the year.

Just coming to the last few purple sprouting brocolli and leeks left now.

Have just sewn broad beans, spinach, lettuces, radishes, parsnips, beetroot, carrots outside and my spuds - pink fir apples and king edward - will go in this weekend.

Have tomatoes just showing through in my coldframe, and just added french beans and courgette seeds last night too.

Getting very excited about the new year of vegetables starting again.

[MelissaH]

Upstate NY:

We're just now getting to the point where the braver souls are cleaning out their flowerbeds. The low temp last night was about 35 degrees...and I live about ten minutes' walk from Lake Ontario.

Our farmer's market starts in May, but the good stuff doesn't show up for another month.

Last year we picked strawberries at one local farm in June, and blueberries in July at another farm.

MelissaH

[Babe Ruthless]

I'm on the cold sunny Alberta prairies so the only thing I am doing in my garden right now is cleaning out the dead stuff and admiring the peonies poking up from the dry dirt. The blueberries, saskatoon and double flowering plum have tiny green buds on them.

The only thing I'm eating from the garden is the 4 inch long chives... which is really when they are the best!

[Smithy]

I'm in northern Minnesota, quite close to Lake Superior, and our temperatures are still often below freezing at night. The snow is finally gone in most places, but there's still a lot of ice on the lakes. My grass is only beginning to think about turning green. The buds on the birches and maples will do their magic act and unfurl into leaves in about a month.

The only thing I have sprouting so far is my chives...but they're coming up! Yahoo!

Our farmer's markets also don't open until May sometime, and there won't be much worth eating there until June.

[chardgirl]

central California, organic farm. We've never had so little at this time, we're not even going to (our year round) farmers market this weekend.

What we do have some of: green garlic, artichokes, fava beans, kale, chard, herbs, sorrel.

cg

[Smithy]

central California, organic farm. We've never had so little at this time, we're not even going to (our year round) farmers market this weekend.

What we do have some of: green garlic, artichokes, fava beans, kale, chard, herbs, sorrel.

cg

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You've had too much rain, haven't you?

[Chris Amirault]

The only thing I have sprouting so far is my chives...but they're coming up!  Yahoo!

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More or less the same here in Rhode Island. My thyme is getting going, but my two rosemary bushes seem to be kaput....

[Smithy]

The only thing I have sprouting so far is my chives...but they're coming up!  Yahoo!

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More or less the same here in Rhode Island. My thyme is getting going, but my two rosemary bushes seem to be kaput....

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I've managed to keep one thyme and one rosemary alive this winter, despite the best predations of my cats. The rosemary is spindly from lack of light, despite being in a south-facing window with a grow light, and the thyme is spindly from lack of soil because the cats keep playing in it (they killed the larger one, sleeping atop that wonderful-smelling greenery) but by golly, they survived. I figure in another month I'll be able to move them outside again.

I just remembered that the burnet outside is sprouting - not ready for harvest, but I can tell it's going. I'm still waiting to see whether the sorrel made it another winter. I can hardly wait for sorrel again!

[chardgirl]

You've had too much rain, haven't you?

Yes, dramatically more than 'normal'. But I didn't want to whine about considering where most of you are.

cg

ps my husband and I secretly dream of farming in the northern prarie so we would REALLY get 4-5 months off every year. We harvest and sell 52 weeks a year.

[Smithy]

You've had too much rain, haven't you?

Yes, dramatically more than 'normal'. But I didn't want to whine about considering where most of you are.

cg

ps my husband and I secretly dream of farming in the northern prarie so we would REALLY get 4-5 months off every year. We harvest and sell 52 weeks a year.

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BWAAHAHAHA!

Go say that on the Heartland forum or the gardening forum. I dare you! Up here, seed catalogs generate more panting desire than Victoria's Secret and Playboy/girl combined.

But seriously, I understand. Dad grew oranges (and for a while, grapes) in Central California. Vacations had to be planned carefully, and with the help of good friends to cover for each other during absences.

[Bridgestone]

Well, we've already got some Northerners reporting on what's happening in gardens in these latitudes so I won't add too much in that department.

Ran by Stockholm's fanciest market yesterday, glanced at the vegetable stands and saw asparagus (only white from Germany and green from Peru. Swedish-grown asparagus won't be available for perhaps a month still...). New potatoes (hothouse) were available and judging by the status of this market, may well be some of the few harvested in Sweden. With all of the late snow this year, I wonder if it will be tough to find new potatoes for midsommar? Read in the newspaper on Wednesday that the first harvest of strawberries (hothouse, too) occurred in Southern Sweden earlier this week - 16 liters that were immediately shipped to the Royal Family and a few Stockholm restaurants.

The only local, springtime products I saw were spring chickens (still small, baby chickens over and up here and not a product of cross-breeding) and small bags of stinging nettles. Maybe a couple of spring chickens with nettle sauce this weekend to welcome back the spring flowers and the blackbird's evening song?

[organicgoddess]

I've been noticing the rain in California too. I don't live there, but I sell produce. The lettuce and spinach has been terrible quality and more expensive for the last three months than I've ever seen it. I'm glad the rain is letting up. But more glad our local supplies are starting. We've had such a mild winter that we'll have local lettuce in a couple weeks!

[chefdg]

I'm not picking but receiving really good watermelon. Naples, FL.

[snowangel]

Go say that on the Heartland forum or the gardening forum.  I dare you!    Up here, seed catalogs generate more panting desire than Victoria's Secret and Playboy/girl combined.

But seriously, I understand.  Dad grew oranges (and for a while, grapes) in Central California.  Vacations had to be planned carefully, and with the help of good friends to cover for each other during absences.

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My rhubarb has sprouted leaves! Happy dance! Joy!

My sister lives in CA and says that year-round gardening is "not all it's cracked up to be." I want to know that first hand!

[kellycolorado]

Chardgirl, I thought what you listed sounds familiar- I belong to the CSA that your farm is involved with. Compared to the CSA's I've joined in the past, the offerings are very abundant for this early in the season.

I'm loving all the greens and root vegetables and salad mix lately. And tasty strawberries the past few weeks.

central California, organic farm. We've never had so little at this time, we're not even going to (our year round) farmers market this weekend.

What we do have some of: green garlic, artichokes, fava beans, kale, chard, herbs, sorrel.

cg

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[kellycolorado]

oh, and root vegetable kimchi from Wild Fermentation is a great way to use turnips, radish and carrots. I have a batch going on the counter.

I almost forgot the leeks- They are one of my all time favorite vegetables.

[chromedome]

Hmmm. I'm in Edmonton, too. About a week now, maybe two, since the last of the snow melted away from the shady parts of my garden. What I've got for seasonal is the first 1/2 cm or so of some crocuses, and some patented Super Early Dandelion .

Might just pick those dandelions, though, at that...

[cjs]

Here on the "wet" coast, the only thing I'm picking out of my garden is slugs!

but yes, the chives are a foot out of the ground, and the rosemary is healthy. Sage is coming back, and I'll have scads of raspberries this year! Is it just me, or is it colder than normal this year on the coast of B.C.? Been so busy at work, I'm kinda glad, because I'm way behind on the whole gardening gig this year. Haven't done the weed and feed thing yet on the lawn either and the dandelions are taking over! Did someone out there say they wanted

dandelions?

[jackal10]

This thread needs some pictures

Cowslip or gilly flower; very sweet used for fritters or country wine. Greengage tree in blossom

Young rhubarb; Rainbow chard almost fluorescent

Young buttercrunch lettuce in the greenhouse ready to plant out or eat as baby leaves; Purple flowered broad/fava beans. You can eat the bean tops as a leaf vegetable

Purple sprouting broccoli

Sorrel; wild garlic (with an early bluebell). I still don't know if these are "ramps"

Herbs.

Buds coming on the chives; a stray Rembrandt Tulip - fortunes were paid for these

Sages (purple, ordinary, painted); Comfrey just starting;

Variagated lemon balm (a menace, seeds everywhere); varigated oregano;

young sweet cicely; young salad burnet;

Mint just coming;Thymes on the roof of the oven

Edited April 16, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Chufi]

Thyme on the roof of the oven. That is just poetry!

What beautiful pictures, they really give me spring fever..

I'm in the Netherlands. I've had some lovely bright pink rhubarb last week.. and turnip tops.

Asparagus (white) is coming. I'm very much looking forward to the first asparagus dinner of spring.. juicy stalks with boiled eggs, new potatoes, ham and melted butter..

[Smithy]

Jackal10, those look like ramps to me. Lucky you!

Edited to remove sniveling.

Edited April 17, 2005 by Smithy (log)