Spring is here!

Our mixed lettuce we've been eating for weeks.

Temperatures have been above freezing for almost a month now. Jed and I took out some of our plants that we started in doors back in February out to our garden plot around the beginning of April. (We have about half an acre we’ll be working on this summer at the top of a hill on the property of Jed’s parents.) Very gently, we transplanted rows of cabbage, kale, rainbow Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, beets, and cabbage. We then put two rounded, plastic covers over them to protect them and help them grow faster—they are miniature cold frame structures made from recycled materials.

Jed watering our tomato plants.

Seeds we started indoors.

 The next day, the Kansas winds came in with all the gusto they could muster up. Then the sun came out…the only day that it’s been above 90F this spring. Before we got out there, one of the cold frame covers had been picked up by the wind and carried off down the side of the hill, broken. I was so worried about the exposed plants but there was nothing to do. I hadn’t realized how emotionally attached I had grown to these little green living organisms. But there I was, worrying like they were my own children.
But they have pulled through and are growing beautifully. And the tomato plants look fantastic. We started all of these amazing heirloom tomatoes from seed that we got from Patricia, a master gardener that Jed apprenticed with back in Salt Lake City. She saves seeds each year from the to-die-for organic heirloom tomatoes that she grows and sells at the SLC farmers market. We’ll start planting those outside in a week, and I am excited! I love this “growing your own food” stuff!!

The "cold frame" that Jed built back in January. This is why we are eating greens right now.

Amy sitting in the middle of our garden, isn't it beautiful?!

Jed and I have been eating salads every day for weeks now—salads created from our own leafy greens that wintered over from last fall in Jed’s cold frames. We’ve got arugula, kale, lettuce, green onions, and spinach. I love it! And we are hoping to sell at the Leavenworth Farmers Market starting the 2nd week of May. Boy do we both have a lot to learn.