Sorry for the late post. Unfortunately the work day needed to start somewhat earlier than normal  with a conference call (yes, Tom, I’m referring to you) and I needed to be on my merry way to the office before 8 am. I also needed to harvest in order to make our lunches. Should have done it Thursday night, but alas, my slothful nature (because I’m trying not to get sick) and the mind-mumbing powers of television and the sofa won out.

Farm sign that needs to be reattached to the fence now that it’s stopped raining again (thanks, Fred & Christine!)

Post-5:30 am walk, Godiva and I headed out to see what we could find in the Mortroski Midcentury Urban Farm that might be suitable for a delicious lunch salad. Remember it’s been raining for several days and we’ve gotten something like 4 inches of rain. Before that, I thought I killed the entire farm the other night by not covering the raised beds and stocktanks to protect them from frost. And the washtub filled with the new salad green crop has spent a considerable amount of time in the garage hiding from the cold.

Today’s salad harvest: mixed mesculin, green leaf, red romaine, nero kale, cilantro, parsley, chard, spinach, collard greens, mustard greens

Well, it was an awesome harvest even though I needed to harvest in the dark. But I have a headlamp so I’m all set. Yes, I look a bit like a middle aged pre-mine coal miner as I head out to the section of the yard that’s all garden. When I complained about the days getting longer and my night time and early morning gardening getting to be much dimmer than I’d like, Bruce headed to REI (the Mountain Equipment Co-op of the U.S.) and solved the problem by surprising me with a headlamp. I look super silly, but Godiva doesn’t care.

By the light of my forehead flashlight, I was amazed. (I must be doing something somewhat correctly.) Not only was nothing dead/managed/water logged, it all looked FABULOUS. The lettuce has all rebounded nicely and appeared to be thriving. All of the kale plants are thriving. The cilantro has never looked better. Collards are producing like crazy. Mustard greens are finally doing their thing.

Hail! It’s pretty kale.

But the spinach is what made me the happiest. Spinach was my fill-in-any-gap-in-every-bed crop. I planted it randomly by seed. And at first it didn’t seem to take so I tried again in a new place. Well, all of the places are now growing and apparently it’s pretty happy wherever it is.

I filled my harvesting container with a bit of this and a bit of that and headed back inside (By this time all 3Gs were outside, delighting in the squish of mud between their toes and amusing themselves by chasing and biting each other). Our salads could not be fresher—or more tasty looking. It might be more convenient and instantly gratifying to purchase the salad greens, but I’ll tell you, picking each leaf, leaf by leaf, washing off the dirt splashed up by this week’s rain, and knowing that I haven’t killed the entire urban farm will make that salad the most delicious lunch I’ve had in a good long while.

Speaking of lunch, is it time yet?

PS: It’s going to be almost 60°F here today and in the upper 50°s tomorrow. Hopefully everything gets growing before the cold snap on Sunday. See what I mean about north Texas weather?