I wanted to work in the garden today!

In the past, I have worked in the garden rather grudgingly....."well, it has to be done." But this morning, the garden is where I wanted to be. It was a sweet, mild, hazily sunny day that felt like early spring, even though more rain is due the rest of this weekend. So I abandoned the cleaning that should have been done in the house and went out at least for a while.

The older lettuce beds are past their prime, so we are gradually harvesting whole heads whenever we want a salad. It is not as tender and sweet as usual, but still better than what we get in the supermarket. There does not seem to be a huge amount of active aphid activity, but there is still some damage from them. I'm glad we have eight young heads in planters and a bunch more lettuce seedlings on their way to growing up. Lettuce is the one thing I really must grow. I can no longer eat what the store sells.

I had recently read in a catalogue that when seedlings have their first true leaves, it is time to give them a boost with some kind of food. And, all of ours now have true leaves. So I mixed up a batch of Maxicrop (a kelp extract) and thoroughly watered all the new seedlings. There was a bunch left so I also fed the cabbage, kale, and chard plants. I know that cabbage is a heavy feeder....and ours have never been fed until today!! My garden planning seems often not to get beyond when to plant seeds, when to transplant, and when to harvest. There seems to be a missing piece as in "how to care for them while they are growing." This is definitely a work in progress.

While I was out, I also pulled up the last of some very overgrown arugula plants. There seemed to be a bunch of good growth left on them, so I rescued what I could for a lunch salad. So both dishes we had for lunch had homegrown greens in them. Mushroom polenta pie used some of our young chard leaves (this was covered in a great red wine tomato sauce!), and arugula and grapefruit salad. The main dish and sauce are both recipes from the Moosewood low-fat cookbook. We've had about four things from it in the last couple of weeks. All of them great!

Penny made bread today, and we are just now sampling some warm slices. She's surprised that it worked because after she already had some of the ingredients mixed up, she discovered there wasn't enough yeast. But it sat around much of the day and eventually seemed to rise so she baked two small loaves and one large one and it is yummy. Fresh homemade bread almost always is.

Saturdays are yummy, too, and even some of the housecleaning got done. The garden planting plan, however, is still not done. Manana. Tonight is for reading by the woodstove with the cats.