First Salad 2010

[SarahSarah]

I've been eating garden salads for a little while now. I love it. Tonight's salad had from my garden:

2 kinds lettuce
spinach
swiss chard
broccoli (heads, a little bit flowers where it had started to open up a bit, and leaves)
anise hyssop
lemon balm
parsley
dill
borage flowers
sage flowers

plus a little bit store bought stuff for crunch. It was wonderful, all those flavors! The borage flowers have a really interesting, complex, hard to describe flavor that I have decided I really like. The sage flowers are just intensely sage-y.

I've never had borage, but I've been reading a lot about it recently. I'm thinking I may need to pick up some seeds to plant some. I'm running out of ground, folks

[rainbowgardener]

This is my first year of growing borage. I grew it because theoretically bees love it. People tell me to be careful with it, that it "freely" self seeds. Last night was my first time of tasting it because it just flowered. The leaves are supposedly edible too, but they are hairy/prickly and don't inspire me to eat them! I've heard that you can juice them, but haven't tried it.

I hear you about running out of ground!

[garden5]

I grew lettuce last year and it was good for a while, but then it bolted and got quite bitter. The leaf lettuce less-so than the head lettuce. I'll be devoting more room to tomatoes and peppers this year and probably less to the greens, though I am giving Swiss chard a try .

[SarahSarah]

I grew lettuce last year and it was good for a while, but then it bolted and got quite bitter. The leaf lettuce less-so than the head lettuce. I'll be devoting more room to tomatoes and peppers this year and probably less to the greens, though I am giving Swiss chard a try .

Hey Garden, I hear you on the bolting lettuce. One thing I'm doing this year is growing lettuce in a flat on my kitchen window sill. I'm eating delicious baby greens every night. I highly recommend it.

[DoubleDogFarm]

You can even buy special gourmet blends for flat growing.

[rainbowgardener]

I grew lettuce last year and it was good for a while, but then it bolted and got quite bitter. The leaf lettuce less-so than the head lettuce. I'll be devoting more room to tomatoes and peppers this year and probably less to the greens, though I am giving Swiss chard a try .

That is in the nature of lettuce, to bolt once the weather gets hot. The earlier you get it started, the longer you have lettuce. I plant lettuce seed directly in the ground early in March ("as soon as the soil can be worked").
Then you can start it again late in the season for a fall crop.

But yes, I love the chard, which doesn't mind the heat and just keeps going all season!