Friday, February 24, 2012

The Hunting of the Salad

Getting my salad together for February was quite an ordeal after that prolonged spell of heavy frost. Gone were most of the plants that so amply provided me and me chooks with greens over the Winter months. Even the veg in my unheated greenhouse croaked it. Not good.
This, for instance, used to be bright and glossy red Swiss chard that has now turned into an unappetizing bit of snot (sorry). I was spoiled for choice last month for putting together a salad for Salad Days but not this time. So I had a spot of hunting to do. In my potager I found this
red chicory

Sorrel
Mibuna
Wintercress (Barbarea spp) sown by my own slightly grubby hands
Red Russian Kale
Egyptian walking onions
Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta), an edible weed
Lettuce, many heads of it have survived the frost onslaught
Another kind of lettuce (I often sow mixed salad leaf seeds so no idea which one it is)
Wild rocket
In my kitchen kitchen garden I found this
More lettuce
In the fridge this
A jar of sprouts
And finally in my conservatory I spotted a nice big clump of this
wild rocket
With all that salad hunting done I'd become quite pekkish so I put together this plate
my February salad
and added cherry toms, old Dutch cheese, ghurkins and sprouts and sprayed it all with balsamico vinegar & olive oil, then milled some fresh black pepper and sea salt over it

This week I've been sowing quite a lot of munchable goodies so hopefully next month I won't have to hunt high and low to put a decent salad together.


copyright 2012 Y.E.W. Heuzen

10 comments:

VP said...

Hi Yolanda - your salad hunt was well worth it! Hopefully lots of us will find the Challenge slightly easier next month :)

I'm really surprised the chard croaked, but the lettuce didn't!

This month's Salad Days is now up, but as I came in to comment, I've already got your link to add to Mr Linky :)

Jenny said...

I would look at those plants and think weeds. That is amazing how you made such a beautiful salad. xo Jenny

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for showing those photos! I think of you as such a perfect gardener...it's nice to see that not all of your plants cooperate (just like mine!). But even though it might have been an effort...that salad looks yummy!

Brenda said...

How lovely and inspiring - like your kitchen kitchen garden!

Lea said...

Glad your search for greens was rewarded - that is a good looking salad!
Happy Gardening!
Lea
Lea's Menagerie
Mississippi, USA

Matron said...

A difficult time of year to grow anything at all. You've done well - if only there were home grown tomatoes, I am just sick of the horrid supermarket toms.

Naturegirl said...

Yolanda a great salad! I've never put gerkins in mine but worth trying! Nice to check into your Bliss! Anna

Red Maple Tree said...

Your salad's plants are really nice. You should take good care of them. You preperd nice salad.

Unknown said...

Healthy and delicious thumbs up!

Sheryl at Providence North said...

I need to eat more salad! That looks great! I am definitely planting salad ingredients this year!