Anticipating Asparagus

Our garden from 2010

This year of local eating has been pretty lucky for us. We've met some wonderful farmers who share our goal of preserving the environment, we have read many labels at the grocery store, and learned a whole lot about where our food comes from. We were also lucky that here in Virginia, we have had a mild winter, and have been able to buy many vegetables from a farmer who is just fifteen minutes from us! Pretty amazing. While I'm grateful for the dark green collards, kale, and broccoli, and beautiful cabbages and sweet potatoes of winter, I am so ready for asparagus! I saw it at the grocery store the other day. All bundled up with it's friends in a nice tidy row with water droplets shining on it's sleek and slender green surface. It was beautiful, and I was oh so tempted, but I reminded myself that April is just around the corner, and promptly wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth as I set off to get the milk that I came for. Longing for asparagus reminded me that it is time I started my own vegetable seeds for the season. I ordered them this year from a company called "Vegan Seeds" who advertise their seeds as a sort of post apocalypse repopulating the food source type of deal (weirdos...ahem) anyway, they were cheap, and organic and non-GMO, so I bought them. They came in a nice Mylar bag (for long term storage) and were simply labeled with printed instructions for planting and saving seeds. As long as they actually grow, I'm a happy customer. Any way, tonight, I got out the little seed starting pots, grabbed a bag of potting soil, and fired up the grow lights. So far, I started several varieties of tomato, cucumber, and zucchini. If the rain would just let up for a couple of days, I would put the peas in the ground, and in a couple of weeks, the potatoes! Then the beans, and herbs, and lettuces!

The girls first lemonade stand

I am for the first time in a long time, ready for summer. Normally I'm not a huge fan of mosquitoes, 100 plus degree days, long periods of drought, and high electric bills, but eating seasonally has given summer an appeal that it lacked before. I plan to look at it through rose...or tomato colored glasses this year. I also plan to take more photos since my sweet husband bought me a new camera for Christmas this year. Yes, lots of muddy hands holding earth worms, budding vegetable plants, harvest baskets over flowing with the bounty of the season, and probably some beach and pool photos mixed in as well. And maybe, just maybe, I'll look back on those pictures when it's cold and harsh in the winter, and we aren't so lucky to have lovely dark greens, and beautiful cabbages, and I will once again look forward to summer!