Early Spring Garden Produce

We're in garden hardiness zone 8b, which means the average extreme low temperature is between 15 to 20 degrees F in winter. Early spring is chilly, here, with a slow warm-up as the season progresses. And yet, we can still harvest fresh produce by mid-March each year.

I'll be sautéing these kale leaves to go with tonight's dinner.

The produce we're harvesting is limited in quantity and variety. It's  primarily the biennial greens that I planted last year that over-wintered and are now putting on spring growth, like kale, Brussel sprout greens, and parsley. These biennials will start to produce seeds by sometime in April. We'll harvest  leaves until I need that growing space, perhaps mid-April. 

I thinned these seedlings earlier this week to use as the base for a tossed salad tonight.

The other greens that I can harvest this early are the tiny seedlings that I thin from the flats started under lights for this summer's garden, a mixture of lettuce, chard, kale, cabbage, and Brussel sprout seedlings.

I have 1 head of garlic left from last summer's harvest.
We'll use garlic powder, occasional purchased fresh garlic,
and cuttings from these two pots for garlic until this summer's harvest.

In addition to leafy greens, I also have chives that are up and ready to harvest and the leaves from garlic. In fall, I always miss a few garlic bulbs, try as I might. So in spring, I use those missed bulbs for harvesting leaves, sometimes called garlic chives. This year, I potted up all of the errant garlic in two pots, now sitting close to the kitchen door. My hope is by making the garlic chives more convenient to the kitchen, I will clip these greens often as I'm cooking this spring. And as I run out of fresh garlic, I am also near the end of our onions. It all runs out at once! I'm glad I have the "regular" chives to fill in until I buy another big bag of onions.

If you keep a produce garden, what items are among the first that you can harvest in spring?