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?

When planning doesn't go as planned

One of the complications I came across with the previous batch-cooking and menu planning is I wound up with a couple of extra meals. Sometimes I find I have to use a fresh ingredient before it spoils and it doesn't go with the planned meals, or we don't have 3 or 4 people at home to eat an entire freezer meal, or we just want something else. Whatever the case, the last time around I did wind up pushing a meal or two from the old plan into the new plan. Which meant I didn't need to cook quite as much this time around, and I could push batch-cooking off one more day.

I cooked two weeks of meals in 2 days instead of all in one day, last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Here's what I cooked and how I portioned it for the freezer:

cooked 2.5 lbs ground beef with diced onions, cooked a large pot of chili con carne with most of the meat

• froze 2 cups of cooked beef and onions to use in beef and bean burritos
• froze 2 meals of chili con carne
• ate 1 meal of chili con carne

cooked pinto beans, about 2 quarts once cooked

• added some to chili
• froze rest of cooked beans to use in beef and bean burritos later in week

3 chicken breasts, simmered in water, froze some as is, cooked other 2 portions with veggies and seasonings

• froze one portion of diced chicken in stock
• ate 1 meal of chicken and dumplings
• froze filling for chicken pot pie

made double batch of pizza crust and double batch of pizza sauce and froze

• one pizza was made last Friday
• the dough and sauce are in the freezer for another pizza this coming Friday

I'll be making scratch hot dog buns and dinner rolls this Tuesday, to use Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

Here's how we're eating what I've cooked and frozen:

Monday -- We had hot dogs on my daughters actual birthday (a Monday), using frozen buns and hot dogs that I had intended to use the previous week. We also had tangerines and leftover birthday cake.

Tuesday -- chili con carne with scratch cornbread, plus a salad of tomatoes and lettuce from the birthday picnic

Wednesday -- chicken and dumplings with a salad of leftover lettuce/tomatoes, newly shredded carrots and chopped cabbage

Thursday -- just my husband and I for dinner. The meals I made and froze serve 4. Not wanting leftovers, I made scrambled eggs and bacon, plus baked potatoes, and steamed broccoli for dinner for 2.

Friday -- pepperoni pizza #1, green fig-applesauce, and steamed spinach

Saturday -- beef and bean burritos in homemade tortillas with fresh tomatoes and avocados, plus Cole slaw

Sunday --chili con carne over leftover cornbread with a side of buttered carrots

Here's where we are now. Monday -- baked potatoes,. topped with garden greens, cheese sauce, and bacon bits. I had previously thought to use the chicken frozen in stock in a chicken salad or chicken soup, but the rest of the package of bacon needed cooking/eating. So I switched to baked potatoes with toppings for the main tonight. We had pureed pumpkin as a side.

Tuesday -- hot dog cookout on scratch buns

Wednesday -- easy chicken and vegetable soup, using the cooked chicken in stock, seasonings, frozen mixed veggies and pasta, with scratch dinner rolls

Thursday -- chicken pot pie, using the cooked chicken and vegetable filling made when I cooked the chicken and dumplings.

Friday -- pepperoni pizza #2, vegetables on the side

Saturday -- chili con carne, leftover dinner rolls

Sunday -- tuna melt sandwiches, fresh fruit