Grow. Cook. Eat.

I moved into my house in the dead of winter 2002. I didn’t meet my new neighbors until the spring thaw when everyone ventured out to start cleaning up their yards.

One spring afternoon as I approached my house after running errands, I noticed three grey haired men, probably in their 70’s, hunched over a shovel in my front yard. Not yet familiar with the neighbors, I was quite suspicious. What could they be digging up?

As it turns out, they weren’t digging up; they were digging “down”. As in, they were transplanting lilac bushes into my yard. Louie, who lived in the house behind me, wanted to trim back his lilacs which had spread too much along his yard. Rather than throw away perfectly good plants, he decided to give them to me – the new kid on the block. He enlisted Tommy and Paul, who live next door, to help. They planted one tree in the front and one in the back. By the time I discovered them, Tommy was replacing the last shovelful of dirt over the exposed roots and Paul had pulled out my garden hose to give them a good soaking.

I adore fragrant spring flowers. Before I lived in a house, and could grow my own, I would buy hyacinth bulbs for my apartment. In the spring, I breathe extra-deep just to inhale as much wonderful scents as possible. I had never owned a lilac before, so I didn’t know what olfactory treat was in store.

I didn’t learn until later that lilacs require a 6 year recovery period from the transplant. Every spring, I would inspect the new growth for buds hoping that it would sprout flowers.

Finally, this year – my seventh spring in this house, the long wait is over. The lilacs bloomed.

Thank you Tommy, Paul and Louie for such a wonderful gift!

Less than two weeks after I started thinning the arugula, mizuna and tatsoi sprouts, I harvested my first salad. The leaves from the first cutting are softer and more mild in flavor than later cuttings. Even so, the salad is far superior to anything I could purchase in the market.

Less is more. Especially when it comes to planting lettuces and leafy greens.

Every year, I make the same mistake, though, when planting the arugula, mizuna and tatsoi. I plant hundreds of seeds when I should be planting dozens. The tiny seeds fool me into thinking I need more, and sprinkle as many as 50 seeds per inch. To give you a little perspective, I used a 1/2 teaspoon measure for the arugula seeds in this photo:

When they begin to sprout into a bushy shag of leaves, I start trimming.
The roots crave room to grow, and when they’re crowded, the plants’ growth is stunted. Last year, I ruthlessly thinned the lettuces to one sprout per 1 or 2 inches. And I was reward with large, prolific plants. For some reason this year, I still planted the seeds too densely. So this morning I headed out to the garden to start snipping away.

This is not a particularly pleasant task. With sharp scissors, I cut the stem below all the leafy sprouts. I carefully leave the strongest sprout. With stems growing within millimeters of each other, I must be careful to not accidentally cut too much, nor to disturb the roots of the remaining plants.

The plants I thinned last week are already rewarding me for the breathing room. I should have my first garden salad within a week.

If you’re good, like Susy at Chiot’s Run, you will save all the sprouts for a small salad.