By Amy Swanson
Tuesday couldn’t have been a nicer day to work…not too hot, and not too cloudy. The crew of Connie, Linda, MaryAnn and I picked pole beans and tomatoes and did basic “maintenance” gardening. That included weeding, some watering, thinning one lettuce bed to start another lettuce bed, pulling the last of the cucumber plants and putting up a new rabbit fence around the young lettuce.
New crops growing in former potato bed
The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that instead of seeing potato furrows, I now saw green rows of broccoli and lettuce. I find it amazing how our head farmer keeps optimizing the use of this fertile soil. This activity is waning as the month progresses….It is not too early to add frost into the garden calculus and slow down the replanting.
The next thing I noticed was the beautiful purples and greens of the bok choy (I think donated by Guy Doran) and lush Savoy and purple cabbages. Makes you want to paint them. With the significant Asian population at the Lexington Food Pantry, these greens should be appreciated.
Bok Choy
Cabbage growing in former potato bed
What is not thriving:
Celery—some bug appears to have taken root
Broccoli—the more mature bed is being attacked by some critters…chipmunks?
What is thriving: Everything else. We were going to pull the squash plants, but lo and behold, there were more flowers and young squash so we’ll wait a bit longer.
What I learned:
I’ve noted before how I even admire the weeds–how healthy they are compared to those in my yard. Well, I discovered from Linda, my co-weeder, that one of the fat succulents I had been pulling is purslane, a valued green eaten in many other parts of the world. According to Wiki, “…the stems, leaves and flower buds are all edible. Purslane can be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked like spinach.” In fact, Purslane contains more Omega 3s than any other leafy vegetable plant. Linda gladly collected some to take home!
And by the way, I heard that almost 100 pounds were picked and delivered to the Pantry last Saturday!! Lots of big juicy tomatoes and more!