Eating in Early Spring: Perennial veggies and overwinter beds

April 29, 2009, in Eastern Massachusetts and I picked all the veggies for my lunch out of the garden! I picked an onion from the fall storage in the basement and then headed out to the garden. The perennial vegetables were ready to start harvesting. I cut some lush walking onion greens, some asparagus shoots, the two largest rhubarb stems (only about 6 inches long), and the first two Good King Henry shoots, also known as Goosefoot.

From the over winter bed I picked Miner's lettuce, flowering yet still tender. From the new spring bed I gathered young lettuce, beet greens and escarole previously planted indoors under lights 6 weeks ago.

I sauteed the first batch of veggies in olive oil adding leftover lentils and organic Black Japonica rice, a mix of red, black and brown rice. The dish had a multiplicity of tastes: sweet onion, sweet and sour rhubarb* and splashy walking onion greens. The Good King Henry was bland but comforting and the asparagus had its usual unique taste. There was a full bodied melange of flavors!

The salad greens, with a little olive oil, had that freshly harvested burst of flavor that I am so grateful for after winter.

Tomorrow I will start adding violet flowers to the salad!

* saute'ing rhubarb tames its tartness