Spring!

I have been watching this spinach for the past few weeks. I planted about a dozen spinach plants late last fall but they did not grow enough before frost and cold weather shut them down. I wrote them off and didn't even bother mulching that bed (actually I did once with leaves but they all blew away in a windstorm the next day and I didn't feel like gathering all the leaves again!)So I was happily surprised when they started showing new growth as soon as the ground thawed. I know spinach is tough and very cold tolerant but I figured without at least a row cover or some mulch it wouldn't make it. Wrong. It not only made it through the winter but is nearly big enough to harvest a few leaves for some salad and it is only the end of March!



There are other things growing too, garlic and the rye that I planted last fall. Also a few left over onions that I missed last year. They survived the winter in the ground so I will probably let them go to seed. I am selecting for winter hardiness in all my crops and the biennials that overwinter successfully are certainly worthy of being included in the seed collection! I also have several carrots that overwintered successfully that will be grown for seed this year.

Rose Hip Fruit Leather

Did you know that rose hips contain more vitamin C that citrus fruit? I can't grow oranges here but I have a wonderful climbing rose that gives me loads of huge, tasty little fruits every winter. The kids and I collected a bunch a couple weeks ago and I decided to try another attempt at rose hip fruit leather. I had tried it before but using wild rose hips and it was not very good at all! These rose hips are very sweet and big enough to actually work with. The seeds are a pain but I just threw them all in a pot and cooked them until they were soft, then squished the whole mass through a sieve. I combined it with about an equal amount of applesauce and spread it on a cookie sheet to dry in the oven. It turned out REALLY good!