Growing Beautiful Food: A Gardener's Guide to Cultivating Extraordinary Vegetables and Fruit (2015)

GROW

Lettuce, Leaves & Greens

THE CLEAN, CRISP SAVOR OF greens, cut fresh moments before eating, is one of the deep, seasonal delights of the farm and garden. Before I began to grow my own, salads were often a disappointing bother, more about the flavor of the dressing than the delicate texture and taste of the leaves. Brassicas were commonly braised to oblivion, rendering them over-cooked and bitter, while other greens such as chard and bok choy were mere curiosities on a side plate. But once the prodigious world of greens, from the serrated and aromatic to the deeply frizzled and savory, made its presence felt on the farm at Stonegate, there was no turning back. Fresh organic lettuces and greens are what I delight in the most: mixed in complex, beautiful salads, stirred into soups and sautés, or eaten exquisitely fresh and raw out of hand. If I could only grow one thing, this would be it.

Salad greens are some of the easiest vegetables to grow and, with repeat plantings, have the longest harvest season. With their delicious daubs and whorls of burgundy and green, they’re also a great opportunity for aesthetic play. When sown in pleated bands or creatively interplanted among neighboring vegetables, they cover a lot of space, hide a lot of dirt, and colorfully weave together the fabric of the farm.

From delicate and tender to fibrous and hearty, greens are packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients. Calorie for calorie, dark leafy greens are the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food we eat. And eating them ties you in to your inner herbivore, your grazing primordial past. It wasn’t too long ago that greens were our staple diet, and our primate ancestors ate up to 6 pounds of them a day as they browsed the tree canopy. We’ve sadly fallen off the branch a bit since then, with few of us getting our recommended daily quota, so setting aside enough growing space to celebrate and savor them is vital.

Eruca vesicaria subsp. sativa

Ah, arugula: Pungent, peppery, and irregularly lobed, this once-misunderstood green is now a garden and market mainstay. Arugula used to be considered a male aphrodisiac, so much so that the Catholic church banned its cultivation in monastic gardens. Now it just turns everyone on. Its spicy tang is a singular flavor unlike anything else in the garden, and it’s always great in fresh salads and sautés or chopped into an heirloom tomato salsa.

Arugula tolerates a wide range of soil conditions but is at its best in a fertile, moist, well-drained situation in full sun to partial shade.

Sow seeds in early spring or in mid- to late summer for fall-into-winter harvests. Broadcast the tiny seeds over moistened soil and press them in lightly, covering with ¼ inch of fine soil. Plant more seeds every 2 to 3 weeks throughout the growing season to enjoy a steady supply of fresh leaves. As the weather warms up, sow seeds in the shade of taller garden crops. Arugula is quite cold tolerant and may be grown through winter in a coldframe or under heavy-duty row covers in many regions.

Also called rocket, arugula grows rapidly in cool weather and evenly moist soil. Keep the crop well watered to delay bolting. Thin overcrowded seedlings to 4- to 6-inch spacing, snipping off the extras rather than pulling to avoid disturbing the shallow roots of neighboring plants.

Quick growing in favorable conditions, young leaves will be ready to harvest starting about 3 weeks after planting. Gather individual leaves or cut off entire plants just above soil level. Arugula’s flavors become sharper when the plants begin to bolt, and its cross-shaped white flowers have a similar, but milder, zest than the leaves, only with a floral finish, and make a pretty addition to salads.

Floating row cover will keep arugula’s leaves from being scatter shot with holes by flea beetles but may encourage slugs to seek shelter in the cool, moist conditions beneath the plants. Put ground-level traps filled with beer in place to catch the slimy pests, or lay boards atop moist soil next to the arugula row and police them each morning for slugs clustering on the undersides.

‘Astro’, ‘Dragon’s Tongue’, ‘Sylvetta’, ‘Wasabi’

Brassica rapa varieties

Asian greens are a go-to staple at the farm for summer salad mixes, when the cool-loving lettuces are sulking in the heat. Their crisp and complex flavors, colors, and textures add diversity to your beds and will keep you in delicious greens through the hottest part of the season. Bunching but not quite heading types include bok choy (also called pac choi, Brassica rapa var. chinensis) and komatsuna (B. rapa var. perviridis). Somewhat looser and leafier are tatsoi (aka spinach or spoon mustard, B. rapa var. narinosa), which produces rosettes of spinachlike rounded leaves on short, crisp stems, and mizuna (B. rapa var. japonica), which produces loose clusters of tender, deeply frilled leaves. These four variations of the same species as turnips and broccoli rabe have mild, mustardy flavors with a hint of deep mineral earthiness and are at home in salads, braised, or added to flavorful dishes.

Fertile, moist, but well-drained soil serves these greens well, in sunny locations or lightly shaded during the heat of summer.

Although they’re happy in cool weather like other leafy greens, these crops fare far better through the swelter of summer, when lettuce and spinach typically send up their pale flowerstalks as though waving the white flag. Plant from early spring through midsummer, sowing about 1 seed per inch in well-prepared, compost-amended soil and covering with ¼ inch of fine soil. Thin tatsoi and komatsuna to 4 to 6 inches apart; thin bok choy to 8- to 10-inch spacing. Sow in late summer for a cool-weather fall crop. For baby Asian greens, you can blend your own mix and broadcast it across an entire well-prepared bed, raking it in lightly and watering thoroughly. These can be cut young and repeat harvested for salads or braising. Try alternating rows of red and green komatsuna or frilled and lobed bok choy for a decorative effect.

Maintain even soil moisture to keep these mildly spicy greens from developing fiery flavors. Water with liquid seaweed or fish emulsion every couple weeks to keep them growing rapidly. Bolting signals the end of the line for the leafy yield of these greens, but their flowerstalks and buds may be eaten like broccoli and the bright yellow blossoms tossed into salads and stir-fries.

Gather small leaves for salads when they reach about 3 inches high. Thin these crops by harvesting, removing small leaves and entire plants for fresh use from between others that will grow to full size. For a broadcast planting, shear what’s needed, starting from one end of the bed, then return to it a few weeks later when it’s regrown.

In general, these crops suffer less from pests such as the loopers and cabbageworms that put the bite on brassicas, but they are not entirely immune. Put row covers in place over young plants and seal the edges to protect them from egg-laying moths, adult root maggot flies, and flea beetles. Pinholes in the leaves mean flea beetles are already active. Be on the lookout for slugs and use traps to catch them before they rasp holes in the greens.

Chrysanthemum coronarium greens, ‘Dark Purple Mizuna’, ‘Red Choi’ (magenta spreen), ‘Red Komatsuna’, ‘Red Rain’, ‘Vitamin Green’

Brassica rapa (Ruvo Group)

For a delicious green that can be sautéed and added to an early or late-season pasta, there’s nothing better than broccoli rabe. Also called rapini, it’s more closely related to turnips than to the familiar broad green flower heads of its better known, and often unloved, vegetable cousin. Like broccoli, it’s grown for its tender stems, leaves, and clusters of buds. Dark green and slightly bitter, broccoli rabe is an Italian staple, and we often sauté it with garlic in olive oil and serve it as a side dish, throw it on pizza or pasta, or let it go to flower and toss the tender yellow blooms into salad.

Grow broccoli rabe in a sunny spot in compost-amended garden soil that is evenly moist but well drained.

Cool weather favors broccoli rabe’s rather speedy production cycle. Sow seeds in early spring when soil temperatures reach 50°F (10°C). Thin plants to 2 to 3 inches apart. For an extra-early harvest, start seeds indoors along with other brassicas, 10 to 12 weeks before the last spring frost date. Plant seeds for a late harvest in mid- to late summer.

Steady soil moisture keeps broccoli rabe growing rapidly and keeps leaves and stems tender. Late-season crops will benefit from light shade during hot weather.

You can clip entire plants when buds begin to appear or only trim off what you need and new buds will form. If you let them go to flower, toss the flower heads into salad or decoratively in pasta. Most varieties reach harvest size in about 40 days.

Broccoli rabe’s relatively speedy trip from seed to harvest helps it avoid some of the common pests of brassicas, but it may still be bothered by the usual cabbage family pests. Protect transplants from cutworms with collars; use row covers over the young plants to keep root maggot flies and moths from laying eggs that would become root- and leaf-eating pests.

‘Sessantina Grossa’ (early), ‘Spring Raab’

Brassica oleracea

Forget everything you know or fear about cabbage, because it’s usually fermented to death in sauerkraut or kimchi. When it’s grown as locally fresh as your own dirt, this crisp, delicious brassica is not only a bold standout in beds of mixed greens but amazing on the plate, as well. We love it chopped raw into salads, cut into coleslaw, or cooked in savory soups.

Rich, evenly moist, well-drained soil suits cabbage best, although plants can grow well in sandy or clay soils as long as the ground remains moist without being soggy. Choose a sunny spot for early spring cabbage crops, but consider light or partially shaded locations when planting in midsummer for fall and winter harvests.

Start cabbage seeds indoors up to 3 months before the last spring frost date. Set out transplants 12 inches apart or direct-sow seeds in the garden 3 to 4 weeks before the last frost date. Thin seedlings to 12-inch spacing. Sow seeds for fall crops in midsummer where they will be shaded by taller crops to keep them cool.

Amend the soil with compost before planting cabbage and apply additional compost around the bases of plants 3 weeks after planting. Cabbages are heavy feeders and will benefit from foliar applications of liquid seaweed or fish emulsion midway through the growing season. Water regularly to maintain even soil moisture and use mulch to keep the soil moist and to prevent weeds from popping up around cabbage’s shallow roots. Uneven watering, particularly abundant moisture following a dry spell, can cause cabbage heads to crack or split; early varieties tend to be more prone to splitting as they near maturity.

Harvest by cutting just below the bottom leaves when heads are fully formed and feel solid. Smaller heads typically are sweeter and more tender.

It’s no coincidence that several pests are known for their affiliation with cabbages: cabbage loopers, imported cabbageworms, and cabbage maggots are just some of the beasties that feast on cabbage. Cultivate garden beds once or twice before planting time to expose cutworms lurking in the soil to hungry birds. Put floating row covers in place over transplants to protect them from moths laying eggs that become very hungry cabbage-eating caterpillars. Secure the edges of the covers by weighting them down with boards or stones or burying them in the soil to keep moths from slipping underneath. Row covers also block access by cabbage root maggots and flea beetles.

Steer clear of disease problems by choosing resistant varieties and moving cabbage family crops to different spots from year to year. Good growing conditions are the best way to avoid the diseases common to cabbage family crops.

Choose varieties that are suited to the season to minimize problems resulting from exposure to high temperatures. Even so, in places where temperatures rise quickly in early summer, varieties sown in midsummer for harvesting in fall perform better than early spring cabbage crops. Mini cabbage varieties like ‘Caraflex’ produce solid 4- to 6-inch-diameter heads that reach maturity earlier than full-size types. Other excellent varieties include ‘Deadon’ (beautiful red and green savoy type), ‘Farao’ (early), and ‘Red Express’ (early red).

NOTES FROM THE WONDERGROUND

Raw

The growing season has begun its slow and certain ebb from the farm, and in an almost absurd panic to inhale as much green as possible before a winter of chlorophyll privation, I find myself grazing in the beds like a ruminant. Not on all fours, mind you. More like a vegan biped with opposable thumbs.

I’m in among the greens in the late afternoon, and after picking out the last stubborn weeds of the season and straightening out rows where soil had spilled onto sod, I begin to forage.

I eat the tender inner blades of ‘Toscano’ kale right off their ungainly, palm tree-like stalks. Their leathery, astringent flavor is full of life, albeit challenging. I feel like I’m chewing tobacco. If a spittoon were within sight, or a dugout, I might take aim. Instead, I opt for a stalk of rainbow chard. It’s crisp and nutty and mild and puts me back in neutral.

I pull the last of the pole beans from their top-heavy tangle of vines. The sweet snap of flavor is delicious and fun, almost unseemly. Soon I’ve turned the trellis inside out to get at every tender pod. Only an encounter with raw mustard greens sobers me up. Mustards are heat all the way through, from tongue tip to epiglottis. They are the swaggering habaneros of the leaf world.

I grab some of the last ‘Sun Gold’ cherry tomatoes to put out the blaze. Their boundless growth has been checked by the cold, so the heat-sweetened flavor is only a suggestion now. I end the forage with arugula and nasturtium, both with their own take on savory: Arugula has a warm, peppery intensity, while nasturtium’s heat is more complex and perfumed, like the foreign language version of a savory, where you need subtitles to understand why on earth you’re eating a flower.

Eating raw is as intimate as you can get between plant and palate. And it’s the healthiest diet out there. Cooking destroys most of a plant’s vital phytonutrients and enzymes, all necessary to maintain health, fight chronic disease, and reduce cancer risk. There’s also nothing quite as magical as eating straight off the vine, stem, or stalk.

This close affinity with the food you eat is one of the true pleasures of farming. Only by taking it all off and farming in the altogether could I get any closer to my foodshed. In fact, my wife and I were advised to do just that when we started growing here, as a way to determine microclimates of warmth and cold with our own thermally sensitive parts. For those of you eating our food, you’ll be pleased to know we never did take on the Book of Genesis approach to horticulture.

This kind of raw grazing is a fleeting grace in fall. Soon, only the stalwart brassicas and those greens given protection from frost with a row cover will be left standing.

When winter starts to seem like a bleak eternity, this moment of heightened intimacy on the farm, when you’re eating as fresh and local as possible, will be safe in your memory bank, ready for an off-season withdrawal.

Beta vulgaris (Cicla Group)

With its glossy, creased leaves that are as colorful and translucent as stained glass, chard is a standout in the vegetable bed for its beauty alone. A cousin of the beet, chard is nearly as nutrient dense as its more famous relative, spinach, but is much sexier. Leaf blades rise up on crisp stalks in white, pink, golden yellow, purple, or ruby red, forming vase-shaped plants that may reach 2 feet tall. They can be interplanted with other greens for even more color.

Moist, fertile, well-drained soil in a sunny spot will provide chard with the conditions it needs for healthy, vigorous growth. Amend the bed with compost prior to planting.

Plant chard seeds ½ inch deep and 1 to 2 inches apart in the garden around the time of the last spring frost date. Although it grows well in cool conditions, chard is more heat tolerant than many greens. Thin young plants to 8 inches apart to give them room to reach their prime. You can also sow succession plantings throughout the summer and early fall. The tender young blades add color and crunch to salads.

Keep chard evenly moist and water it with liquid seaweed or fish emulsion when the plants reach about 6 inches high. Apply mulch to conserve soil moisture and keep things cool, or grow a companionable living mulch of leaf lettuce, arugula, or Asian greens in the shadows of chard’s tall leaves.

Pick outer leaves as they reach usable size, once plants are 6 to 8 inches tall. Young, tender leaves are best for salads. Cook larger leaves and leaf stalks much as you would spinach, in soups and sautés. Separated from the leaves, chard’s colorful stems may be cooked and eaten like asparagus.

Leaf miners, the larvae of various fly species, may tunnel into the leaves of spring-sown chard, creating winding or blotchy pale patches of damaged tissue. Injury tends to be most noticeable on early plantings because the pests become active when plants are still young. In northern gardens, leaf miners are most troublesome in spring and early summer; in the South, populations increase and cause more damage as summer progresses. Cultivate the soil before planting in spring to bury overwintering leaf miner pupae. Put row covers in place over early spring crops to block egg-laying adult flies. Row covers will also keep shiny black flea beetles from biting holes in chard leaves.

‘Bright Lights’, ‘Golden Sunrise’, ‘Peppermint’, ‘Rhubarb’

Brassica oleracea (Acephala Group)

Pound for pound (and by season’s end, it can feel that way!), kale is one of the most nutrient-rich greens on the planet, loaded with antioxidants, anti-inflammatory nutrients, and cancer-fighting glucosinolates. If I were limited on space, this would be the one green besides lettuces that would be planted and savored. It’s delicious in stir-fries and frittatas, over pasta, as baby greens in a salad mix, or as a base for green smoothies. We grow several varieties at Stonegate, including lacinato (or dinosaur), a frilled ‘Scarlet’, and a purple/lacinato cross. Its long harvest season means you’ll be gathering leaves even after snowfall, when its starches delicately sweeten.

Kale grows quickly in a sunny spot where the soil has been well amended with compost. Cool conditions suit it best, along with moist but well-drained soil. As the temperature climbs, kale benefits from light or partial shade, and evenly moist soil is key to keeping the leaves from becoming tough and bitter.

For an early crop, start seeds indoors along with other brassicas, up to 3 months before the last spring frost. Kale and other brassicas tolerate cool growing conditions, but seed germination is best when the soil temperature is around 75°F (24°C). Set transplants or direct-sow seeds in the garden 3 to 4 weeks before the last frost. Plant seeds in midsummer, 10 to 12 weeks before frost is expected in fall, for a crop that will produce into early winter. For full-size plants, thin to about 1 foot apart, or triangulate them in alternating rows of three and four plants per row.

Nutrient-rich leafy greens start with nutrient-rich soil and a steady supply of moisture. Side-dress kale with compost and foliar feed with liquid seaweed or fish emulsion throughout the season. Mulch with straw to keep the soil moist, and interplant with short-season greens to keep down weeds and make use of the available soil. These are tall plants and won’t struggle with greens around their ankles.

Begin gathering young leaves about a month after planting, snipping them from the outside of the plant near the bottom. Smaller, younger leaves can be added to salad, while the older leaves are best cooked. We eat them, stems and all, chopping them finely or throwing them in a high-performance blender. It’s best to harvest only the leaves, as opposed to the whole plant, as it will keep producing for many months. By season’s end, you’ll have a bed of lanky, palm tree-like plants that will carry on after frost.

Kale is less bothered by the usual pests—cabbage loopers and other “worms”—than other brassicas, but it still benefits from protection to keep its leaves from being riddled with holes. Cover spring transplants with floating row cover and seal the edges—don’t just tack them down—with bricks or by laying a board over them to keep egg-laying moths from getting to the plants. If other cabbage family crops are in your garden, many of the wormy pests will go for those instead of the kale, but keep an eye out for equal-opportunity aphids and slugs.

Kale is not particularly prone to diseases but should be rotated—like all brassicas—with other plant families to prevent problems from gaining a foothold. Extended cool, wet weather can favor downy mildew. Infected leaves turn yellow and develop whitish or grayish coatings. Remove and discard infected leaves and avoid working amid plants while they’re wet. Take out whole plants that are severely affected.

‘Lacinato Rainbow’, ‘Scarlet’, ‘Red Russian’ (B. napus), ‘Toscano’

Lactuca sativa

Lettuce from the farm is what I miss most during the dark, chlorophyll-deprived days of winter, so it’s one of the first things I seed in early spring. The variety of cultivars available for the home farm and garden is staggering. From flat or frilled to mesclun mixes, loose leaf, or butterhead, they have a place at every meal. And the lettuces themselves are just the beginning: Add the beauty of edible flowers and orchard fruit, and a salad becomes more of a celebration.

Lettuce and other greens will grow in a wide range of conditions, including poor, sandy soils, and are among the most shade-tolerant crops. Even moisture supports healthy growth, but drainage is critical to prevent soggy soil that promotes disease problems. Most lettuces perform best in the cool weather of spring and fall, but some have been developed to withstand summer heat and others are hardy enough to grow all winter long in a sheltered spot or cold frame. We swap out Asian greens for many of our salad mixes when it begins to swelter, as they’re more heat tolerant.

We plant loose-leaf lettuces in short rows perpendicular to the length of the bed, about 6 to 8 inches apart, using a small hand seeder. The tightness of the rows means that we get more lettuce out of each planting, and as they grow, they shade out the weed-conspiring soil between them. Because the outer leaves are repeatedly harvested, they stay compact and neighborly. Lettuces are happier in the shade during the blaze of midsummer, so we interplant many of our midseason lettuce crops between long-season annuals such as peppers, eggplant, or kale and chard and let the larger-leaved plants shade the lettuce when they need it most.

Because lettuce is so decorative, we often plant in bands of neon green and deep burgundy, and we make distinct aesthetic decisions about the color and form of a leaf and its complement in the bed. (A deeply frilled, purple ‘Lollo Rossa’ lettuce planted among gray green ‘Caraflex’ cabbage is truly gorgeous.)

The mesclun planting mixes we make, which include loose-leaf lettuces, Asian greens, mustards, arugula, and baby chard, are broadcast across an entire 100-square-foot bed, lightly raked in (not too deeply, as lettuce seeds need light for germination), and watered regularly and evenly. The dense, almost psychedelic shag carpet of delicious greens that emerges can be repeat-harvested over several weeks.

For head lettuces, start them indoors 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost date, making three small plantings at weekly intervals. At the same time, direct-sow leaf lettuce outdoors at 2-week intervals. Seeds will germinate in soil temperatures as low as 40°F (4°C), but be sure to choose cold-tolerant cultivars for early spring planting. As the weather warms up, switch to heat-resistant cultivars to replace the spring crops that have been harvested. In midsummer, make successive plantings of head or romaine lettuces, sowing the seeds in shady spots for harvesting into fall.

Lettuce is 90 to 95 percent water and has shallow roots, so keep the soil surface moist but not soggy. Plants need at least 1 inch of water per week from either rain or irrigation. Water on sunny mornings to minimize disease problems that can happen when the leaves stay wet overnight. Add compost around the bases of the plants and foliar feed with an organic fish emulsion or seaweed fertilizer.

Harvest the outer leaves of loose-leaf lettuce in the morning, when the plants are moist and crisp, or just before making a salad mix for the table. Beds of mesclun greens can be harvested with a horizontal shear, starting on one end and continuing along to the other, allowing the first cut to regrow over a few weeks before the next cut. Head lettuces should be harvested soon after the heads form. Cut heads off just below the bottom leaves or pull them out by the roots. Because lettuces lose almost half of their nutrient value a few days after harvest, try to eat them as fresh as possible (this is why you’re growing your own, after all).

Healthy, well-grown lettuce is reasonably trouble free, but a few beasties, such as cutworms and aphids, may turn up among the leaves. Aphids may cluster on the undersides of leaves or in the centers of head lettuces. Watch for curled, stunted plants that indicate their presence. Wash the aphids off plants with a strong spray of water.

Once you’ve considered their cultural requirements, days to germination, and type, choose the most beautiful varieties possible and plan ahead for how you will artfully combine them in your planting scheme. A gorgeous lettuce is just as easy to grow as a humdrum one.

Loose Leaf: ‘Black Seeded Simpson’, ‘Dark Lollo Rossa’, ‘Flashy Trout Back’, ‘Red Sails’, ‘Red Salad Bowl’, ‘Salad Bowl’

Head Lettuce: ‘Skyhooks’ (butterhead/Boston), ‘Cherokee’ and ‘Mottistone’ (French or summer crisp/Batavian), ‘Breen’ and ‘Flashy Trout Back’ (romaine/cos)

Brassica juncea

Mustard is the four-alarm king of greens, adding deep and intense heat to salads, mesclun mixes, and stir-fries. Available in shades of dark burgundy and frilled or flat leaved, it’s also beautiful planted in with other leafy greens. Flavors intensify as the plants age, so young leaves are best for salad, but older plants can be left to flower into delicious neon yellow blooms.

Full sun and rich, moist, well-drained soil are what mustard needs to produce a healthy crop of flavorful leaves. Amend the site with compost before planting.

Sow mustard seeds about 4 weeks before the last spring frost date. In late summer, plant seeds of cold-tolerant varieties for a fall harvest. In mild winter areas or in a coldframe or unheated greenhouse, plant seeds in fall for production during the winter months. Broadcast seeds over wide rows for harvesting young leaves; thin plants to 12 to 24 inches apart if they will grow to full size.

Seeds sown in summer will benefit from light shade during hot weather. Maintain even soil moisture to keep leaves tender and not too peppery and to forestall bolting. Water every 2 weeks with dilute liquid seaweed or fish emulsion.

Harvest young leaves when they are about 3 inches long, picking from the outside of the plant or shearing off the entire row or bed. Cut full-size plants from spring crops before hot weather prompts bolting; harvest late-season mustards after cool weather—even a light frost or two—has mellowed their flavor. Once plants send up flowerstalks, the leaves become bitter tasting, but you can snip off the flowers to add color and flavor to salads.

The pests that trouble other cabbage family crops will also feast on mustard. Put row covers in place over transplants and seedbeds to block access by root maggot flies, flea beetles, and the adult moths looking to deliver eggs that will hatch into leaf-eating caterpillars. Rotating brassicas to avoid overwintering pests and good garden cleanup in fall both help to keep mustard leaves pest free.

‘Golden Frills’, ‘Red Giant’, ‘Ruby Streaks’, ‘Scarlet Frills’

Spinacia oleracea

Almost as nutritionally rich as kale, spinach brings a host of health benefits to the table, including vitamin A for eye and skin health and plenty of iron, fiber, and folate. It can be easily interplanted among longer-season annuals in spring and fall.

Cool, moist conditions suit spinach well. It grows best in full sun but benefits from light shade when temperatures climb. Spinach grows well in a wide range of soil conditions from sandy—where it grows quickly—to heavy loam, which produces the greatest yields. Even moisture and good drainage are important, as is near-neutral soil pH; spinach grows poorly in very acidic soil. Amend the soil with compost and a nitrogen source such as bloodmeal or alfalfa meal to meet spinach’s feeding needs.

Plant spinach as soon as the soil can be worked in spring, up to 6 weeks before the last frost date, sowing seeds 2 inches apart and ½ inch deep. Make successive plantings every 2 to 3 weeks until daytime temperatures remain above 75°F (24°C). Spinach sown in late spring and early summer will benefit from growing in the shade cast by taller crops in the garden. Start planting again in fall 1 to 2 weeks before the expected first frost date. With the protection of a coldframe or heavyweight row covers, spinach may be kept growing all winter in many areas.

Once plants have at least two true leaves, thin them to 4 to 6 inches apart. Crowded plants are less productive and more prone to bolting. Maintain even soil moisture and water or foliar feed with liquid seaweed or fish emulsion when the plants have four true leaves. Cultivating or pulling weeds around spinach can damage the roots; use mulch to keep the soil moist and suppress weeds.

Cut baby spinach at 3 to 5 weeks or pick leaves from the outsides of plants as they reach useful size. Harvest entire plants by cutting off at ground level at the first sign of bolting.

In wet weather, downy mildew may affect spinach. Remove infected leaves and stay out of the spinach patch when it’s wet to avoid spreading disease spores. Choose varieties with resistance to this common spinach disease. Leaf miners like spinach as much as they do chard and beet greens but are less likely to trouble the crop in cool early spring. Put row covers in place to block leaf miners and flea beetles on spinach sown as things warm up. Use traps to put a stop to slimy slugs that munch on spinach, and encourage toads and other slug foes to frequent the garden.

‘Flamingo’, ‘Red Kitten’, ‘Space’, ‘Tyee’

NOTES FROM THE WONDERGROUND

Some Assembly Required

Late spring harvests at Stonegate Farm begin early in the morning, when the tender salad greens are cool and moist and the edible blossoms are barely open.

It’s a rude awakening for them, still lost in their chlorophyll dreams, to be abruptly sheared from sleep, but this is the moment for spring greens at the farm, before summer heat sends them into a feverish bolt.

When the season winds down months from now, it’s these salad days I’ll miss most.

Creating a great salad is usually a symphonic act, with texture, color, form, and taste all playing their parts. But at Stonegate, we play it more like jazz, where the rules are thrown out and the notes and harmonies are improvised. A salad should be a delight in the mouth, with plenty of seductive leaf feel and flavor variation. That means enough range, complexity, heat, and texture to reach that fabulous and elusive “I’ll have what she’s having” climax in the mouth.

One favorite lettuce mix, for example, is a combination of smooth, neon green ‘Simpson’, the loose and mottled leaves of ‘Red Sails’, and the firm, crimped frill of purple ‘Lollo Rossa’. Throw in sprays of golden broccoli rabe blossoms and the tangy blue florets of garlic chives and the music really begins.

I used to have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with salad until I started growing my own. It all seemed pretty bland unless it was dolled up with a strong vinaigrette or a good and goaty chèvre. But now I could happily live on the farm’s mixed greens alone, with their subtle and complex flavors and forms. And the edible flowers take the whole leafy harvest to eleven. Flowers from mustard and arugula are hot and floral, while chive and broccoli blossoms subtly allude to the parent plant. Plus, they’re so damn pretty!

Taste alone is argument enough to eat local and organic greens, but when you factor in the short half-life of lettuce—that once harvested, they lose 50 percent of their nutritional value, or half of their vitamins, minerals and enzymes, in the first 24 hours—it makes a week-old lettuce harvest from Salinas, California, seem like a cruel proxy for the real deal.

Like tomatoes, until you’ve had just-cut organic salad greens, you haven’t had salad at all.

Each week in season, the blends are different depending on what’s harvestable. Mesclun and mustards added to the mix will bring on the heat, bok choy will fill the midsummer gap when lettuce sulks, and edible flowers such as nasturtium, calendula, and borage will bring some bling to both the eye and mouth.

The organic greens at Stonegate are decadently flavorful, colorful, nutritious, and downright seductive, which—all sustainability arguments aside—is why we’re here.