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Fresh News Archives

Week of March 3rd, 2008

It is March 1st and the winter season is close to finished. We had one snow day in our house which was enough to make everyone happy especially since it fell on a Friday (3 day weekend!). Of course we all know that old man winter can come back to haunt us the entire month of March and even sneak in a storm or two in April, but usually by now winter 2008 can be considered history.

I have been thinking about the spring planting season. Some of the most precious and beautiful plants are the springtime plants. My favorites are the pansies and their close relatives the violas and Johnny Jump Ups. This is a very diverse group of plants. The species and colors abound and there is one for everyone. Pansies are the largest of the bunch by far and the most popular. The colors range from white to near black with the only weakness being in the pink to red range although there are plenty that come in these colors and they are very beautiful. The best and most popular colors are the blues, yellows and purples. Some of these colors are so perfect and intense that they can brighten up the dead end of winter in a half a second flat - when planted in your yard, in pots on your porch, or at your front door. They are a welcome respite from the muted colors of winter and definitely an improvement over the grays and blacks and whites.

Pansies will start drifting on to our greenhouse benches starting this week. We grow a lot of them ourselves. It is one of my favorite plants to grow as it loves the cold and thus takes hardly any heat to grow it in the dead of winter in the greenhouse. Pansies thrive in cool weather and in fact can freeze solid if planted in the fall and over wintered. They might look a little beat up in February but as the temperatures warm in the spring they come out of their suspended state and slowly grow and flower until the hot days of June and finally July causes their collapse. They really hate the heat! Of course the pansies we are selling this week in the greenhouse have been grown in a very cool greenhouse at 40 degrees or less. When you buy them they can be left out at just above freezing temperatures safely for a few days. Once the have acclimated they can freeze too. They will be fine and continue to grow steadily for the next 3 months.

Did you know pansy flowers are edible? They are! They are quite tasty too and make a smashing presentation on your salads or as a garnish on a plate. They are somewhat akin to watercress but soft and velvety. Of course the colors make them special and a delight on many dishes.

Pansy season starts now and we will continue to have an awesome supply until early April. Once you start planting pansies and putting them in pots in front of your home you will become a big fan like me and use them all over the place.

What’s fresh? End of winter and we are all craving fresh spring veggies and fruits. Even though it is the end of winter there are many neat things to eat! One of my favorites just arrived. The little Green Gage plums from the southern hemisphere that are oh so good and plumy. They are $9 lb but I guess that is jet fuel. What the heck you only live once and they really are quite tasty. Another favorite is the Thom-Cat grapes or the Pink Muscat grapes also very sweet and delicious with a distinct floral nose. Finally in the fruit world it is that time of year when the best mangos start arriving; my favorite, the Kent. These luscious pieces of fruit have been coming to us for a couple of weeks now. Their flesh is clean, pure, fiber-free and just loaded with exotic tropical flavors. I love them best on their own, but if you are creative they can be added to your best fruit salad or made into to delicious sweet and sweet/hot salsas and put on simply grilled fish, pork, and chicken. Mangoes are magnificent! Did you know they are the second most popular fruit in the entire world? They are!

For vegetables it is similar to what has been available for the past couple of months, but just today we got in our first heirloom tomatoes of the season. I am trying them tonight and will let you know how they are. They are big Cherokee Purples all twisted and ugly looking, but in my mind they are beautiful and I hope taste far better than the bland red blobs we have had for the past two months. Great tomatoes are worth it. I love them.

Have a great and fresh week!

PS Have you joined the Good Stuff Club yet?