Ta-Dah! Baby arugula, breakfast radishes, chives, and violets. This is my very first garden salad of the year. And FINALLY! I might add. I am so tired of frozen vegies.
Yes, I could go purchase all the fresh veg I want (and I do) but it just doesn’t taste the same as my own hard work. I only do the easiest kind of hard work. I rarely sprout more than a few things indoors because our little schoolhouse just does not have the space. Even if they do sprout, there is no guarantee that I will not kill them before they have chance to take root in the earth.
I direct sow most everything. It is sow much easier. Poke the seed in the ground, add water, and ta-dah! Teensy little edibles. Harvesting and eating the first of any crop always makes me smile, therefore the food just taste better because I am smiling.
The ingredients of the salad listed below are the first in the ground for the year and are some of the easiest garden crops to grow.
Spicy & Sweet Early Garden Salad
- Arugula: Or mustard/spicy lettuce blend. Sow seeds early and often.
- Chives: A perennial that you plant once and it will just keep giving.
- Radishes: Easy to grow. Sow seeds early and often. Expect sprouts in a few days.
- Violets: Another giver. Plant this beauty once and eat the sweet leaves and flowers for years.
- Strawberries: A perennial fruit that should be thinned every year and re-planted every 5-10 years. My berries have not yet ripened but are baby green. The berries pictured did not come out of my garden.
I tossed all of these together and topped with a simple and stunning oil and vinegar dressing that I shook up in a mason jar. Since this years chive blossoms are coming in, last years pink chive vinegar has to get used up! That was my inspiration for the salad dressing.
Dressing ingredients: chive blossom vinegar, hazelnut oil, olive oil, ground flax seed, honey, crushed garlic, thyme, salt/pepper.
I combined a little bit of everything and shook until the dressing became foamy. The result is a delicately pink and slightly sweet dressing that will not overwhelm the fresh flavor of the spicy greens.
Lucky for us healthy, tasty food is so close now! We are busy, busy making jelly. Potlicker jelly and jams are selling as fast as I can make them. We had a 12 case week! That’s a lot of jelly for one girl to make!
Want your own jar of jam? I will be at the Mt. Tom farmers market in Woodstock, VT, Saturdays from 9:30a-12:30. Other markets will be added over the next few weeks.
Look for me under this sign!
Nancy Warner 
I agree that anything you grow yourself tastes better. And this salad is so beautiful, too! I grow borage to have plenty of flowers for salads, but I should put in a few violets, too. Gorgeous!