First Salad of the Season



[First salad with sunflower seeds and craisins]



Today is the day.  It’s finally arrived.  It’s the first day of the new growing year when I can eat from the garden.  Today, April 25, we had our first salad of lettuce with radishes.  The thrill of eating from the garden is not just from the excitement shown on my young 6-year-old gardener’s face as he helps select which ones to eat.  It’s not just from knowing that we successfully grew something from a tiny seed.  And it’s not even that we’re getting maximum nutrients from picking it all only 5 minutes before eating the salad.  There’s just a deep satisfaction in knowing that we’re not wholly dependent on stores for our food.  Sure, this small salad could not keep our family alive, but for one small dinner, and many more to come until the first frost next Fall, we’ll be eating what we grow.  It’s all those small positives rolled up in one.  That’s why we garden.

[Just for the record, the lettuce was delicious and the radishes were huge. And yes, I co-mingled the radish leaves with the lettuce.]