Anticipation

The apple trees are in bud, the newest blueberry is that amazing vibrant green (is there any color more alive than this?), and the artichoke is gearing up for year three, bound to be its best.

I love April.

Tender kale is not an oxymoron in April

I'm a big kale fan in all seasons, but I like it best right now, when soft new growth is shooting up and out, gearing up to flower. It's tender, it's sweet, and it's now or never for those particular plants.

For lunch just now I cooked up some rigatoni and added about a big bunch of kale picked two minutes before. I sliced the kale into ribbons and dumped it right in with the boiling pasta. They cooked together for maybe three minutes. Then I drained the mixture, added a tablespoon of onion compote that my friend Carolyn Dale gave me, shaved in a little Romano, and that's was that.

Other good garden news is that the peas and spinach are up, and that the hardy cyclamen I ordered from Hansen's Nursery in Oregon is now planted. Weather, work and back trouble have kept me out of the garden for a couple of weeks, and I am so glad to have puttered around a bit today.