Yesterday I went to the Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market for the first time this season, well, the first time as a gardener. The weather has been alluringly nice, nudging 80 degrees F which of course tempts me to go against my better judgment and plant seedlings in the still-too-cold soil. But it’s not too cold for all seedlings, namely those hardy members of the Brassica family.
Brassica Seedlings from Frog Holler
From the nice folks at Frog Holler, (
their site here, and
their page at Local Harvest here) I bought three containers of kale (a curly leaf, a flat leaf and a “prehistoric” kale) as well as a broccoli. These plants can all stand up to a little cool, heck, even to a little cold. Rumor has it that kale tastes better after the first frost. I’ll be adding a bit of protection for these little darlings with our
juice-jar cloches but the chilly ground shouldn’t bother them much. If I planted, say, tomatoes this early, those tropical voluptuaries would simply sit there and brood and pout until the soil warmed.
OK, so I confess, I also bought one small four-pack of Brandywine tomatoes. I figured that it wasn’t TOO much of an investment and the up-side-potential if they did happen to flourish convinced me to take the risk. They’ll got in the absolute sunniest part of the center circle bed. Our style of heavy mulching is another strike against tomatoes at this time of the season, since the mulch tends to keep the soil cold a bit longer than usual. To compensate, I’ll pull the mulch back off the area where the tomatoes will live.
Bay Laurel from Renaissance Acres
I also splurged just a bit and bought a Bay Laurel from the wonderful folks at
Renaissance Acres. (They’re the first place I have seen that used the phrase “
Authentically Grown” which is a concept worthy of its own post.) This is the plant whose leaves are bay leaves. I’d had one years ago that I’d killed through stupidity or inattention and I’ve wanted to try again ever since. The kind gentleman who helped me — Peter, perhaps?– told me to take one of their cards and email him if I started to have trouble again. Such intimately personal touches are one of the things I love about Farmers’ Markets (and about the familiar faces at our particular Farmers’ Market.) Find one near you and actually talk to folks who make your food. The laurel will stay in its own pot, one that we can take indoors when the weather cools. Such a portable environment gives us a better chance of replicating the Mediterranean climate it’s most used to.
I was planning to spend my 20 minutes of garden time planting these little creatures but as I finished typing that last sentence, as if perfectly on cue, an insistent patter of raindrops began sounding on our skylights. Perhaps it was a bit too soon anyway.
