The harvest season is gearing up in the Sprouting Off Garden. We’ve been enjoying fresh salads daily and the strawberries have started to show their true color.

Unfortunately, the seed company didn’t ship my order until quite late in the season so there are a few things that didn’t get planted on time. Lettuce was one of them. I ordered 5 different varieties and received one free sample variety. I planted them all as soon as they arrived, April 9th to be exact. This is way too late for early salads. My expected bountiful harvest of salad greens just did not materialize like I had envisioned. Of the 6 lettuce varieties planted I only got sprouts on 2 kinds. I have an abundance of cress, but a pitiful selection of lettuce. I replanted last week and hopefully the second go will produce something. Growing lettuce isn’t rocket science.

What little bit I am getting is making fantastic salads. I combine butter crunch lettuce, cress, dill, blue cheese crumbles and dried cranberries. I top it with my husband’s home made vinaigrette and have a lovely lunch.

Strawberries are also showing up. The daily picking has begun and I portion them out between the three of us. My son gets his snack portion and the rest I cut up and serve with vanilla yogurt for our “child is sleeping time for dessert.” It’s almost better than ice cream.

I’m seeing signs of life on other plants too. There are a few snap peas growing on the vine and one Bulgarian Carrot Pepper. The beets are almost ready to harvest to add to our salads.

Within no time I’ll have so much that I won’t be able to give it away fast enough.