Early January Salad Greens

Early Salad Greens, January 8, 2013

      Time to have some fresh salad greens!  It would actually be the second harvest this year if I had not given the first away.  I went over to the garden a week ago and found a gardener, Louis, from a few years back, parked in the lot on a cold dreary day.  Louis has had to take up long haul trucking, and therefore gave up his plot at the park.  He was back for the holidays, and it was good to see him.  We walked out to my plot, wiped the little bit of snow off of the cold frames, and picked a bunch of nice fresh salad greens.  I gave that first harvest of the season to Louis, as he had said there was no such thing as fresh on the road.
      A couple of days ago I was shopping at my regular fresh fruit and produce store, J and J Produce, on Philadelphia Pike.  They usually have some outlandishly cheap special, and that day it was two big heads of Cos lettuce in a bag for a dollar.  Duh, had to do that even if I had some of my own greens.  So the picking today was to supplement the Cos lettuce.  We are going to grill some salmon to put over a great big mound of fresh salad greens, carrot slices, and hard boiled eggs.
      The mizuna mustard was snitched from the frame shown above.  The red oak leaf lettuce that I got from Bob King was ready for a light picking:

Red Oak Leaf Lettuce

      What salad would be complete without a little arugula to add a kick?  A nice harvest was made from this cold frame, though I left the Four Seasons red cos lettuce as I had that color covered by the red oak leaf lettuce.

And some tatsoi leaves as a garnish