A selection of early veggies for the Adirondack garden

by Elizabeth Folwell

 

Mesclun

35 days / Many Sources

Whoever thought to name salad-seed mixes “mesclun” was a genius. That French word gives a certain cachet to assorted quick-germinating lettuces, herbs, spinach, arugula, endive, mustard, beets, bok choy, orache, purslane, kale, mizuna and more. These colorful leaves in all textures and shapes can be harvested every week. Sara Juliano, from Chestertown, grows a Burpee sweet mesclun blend for sandwiches, salads and sautés that “looks great in a flower box on my back porch.”

 

Early Wonder Tall Top Beet

45 days / High Mowing Organic Seeds,

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Territorial Seeds

Beets do double duty, supplying delicious greens for salads and braising, plus roots for roasting, steaming and sautéing. This newcomer is lightning fast in a northern garden, with delicious, abundant foliage and slightly flattened beets best pulled when a little bigger than a golf ball, ac-cording to one Hamilton County beetnik.

 

Golden Swiss Chard

55 days / The Cook’s Garden, Territorial

Blue Mountain Lake’s Adirondack Museum visitors know the handiwork of Mandy Savarie as exhibited in perennial beds throughout the campus. At home in Olmstedville, she says, “I trialed an organic Swiss chard last year in my kitchen garden. It was nice and tasty, very lovely colored, and did moderately well in containers too.”

 

Saltwort

40 days / Johnny’s, Pinetree Garden Seeds

This Japanese heirloom herb is native to salt marshes and adds interesting crunchy texture to sushi and salads. Slender shoots can be cut for microgreens a few weeks after sowing; older stalks and leaves can be steamed or stir-fried.

 

Happy Rich Brassica

55 days / Johnny’s

“Last year I grew an Asian green that became a new favorite,” says Heidi Roland, of Lake Placid. Related to collards, Happy Rich produces sweet-flavored florets that look and taste like little heads of broccoli for stir-frying, steaming or eating raw.

 

Senposai

40 days / Veseys

At her Keene garden, Bunny Goodwin has tested this distinctive Asian green. “I planted it as soon as the ground could be worked. It matured quickly and I picked it and ate it all summer and into the fall. The round leaves taste a bit like broccoli.”

 

Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch Kale

55 days / Pinetree

The long name as well as its mild flavor appeal to Bonnie Vickie, from Pottersville. “It’s a beautiful plant,” she says. The foot-tall heirloom member of the cabbage family is pretty enough to be ornamental. She likes the unusual curly-edge leaves, which can be used raw in salads and braised in olive oil, eaten as inch-long babies or frilly fronds.

 

Tatsoi

45 days / Johnny’s, Veseys

Addison Bickford planted a tatsoi cross in his Rainbow Lake garden, where it “outperformed spinach—ready to eat so much quicker.” Glossy green leaves form a handsome rosette, which can be harvested as a head or picked as spoon-shape baby greens.

 

Sugar Sprint Pea

58 days / Cook’s, Johnny’s,

Territorial, Veseys

North Creek’s Noel Dingman plants this short-vine, edible-pod pea “about the 18th of April, in the space around the asparagus because it will be harvested by the time the asparagus ferns out.” Plants need no staking; plump pods are about three inches long, delicious raw or steamed.

 

Tyee Spinach

42 days / Pinetree, Territorial

Bunny Goodwin has grown many varieties of spinach, and Tyee ranks high these days. The 10-inch-tall plants have gorgeous dark green savoyed leaves. For our climate, where spring can segue into summer overnight, Tyee grows fast but is slow to bolt.

 

Mokum Carrot

54 days / Johnny’s, Pinetree

Nowadays carrots come in rainbow hues—deep purple, bright red, pale yellow and even white—so it’s refreshing to find a wonderful early variety in the classic color. Mokum, popular with Blue Mountain and Saranac Lake gardeners, is exceptionally sweet, juicy and crunchy, good for harvesting at thumb size but even better at about six inches long.

 

Astro Arugula

21 days (baby greens) / High Mowing, Johnny’s

Also known as roquette or rocket, this international spicy green can be harvested as tiny lobed or spiky leaves in just three weeks. Astro is quick to sprout in our climate and will weather some heat before bolting.