The light is getting longer, the days getting “warmer”.  Normally in February it’s guaranteed I can easily find a large window of time to harvest spinach from the hoop house.  This marvelous crop freezes and thaws with the changing days without skipping a beat.  Its sugars bundle up and protect its leaves and then manifest themselves on your taste buds like sugar on snow.

 

I am not sure how I have done it, but every pick up this winter has fallen on subzero nights with the day’s high in the teens (or 10!).  Needless to say my spinach harvesting window was quite small yesterday.  I furtively harvested into the waning light, trying to hide from the inevitable cold, until the leaves started to grow little crystals.  We (the spinach, Simon and the rouge mouse) laughed as we listed to NPR’s podcast “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”, then sang a little to Bob Marley and then ended the last several pounds in silence appreciating the beauty of winter, the humbleness of plants and the ephemeral gift of light and warmth on a cold winter’s day.

 

May you enjoy the flavor of summer neatly stored in your winter’s veggies, and the taste of winter in your greens that don a summer’s hue.