Beginning and Ends

Although this is still spring some things are already coming to an end. Arugula has started to bolt. "Bolt" is the term that is used to describe when a plant like lettuces or other greens are starting to go to seed. I had noticed last week that there was some seed heads deep in the plants. Now they have jumped up about 6 inches. I a week they will be completely gone to seed. When a plant starts to bolt the leaves may be coarse, stringy and have a bitter flavor. Arugula is already a bitter green and it might be very tart when it goes to seed.


There are also some beginnings. I had to thin my beets. Beet seeds are clumps of seeds with 2 or 4 plants from each kernel.This can mean that the plants were are very crowded and in order to allow the beet roots to mature to a better size you need to thin them. No sense putting those seedlings to waste so I cooked the baby beet greens. They are so tender it only takes a few minutes.

Finally a really early beginning is the this sweet potato vine This sweet potato is from my last year crop. I am now starting some vines by putting the sweet potato in the water and when the shoots are about 12 inches long they can be pinched off and then just planted in the ground.