As the temperatures creep up here in the Midwest, the early season vegetables are disappearing from my garden and the farmers market, and the summer produce is starting to be harvested. This year I did quite well with early crops- the snow peas in particular were bountiful, but bok choi, radishes, daikon, spring onions, and India mustard all gave great yields. As it was warm quite early we struggled with cabbage moths, but I still think I'll get some cabbages in the coming weeks. The broccoli may not head this year due to the heat, and my lettuce, usually one of the easier crops, was decimated by the moth larvae, though I still got a few salads.
Aside from the peas, from which I took the fifth and final harvest two weeks ago, India mustard might be my favorite early crop for this year. It's the first time I've grown it and it grows fast, thrives in the cool spring weather, and is pretty much bug resistant. We used it for Indian greens (similar to these), garlic greens, and with a dijon-dill sauce. I harvested the leaves individually, allowing the plants to continue growing, which as the weather warmed resulted in getting the flowers of the plant, pictured above. It was such a pleasant side benefit to have the willowy stems and little yellow flowers gracing the mantle in the past few weeks. These are starting to lose their flowers, and will probably make their way to the compost pile in the coming days, but even the grassy light stems are a great way to bring a breezy garden feel to the interior.
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