A Summery Spring Salad

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day here in Newburyport: 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. In the morning we hit a local nursery to see if they had any herbs we could plant (we need to transplant some to their new locations in the back of the garden as well). To be honest, we were trying to find something to do in the garden. Alas, all they had were some flats of pansies. It really is too early to expect to put out plants yet in Massachusetts, and this probably spared us a lot of trouble protecting things when (if?) temperatures settle back into some kind of normal range. 

There's just not much to do in the garden yet, so we took a hike on a local trail (which was amazing, by the way, drowned fisher cat and/or beaver and all). When we got home from our little five-mile trek, we had dinner on the patio. And not just any humdrum, mid-March dinner: burgers from the grill and salad picked fresh from the garden. Check it:

That salad contains some of the kale, mache, and spinach that had been in the cold frame all winter and is now out in the open for a couple weeks until we plant something else there. If that seems like a boring salad, you need to try it fresh. With that much flavor, you barely need more than olive oil and a splash of vinegar to dress it. 

Unless, of course, you are seven and don't eat salad dressing. Then you walk over to the kale in the bed behind your chair and you pick some plain pieces for yourself. And then you might turn to your parents and say, "Hey, I guess you got everything you wanted. You can just come right here and pick your food for dinner."

Indeed, Jonas. Indeed.