As I soak in the warm spring sun and enjoy the ever-longer days this time of year, I’m constantly excited about what’s to come. In just a couple of months, my farm will be bursting with life, color, and most importantly, food. This week, I’m taking some time to reflect on the vegetables that are simply a joy to grow and eat, the ones that I look forward to every year.
Carrots
If I had to pick one vegetable that I simply can’t stop snacking on while working in the garden, it has to be carrots. I’ll often walk over to a maturing carrot bed during a break from working and pull one, give it a quick wash, and scarf it down. There is nothing like a fresh carrot. After I’ve harvested a bed, the carrots that were damaged or too small to sell get piled up and promptly consumed. It’s just too hard to resist that sweet, fresh crunch and the knowledge that it came from my happy, healthy soil! Our dog, Azula, loves to crunch on these fresh veggies, too, and she’s known to come sit very good until I give her some.
Even more than munching on them, carrots are a joy (read: challenge) to grow. They are one of a small number of vegetables that can’t be transplanted, so prepping a bed and sowing with a seeder is really important. Also, carrots are very picky about germination, requiring constant moisture for a couple of weeks to germinate properly. They also compete poorly with weeds, meaning that carrot beds have to be exceptionally weed-free before planting. I save my very, very best and most prepared beds for this crop.
Carrots are also widely adaptable, meaning that we have them fresh for nearly all of our season. They also store for months, so we can have carrots nearly year-round with good planning. It’s no wonder this vegetable is the one featured on our logo!
Garlic
Oh, Garlic. I’ve done a whole post on how much I love everything about this crop. We use garlic nearly every day in our kitchen, and we simply couldn’t imagine life without it.
Garlic is also a source of joy on the farm in a particularly rough time of year for most everything else. Garlic is the only crop on our farm that we plant outside in the fall and allow to grow slowly through the winter, then very quickly during the early spring. In late February and March, when the rest of the farm is various shades of gray and brown, the garlic plot is vibrant green and growing like crazy. As opposed to carrots, garlic is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. After planting, there’s pretty much 0 maintenance required until harvest.
Another thing I love about garlic is that it is one of the few crops we are fully self-sufficient in. We save our biggest and best bulbs during harvest for next year’s crop, rather than purchasing seed. Fun fact: all modern garlic is sterile, meaning it doesn’t produce viable seeds. All garlic is propagated by planting cloves from the previous year!
Cilantro
Cilantro is my number one favorite herb, and there’s no close second. While some folks can’t stand the taste, we are a cilantro-forward kitchen. We use it every single week, usually multiple times per week. It is very versatile and is used in east Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Mexican, and Mediterranean cooking, just to name a few.
Interestingly enough, while many people see cilantro as a part of vibrant summer dishes, it is actually a cool-weather plant. Our cilantro is exceptionally full and healthy in late November, while most other things are dying to hard freezes. In the summer, it is actually fairly challenging to grow because it wants to bolt to flower before putting out much green foliage. We plant many successions of cilantro to ensure we always have some fresh.
Green Beans
Green beans are another vegetable on the list of things to munch on while on the job. While green beans are notorious among farmers for their relatively low profitability and challenging harvest, we just can’t help but grow them. Our customers seem to love them as much as we do, and they were one of the few crops that we completely sold out of in 2024.
It is true that green beans are difficult to harvest. We grow bush varieties, and to harvest them, you must wade through the green leaves to find the beans, all while bent over the plants. Since the beans are small and their price point is fairly low, that means they don’t make up for the labor required to pick them more often than not. Despite this, I find picking green beans quite therapeutic, and I’m always immensely satisfied with their bounty when I’m finished.
Hakurei Turnips
Those who are uninitiated to farmer’s markets may not know about this crunchy treat, but if you’ve spent any time at a farmer’s market in spring, you know the Hakurei Turnip. These turnips aren’t your typical large purple and white mass that is good for, well, not too much. Hakurei Turnips, or salad/sweet turnips as I often refer to them, are smaller and stunningly white, about the size of a radish. They have the delicate crunch of a radish as well, but the mild and sweet turnip flavor. They are a godsend for anyone who loves the fresh, crisp radish but fears the spicy burning sensation.
I love this vegetable mostly because you just can’t find it at the store. It is one of the unique joys of participating in a local food economy. I also love to get reactions from customers who haven’t ever tried them, taking a bunch home one week and then rushing to get them again the next.
And, you guessed it, you can find me on a spring day pulling a sweet turnip, giving it a quick wipe down, and taking a big bite!
While we love all the delicious food we grow here at Good Dirt Farm, these vegetables are some of my favorite ones to grow – at least, so far.
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