90 Degrees F in Chicago May 20

That's about 20 degrees above normal and it feels like a hot-air furnace. I'm documenting the temps because they're still swinging wildly and because we could be in the process of producing the earliest tomato evah.

Now, there's an upside.

Tomatoes are growing like it's August.

Cool-weather greens are surging and going quickly to seed.  This is komatsuna from Hudson Valley Seed Library.

Most greens don't like 90 degrees. And they absolutely taste sweeter when grown in the 40-60 degree range. No problem: three days from now our high is predicted to be 55 degrees.

We can't get enough of these green leafies, growing also in the nicely shaded on-the-ground raised bed.

Greens grab-bag 

Joker lettuce from Wild Garden Seed

In a flurry of planting, we didn't label this lovely ruffled kale. It's mighty tender.

Send one up for the folks in the path of the Oklahoma tornadoes...

Seeding, Seedlings, Salad

Collards vates

from Hudson Valley Seed Library

It all beings on a turquoise tray with a heat mat underneath and some plastic wrap on top. Seeds are planted.

 

After they germinate, they travel to Bruce's warm light rack for a boost. When they outgrow their flat they get a quick transplant.

The it's back to the light rack to push a bit more growth.

(Carl helps, but he'd rather be outside showing me his stick.)

The komatsuna from Hudson Valley Seed Library is delicious, a truly low-heat mustard green. We're eager for it to flourish.

Along with the collards, they're heading to the roof to get planted out in SIPs. After the coldest March in 17 years, we're looking toward 60 degrees this week. Bring on the salad.

Komatsuna Seeds via Hudson Valley Seed Library (HVSL)

Komatsuna...Extremely cold hardy, ultra-mild Asian mustard green. Almost as sweet as spinach, but even easier to grow.

It took just 3.5 days for these greens to germinate. It's a mustard variety from Hudson Valley Seed Library, one of our favorite seed companies. 

Could it be that seed grown in upstate NY has an affinity for Chicago weather?

Also planted from HVSL: Chard Silverado and Collards Vates. 

Plus from Franchi: Spinach Winter Giant and Lacinato kale. 

We love the promise of spring greens...