Worldwide, the U.S. leads in confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the New York Times. Food resilience is a hot topic. I’m looking at a number of podcasts now, and hearing (and seeing, from my own observations), what foods are going fast in the supermarkets—it’s not fresh oranges or celery. People are grabbing a lot of snacky foods. Interestingly, flour seems to be in short supply. So, maybe we’ve got some Victory Baking going on as well.

People have never been more interested in Victory Gardens (the NYT also reports)—not surprising!

It’s March. It’s spring. This is the time to start thinking of those gardens. The problem is the soil is still cold and wet across the northern United States. Working soils that are wet, clayey and low in organic matter, could damage soil structure. Wait until the soils warm up some. In terms of what to plant, consider shelling peas (many plant as early as  President’s Day, if soils are sufficiently dry). Potatoes may be another early crop for you, too. What a delicious meal—early peas and new potatoes.

A couple cups of potatoes deliver almost 20% of the carbohydrates and calcium we need each day, and 20% of the fiber.  A cup of peas, another 20% of the fiber and about 15% protein (although the amount of protein we need is somewhat controversial, as I discuss in  my Finding Balance).

 

 

This meal is starting to look pretty good, but we definitely need to find some fat—I get mine from my sheep cheese (just 1/4 cup and I can get a hefty amount of fat and calcium).

Source: Berardi/Early spring volunteer chives and overwintered kale

Let’s get out and garden! We can do this!