Maybe you saw the Denver hail storm on the national news yesterday.  Just when we thought we were frost-free, golf-ball sized hail pelted down from the sky, denting hoods and squashing tender vegetables plants trying to make their way in the world.  Thankfully my neighborhood in Denver wasn’t hit and my vegetable garden will live to see another day.  It sure does make me appreciate the fickleness of the weather, though.  And what it must be like for a vegetable farmer to watch their cash crop be destroyed in ten minutes by frozen ice crystals.

Maybe that’s one reason why fresh local vegetables have been hard to come by in Denver.  Instead of wandering through aisles piled high with colorful and awe inspiring vegetable variety, my market trips have been full of colorful cardboard boxes with phrases like, “grown in California” or “grown in Mexico.”  To be fair, the Colorado Fresh Market makes no claims that they sell local produce, or that they are a true farmers’ market, and I did find one vendor who had grown his asparagus and spinach. But Colorado Fresh Market is the premiere outdoor market. And I just hope that people understand many of the vegetable vendors buy their products from wholesalers who may truck them in from other states.

But that’s enough whining.  Back to hope and vegetables.  My husband and I will be sampling our first uber-locally grown vegetable tonight, Baby Bok Choy, from right here in my front yard.  I planted it a few weeks before the last frost, and it has been one happy vegetable!  Instead of “harvesting” today, I really was only planning on doing some thinning.  When I bought the 6-pack of Bok Choy seedlings, I took the label literally and thought there were only 6 plants.  I plunked them in my newly prepared plot, and didn’t think more about it.  But then I realized, where I thought I’d planted one plant, I’d really planted three or four.  Which makes, like, 24 bok choy plants that were all going to be ready to eat at the same time.  Unless I could convince my cat that she likes Bok Choy, some thinning was in order.

So then I procrastinated some more, until I finally got to thinning them out today.  And you know, they’ve grown so well, and there are so many of them, that I think I have enough for my first official side dish from this years’ garden! 

Just in time to lift my veggie spirits! 

And as June arrives, more markets will be opening up around Denver–just what I need to put the wind back in The Weekly Veggie sails.  Thanks to all of you who wondered where I went!  I hope your last frost date is long gone, and that you’re finding your own way to promote locally grown veggies.  Until next week….