Salad Days

My garden has reached the epitome of salad delights.  While the tomatoes are just starting to set fruits, I can still manage a harvest of tender greens, fresh herbs, and edible flowers. 

Yesterday's lunch (pictured above) featured a salad of buttercrunch lettuce, lemon and large leaf basil, tender pea shoots, nasturtium flowers and leaves, viola blossoms, and calendula petals.  Combined with some herbed feta crumbles and local greenhouse tomatoes, with a quickly whisked up vinaigrette of white balsamic vinegar and olive oil, it was simple, fresh and delicious.  Add a side of toast and a cool, bubbly glass of homemade strawberry lime shrub, and you've got yourself a fantastic lunch.

When hot weather arrives, typically the lettuce will become bitter, the flowers will shrivel, and the herbs will grow like mad into a more mature leaf.  Until that happens, I'm going to savor every bite of the seasonal delights from my backyard.