100% Fresh January Garden Salad

This is the salad I had for Sunday dinner yesterday, January 16. There is at least three inches of snow on the ground. Over the past three weeks we have had three nights at our house that reached minus-15 degrees -- you read that right. And I'm having garden-fresh salad. Great to be me!

But how much did that salad cost you, you may be asking. After all, the price of the greenhouse, the electricity, the artificial heat, the artificial lighting... That's an expensive salad.

So wrong.

First, you should know this salad was picked within the hour, photographed, and eaten. There is no greenhouse. No cold frame, no artificial heating of any kind, no artificial lighting, no special glass growing frame, no electricity, not a single thing that costs money or requires work. Not a single thing.

I have not been out digging, nor planting, nor doing anything special to get this salad. Just five minutes of work last September, and a little planning. That's all.

And now, on January 16th, with temperatures hovering at freezing, I have fresh winter salad. Even better, I have enough for tomorrow, and the next day, and the next and on and on. I could even make a fresh winter salad for a crowd.

In fact, I'm going to do just that. And you are invited dine with me!

We will be taste-testing this fresh garden salad, and many other winter garden delights, in my "Winter Gardening" class, sponsored by the American Fork Arts Council. I'll also be giving away free, pure, open-pollinated vegetable seed from my garden, and showing you truly easy ways to feast fresh and straight from you garden in the dead of winter in Utah. The class costs twenty bucks if you register before Feb. 4. To register, call the American Fork Arts Council office at 801-763-3081.

Zero cost. Zero special nonsense. Just forgotten skills of self-sufficiency of the pioneers (yes, that was a shameless plug for the book, available in stores August 2011.)

For more information about the class, visit CalebWarnock.blogspot.com. Happy eating!