Most of the time, my favorite color is blue: light blue, dark blue, navy blue, denim blue, sky blue, aqua blue.
But here, in mid-spring, green is a pretty hefty competitor as most people’s favorite color.
With our daughter having recently invested in a vacation-rental property in Huntingdon County, the hilltop retreat has become a new, overnight family destination.
With cover crops growing in popularity, as farmers increasingly embrace the soil health benefits of keeping living roots feeding underground microbes and bacteria year-round, the acres of rolling fields in mountain valleys resemble emerald carpets.
But nature is never content to don just one color, so the expanses of springtime green are enhanced with the outdoor designer’s accents in daffodil ivory, forsythia yellow, peach-tree pink, lilac purple, clumps of wild-violet blue.
Over the winter months, I try to “kick it up a notch,” colorwise at least, with the additions of red lettuce leaves, shredded carrots, finely chopped purple cabbage, red or yellow peppers, even a bit of tomato if I can find some that don’t resemble orangish plastic fakes.
Small plantings of spinach, kale and arugula sheltered through the winter in my small, mini-tunnel, under layers of clear plastic and floating row cover.
Crouching under moisture dripping from a larger, plastic-covered tunnel, I can harvest red-leafed and chartreuse green and bronze-speckled baby lettuces to toss with the heartier greens bursting from their winter digs.
Scanning the “greens” offerings while preparing an order from my favorite mail-order seed catalog months ago, I spied a listing for “rose orach,” an alternative to spinach.
Taste-wise, they pack about the same subtle flavor as lettuces, but their color certainly perks up a fresh salad.