Early, early, early

The earliest backyard crop is usually some form of greens. In our garden, it will be tatsoi (sometimes called "tah tsai").

I tossed some tatsoi seeds in an outdoor planter a couple weeks ago and covered the planter with glass to make a sort of greenhouse. After a couple mild, sunny days this week, they sprouted despite the night-time temperatures falling well below freezing.

In addition to being cold-tolerant, the plants are pretty -- perfect little rosettes -- suitable for growing in a decorative spot. They're ready for harvest in about six weeks. The leaves can be eaten either fresh in a salad or lightly cooked (e.g., added to a stir fry or tossed with cooked pasta or steamed/wilted like spinach).

Any uneaten plants will bolt in hot weather and produce flowers with multitudes of seeds (in elongated pods, like extremely tiny peas). If they're allowed to self-seed, depending on the timing, they'll either produce a second crop in time for the late-fall harvest or will over-winter for an early spring crop the next year. If you want to control where they're growing, the casings make it easy to harvest the seeds.