Great winter salads from raised beds

One of the benifits of gardening in Spain is that for gardeners their are two Springs,the Spring and the mild autumn/early winter. As a result anyone can grow a diverse range of salad leaves in small spaces using raised beds, growing tables or a ten_tub vegetable garden using regular or lare size builders buckets as described on page 61 of the best selling book 'Growing healthy vegetables in Spain'.

The salad for lunch yesterday included the following, most of which would not have been grown commercially even when the now almost abandoned agricultural area of the valley was in it's hay day. The best way to describe it today is ..'It took 30,000 years since the first cave dwellers to fully cultivate the valley and just 30 years to destroy it's inheritance'.

Green and red lettuce leaves, leaves of rocket purslane dandelion chichory lambs lettuce celtus oregano mint kalanchoe crasula pineapple sage nastutium thyme lavender rue lemon carrot alfalfa Swiss chard fennel perella brocolli plus a small brocolli head , a young onion and garlic and rose hibiscus viola lemon nasturtiun  and rosemary flowers.

With home pickled olives and ecological olive oil from our olive grove the salad was tasty healthy crunchy seasonal had no additives and was certainly fresh. For an  idea of the vitamins and minerals the salad included see the descriptive tables in 'Living well from our garden - Mediterranean style'.

Both of the books mentioned can be obtained from Amazon Books.