In Western Washington’s mild climate, some of our hardy crops can survive the winter and offer a dose of new growth in the early spring. Over-wintered kale, now producing its delicious, flowering shoots called “rapini,” is a great example. As much as we love rapini, these fields have another job to do soon.

Our 2015 kale fields will soon be replaced by this season’s chard, winter squash, and lettuce. We won’t plant anything new in these fields for a while, but we will work the soil over the next few months to condition it for success once the starts are ready to go out in May and June.

Our friends at PCC made this available at all ten of their stores this month. We are coming up on our final harvest from these hardy and productive plants. Soon it will finally be time to turn them in.

We’re capturing interesting moments this season and sharing them here to help you learn where your food comes from. Follow Story of a Season on our blog or on Instagram with #storyofaseason.