Winter leads to beautiful spring, and yummy summer

Sorry folks for the extended hiatus. Between slipping on the ice and screwing up my back for a week, a minor procedure at the Dr's that put me down for another week, and then a nasty head cold, I haven't been thinking too clearly. That all seems to be past now, and man am I glad! It's always amazing the perspective that being physically discommoded gives being healthy. 

I don't know about you, but in my part of the country we get a "January Thaw" every year. It's this time of year people start acting stupid because of an early case of spring fever. You know, those few people who break out motorcycles just because it's 40º instead of 20º. Or start wandering around in shorts and no jacket? Then they whine when it gets cold again. Don't get me wrong, I love this brief warm up, especially because I get a pop of snowdrops in my yard, which are the first blooming flowers in, oh, 3 months, and I won't see any more for another 2 months. Here in Ohio, at least for me, that's a BIG thing. It's the first color that isn't grey since the leaves fell! Oh, and if the crocus pop up for a day, vibrant purple, yellow, and blue! But I know it isn't going to last. It's the same every year. 

This brings me to the topic of this entry, my rant about the cold

WE NEED THE COLD TO MAKE THINGS GROW!

Yes, you read that right. One of the keys to making sure many of the spring and summer perennial plants thrive and provide flowers or food for us to enjoy is COLD. In this part of the country that means COLD, bitter cold, the kind where you go outside and feel like your nose and fingers are going to freeze off before you're done wiping snow off your car. 

Random face in the snow on hubby's car last night.
(All I can hear  in my head is Mushu from Mulan "And it's happy to see you!)

One of these foods that need cold are apples. Yep, the good old All-American fruit. As a country, we seem to love our apples. Apple pie, apple tart, apple butter, apple jelly, apple cakes, apple bread, apple muffins, even just plain old apple by itself. Hell, we even love the fruit so much some of our biggest sell gadgets are made by a company called Apple. Yes, it's really named after the fruit. You can read about it in Steve Job's Biography here. 

Aside from apples, other foods we enjoy that require this extended cold season we call winter, are berries, oranges (a certain level of cold actually enhances flavor and color), apricots, celery, onions, garlic, potatoes, and cabbage.

Some of our prettiest spring flowers that really tell us winter is over need the cold too. Some of these are the most common Easter/Ostara flowers that represent the birth of Spring. Hyacinth, Snow Drops, Daffodils, and Crocus. Without the cold which lets the bulbs rest, we would not get the beautiful and fragrant blooms these flowers are known for. I don't know about you, but for me it just isn't Spring without these.

So remember: Be thankful for the cold bitter months. Without them, many of the plants we enjoy each Spring  and Summer would not flourish for us. There are many more plants that I didn't mention here need this time to rest, and a certain amount of "chill hours" to induce greater yields. So if you're looking forward to warmer weather, full of cookouts, with baked potatoes, and veggie plates, and desserts covered with berries, and jams and jelly and pies of all kinds, then you're just going to have to deal with the cold and think about the Earth instead of yourself first. So zip up, grow up, and get over it!