School Garden Bundle

I used to manage a school garden, and one issue we had was that most of the produce was ready to harvest during the summer when kids weren’t in school. Perennial vegetables really shine in addressing this problem- many have long, flexible harvest windows over fall, winter, or spring, and sometimes year round. 

Here's a selection of perennial vegetables and self-seeding annuals that are ready to harvest during the school year from September through June. Suitable for hardiness zones 6 to 12.

1. Seombadi Korean Celery - harvest leaves and stems year round, including in the middle of winter, even under snow. Use leaves and thin stems like parsley or celery leaf to add flavour to salads and soups. Excellent flavour, much milder than lovage.
2. Pink Skirret Mix - harvest roots year round, but the best time is fall through early spring. Leaves can also be eaten like a mild parsley substitute. Plus the roots in this mix will be shades from white, blush, or pink, which are very fun to dig up for gardeners of all ages.
3. Spinach Vine - harvest shoots in late winter and eat raw or cook lightly like mini asparagus. Leaves are mild in spring, very similar to spinach. Can grow in full shade.
4. Sylvetta Arugula - leaves are milder in spring and fall and become spicier in hot weather. Great in salads, on top of pizza, etc.
5. Miner's Lettuce - one of the earliest leafy greens- a mild flavour with succulent leaves that's great in salads, salads, or as a snack while gardening. Will reseed and pop up next spring.
6. Mâche - one of the earliest leafy greens available. Very mild lettuce flavour, great raw. Will reseed and pop up next spring. 
   
7. Homesteader's Kaleidoscopic Perennial Kale Grex- harvest leaves year round. Plants are their most colourful and tastiest in winter, with some plants turning hot pink and variegated.
8. Garden Sorrel - a hardy perennial leafy green with a zingy lemon flavour that kids love. A great addition to salads in small amounts, and in cooked dishes where a lemony spinach flavour is desired- my all-time favourite dish for this is spanakopita.
9. Garden Patience - related to garden sorrel, but less sour, so it's a bit more versatile as a spinach substitute. Starts growing very early in spring. 
   
10. Delft Perpetual Leek - harvest leeks fall through early spring. Any you miss will bloom to feed pollinators in summer, and baby leeks will still resprout from the roots of plants that have gone to seed.
11. Flashback Calendula - cheerful edible and medicinal flowers bloom almost year round in mild climates. The kids loved adding the petals to salads and adding the whole flowers to herbal iced tea. We once made infused oil with the whole flower heads and then added beeswax to make healing hand salve and lip balms. A very versatile plant!