Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Irish farmers and lovers of the land welcomed March 17th as the ‘middle day’ of spring, when they believed the Saint had blessed the weather to follow.

Farmers still use this date to plant potatoes and not just in Ireland. My grandfather always tried to put his early potatoes in the ground by March 17.

A traditional day for spiritual renewal, St. Patrick’s day is also a significant day in the farming calendar and farmers would also feed their bees, before they started leaving the hive looking for their first spring blossoms. Our bees are already feasting on chickweed here at the garden!

What about that shamrock? In Ireland, native shamrock was a symbol of the holy trinity. St. Patrick’s sainthood was derived from his conversion of the Irish Celtic pagans to Christianity.

The tradition of a drink of the hard stuff on this day (with a shamrock floating in it) comes from this story about St. Patrick.

When an innkeeper gave St. Patrick less than a full measure of whiskey, St. Patrick told the innkeeper there was a monstrous devil in his cellar feeding off of the innkeeper’s dishonesty. The innkeeper thereafter changed his ways, let the whiskey flow and the devil became emaciated and was banished by St. Patrick and the innkeeper.

Partaking in a drink of whisky with a shamrock floating in it is known as “drowning the shamrock.” You wore a shamrock in your hat or coat throughout the day with the last drink of the day, to float it in your drink. Then you took the shamrock from the bottom of your glass and threw it over your left shoulder.

Hattie’s Garden Delivery / Pickup Service

The deadline for placing your orders for the Saturday, March 21 delivery or pickup is is Wednesday, March 18 at noon.

We still have plenty of green head lettuce from Chesapeake Organic. The heads are getting much larger now and I can’t wait to enjoy a spring salad this weekend!

I’m going to mix some lettuce and some arugula with a little blue cheese from Chapel’s Country Creamery while I anticipate the abundance of the season!

Hattie’s Garden still has a little more triple-washed young arugula available and Chesapeake bunched arugula is very nice, and a little more mature for those who can’t get enough of a bite!

Gardening Classes

For your convenience, you can register online for our Gardening Classes. We are offering a choice of two classes that will be held over two sessions:

• Sunday Class: held on March 29 (12 to 3) and April 12 (2:30 to 5:30); or
• Monday Class: held on March 30 and April 13, both dates (4 to 7).

Please note the second Sunday meeting is a time change from our originally published schedule and had to be moved from Noon to 2:30 for a start time.

Please sign up as soon as possible. Classes will fill quickly and I’d like to have the opportunity to add another class if needed, so if you are interested do let us know. Classes are small with a maximum of eight students.

The cost for the class is $100 and your payment is your confirmation for a spot in the class.