Thinking of new shoots

Ordering seeds is an exciting business and depending on the time of year, it makes me crave for different flavours. In summer I'm drawn to herbs with a zing like mints and coriander, while during late autumn and early winter it's the hot and hearty chillies and pumpkins that catch my eye.
Now, as I look out on this grey and grim morning trying to convince myself that the first shoots of spring are coming, it's crisp and crunchy salad that I'm after. The crops from my allotment are long gone (and after the gales on the weekend so is their fleece covering!) and all I've got left is a row of chard. Chard is as rufty-tufty as a night-club bouncer and as colourful as a flamenco dancer, so it's good to have as a winter mainstay but it's not as tasty as more tender-to-eat winter density lettuce and rocket, so I've made a start on a new salad bed in the greenhouse. Beneath its shelter I should have plenty of pickings by late March and, fingers crossed, a sandwich-filling or two before then.
It's early to sow I know but by swaddling the seedlings beneath a sheet of fleece I reckon I can coax them to germinate. Okay, they'll probably be a little leggy - early sowings always are as the seedlings stretch to catch the watery winter sunshine. With other vegetables that's bad but with soon-to-be-snipped salads it hardly matters. And hey, just like the sparkling stalks of cress, the stems of lettuce taste pretty good too.