The Snarky Gardener shows you that some food plants love the cold.

I first heard of corn salad (aka mache) while reading Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition by Eliot Coleman.  He discusses how some food vegetables can handle cool and cold weather.  Many of these are greens, like spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, and parsley.  The one that stuck out to me was corn salad.  This green was originally cultivated by European peasants who would forage for them in their spent wheat fields (corn is a common term for staple crops).  It seems to me this plant thrives in the cold, which is counter how many people see garden vegetables.

Two years ago I naturalized corn salad in my garden so now it grows as a self seeding “weed”.  It starts to grow from previously dropped seed in August or September when we get a bout of cooler weather.  Once it grows up to a decent size, its edible in salads right up until the temperatures drop below freezing for highs (usually after Christmas in Ohio).  Then instead of dying, the corn salad will hold its own (without any cover).  Once the weather warms up in March, growth begins again and by May it’s sending out flowers and going to seed.  Of course, with protection (be it row covers or cold frames), the corn salad would be even more productive with the ability to reap any time over the winter.