Your first harvest of the year is closer than you think

There's a moment in late winter when the allotment feels purely theoretical. You've been sowing seeds, planning beds, ordering catalogues (yes, I am a millennial, thanks). But actually eating something you've grown? That feels like a distant memory probably something involving a glut of courgettes last August.

Here's some good news: March is not as bare as it looks.

If you grew purple sprouting broccoli last year and it overwintered (as it's meant to), now is your reward. PSB is one of the finest things an allotment can produce tender, nutty, and genuinely superior to the white broccoli you get in supermarkets. Cut the central spear first to encourage sideshoots, and keep harvesting regularly to extend the season.

Overwintered kale is also going strong right now. It's been quietly ticking along through the cold and now it's at its sweetest frost actually improves the flavour by converting starches to sugars. Strip the leaves from the lower stems and leave the growing tip intact.

Leeks sown last spring are likely still standing and very much edible. Pull them as you need them they're happiest left in the ground until you want them. Same goes for any parsnips that are still in the soil: a few frosts only improve them.

In the polytunnel or cold frame, winter lettuces and claytonia (miner's lettuce) are probably ready or close to it. If you don't have any growing right now, bear it in mind for next autumn a few trays of overwintering salad crops makes March feel significantly less grim.

Rhubarb crowns that were divided and replanted last autumn are also starting to push up their first pale-pink stems. If you have a forcer over them, the forced stems will be even earlier and more tender. Don't harvest anything in the first year of a new crown let it establish. But if it's an established plant, go ahead.

March is a hungry month for the plot, but not a completely empty one. Look carefully enough and you'll find something worth eating.