It is now mid-November and the garden is still alive and well. Certainly a different look and feel from the late summer, but thriving nonetheless.
As I write, I am glancing at a few tomatoes that are still around from summer planting. They were still green when the first frost hit, but they are still tasty. I guess it will be next spring before i will have another tomato fresh from the vine.
I planted garlic and onion sets back a few weeks ago. They are showing their tops and they have been mulched for the winter. They might be taking up bed space until next spring, but I will be able to follow their harvest with another long season crop.
The Magenta lettuce has remained under row cover for a couple of weeks, but it healthy and quite tasty in a salad. The temperatures have dropped below freezing numerous times in the creek bottom where I live, but the hardiness of that variety has shown it will grow even as the temperatures approach 20 degrees.
We have had some outstanding kale and Swiss chard that has survived the cold weather. Though the late planted turnips are not producing large numbers of leaves with the lower temperatures, they are still growing and should be offering edibles for a while yet.
Inside the hoop house, my experiments with sprouting turnips and mesculun are going well. As long as we have seasonal cold, the inside soil temperatures are remaining warm enough for sprouting. It is slower going than seed planted in September, but I am hoping to be surprised by some excellent greens in December and January.
See this article at The Garden Slug
What more can I say, it has been cold in the mountains the last few days.
We had chard over the weekend that has been frosted on and had lived through some cold nights below freezing, and it was tasty as ever. Same is true with the kale.
Last time I checked, the seedlings are growing slowly in the hoophouse (turnips, mesculun and spinach). Other items in their are thriving because it is often 5-10 degrees warmer than outside.
The wind has been blwoing up to 30 mph at times and the hoophouse has been battered but not beaten.
I would love to go home and work int he garden this afternoon, but I am afraid that i am a bit wimpy and refuse to put on winter gear. We might pick some broccoli or lettuce for dinner, but to heck with mulching and weeding–there will be some warmer days later in the week.
Yep, my husband sweet talked me. He married an Italian woman who loves food, and doesn’t mind sharing her recipes. I got the idea from Real Simple magazine, and just like my mother would do, I adapted it to my own tastes and what I have in hand.Here are the ingredients:
3 lbs. of sweet potatoes
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 celery stalk sliced
1 apple peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons salt
(you may want to try substituting some winter squash for the potatoes, or add some ginger to the mix, maybe a bit of cinnamon)Directions:Heat oven to 400 degrees, prick the potatoes with a fork, place on a baking sheet and roast until tender (40-45 minutes).
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat–add the onion, celery and apple and cook, stirring occasionally until soft about 10-12 minutes.
Halve the potatoes, scoop out the flesh, then add to the saucepan, add 6 cups of water, the salt and pepper and other spices). Cook until heated through (8-10 minutes).
Puree the soup in the saucepan using an immersion blender (or working in batches, use a standard blender). Add more water if needed to reach the desired consistency.
Serve with croutons and a dollop of sour cream (and a garden salad, fresh from the back yard).
(Find it at The Garden Slug)
This past weekend we spent time in the garden and yard cleaning up and preparing for the winter.
The annuals were spent and it was time to take care of the brown and brittle leaves and stems. We cut the grass one more time and got rid of a good bit of garden waste.
But just because it is November does not mean that the vegetable garden is done. We are still picking cabbage, broccoli, chard, kale and turnips. We have green onions that are tasty, and there are still all kinds of salad greens available.
The hoop house is extending the season for some crops. I am experimenting with sprouting mesculun and spinach under cover. After all, the air temperature inside the house is usually about 10 degrees higher than outside, and the ground temperature appears to be much higher than the ground outside.
We also have about 5 dozen heads of Magenta lettuce in full growth. We keep a row cover on them overnight and try to take it off during the day. Even with temperatures falling down near 20 degrees last week, the row cover gave sufficient protection to keep the lettuce alive.
Garlic, as well as white and purple onions are in the ground and have pushed up some sprouts in the past couple of weeks. I will be mulching them all between now and the end of the month for a layer of protection through the winter.
We still have some tomatoes that ripened in the window sill, and there are still lots of vegetables in the freezer. And we cooked some of the first carrots of the season. They were not large in size but huge in taste.
I’ll keep you posted as the extended season continues.
It is now mid-November and the garden is still alive and well. Certainly a different look and feel from the late summer, but thriving nonetheless.