2015 Year in Review - Root Vegetables

Let's see how I did with the rooty veggies in 2015, that includes the onion family, carrots, parsnips, beets, radishes, turnips, and celery root.

Zebrune shallots

Alliums. Onions were a standout in terms of overall production simply because I devoted a lot of garden space to them in 2015. The alliums overall were disappointing, the onions bolted, the garlic was severely infected with rust and didn't size up, the leeks bolted and got infected with rust. But there was one shining star in the allium show - my seed grown Zebrune shallots resisted rust and bolting, produced a generous crop of 19.5 pounds, and are also turning out to be good keepers. Indeed, they are keepers and I've already got the seedlings for 2016 growing in the garden.

This year I'll be experimenting with new varieties of onions in an attempt to find some that won't be so prone to bolting, but I'll be growing fewer of each variety and they'll get less garden space overall. Leeks will not be returning, they were not worth the space and time and although I like them they are not my favorite allium. Garlic is back already, I love it too much to give up on it, although it is already sporting spots of rust, dang it.

Carrots. Oops, I never did get around to sowing any in 2015 but I did harvest 9.5 pounds, mostly  a bunch of small ones from a late 2014 planting and a few Spanish Black volunteers. So, not a good carrot year. I'm committed to growing them in 2016, I better be, I still have seeds that I intended to use last year and I've ordered some interesting new varieties to grow this year.

Gladiator parsnips

A notable success this year was my first ever decent harvest of parsnips. They are a challenging crop to grow. The sowbugs seem to love the seedlings (what seedlings do sowbugs not like?) and a lot of what germinated disappeared. I almost turned the survivors into the soil and replaced them with something else. But I relented got lazy and let them grow and test my patience - they are so slooow. And now they are one of my darlings, they filled in their space with masses of foliage and beautiful long fat (for a parsnip) roots and best of all they are really tasty. After cleaning out the bed last week I ended up with a total harvest of 11.4 pounds (5.2 kg), some of that is in the 2016 tally.

Beets. Good old reliable beets. I usually try for a few sowings each year. The harvests for 2015 were more modest than usual at a total of 12.5 pounds. But I didn't feel like I really fell short whereas in past years I've had to deal with unwanted gluts, so perhaps I've finally figured out how much to grow to meet my needs. I've settled on a few varieties that I like and that grow well in my garden. Chioggia has been an all time favorite.  It's pretty with striped stems and mild tasting green leaves. The root is generally red and white striped when you cut into it when raw, but the stripes melt into each other when the root is cooked. I like it because it is mild flavored, doesn't stain like red beets (so it plays well with other salad ingredients), and it's very productive. The only thing I don't like about Chioggia beets is that the tops are quite large and in a mixed planting of beets they can overwhelm their neighbors. On the other hand, if you like to eat beet greens that profusion of foliage can be a bonus. Another mild beet that I love is the Golden Beet that Renee's Garden Seeds carries. I've tried various other golden beets in the past and have not been crazy about them. Some varieties have golden skins but the interiors are white. Some just don't have any flavor. Some can be huge and overly vigorous. Renee's Golden Beets produce nice smooth skinned well formed roots that don't get too big. They definitely play nice with their neighbors in the garden and don't bleed like red beets. They are golden to the very center of the root. And the greens are tasty too. It's the only golden beet that I grow now. I do like red beets and don't mind that they bleed all over the place if they are going to be the star of the plate. And that red color is downright magnificent in a dish like Ottolenghi's delicious Beet Dip. In 2015 I grew two varieties from Renee's, Baby Ball and Red Baron, both are good, they're not too large, have well formed roots and tasty greens, quite frankly I haven't found them to be all that different and like both. I have seeds for all of these varieties and will be continuing to grow them this year. I also grew a Three Root Grex mix of beets which I didn't photograph and didn't make any notes about other than the harvest weights. I can't remember what I thought of them, so I'll have to grow them again this year and give them some proper attention.

Clockwise: China Rose with foliage, Saisai Leaf, Helios & Pink Punch, Selzer Purple

Radishes. A couple of years ago I was inspired by the beautiful radishes that Mark was harvesting from his Veg Plot to give them another try myself. Additional motivation was supplied by an article in the SF Chron about many different types of radishes that can be grown and various ways to use them beyond salads and crudites. In 2014 I grew 9 different varieties of radishes for a total of 9.5 pounds. In 2015 I grew 9 varieties again, not all the same as the previous year, but upped the harvest total to 24.7 pounds. To be honest that total includes the greens from 2 varieties, China Rose has smooth tender leaves that are delicious sauteed and I grew Saisai Leaf radish, a variety developed primarily for it's tender leaves, good both fresh in salads and sauteed. It was fun growing various colors and shapes of radishes. I found that my favorite use for them is the hum drum typical slices in my tossed salads. I'm missing them now since I didn't get around to sowing any this fall for winter harvests. I sowed some back in December but they haven't done well and I suspect that they will bolt without making any sizable roots.

Round Red and Mikado turnips

Turnips. Not those big strong flavored purple topped ones you find decapitated of their greens in the grocery store. I tried the tender little white ones, a variety named Mikado and a small red one named Round Red (how original). Both were mild and sweet with edible greens. I really loved both of them but don't have any to harvest now because I didn't get around to a fall sowing. (I really got lazy or burnt out this fall).

Celery Root aka Celeriac. Another vegetable to test a gardener's patience. It takes a long time to germinate, it takes a long time to get to transplantable size, and it takes a long time to produce a sizable root, not to mention it takes a lot of work to clean it up. Don't even try growing it unless you love it, which we do. I got a decent harvest from seeds sown in 2014. I've been growing the same variety for the past few years - Monarch and so long as the seeds continue to germinate that's what I'll grow in the future. The 2015 sowing didn't fare so well, I lost my first round of seedlings so started a late second round. Those little things never did get a real chance, the plants in the garden now have roots about the size of golf balls and probably won't do much of anything before they bolt. I'll let them stay for now since my harvests usually last through March so perhaps they'll get a little bigger in the next couple of months.

I am almost, at last, done with the 2015 reviews. Next up will be the final review post about leafy greens and miscellaneous. And then I can get on with 2016!