Wet, wet, wet. I found myself dashing out between rain showers and once in the middle of a rain shower this past week to quickly harvest veggies from the garden. And it's not just been rain, the higher peaks that I can see around here are covered with snow. We're getting a break today and tomorrow but tomorrow night the rain is returning. It seems to be making up for lost opportunities last year.
Here's a basket of first and last veggies. The first Badger Flame beets from the bunch I sowed last summer and the last head of Queen of Crunch lettuce. The lettuce started bolting weeks ago but it grew so slowly in the cold short days that I just let it stay in the garden until I needed it and fortunately it didn't get at all bitter.
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| Queen of Crunch Lettuce and Badger Flame Beets |
Another first was a small harvest of Peppermint Stick chard, another summer sown vegetable that didn't grow very well. The chard actually started off ok but then got a severe aphid infestation that I treated by cutting the plants back to the nubs and after that it struggled to come back. And one more softball sized celeriac. Both the chard and celeriac went into a soup that also featured leeks, celery, tomato paste, and the pulp from some fermented dried Jarales peppers. (Did you know you can ferment your dried peppers?) I started the soup by slow cooking some Rattlesnake beans and
corn chicos and a small ham together for a few hours in a 225 to 200ºF oven. I've found that my homegrown dried beans still cook up tender after even 3 or 4 years from the date of harvest especially if I cook them very slowly. Those Rattlesnake beans were from 2015 and they cooked up perfectly.
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| Prinz Celeriac and Peppermint Stick Chard |
Parsnips are holding well in the garden although they are not getting any larger. These look nice but they were on the small side.
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| Gladiator Parsnips |
These lovely fennel bulbs came from a plant that I sowed back in the spring of 2017. I posted a photo of the plant on my previous post about the garden in January.
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| Orion Fennel |
And I'm still harvesting the Short Stuff carrots that I sowed last summer. Most of them sized up before the chill of winter slowed them down.
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| Short Stuff Carrot |
That's the latest from my garden. Head on over the Dave's blog
Our Happy Acres to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.
Your parsnips look lovely. And the fennel. I like winter vegetables. Soups. Roasted. Salads. Braised. It is cold here, at least it feels that way to me. I've been staying in. But the cooking smells are good. Steamy vapors warm the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI like winter vegetables too. They are so comforting.
DeleteWe have had less than average rainfall. We’re harvesting carrots and parsnips too but we don’t grow fennel as neither of us like it and celeriac seems to be beyond our gardening capabilities.
ReplyDeleteIt's wet here too but not wanted or needed. The Short Stuff carrots are so impressive they are tempting me to grow them. Almost, maybe, perhaps. It's amazing those Rattlesnake beans cooked up so well. I would likely have given up on them!
ReplyDeleteWhen I grew parsnips in Massachusetts years ago, I liked the smaller ones. Winter chill of course makes them sweeter. Isn't the rain wonderful? My vegetables look so much better with rainwater instead of standard irrigation. So thankful!
ReplyDeleteYou're so lucky that the lettuce didn't get bitter - we had a bout of hot weather early on in the summer and most the lettuce ended up bitter, even before it started bolting :(
ReplyDeletePRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
ReplyDeleteNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO CA
311 PM PST WED FEB 13 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1230 PM NON-TSTM WND DMG CARMEL VALLEY ROAD 36.53N 121.83W
02/13/2019 MONTEREY CA NWS EMPLOYEE
DOWNED TREE BLOCKED EASTBOUND LANES. FIRE
DEPT CLEARED THE TREE FROM THE ROAD. THIS
WAS ONE OF 4 DOWN TREES OBSERVED FROM CARMEL
VALLEY VILLAGE TO THE MOUTH OF THE VALLEY.
How are you? Still got power?
Thanks for checking on me! We did lose power for a few hours yesterday. It was a wild ride. The trees were writhing in the wind, stuff blowing everywhere, things knocked over, the hummer feeders emptied out because they were blowing horizontally. Not much rain though until last night. And surprisingly warm, in the 60ºF's. It's more calm at the moment but I'm not sure how long that's going to last.
DeleteThe fennel is so interesting! I have never success on growing that plant
ReplyDelete