On winter gardening

I suppose the title of this post is misleading:  this is not winter gardening, it’s winter harvesting.  Such is the case with the greenhouses too:  that’s also harvesting, but…I don’t need to clear the snow off of the goods first!

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Purple-top turnips

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Tools needed:  Garden fork, hand knife (hori-hori), warm gloves, boots, Mother of All Colanders; child and sled optional

img_8204A fistful of carrots

img_8220Peeking at us through a hole in the collards

It’s early December here.  We’ve had snow and cold weather but the ground is not frozen.  These outdoor goodies, therefore, have yet to be completely done in by the cold:  the water in their cell walls has not frozen, expanded, thawed, gone mushy. With the exception of the leeks and the collards, in a month everything will be too icky (and probably too buried in snow) to eat.  Gotta feast now then!

11 responses to “On winter gardening

  1. oh, niiiiice. I love yr new banner. Fun to see the long view!

  2. Brrrr—-but, you are an amazing gardener and chef!

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/

  3. OK, the purple is beautiful but the Hannahs are stunning!

  4. Those pictures are so amazing, to think of getting turnips pulled from snow… and the little one holding all the gardening equipment is adorable 🙂

  5. Just had some turnip greens last night & they were great. We’re making a conscious effort to eat more greens because we have a hereditary form of anemia (thalassemia minor) that won’t respond to taking iron pills. So I figure plant-based iron would be more accessible for our bodies to use (hey, you got to get it from somewhere!). Thus the greens…

  6. Kelly, thanks. I gotta remind myself to change the banner every once in a while; haven’t quite gotten around to the idea that the banner is like my marketing brand yet.

    Oh Linda it WAS cold that day too. We made cocoa though so it was all great about 1/2 hour after this picture was taken.

    CC, yep, for the kid it was kind of a drive-by thing! Order up: how about some dirty kohlrabi?

    Alecto you probably encountered the same thing: grandmothers with hit or miss taste? I tell them if they shop at Hanna Andersson they can’t go wrong? The problem is there are 5 other coats just like hers on the playground…

    Mangochild, thanks. She’s a lot of fun and hopefully will always like gardening.

    Laurene, greens are great! We’re eating those collards tonight, actually; normally I harvest in a just-in-time mode but Saturday I thought I might as well get as much in if she was interested in helping. (Gotta maximize the free labor you know.) But yes, there is a lot good with greens, which is why we eat obscene amounts of them around here.

  7. You know, I moan about our rain and wish for snow…then I see it on your site and retract my wishes! Not sure which is worse. Lovely post though!

  8. The snowflakes are so fun. I panicked momentarily; I thought I had killed another computer, then I realized it was snow. Fun.

  9. HDR, I would still take the snow!!! Then again I am a bit of a nut for the white stuff…

    Pamela, sorry to give you a fright. It’s a temporary option, and seeing as I kind of hate the yule season but love snow, I thought it would cheer up these dark days. But…now that it’s scared you…hmm!

  10. No,no—leave the snow. You can’t go by me, I’m a computer killing coward. Plus it is so cool to turn on the computer after dealing with ugliness and find snowflakes.

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