Harvest Monday

We, through not aggressively eating our way through the garden, are still pulling much from it.  There are still beets, a few cabbages, loads of kale & collards, green onion, and Brussels. The carrots are mostly gone and the last of the broccoli was picked and its bed cleared in preparation for peas.

This post is part of the Harvest Monday collection over at Daphne's Dandelions. Head on over to see what is left of other people's winter gardens.

From a Brussels' point of view

Cabbage and Brussels on the block for the wok

Garden super stars

The first of Brussels Sprouts were snapped from their stalk this week. Steve Solomon waxes poetic about the power of Brussels Sprouts, 'each a little package of vitality'. Brussels are super hardy, super cute and super tasty Are they the super stars of winter? It sounds like Brussels are an old friend of mine, but really we've just met. Like many other vegetables, Brussels and I got off to a rocky start. We met in an overcooked slop of misunderstanding. It is no wonder that I never put that small green bag of leaves anywhere near my mouth. I was young and they were stinky and strange. Brussels weren't alone. Beets were also barred entry, asparagus, too. I'm not sure if I had even heard of chard or kale, but I'm sure that they'd have been immediately black-listed as well. Though, I did love my spinach, peas and corn. I've always loved creamed-corn, which is odd, because it is the leader of slimy food movement. In any event, Brussels, beets and I have mended our fences. They now carry most-favored vegetable status and a prominate place in the garden. We have two variety of Brussels in the garden this year, Franklin and Roodnerf. All of them have put sprouts on, but one variety (Franklin) had the time to swell their sprouts to perfection, some nearing golf ball size. They snap off the stalk with a satisfying pop and do seem to be packed with vitality and courage.

Brussels chatting with broccoli and onion, plotting
their escape from the wok.

Cabbage also made another appearance in the kitchen this week. The first one was picked last week, and another came in with me yesterday. The remaining cabbage variety is savoyed, meaning its leaves are crinkly. Savoyed is an interesting word. It brings to mind dancing, rather than vegetable. I barely looked to see what else the word conveys. Wikipedia doesn't do it justice. I'm not certain where on the scale of slightly-to-heavily savoyity our cabbages are, but they are photogenic. Their leaves are a varied variety of healthy looking green. With the brilliant sun of yesterday on them, it seemed like everything was right in the world.

This post link linked to from Daphne's Dandelion's Harvest Monday post. Head over there to see what others are growing this time of year.

Harvest Monday

Our sole Danish Ballhead. All of the others
are a savoy type that I need to pin back to
an actual name.

We picked the first of the cabbages this weekend. It was on the small side, but it was more than enough for the pumpkin curry recipe it was plucked for. The pumpkin curry isn't pictured, but it certainly warranted being captured. I have some for lunch today and I expect that it'll be as tasty as before.

Also not pictured are some truly gorgeous Collards that Shari picked yesterday (their leaves are a deep uniform green and look super healthy and tasty after the recent frosts), as well as the smattering of carrots, chard and onions that made it into the week's meals.  Not pictured for better reason are the few straggling tomatoes we managed to pull from the greenhouse. Actually they probably should have been posted, just to commemorate their fortitude.

For many well pictured posts, head over to Daphne's Dandelions for many Harvest Monday contributors.

A walk around the beds today

We have 3 San Marzano. They are loaded, but always late.

A handful of beans is all that remains from our plants. The
plants have been mostly relocated to the compost pile.

Behind the beans are a few tomatillo plants. We'll get a
few from these.  Tomatillos grow great around here,
producing nicely until is freezes.

The broccoli continues is proliferation. This is a central
head from a Thompson. We have a few of these and
many Packman. The Packman continue to produce load
of side shoots.

The Brussels Sprouts are beginning to form. Will they
make sprouts by the time winter really sets in?

An outstanding head of cauliflower.

..and one that has started to bolt. I'll steam it up just
to make sure it is bitter and horrible.

The cabbage, Danish Ballhead, are really
starting to form heads.

This little Sunshine Kabocha is just a little too late. It
is cute, but won't amount to much.

That little Sunshine, above, came from this bed. It was home
to squash, lettuce, and potatoes this year.

After taking out the squash, I added fertilizer and put
some Broccoli in. I'm curious to see if anything comes o
 something planted out this late. I have another ten plants or so. 

Harvest potential - the Fall & Winter garden

We don't have a root cellar or some space that is great storage for vegetables over the winter, though we do keep wishing for one. On our side, however, is our locale. Tacoma, Western Washington really, is generally very mild mannered when it comes to winter weather. Our freezes are not deep or long lasting. Consequently, we are able to keep many things in the ground. Last year was my first attempt to keep full garden beds. They were not fully by any means, but we did have carrots, onions (green), beets, chard, kale, collards and leeks far enough along to pull & cut them for quite awhile. It worked pretty well. The chard died a quick death during an early, surprising, freeze. The beet tops died along with it, but their roots were just fine below ground and I continued to dig them out as needed. The leeks, kale and collards withstand anything our weather will throw at them.

This year, I managed to get more variety in and much of it grown to a good size. New additions for this year are more brassicas: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli. I still didn't get as much in as I thought I originally had. There should be more carrots and beets, at least.

Below is me walking around the garden beds, talking to nobody in particular. I didn't know how Blair Witch-like the camera work was until I watched it once.