Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  this box has lettuce and salad greens, braising greens, spinach, French breakfast radishes, salad turnips, cabbage, carrots, beets, parsnips, pie pumpkin, winter tomatoes, and rutabagas

Field Notes.  The pigs have gone to the meat locker.  This frees up space so Ken can complete his tractor work and get the last green manures planted in garden, a;so by the mobile high tunnel where the tomatoes and peppers were, and out in the field.  Even though it is cold and days are short, both winter wheat and rye will start growing now and keep the soil covered over winter to avoid erosion and help moderate soil temperatures if we do not get snow cover.  

This time of year I start to hope for snow cover as it acts like an insulating blanket and the frost and microbes do not go so deep.  this means the soil has more active biology over winter, the snow melts from below due to soil temperature, and We can often plant earlier in spring.  Many people think soil is dead or sleeping over winter, but it is still active and getting ready for spring

Thursday when I was hosting book group, Ken announced he was going to "pick up chicks."  He had answered a posting from a man who could not keep a hen and her chicks.  Ken has placed them in a hoopette in the garden and hopes this hen and her chicks can reintroduce broodiness into the flock

I am still getting roots in the root cellar, and soon Ken will be making his annual batch of sauerkraut.  And soon Ken will be planting greens for December boxes when we must move from beautiful out door greens to indoor micro greens.  It has been a most wonderful fall for greens and we are grateful.  Some years there is not enough sunlight for greens to flourish.  Ken can work magic with green houses, but not miracles!

From the Kitchen Rutabagas are a member of the brassica family.  we get more and more requests for them.  Often people who cannot eat potatoes due to blood sugar spikes, can substitute rutabagas.  We like them in soups and stews, and Ken often makes either a kohlrabi or rutabaga au gratin or rutabaga pancake , and one of our members tells me rutabagas hash browns are a family favorite

Winter tomatoes are a relatively new discovery here.  Certain varieties are bred to be picked and stored for later use.  They are not the same as summer tomatoes - they never turn soft or bright red, but they get a blush and have good flavor.  We have eaten them both raw and cooked

Soaking up rays

Salad turnips can be eaten raw in salads or cooked.  I usually braise the greens and top with yogurt, sour cream or any dressing; some people add them to salads for zip.  They are a nutritional powerhouse! 

'Til Next Week, Judith