Greens, greens and more greens

written by Yvonne

Not much to do in the garden these days except to sit back and let things grow.  This is a good thing because we have been exceptionally busy this fall with more on the calendar.  So here's an update on how the Fall/Winter veggie patch is looking:

Plot 2 of 2 of spinach.

Plot 2 of 2 of turnips.

Beets.  This weekend we have to thin these out quite a bit because there are multiple seeds growing very close together.

Collards.

Lettuce.  I can't WAIT to eat my first salad!

Another lettuce.

Parsley.  This was left over from this summer and is growing like crazy.  It won't last much longer with the weather turning colder so this weekend we will harvest it all and dry it in the dehydrator.

Garlic.

Kale.  Not too much of this came up but we certainly have plenty of other greens to keep us going for the Fall. Tom thinks these suckers will be getting really big.

Plot 1 of 2 of spinach. You can see that this plot is further along than plot 2.  We staggered the plantings so the crops would be ready at different times.

Plot 1 of 1 of turnips. Same principle as the spinach - staggered planting so that once we pull all of these out, we'll have another plot ready to go.  Thus far we've harvested, cooked and eaten three batches of greens (almost 4 pounds, and that's not counting the stems!).

The turnips themselves are busting out of the ground! We planted a smooth, white Japanese variety.

The first signs that peas may be coming soon - a flower. The pods grow directly out of the flowers.

The peas are doing well growing up the cage.

Broccoli. We're going to thin and space these out too. Soon we'll be over-wintering things, and what's not ready for harvest will lie dormant until the early spring, at which point we should have a real bounty of these cool-weathered crops.

Carrots.  These will get thinned out this weekend too.

Tonight's dinner!  Roasted veggies is on the menu which will include these turnips and peppers from the garden.  The final dish will be topped with fresh parsley (from the garden, of course).