What we’re eating, the transition.

JETTA UPDATE:  Still waiting…

 

The garden of last year is a dim memory except for my hieroglyphic garden notes, and a few choice and not so choice tidbits.

Jonathan (old style), picked October 2007.

These were stored on the north side porch all winter.  Sunlight never reaches this side of the house, so the temperature does not flucuate very much.  If you lived in a colder climate than ours, and are thinking of a root cellar, this variety as well as King and Northern Spy  will easily keep this long without refrigeration.  These aren’t as pretty as the $3.00 organic ones in the store, but since we are committed to eating seasonally they aren’t too bad.

My parents were born in 1911 and 1898, so they not only grew up in the days when you ate what you grew, blemish or not, you also didn’t go to the market and buy food very often.  They were adults during The Depression, so I learned first hand from people who had to make the hard decisions, about how to feed your family and livestock and still survive. 

 Another tenet they drove home, was don’t sell anything off the farm until your larder was fully stocked up.  These days it isn’t unusual to see farmers buying products at the store that they produce themselves.  Sell product, go to the store and buy what you are already growing.  Do you remember the PBS special about the midwest farmers that were going to the foodbank to get beef, and they were in the cattle business?

 A neighbor of ours who was a child during The Depression, told me she now realized as an adult, that her parents must have been under terrible strain, trying to get by.  She said as a child, she had no idea how poor they were, there was always food on the table, and that you knew better than to fuss or waste something.

Viking Purple potatoes.

These were harvested September 2007, and stored unwashed.  We fashioned a quickie, straw bale root cellar in one of our un-used tie stalls in the barn.  The R-value of straw bale construction is said to be between 35 and 50 depending on what size of bale.  The temperature and humidity are ideal for storing the potatoes, all we have to do is provide frost protection and keep them in total darkness.  When I need potatoes for the house, I just remove a bale, and take out what I need.  These are just now starting to break dormancy.  We have no real need for a root cellar, since our climate is ideal for storing our other root crops right in the row where they grew. 

Bolting brassicas, T- B   Rutabaga, Joan and Savoy Cabbage, Melissa, planted June and July 2007.

In my gardening classes, I try to show some of the vegetables that have more than one edible part during their lifetimes.  The brassica family is especially versatile.  The flower stalks on all types of brassicas are tender and sweet this time of year and can take the place of spring broccoli.  Kale, Kohlrabi, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, and Rutabaga are all contenders to just leave in the garden until next spring.  Letting them bolt also provides a early and important food source for hungry beneficials.  I pulled all my Kale in the greenhouse last week, knowing that I would still have a plentiful supply of “napini” in the garden that is still too wet to work.  In addition to the flowerets, the new leaves are tender enough for salads.  In the summer you can cut your cabbage heads high on the stalk, leave the root intact and you will get several more softball size “miniature” cabbage heads, all from one plant. 

Salad bed planted 2/17/2008.

Joi Choi, Bau Sin mustard, Tatsoi, Mizuna and misc. lettuces.  Hiding under the insect cover is Hakurei salad turnips and Daikon R-71804.  We have been eating the thinnings of the turnips and Daikon.  The lettuce suffered during the snow, the chickadees and wrens flocked to the greenhouse and helped themselves to the all the green lettuces.  Their favorite (and mine) was the romaines.  This salad bed will be in the way of tomatoes and peppers so it will be open season from now on.  We’ve been supplementing our salad with Miners Lettuce, which we eat through summer.

Candy Flower, Montia sibirica.

 

Spring tonic.

This row is from the original rhubarb that grew here.  I’m not sure of the variety, it could be Linnaeus or Glaskins Perpetual.  This variety is nice because it puts on a continous crop all summer.  I have a newer red variety that puts on one flush and then it’s done. 

This will be my first food preservation job of the new year.  I still have some in the freezer and a fair amount of canned sauce, so I may juice this and can the juice.