Garden Stuff

Even after all the years I have been gardening, I am always humbled and amazed at how each year in food turns out in the end.  The ebb and flow of gardening changes with the seasons.  The start of the gardening year is almost always the same, the hurried, feverish days of planting pass by with a blur.  Weeding and tending take over at a somewhat unruffled pace and then the harvesting picks up for a while, and then slows to a steady pace throughout winter.

January King

I used to only concentrate on growing summer crops and putting them by to eat in the winter.  And I still do a fair portion of that, but growing hardier varieties to take us through the winter has changed up our menu by quite a bit.  Don’t get me wrong, if you quizzed me about what my favorite meal was, I would have to say, meatloaf, mashed potatoes with milk gravy and green beans.  Yeah, I know, that shows my true colors.  What can I say?  A comfort food meal like that gives me the right to have a redneck moments tag in my sidebar   But even I would get bored with green beans every day.  Maybe… .

Melissa

Another humbling thing about shopping for meals at home is that I am the field hand/produce manager.  Meaning those pretty cabbages you see in the store have all been trimmed of their ugly parts.  Cabbage is king in our area, and you see all the trimmings in the fields and at the processing barn when you drive by the cabbage farms.  What you see in the store is what is left.  The produce aisles at the grocery store or farmers markets are as fascinating to me as the thread cabinets at Fabric Depot.  All the uniformity and mix of colors is beautiful, you don’t see brown and green mixed together.

Ruby Ball

I offer the thought that seeing the trueness that is homegrown produce, warts and all, is as nourishing as eating the food.  Maybe perfection should be measured in not how the cabbage has no holes or slimy spots, but in the act of planting the seed, and tending it for months before the food preparation begins allows a greater connection that isn’t as fleeting as an instant message or a tweet.

Winterbor

I have learned over the years to plant several varieties of each thing.  You can’t always depend on the outcome of just having one of anything.  Winterbor kale has been my standout, hardy kale star for many years, most of the time leaving White Russian and Lacinato in the dust as far as cold weather hardiness.  Good soldier that I am, I still plant all those varieties and it’s a good thing.  Winterbor with its curly top that is usually so tough in freezing weather, is a wuss in the rain.

White Russian

Whereas, White Russian is doing great this year.

Rainbow Lacinato

Lacinato

The lacinato group is faring pretty well this year too.  Despite varmint munching.  Sigh.

Redbor

And probably the prettiest and looking to be the hardiest, is Redbor.  All this goes to show that I need to keep several variety selections of many vegetables and relax and go with the gardening flow.  I can’t change the weather, but I can smooth out the peaks and valleys a little and still have an array of foodstuffs in the dark days of winter.

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