Winter Rainbow Table Fare

The latest nutrition advice is to eat your colors.  I agree.  The color advice is pretty easy to follow during the growing season, but during winter, if you want to eat local you have to do some garden planning.  Most of what we eat “fresh” in the winter are vegetables grown the previous summer.  Winter hardy or long storing crops are the secret.  Not hothouses, or summer colors shipped in from long distances.

Lacinato Rainbow kale.

The usual mantra as far as eating vegetables is usually “eat your greens!”  I can’t argue with that, but greens aren’t the end all of vegetables. The monotone diet gets a little old.  Just like the white diet… .

Melissa savoy cabbage.

If you’re going to try to grow your own food supply, it’s easiest to stick with the tried and true winter hardy staples that grow and keep in good shape with a minimum of storage or preservation techniques.  Each region has favorite vegetables that sometimes are unique to that area.

Red Cored Chantenay carrots in situ.

Sweet Meat winter squash.

Ruby Ball Red Cabbage.

Romanze potato.

All these vegetables keep with a minimum of work.  The cabbage and kale have held in the garden this winter, the carrots store well in the row with a little soil hilled on the rows, the potatoes are in the straw bale “root” cellar in the barn, and the squash after curing in the fall, keep well in cool, dry storage.

These are some of our colorful winter staples, what grows and keeps well in your garden and pantry?