A Moment of Pause . . .

I am amazed and thankful that I am still harvesting from my northern Ohio garden on January 11.  When we started the challenge, I was hopeful that I would be able to harvest until the end of October.  This morning I did a little garden cleanup and picked beets, carrots, turnips, lettuce and radish greens.  I feel truly blessed and in awe that am taken care in such an wonderful way.  The snow is supposed to start flying tonight but I still have some vegetables growing and I'm hoping for a couple more mid winter warm ups so the remaining plants have a chance to get a little bigger.  I believe in miracles you know.  I'm just sayin'.

Mutant Carrots

I'm not certain that it was a good idea to bring the carrots into the house. They seem to be mutating. Oh well - they still taste good!

Can you beet that???

I pulled a few beets from the garden. There are a few more but they are small. I cooked them up and I will have them the first day of the challenge - You know the one that I am going to WIN!!!! You can't beet me!!!!

The Garden is Moving In . . .

Some of the garden has taken up residence in the kitchen. I transplanted some of the leaf lettuce, mint (in the turtle pot) and two large planters of carrots. I'm not sure how they'll do but I think it's worth the try.

48 karat gold . . .

I picked carrots from my garden today. There are actually 49 (some very small). The tops were very beautiful and full so I looked on line to see if they are edible. I found this great website which includes several recipes using the greens.

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/carrotops.html

I made some carrot green tea today. It was okay - tasted very "green." I saved most of the greens and will try my hand at the soup tomorrow. I have plenty more carrots in the garden but only wanted to pick as much as I could blanch and freeze while fresh. Exciting stuff!!!!!

More Harvest

Yesterday, I froze two more containers of pea pods, I harvested the kale, and more parsley. I also picked the cabbage plants by the roots and put them in water to see if I could get any more growth. I keep picking mint and have been enjoying mint tea nearly every day. I picked some tomatillos but I'm not certain what to do with them.

I've also decided to change up my $10 allowance. I found a great frozen turkey for $5.02, 10 pounds of potatoes for $1.99 (I heard that Kmart has them cheaper so I might give the $1.99 ones to my Mom and buy the $1.00 for 10 pound bag). My remaining $2.99 are 1 stick of butter (.50), 1/4 of the 5 pound bag of sugar (.50), one third of a small bottle of oil (.43), 1/4 of the veggie soup base ($1.10), and 1/4 bottle of vinegar (.50). If I buy the $1.00 10# bag of potatoes, I can add in the .78 bag of rice or one dozen eggs for $1.00 (which I previously froze). I would be about $.03 over budget. Maybe I'll look for $4.99 turkey. (tee hee)

The turtle is tooling along . . .

The Clean Sheets are on the Beds . . .

I am trying to eeek out every last millimeter of growth from the garden. Last night, I covered the plants that are still growing with bed sheets to keep them from freezing. The garden peas must have hot feet because they keep kicking the covers off. Silly garden peas!!!

Lessons from the Fall Garden

Well - I still have some garden production. I pick snow pea pods daily. I planted them around August 15. As far as the later plantings: The first picture below is the beginnings of the regular garden peas. I think August 30 was a little late to plant them as they have had flowers for a few weeks and are just starting to form into pods. There are possibly 6 pea pods thus far. August 30 is too late for to plant peas!!! The second picture is of one of the turnips that I planted around the end of August. It looks like I will have a few smaller turnips - but good news - still some production from them. The last picture shows the snow peas, carrots and beets, with the garden peas in the back and a few lettuce leaves in the front. The beets and peas were planted around the middle of August and although the roots are on the small size, I should be able to harvest some nice vegetables from the August 15 plantings early in the winter. The summer squash, green beans, beets and cabbage planted at the end of August will not be producing any large quantities of vegetables. (We might have a few meager harvests from these).

Overwhelming Gratitude

Today, I pulled out the remnants of the tomato plants, the cages, the squash, and various other items from the early summer garden. As I looked back at the area where all of these wonderful plants grew, I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude for this garden and the bountiful harvest it provided. . . . I'm just sayin'

More Harvest From the Garden

Over the weekend, I made use of the available space in the passthrough between the Living and Dining Rooms. Bunches of herbs are suspended from a wire run through the open area on both sides. Herbs include: Rosemary, Stevia, Basil, Parsley, Lavender, Sage and Lots of Mint. I also harvested more Pea Pods and Chives.

Fall Garden Update

Just an update on the progress of the garden - fall planting. The first and third pictures were taken on 9-14 (mostly planted about mid-August), the second and fourth are the same areas one month later on 10-16 (beans planted at the end of August). I think that if I plant a fall garden next year, I'll make certain I plant before August 15.

More news from the fall garden

There are still lots of green tomatoes in the garden (1st picture). The mid-August planting of green beans are looking good (2nd picture). The last planting of green beans is progressing - still no flowers though (3rd picture). The carrot patch is overrun with kale (not a bad thing) (4th picture).

Pass the peas please

The pea pods planted at the end of August are still pretty small. They were sitting in a pool of water for several days during our downpour days (1st picture). The garden peas plants which were planted toward the end of August are growing like wild - no flowers yet however (2nd picture). The pea pods planted around the middle of August are very prolofic!!! (3rd & 4th pictures).

Turnup near the Turnips

The turnips I planted in June are progressing nicely (1st picture). The turnips I planted in August all look pretty healthy - but I'm not certain how big the roots will be (2nd picture). Look who turned up near the turnips (3rd picture).

What a difference two weeks makes . . .

I took some pictures two weeks ago and, as I was looking at today's pictures, I realized that the garden has grown quite a bit. I'm sure we'll have peas, beans and beets. Not so sure about the summer squash. The last two pictures show the squash progress. No blossoms yet so, unless we have a late late late frost, I'm not so sure about any harvest from them.