The weather today, Holy Saturday, got up to almost 60, so I was able to get the first planting in. I planted the following in the new bed I built last summer:
Arugula
Corn Salad, Mache-Verte D’Etampes
Easter Egg Radishes
Lettuce Lollo Rossa
Blue Curled Scotch Kale
Spring Raab
Hopefully, we can get some early spring greens this year. I raked around last year’s Dwarf Blue Kale and Swiss Chard in the same bed and they both had a few green sprouts showing. We’ll see if they come back.
The weather warmed up a bit today after a long and cold March, so I made an attempt to get out at least a few horseradish roots so I could make a small batch of my traditional Easter horseradish.
The south end of the patch was still somewhat frozen, which isn’t surprising as most of it was under snow just a couple of days ago, but the part closer to the walk was soft. They were hard to find as the leaves were just beginning to sprout, and digging in the wet ground wasn’t pleasant. I managed to get about 6 nice roots out.
Between that and the large root I bought at Heinen’s, I was able to make 5 large jars and 7 or 8 small ones. If I have time, I might do another batch after the ground warms up.
Last year we ate St. Patrick’s day dinner on the deck, but not his year. It’s only warming up into the 30’s and piles of snow still remain. There is no warmup in sight, but hope still springs eternal.
I bought a new book by Niki Jabbour last week, The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener. Niki lives near Halifax, Nova Scotia and hosts a weekend gardening radio show there. Nova Scotia is a peninsula that extends from the south of Canada into the Atlantic and Halifax is really only a few hundred miles north of Chicago, so the growing seasons are similar.
Her book talks about methods that she and others have developed to get year-round yields from the garden by proper choice of plant varieties, cold-frames, mulches and other coverings. Based on my good results with Kale this year, I’m really encouraged and interested in increasing the harvesting season. This book explains the whole method.
So, based on information from the book, I’ve ordered my seeds for the year that will supplement the plants that I buy at the nursery and set out in the spring. Here’s the list so I don’t forget next year.
This is quite an ambitious list of vegetables, but I’ll be planting less of each variety, planting some only for fall crops and inter-planting the spring vegetables between other later maturing crops. We’ll see how it works out.
I need to build a cold frame for the fall and possibly cover one of the raised beds to jump-start the tomatoes and peppers.
Kale is the ultimate crop to extend the season of fresh vegetables.
For New Years Day breakfast, I decided to make a Kale Quiche topped with oven dried tomatoes. I dried and froze the tomatoes back in the middle of September and they survived the freezing process quite well. Here’s the link on how to make oven-dried tomatoes http://karneyfamilyrecipes.com/2013/01/06/oven-dried-tomatoes/
The Kale is still quite good despite the couple of nights in the mid teens this past week. The Quiche was so good, I made another today! Here’s the recipe: http://karneyfamilyrecipes.com/2013/01/06/kale-quiche-with-oven-dried-tomatoes/
I’ll definitely plant a lot more late Kale next year and have already decided to plant more Roma tomatoes since the oven dried tomatoes freeze so well.
I’m starting to look at seed catalogs. It’s just a little over two months until planting time for spring greens and snow peas.
It’s just a couple of weeks until Christmas and I am still picking Kale. I don’t think it’s growing at this point but the flavor is great after all the freezes. I am cooking it as I did for Thanksgiving, minus the bacon. Absolutely delicious!
I finally dug the seed packets out of the barn when I did the final cleanup. The variety I planted in the spring is Red Russian (Ragged Jack). It is still yielding well from the 12 ft. row that I planted. The variety I planted in late July is Vates Dwarf Blue Kale, this is still in good shape and I prefer it for salads. The Swiss Chard planted in July was Fordhook Giant, while the stuff planted in the spring was plants from Goebbert’s. A picture of those plants is the masthead for this blog.
I’ll be looking for other varieties of kale for nest year as it was the first crop to mature and lasted into December. It has all the health benefits of broccoli and it is delicious once you find the right recipes. I’ll also be looking for other long season crops.
The Rosemary is still good, and we used it on potatoes a couple of times this week. Parsley, sage and thyme are still in good shape also.
A couple of weeks ago I had a nice batch of weeds emerging and getting ready to flower in the garden. I hit them with Roundup and it seemed to work in spite of the cold temperatures. These are the weeds that take over the garden by April. I’ll have to find out what they are.
Well the garden keeps on producing even though we’ve had a few nights in the mid-twenties. Everything I’ve read on Kale states that the flavor improves after a hard freeze, and I can verify that.
The Kale I picked for Thanksgiving was from the bunch I planted at the end of July, which has smaller and much more curly leaves than the spring crop which, I might add is still doing well. The leaves on that Kale are almost as large as the Swiss Chard.
I picked about a pound of it and removed the stalks and chopped it. I also chopped a pound of brussels sprouts and an onion. I sauteed them all in olive oil for about 10 minutes and seasoned with salt and pepper and finished it with 2 Tbsp. of Champagne Vinegar with Herbs of Provence, and topped the mixture with some crumbled bacon. A great addition to the Thanksgiving dinner!
I’ve also been using the Kale in soups and salads. I’m still picking Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary. The Thyme and Oregano are still good, too. Hmmm, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme — sounds like a folk song. Looks like all of these will last until December, since that’s only a day away and temperatures in the low 60’s are predicted for the weekend. Hopefully, I can finish the yard work.
Note to self. I need to go into the barn and see if there are seed packets left from the Kale so I can note the varieties.
The final garden pizza of the year before adding the cheese and toppings
We haven’t has a frost yet, but the weather has turned cold and it looks like it’s going to stay cold, so I picked the last of the veggies on Friday and made a pizza for our Friday night group. I had just enough tomatoes, and I chopped up a bunch of small green peppers for topping. Unfortunately, the basil is long gone. I used dried basil but it really doesn’t bear much resemblance to the fresh. Everyone enjoyed the pizza anyway.
Today I cleaned out most of the garden and put away the tomato cages and the pepper stakes, rolled up the chicken wire fence that I put around the zucchini and raked up all the dropped fruits. The compost pile is overflowing. The Swiss chard and Kale are the only things left and they are still doing very well.
I found a bunch of peppers and a couple of tomatoes and a few tiny patty-pan squash, so we’ll fry that up and have it over pasta this week. Tomorrow, we’re off to the annual cooking expo at Arlington Park.
I hope the roto-till everything before the ground freezes so that I am ready to go in the spring. With Jared and Izabella getting married in May, Spring prep time will be at a premium, so I will try and get most of the cleanup done this fall.
The National Weather Service blew it last weekend and there was no frost. I picked most of the remaining tomatoes and made Swiss Tomato Pie for our Friday night group. I also made Kale Soup with about a pound of my Kale, but that hardly made a dent in it.
I’ll probably need to find a Thanksgiving Kale recipe.
i only got a couple of Patty pan Squash, and one Zucchini from the new plants. I’ll need to get the Fall crop in at least a couple of weeks earlier next year.
We had frost warnings this weekend so I picked all of the peppers and the roma tomatoes in anticipation of the end. The end of the season tradition is to make stuffed peppers from the bounty of green peppers.
Natalie stuffed all of them and we had three meals , sent some to her mother and she had a lunch or two.
I picked the last of the cucumbers this weekend as the vines are pretty much dead. With the drought continuing, I just couldn’t keep enough water on them. Tha area along the fence needs to be built up as it is too wet in the Spring and needs a lot more organic matter in the soil as it is too dry in the summer. I probably wouldn’t be a good idea to plant cucumbers there again. as I’ve done it there for 5 or 6 years.
We picked lots of hot Hungarian peppers, sliced and pickled them for Jared and Jeff — they each got a 1 qt. jar. The plants still look good. The tomatoes are bearing in full force, I probably need to skin and freeze some next weekend.
I got a few Patty Pan squash this weekend and the new crop of beans is ready for picking. the fall zucchini have some small ones. Everything is suffering from lack of water, so I put the sprinkler on for about 5 hours which produced over an inch on the rain gauge.
We had a couple of near frosts this week with night time temperatures in the mid-thirties, but no damage. I made Calabacitas <karneyfamilyrecipes.com> from the last couple of zucchini from the summer plants. I also roasted a bunch of the sweet Hungarian peppers for it and they were wonderful.