New England: November 2013

Eeeek!  
M u s t. K e e p. M o w i n g. L e a v e s   U n t I l. T h e.   R a I n. C o m e s .

 
Oh no no no no no no....that will just not do.
You guys are fakin' it, right???

Thanks for the compliment, QB.  That means a lot coming from a seasoned gardener such as yourself.  But as you well know I couldn't have done it without you guys...and the MM of course.  

I'm off to mow leaves also but just wanted to share what's going on with the volunteer tomatoes from last years farm stand compost box.  They are out front in a perennial garden:
They are still going strong despite being hit by mildew &  temps below 32. 

And the ones I brought inside to ripen are a total surprise - they're PURPLE, and tasty taboot!
I'm pretty sure the cracking is due to the mother over watering them as they came up right next to the roses. So I think I'll save seeds since apparently they're cold hardy. I have no idea what they are and they are probably hybrid but let me know if anyone wants some.

Later gators,
CC

My hats off to those gardening in the North! 

CapeCoddess wrote: 
Oh no no no no no no....that will just not do.
You guys are fakin' it, right???

Nah, not faking it.  I tried pinching myself a few times when I woke up to that scene but it didn't go away, so it's real.   

They are still going strong despite being hit by mildew &  temps below 32. 

And the ones I brought inside to ripen are a total surprise - they're PURPLE, and tasty taboot!

Tasty & cold-hardy sounds good to me!  I'll trade you some of your purple tom seeds for...something...what would you like?  I've got a little of everything in my stash.  PM me when you can.

sanderson wrote:My hats off to those gardening in the North!

Thanks! Its a challenge, but at least the extra hours of sunlight during the growing season makes up for some of it.

Cock-a-leekie soup for supper.

Beautiful, Camp!  And so nicely blanched.  If you'd left the bottoms in the ground, like scallions, would they have regrown?

Ouchi wa-wa...my back is killing me tonite.  I'm so done with those monster compost piles and it's only just begun.  I gotta go lay down.

 
CC

Because of the planting deapth, my guess is they would have rotted. These leeks are very tasty.

It's been snowing for over an hour here.  I didn't cover my SFG before I left for work.  I think all will be fine except maybe the lettuce.

Crud.
 
CC

camprn wrote:Cock-a-leekie soup for supper.

wow! those are some beauties!! congrats

cock-a-leekie soup...never heard of it but the name is hysterical! 

OK, here's what happened - it snowed all day Tuesday and the snow stuck around til yesterday. 

Here's my compost pile under siege way too early for this area...and I've never seen snow on colored leaves before so that was new: 

So for 2 & 1/2 days all the veggies were frozen in snow.  I thought for sure the lettuce would be slimy once thawed and had it potentially earmarked for smoothies:

BUT, they all crisped back up after thawing!  Blow me down with a feather!  Black Seeded Simpson, romaine & buttercrunch - all back to perfect condition, nary a leaf lost:

It's like they are giving me another chance to do it right  :

So I'm thinking, hey, this winter gardening thing ain't so bad...hmm...
 

OK, lunch break is over.  It's gorgeous here today - 60 & partly sunny.  Heading out to the beach for some seaweed.  Then I need to water the SFG (it deserves it after THAT performance),  mow, compost and then fill the bags of donated leaves with grass & water so they can 'simmer' over the winter.  Yes, but another experiment...  


CC

CapeC....Actually, snow protects your crops from the frost. Its a warmer barrier. I'm not surprised your greens are still doing so well. Lookin' great.

Sure is some beautiful lettuce! I'm jealous; my only shady spot is so shady the lettuce grows a quarter-inch per month.

Yet another beautiful day!  60 & sunny here. 

I dumped 4 buckets of seaweed & horseshoe crab shells on the compost pile.  It's morphing into one long pile instead of a new pile and a greens pile.  I have 3 buckets left to rinse and put on the current pile that I'm spreading around:
Then a neighbor came over with a big box of rotting potatoes, apples & onions so we dumped those on.  He's the cook at a year round camp and is going to start saving the kitchen scraps for me now.  

I have the best neighbors.  Now if I could just grow enough to share with everyone. I really thought this year was it fersure, but I still don't have anything in my freezer or canned.  Between roasting, smoothies, salads, sautees' & stir fries it all just gets used up.  I only have around 100 sq ft and I should probably double that.

Pulled up a parsnip today.  It's over a foot long but curled at the bottom a bit.  I'm expecting it to be really good since it's been hit with frost and such.

I also laid down all the mushie bush bean plants and covered that bed with compost.  Left the beans right where they were, roots and all, since that bed will be used for greens next year. 

OH, I took some of those purple tomatoes to the nursery where I got them and asked what they were - Heirloom Black Cherry tomatoes.  I'm very happy about that!   

Sun's going down...time to close the windows & doors.

CC

Done!  for now...

camprn wrote:Done!  for now...

I'm really jealous because that is so beautiful. 
I'm still collecting donated leaf bags, got about 40 pumpkins today, over 50 pounds of coffee grounds, 100 corn stalks,  and two large garbage pails of grape pomace.  And all the llama manure, hay, and straw still needs to be wheel barrowed from the barn area.  I'd love to be finished by Thanksgiving. Tomorrow probably not good with 50 mph wind expected....

That IS beautiful, Camp. Is that about 8 x 4 x 4?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:That IS beautiful, Camp.  Is that about 8 x 4 x 4?

CC

Yup, over the past 3 weeks, I have filled it to the top x 3 and top ot off when it sinks some. I think I am done with this one for the season.

I tried to bust out some leeks tonight but they are set solid in the frozen Mel's mix. 

I did manage to dig +5# of nantes carrots from 4  squares. The frost was only about 3/4" deep in that bed so it was pretty easy going.

camprn wrote:I tried to bust out some leeks tonight but they are set solid in the frozen Mel's mix. 

I know this is a look at what's to come for my area, but I'm just not ready to believe it.    I have to remember how my fingers almost bled last year trying to dig out carrots from frzn MM.  I guess I'd better break out a couple of windows and cover the carrot box tomorrow.  That's the best I can do.
 
Meanwhile, I'm still using row cover instead of plastic for the hoop tunnel on the winter garden box, and still harvesting lots of goodies.

Yesterdays salad- radishes, chard, pak choi, beet/kohlrabi leaves:

Todays harvest - Black Simpson for the weekly lettuce bucket, kale & scallion for supper, collards for the morning smoothie:

Another leaf mowing weekend ahead.  Probably only one more after that I hope.  Meanwhile the compost pile seems to be finishing up just fine without me.

CC

DANG, CC! Them's some magazine-pretty veggies, they is!  

I'm so happy with this potted Redskin pepper.  They were bred for pots so they are smaller, but they are productive.  I harvested all the rest but today I want to show you my last one....

I have it right beside my Rosemary in another pot and that's also growing strong.
This might be the last pepper since I haven't seen any blossoms yet.  I keep my apt too cool for peppers to thrive indoors.  Nites down to 59 and days only up to 63 or 64 the highest.  I wear layers to keep comfy and I seem to have fewer colds and such so it works for me.
As for the parsnips I hoped to harvest for T-Day, that might be wishful thinking.  Our nites have been freezing for several days now and from now and for the next week it'll be in the teens with days only in the mid-20s.  Its mighty cold here in Maine this week.  I doubt I'll be able to pull any parsnips now til spring.
A couple years ago we had temps in the 70s on T-Day with family playing ball on the lawn and everyone congregating on the back deck and front farmer's porch in their shirt-sleeves. The 17 or so we have this year will have to stay indoors to keep warm.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanks, Molly. It's funny that the harvests look so good on your monitor coz they look half dead on mine and they weren't. But my monitor is probably one of the originals... 

quiltbea wrote:
As for the parsnips I hoped to harvest for T-Day, that might be wishful thinking.  Our nites have been freezing for several days now and from now and for the next week it'll be in the teens with days only in the mid-20s.  Its mighty cold here in Maine this week.  I doubt I'll be able to pull any parsnips now til spring.

I was thinking about pulling the daikon & parsnips in today. I know nada about parsnips. How long do they last in the veggie drawer, if that's even where you store them?  Can they be blanched or steamed and then frozen?

CC

I may be throwing in the towel on the winter garden.      18 degrees and gusts to 50mph, blew the plastic off the hoop tunnel last night and everything is frozen solid.  I put it back on this morning, went to drop Mom off at the airport, came home and it's off again. The temp out there is only up to 28 degrees.  The plastic clamps that I used are frozen and some broke as soon as I tried using them.  Useless.  I should have used clothes pins like last year.  And longer plastic so I could anchor it with bricks or boards.

BUT, the window is still on the carrots.   

If the winter garden pulls thru this, I'll consider exchanging the plastic for the old patched up painters plastic since it's larger.

Update on 2 parsnips that I pulled yesterday.   I felt around the tops and they were 3 inches wide, so I pulled:
They look like man o' war. I have no idea what that's about...but it sure fits in with the hard time I have growing root veggies without adding anything to the MM.   I may cave next year...

The white carrot looking thing is a daikon radish.  No problem growing those as long as it's planted for fall and not spring.
CC

It seems to this Newbie, that curved hoop covers are inherently shaped to "take off" in the wind.  The top of an airplane wing is curved so the air speed is faster over the top than the bottom, creating "lift."  If the hoop framing is secured enough to the ground not to "take off", maybe try large metal binder clamps where the plastic clamps have broken.  About $6 for a dozen at Office Supply.

My hats off to all of you who winter garden in the really cold (and windy) parts of the country.

I'm not a parsnip expert I'm afraid.  I usually pull them up, pull off the long rootlets,  run them under the outside tap to clean them off first.  Bring them inside, dry them off with paper towels and put them in the crisper drawer in the fridge.  Then when needed I scrub them with a veggie brush under the water tap and bake them. That's never more than 3 days in the crisper.
I never have enuf to freeze or save with only 3 squares and don't know how I'd do that anyway.  I slice them up and roast them in the oven with carrots and onions as a rule.

Cape....You sure have some disfigured 'snips.  Mine are always pretty long and straight.  Can your snips grow beyond 12" or so?  They are long and like unfettered feet and if the soil is rocky that might cause misshapes.  My bed is 12" deep over uncovered garden soil beneath so they can grow....and grow as needed.

We've had some pretty strong winds here as well. Had to hold the door open with 2 hands to let the dogs in and out. Pretty fierce blowing.

Last nite we got our first official snow that stayed on the ground.  Only about an inch, but enuf to keep the dogs happy.  

Here's our golden and corgi enjoying the snow for last nature call Sat nite.