Garden Update

Just an update on the status of the winter veggie garden. The main heads of the 'Apollo' Broccoli are ready for harvest! The seeds were put in around the middle of October, and grew very well, probably the best Broccoli variety I have planted yet. My other Broccoli varieties are nowhere near ready to produce heads yet. Flavor is really good raw, and from what I've researched the side shoots that the plant will keep producing will be even better tasting.

'Apollo' Broccoli

The greens are growing faster than we can eat them. It's my first year growing Kale and it has been very successful, pest and problem free with great flavor. We have only eaten them as cooked greens, so we will have to try making Kake chips this weekend.  And the Spinach Mustard has exceeded my expectations. Soft, prolific growth that is excellent as a cooked green, even if it is just a mite bitter as a raw green but good on sandwhiches. Cooler weather may even sweeten up the flavor enough to use it for spinach salad.

Spinach Mustard in the garden

Carrots are growing like crazy and I should be able to start pulling some by January, can't wait to see the purple variety!

Carrots

 Growing Cabbage is an exercise in patience, they seem to grow so slowly that you stop really looking at them. Then one day you look over and see that they are finally forming some heads and get excited. Then you wait another month or two until it's finally large enough to harvest. There is no instant gratification with Cabbage.

'Early Jersey Wakefield' Cabbage

Sugar Snap Peas are about done, but I am contemplating planting another crop of them. They grow so fast and taste so sweet it would be well worth going though the effort. Maybe with the cooler weather coming the new vines will last longer.


Rutabaga is probably the most under appreciated vegetable that a gardener can grow. This is another easy to grow vegetable. If you have Rutabaga seeds, you will not go hungry. The germination rate is 100%, in fact I find Rutabagas sprouting where I did not plant any. There are no pest issues, they don't require any fertilization, and rate of growth is pretty fast. I think the biggest thing going against Rutabaga is the name, people hear the name and automatically think it will taste bad. Then you factor in the appearance, it looks like a turnip. Which everybody knows tastes bad. But Rutabaga are pretty good. I cut them up and use them as a replacement for potatoes in stews, and they are pretty good roasted with olive oil, garlic and onion powder.


It's been a bad winter for lettuce, too warm which of course caused my lettuce to bolt. But even before it bolted the flavor was really bitter so I ended up pulling it all and composting it.

'Black Seeded Simpson' Lettuce

I can't complain about how the winter garden has performed, I wish it was a little cooler but the majority of the crops have produced very well. Nevertheless, I have begun to get seed catalogs for 2014, and am getting excited to order seeds for the spring/summer garden!