Getting ready for the 'big freeze' at PAR Davies.

Hi Everyone,

Harvest Today 38 lbs.       YTD 1652 lbs.

Gardeners braving the nippy weather today were Susan, G.A., Steve, Mary Elizabeth and myself. It didn't take us long to warm up as we started to work. The main task today was to harvest....beets, mustard, kale, lettuce, swiss chard, radishes, turnip greens, bok choy, peppers, herbs and lavender. All was packed up and delivered to the women's shelter.

Today's varied harvest.

We also sent the dried peanuts along. Susan included instructions that she used for roasting a portion of these, which we had for sampling at the garden tour. The variety is 'Tennessee Red,' and they were really, really good. Also included was a recipe for Portuguese Kale Soup which we found on Renee's Garden website. This recipe is actually what prompted us to try the Portuguese kale. The curled dwarf kale was also included. After trying Lacinato or Tuscan kale last year, we were encouraged to try different varieties...so many to choose from and so hard to decide.

Grosso Lavender

The few little lavender blooms were picked and included in the delivery. Our lavender plants grew beyond our expectations, but the blooms were few. I think all the energy went into the foliage. But that's okay, we expect lots of blooms next year.

Kohlrabi

Susan spied the kohlrabi bulbing up. We have several varieties, including a 'giant' that is new for us this fall. I don't know which variety this is, but it looks like there will be a good many that will reach maturity. Fortunately, kohlrabi are very cold tolerant.

All our babies are cozy in their beds tucked under blankets.

After we finished harvesting, G.A. transplanted a lot of the tender leaf lettuce into one of our winter cover beds. Then beds were covered until we ran out of row cover. The cabbage is heading up, but the broccoli doesn't seem to be in a hurry, so I don't know if any will reach maturity before it gets too cold. Even if we had row cover for the broccoli, we'd have to do a higher tunnel because of the height, and we aren't ready to do that this year.

Gingko ready to do a leaf rain dance.

I saw this little Gingko tree in front of the manor house this morning. It looked so cute that I just had to take a picture. I'll bet tomorrow it will be naked.

'Spaghetti' zucchini.

Above is some zucchini that I made using the Veggetti. I usually don't buy gadgets because I find that they end up in a drawer never to be used. For that reason I hesitated on getting this, but I'm glad I did. I've been having fun with it. This is the last of the zucchini...I usually steam or sauté. The only things I've found that work in this gadget are zucchini, carrots and cucumbers. Just a different way of fixing your garden produce when you start to run out of ideas.

I hope you are able to enjoy the cool crisp weather.

'Til later,
Dianne