I’ve mentioned my winter garden, but haven’t actually done a post on it yet, so I figured it was time!
Catch up on garden posts here: Adventures in Gardening, Gardening Update, The Harvest.
We’ve never lived anywhere with weather conducive to winter gardening, so this was our first go at it. So far, it’s been pretty successful!
So what did we plant? After some digging around on Thetreecenter.com, ironically, mostly roots! This planter has a row of turnips (in the back) and a row of carrots (in the front):
The carrots are starting out slow, but the turnips have really taken off! I did a little research, and it turns out these are super easy to grow. Purple tops peeking out:
We’ve already harvested a TON of turnip greens, and even a few turnip roots. I sauté the greens in bacon fat… and I even tried a turnip green quiche! You can pretty much use them any way you use spinach, but they have a bitter, spicy flavor. They aren’t my FAVORITE veggie, but they’re super nutrient-filled, so I like to eat lots. I’ll roast the roots in a little coconut oil, salt & pepper.
Next up, radishes! These little guys grew really quickly. I’ve already harvested most of my first planting, and started a second planting.
We planted a TON of one of our favorites– beets! These seeds were a mix of red, golden and candy cane striped beets! They’re growing pretty slow, but I think that’s because it hasn’t been cool enough for them yet.
While we’re on the roots, we also planted some kohlrabi. I’m not entirely sure what it is– a funky looking root vegetable– but I got some free seeds, so I figured why not!
We planted a bunch of broccoli, and while it hasn’t gone to seed yet (the flowery part of the broccoli is the seeds!) and probably won’t until spring– it’s going strong!
Can’t wait for those babies to grow!
Lastly, we recently started some peas. They have JUST started sprouting, and won’t be ready til spring.
I had a few summer plants still lingering– a few types of basil and peppers– but we had our first frost the other night and now they’re black and dead. It’s amazing how the frost killed them so quickly, yet didn’t affect our seemingly vulnerable baby winter plants at all! Can’t wait for some more harvests!
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