Winter Rain

Yesterday, we had a day-long gentle winter rain; 5". Fortunately, I fertilized the vegetable plants the day before. When I went out in the rain to check the garden, I found this blooming aster. I harvested the first radish and a bunch of Swiss chard for dinner.

Winter gardening gloves

Gloves are a very important tool for gardening. In the winter, I use a pair of cotton gloves with a plastic pair over them . My hands stay warm and dry.

Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi is a very strange but wonderful vegetable. I peeled the ball portion of this one and cooked it in a stir fry. They can be eaten raw or cooked. They are easy to grow during a season in which many gardeners abandon the garden. A fresh picked kohlrabi  is delicately delicious. This azur blue variety is stunningly beautiful.

This week, we got another .6" on rain. Happy times.

Tomatoes in December

Pictured above is the total of the fall tomato crop. It's not much, but today I will be eating fresh ripe homegrown tomatoes with fresh homegrown lettuce. How lucky!~

This week has been colder than usual. We have had two freezes and even 5 minutes of snow! The garden loves drizzly days followed by a day of sunshine such as we have today.

Winter Garden

The tomatoes are safely harvested. The pepper plants are history. The winter garden is the short garden. Now, the tallest plants in the garden are the Swiss Chard. The photo above is a comparison photo for the mature and young Swiss Chard plants; refer to my August 27 post.

We have kohlrabi ready to eat. The azur blue kohlrabi plants are beautiful, but never tall.

Cabbage and carrots are growing well together in this row. The cabbage plants will grow quite large, but not tall. We have collected .95" rain this week. A hard freeze is predicted for tonight. All is well.

Smoked Butternut Squash

Pictured is one of our smaller butternut squashes and a block of medium hard tofu right off the smoker. The squash is cooked through, a beautiful color, and delicious. The texture is firm and pleasant. I made stir-fry for two with the addition of about 1/4 of this squash. The tofu was treated with only salt and pepper before being smoked. It will be refrigerated then will be sliced for sandwiches or other dishes.