Last Harvests (So Far)

For Thanksgiving we finally had the last of the Crookneck Squash in some great soup and we had some herbs (Sage and Rosemary) on some roasted carrots (mix of Chantenay and Danvers Half Longs) from the garden. It was nice to harvest some crops so late. Here I am in December harvesting carrots. You can see the few as the green tufts in the image above in beds 3 and 4. They have survived the cold surprisingly well. I will be roasting the remander of the Chantenay carrots today and left some of the Danvers. I had to turn the beds over (also nice to be able to do in December) because I had toyed with no till gardening.

I put down layers of grass clippings and shredded leaves on all the beds (excepting the area where the asparagus and the Danvers carrots are)and thought that maybe they would compost like I have seen on some blogs, but they weren't. In fact the grass formed an almost inpenetrable layer and wasn't breaking down at all. In fact, it was still green. So I broke out the poachers shovel and turned them all. Of course the sudden rush is the first brutal cold and the first serious snow of the year. Was out well after dark finishing (hence no pics)but got it done before the snow started. We got 4 to 5 inches that night.

I did not get to turn the side beds or the squash beds turned though. Didn't get the raspberries any extra mulch. Didn't get the strawberries pulled. Got the asparagus under cover though.

Pulled in over 400 pounds this year from the garden. Not bad.

Breaking Into The Winter Stores

As a gardener I like to stretch the harvest as long as possible. I like to have something fresh from the garden all the time. No small feat in Chicago. This year I grew some things that could be stored for the long haul, into the winter. This last weekend I decided to break into the winter stores for a little boost of mood. What did I break into? The onions? the ristra? No, I broke out a Crookneck Squash.

It looked great three months in. It smelled great. But what to do with it? I decided to break into the winter stores again, and what came out next? Sweet potatoes!

Three months in the store and it looked good, smelled good, was a tiny little bit odd on the texture.

So I roasted the squash in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh thyme (I need to post on my successes with keeping the herbs going indoors so far this winter) and a touch of oil and brown sugar on the sweet potato. Into the oven, and, wow. A magnificent lunch on a cold day. What a joy. I would have gotten a picture, but they didn't even make it off the cookie sheet before they were eaten, still screaming hot, by an appreciative family.