Garden Fresh in January

Some people have inquired if David and I still have garden produce now that we’ve officially entered winter. Indeed, we do! Yesterday afternoon I harvested a bunch of kale, chard, collards and spinach, and our Fairy Tale Pumpkins have continued to ripen indoors. I had planted carrots all over the place as part of a beneficial bugs cover crop mixture, so we’ve also got white carrots galore, which I harvest whenever desired. Below, you can see the Fairy Tale Pumpkin we cut and steamed last night, along with a carrot and the greens:

Part of the steamed pumpkin will go to the freezer, but last night we made a curried coconut pumpkin soup with adzuki beans, celery, homegrown dehydrated and powdered kale, and homegrown carrots. Super yum! We’ll enjoy leftovers later this week. The night before, we used some green tomato salsa I had canned in Fall 2013 — as an enchilada sauce over refried beans, homegrown and frozen serpent gourd (tastes like zucchini), onions, garlic, homegrown jalapeno, and organic corn tortillas. So yummy we forgot to snap a photo!

Beginning today, we’ll have a week of single digit or even negative lows, hence the abundance of greens harvested. Still, I’ve got thick AGRIBON row covers over thinner row covers under a cold frame, so I suspect at least those plants will live. The kale and collards came from our uncovered front yard garden, which has continued to produce with zero protection.

The indoor plants are less happy due to an almost total lack of sun for months; however, I’m mentally telling Mr. Meyer Lemon tree about the Bealtaine Cottage revival of a discarded, forlorn lemon tree found in the compost. You can do it, Meyer! Although I refuse to put fluorescent lights in our home, I do try to make up for that by bribing faeries with raw emeralds and dropping a crystal elixer from Tania Marie onto the ailing avocado and lemon trees. Just a few more months before porch time! You can do it. 🙂