Checking in on the Fall Garden

We planted our fall garden from seed on September 12.  Now that we're a month in to the fall growth season, I figured it would be a good time to look at our progress and list some of the successes and failures.  This post is heavy on images and a little light on commentary. 

Row 1 Sugar Snap Peas: These bad boys are, in my opinion, the most delicious things in the garden.  Raw or stir fried they are magnificent.  They are so sweet, even the most die hard anti-vegetable person will eat 'em!  Give them a trellis to grow on as they will grow 6 - 8 feet tall.  You can see the tendrils on the peas that will reach out and grab the trellis.  These make beautiful blooms as well.

Sugar Snap Peas

Broccoli and the other cole crops look remarkably similar.  Cole crops are crops belonging to the mustard family (Brussels sprout, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, broccoli, turnips)  I'm noticing some bug or worm pressure as evidenced below.

Broccoli

Last year our Brussels Sprouts never formed a head.  I read, like the garlic, they require 40 days under 40 degrees to make heads.  Hopefully we'll have a normal winter.  I used to not be a big fan, but now, there's hardly anything better than fresh Brussels Sprouts sauteed in butter!

Brussels sprouts

Something is munching on the cauliflower.  Hopefully, we'll get cooler weather soon that will get rid of some of the bugs.


Cauliflower

Kale is supposed to be one of the healthiest crops on the planet.  It is a big producer from now until the Spring.  We steam them like mustard greens and also make kale chips (roasted with olive oil).


Kale

Swiss Chard is a favorite of ours.  It is essentially a beet that has been bred to produce sweet, edible leaves at the expense of the root.  We grow rainbow chard because their stem and leaves are so colorful.  You can tell the one below is going to be pink or red.


Rainbow Swiss Chard (Red)

 This Swiss chard is going to be yellow or orange.


Rainbow Swiss Chard (yellow)

Mustard greens are growing nicely.  Cook these down with some bacon and serve with cornbread.  In addition to being delicious, don't waste the pot liquor.  This is the liquid that is left over after boiling mustard greens.  It contains essential vitamins and minerals including iron and vitamin C and vitamin K which aids in blood clotting.


Mustard Greens

Ahh... Parsley.  We love the smell of fresh cut parsley.  Add it as a garnish to any dish.  Excellent in chicken and sausage gumbo.  You can see the first parsley leaf below.  These are really slow to germinate.

Parsley

We love to eat all sorts of salads with mixed types of lettuce.  This one is called oak leaf lettuce because, well, you can guess what the leaves look like.


Oak leaf lettuce

Radishes are pretty good in salad.  You can also puree them with cream cheese for a spicy dip to eat with crackers.

Radishes

 This is a new crop we're trying this year, Shanghai Greens, or Bok Choi, a type of Chinese cabbage.

Shanghai Greens

This is a very easy lettuce to grow that we've had a lot of success with.

Black Seeded Simpson lettuce


The leaves of these Bull's Blood beets will soon turn 'beet red' and brighten up the garden.


Bull's Blood Beets


This is a French variety of Spinach called Monstrueux De Viroflay.  Popeye would like some of this fresh spinach - way better than from a can.


Spinach

To be honest, we're not crazy about turnips, but our cows are.  You can eat the turnip roots, of course, but the greens are good, too.


Turnips

Here are some cabbage growing.  We like to take cabbage and some whey from the cows and make sauerkraut.  I never thought I would like this, but I do.


Cabbage

 This is a normal orange carrot.  We have many other types and colors of carrots planted.

Berlicum Carrot

 We like to eat beets sauteed, roasted with olive oil and pickled beets.


Dark Red Detroit Beets

These purple carrots are very tasty and interesting, too, on your table.  I also have a row of Atomic Red Carrots planted and a Parisienne carrot that is round and tasty. 


Cosmic Purple Carrots

 And finally, these are the mammoth Red Mangel beets that grow a 20 pound root!


Red Mangel Mammoth Beets

It looks like I'll have to re-plant my Rocky Top Mix Lettuce as only a few came up.  I don't know if the germination was bad on the seeds or if the rainfall packed the ground and prohibited the sprout from breaking the crust.  I'll try to get that done tomorrow.  I'll also plant additional rows of spinach, radishes, Swiss chard, mustard, cilantro and carrots.