A Winter Wonderland - South Louisiana Edition

It was 5 AM and still dark outside when the phone rang loudly on the bedside table.  It was Benjamin's school calling to let parents know that "school has been canceled for Friday due to winter weather creating dangerous driving conditions." 

Translation: "It is snowing outside today in South Louisiana.  It never snows here, so all the children need to go outside and play in the snow!"  That's exactly what we did.  I looked outside the french doors in the back and the snow was coming down.

Luna was standing 'hunch-backed' by her hay bale wondering what all this white stuff was.

Big Boy, our Great Pyrenees came running to the back patio to greet us and it is a good thing because he was quite camouflaged in the snow.  We didn't want to lose him!

The navel orange tree had snow-coated leaves.  Everyone always says that if you leave the oranges on the tree until after the first frost it makes them sweeter.  I don't know if that is true or not, but if so, these will be some sweet oranges.

As I was walking in the winter wonderland, everything was so bright and cheery.  Kids were out of school and the neighbor kids were over and all excited.  Things in the garden, however, were not so cheerful.  The snow and freezing conditions signal an end to the merliton squash and tahitian melon squash.

My fall tomato crop with fruits ripening and blooms on the plants are toast!  We had harvested four beautiful tomatoes and I was racing the weather to get more ripened before the freeze, but I lost the race.  Oh well...

They were so healthy and free of bugs.  I'll pull them all up now.  Tomato plants do not like a White Christmas.

In northern climes, farmers and ranchers use heaters to keep their water troughs from freezing.  We don't have those down here, although I'll certainly break the ice so that the cows, goats, and chickens can drink some ice water.

The sun started to come out, shining through the frozen plants.  In no time all this would be de-frosted, but it would be too late to save anything.  That is the risk you take when you push the planting dates, and I can blame no one but myself.

We won't waste the tomatoes, though, even if they are green.  We wash them, freeze them, and then we'll add them to soups and stews for extra flavor, nutrition, and heartiness.

We put them on a tray in the freezer and once frozen solid, we pour them into ziploc bags for storing until we cook them.

This merliton squash is ripe and ready to eat, so the freeze didn't ruin it.  We'll be eating it soon.

Same thing with the tahitian melon squash.  I can't wait to try this.  A friend gave me the seeds.  Supposedly, these are supposed to be sweeter than butternut squash.

Although the freeze killed all the fall crops susceptible to frost, the winter garden still thrives: spinach, carrots, chard, beets, kale, mustard, sugar snap peas, radishes, turnips, lettuce, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.