Roasted Root Vegetables for the Win

We are not vegans.  Not by a long shot.  We love beef, chicken... all sorts of meat.  In fact, as soon as our bull, Nick, breeds the cows this spring, he's off to the processor.  We're even talking about butchering some of our goats this year.  Our herd is growing, and there's only so much grass to go around.  Bottom-line is, we like meat.

But that doesn't mean that we don't immensely enjoy some vegetables.  Often, we'll eat meals that don't contain any meat.  Lately, it's the time of year where we're harvesting a lot of root vegetables.  On the left in the photo below is an example.  It's a Bull's Blood Beet.  On the right is an Italian beet variety called the Chioggia.  More on that in a minute.

We like to cut up carrots and beets and (I know it's not a root vegetable) cauliflower to the mix.  We toss it all in olive oil and minced garlic, put it on a stoneware tray and roast in the oven.  So tasty!

I'm not a big fan of turnips.  I do like turnip greens, but primarily we grow them for the cows, BUT we diced up some smaller turnips an roasted them using the same recipe as above, and I think these were really good.

At the very beginning of the post, I talked about chioggia beets, an Italian variety that we get from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  You can find them at www.rareseeds.com.  Pictured on the cutting board below is the mature chioggia beet.  They seem to get a little larger than the Bull's Blood Beet or the Detroit Dark Red beet.

With the chioggia, you've got to brace yourself for a surprise when you slice into it.  It's not red.  Instead it is a beautiful pinkish-red and white.  I always say it looks like a Brach's Starlight Mint.

What a pretty sight to see the chioggia beets all cut up and on the roasting pan!

You may be asking, "Why don't you show the finished product like you did in the second photo in this post?"  The answer might surprise you.  It's because when you pull them OUT of the oven, they're quite ugly.  They're nothing like the beautiful photo above.  No sir, when you pull them out, they are a solid dull-white color.  They don't look appetizing.  But that doesn't bother us.  They certainly do taste good!

Mais, It's Cold, Cher!

Hey, do you have a minute?  I'd like for you to take a walk with me this morning.  Look, grab a cup of coffee to take with you.  I made it extra strong today.  Better put on a cap and your heavy coat, it's cold outside!  It snowed last night.  We aren't used to that, and our animals aren't either.  We have to go take care of them.  I'll show you the morning routine.  First, we'll bring some food out to the pullets in the chicken tractor.  They are just starting to lay.  The eggs are small.  The tractor is in the back yard and they are demolishing the St. Augustine grass - just scratching it up to bits.  Let's put some feed in the gutter we use as a feed trough.  I thought we'd have to break the ice off the water in the water bowl, but the heat lamps we turned on last night kept the occupants of the tractor warm and toasty and the water didn't freeze.

The twin bridges that lead into the pasture and the garden were frozen over.  It looked very pastoral and wintry, wouldn't you say?  Don't slip when you pass over now.

Yesterday we frantically put blue tarps over the entire garden except for the radishes that are almost done and the turnips.  The snow blankets the blue tarps, but you can still see the blue of the tarp underneath.  Beneath the snowpack and tarp are beets, carrots, kale, chard, spinach lettuce, onions, kohlrabi, broccoli and cauliflower.  By Friday when things thaw out, we'll fold up the tarps and see if we have live plants underneath.  If not, we'll quickly harvest all the carrots and beets and anything salvageable.

Follow me out to the barn.  We've got to feed and hay the cows and goats.  Look at Belle waiting inside the barn.  The cows are coming round the corner.  The fake owl is doing its job on the roof chasing off hawks that like to steal our hens.  A few chickens are out scratching looking for something.  Let's get a bucket of hen scratch and scatter it around for them.

The rest of the hens are in the hen house.  It is nice and warm in there.  Would you mind opening the lids to the nesting boxes?  We close those up at night or the hens would roost on them and poop in the hay.  Then the eggs would be all full of poop the next day.

And here's Belle.  Look at that girl, would you?  She spent the night in the barn.  She is indigenous to the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France.  She has a heavy coat and would have been fine outside, but we wanted to make sure she was warm and dry.  She repaid the favor by digging a big hole in the barn.  I'll have to cover it all up.

There was no stick nearby to break the ice in the trough, so I used my boot.  It was an untimely day to discover that my boots have a hole in them.  My sock is wet and my feet are cold now.  We have to break the ice, though, so the cows and goats can drink fresh water.  We never have to fill this trough.  It sits under the drip line of the barn and catches rainwater.  

We'll throw a few gallon scoops of sweet feed and alfalfa to the cows and let them eat.  Then, I'll put a square bale of some good bermuda hay for them to munch on.

I read one time that in northern states, farmers supplemented their livestock's diets with root crops in the winter.  I've been doing that for several years.  If you look below, I have a thick bed of turnips that are growing.  I began pulling turnips, cutting up the turnip roots and feeding the greens and roots to the cows.

Some of the roots are the size of a baseball.  Others are small.  It doesn't matter.  The cows can't distinguish.  They eat them all quickly and beg for more.

The cows can eat in peace for the time being as the goats haven't picked up on the fact that I'm tossing turnips to the cows.  Otherwise, they'd be between the cows causing trouble.  The cows will inevitably toss them to the side with their big heads and necks and the goats go flying.  Seems like they'd learn, but no.

I appreciate you joining me today.  Maybe tomorrow if you're not doing anything, I could show you some other sights in this strange, alien winter wonderland?

I Walked Through the Garden Alone

 I walked through the garden alone,

    While the dew is still on the roses broccoli.

It's a beautiful old hymn that I took the liberty of changing to match what I actually saw.  I don't have roses in our garden, although Tricia has some pretty ones by the back patio.  On the weekends, I walk out to the hen house to open the nesting boxes.  I like to do that early otherwise the hens will lay their eggs in the strangest of places.  My walk to the hen house leads me through the garden.  The sun is still rising over the horizon and the scenery in the garden is always nice.  

Here's a quick tour:  (Dewdrops bedazzling a big, healthy broccoli leaf)

Turnips!  I planted them overly thick.  We eat the turnip greens and slice the turnip roots to give to the cows.  They love them.

French Breakfast Radishes in the foreground with brussels sprouts and garlic chives further back.  We have a great Radish Dip recipe that we always have around in a bowl this time of year.

Berlicum carrots marking the rows.  These were the slowest growing this year, but they've willed themselves to sprout up through the mulch and are in a growth spurt now.  As you can tell, the oxalis is also coming up in the carrot row despite the thick mulch.  We'll have to weed those out.

The lettuce patch.  We have several varieties growing, including Black-Seeded Simpson, Oak Leaf, Lollo Rossa, Rocky Top Mix, and Red Romaine.  We're pinching off the fresh new growth for salads every night.

 

Galilee Spinach.  This variety comes from Israel.  We like to make homemade Cream of Spinach Soup with this on cold, gloomy, drizzly nights.  It'll put the warmth back in your bones.

Bull's Blood Beets between two more rows of carrots.  As both the beets and carrots grow, the variation in color will light up this section of the garden.  I made it a point this year to widen the paths between the rows.  The mulch really helps to keep down weed growth in the walkways.  (More on this later)

Sugar Snap Peas.  The first pods are ready for picking with blooms starting to fill the trellis.

Starting right to left, we have Dinosaur Kale, three varieties of cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli. I should have allowed more space for a walkway between crops, ha ha!  They've shaded out between the rows, so we don't have to worry about weeds, but it will be a challenge to harvest!  They are very healthy!  Can't wait for harvest time!  

A Quick Look At the Garden

Most of my first planting of the fall garden was wiped out in Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta, but as the old saying goes, "If at first (or second) you don't succeed, try, try again."  So we replanted.  The cooler temperatures and decrease in insect pressure have helped the garden catch up.  Let's walk through and take a quick look.  

First the Contender Green Beans.  They are very healthy with lots of green growth.  These weren't fertilized at all.  However, they are growing right on top of a previous crop of legumes that fix nitrogen in the soil.  This photo doesn't really show, but just beneath the leaf canopy are a whole bunch of blooms.  We may have fresh green beans for Thanksgiving after all.  

This bed is planted thickly with turnips.  I'm not a big turnip fan, but our cows are.  We'll feed most of the turnip roots to the cows this winter and we will eat the turnip greens.

These are English Breakfast Radishes.  I've just pulled the mulch closely around them to discourage weed growth.  That same mulch will eventually decompose and turn in to rich garden soil.

Carrots always start slow, but once they get a foothold, they really take off.  Eventually, I'll pull the mulch around them to crowd out weed growth.  The oxalis is already threatening.

This is our lettuce bed.  We have a number of different varieties of leaf lettuce.  We like to harvest a mixture of lettuce leaves for a nice tossed salad.  The various colors of the different types of lettuce paint a nice portrait in the garden.

Here is a row of Detroit Beets.  I also have two rows of Bull's Blood beets.  I figure in another week, I'll pull the mulch closely around them as well.  In the meantime, we walk the rows and weed, but that will end once the mulch is pulled around them.

Always one of the first items we're harvesting is kale.  This is a fast growing plant that produces new leaves in record time.  It will produce for months - right up until it gets warm in the spring.

We also have Rainbow Swiss Chard at various stages of development.  The veins of the rainbow chard light up the garden with vivid color.

Here is another type of kale - Dinosaur kale or lacinato kale is a relatively new variety for us.  

Here is a big patch of cilantro that has come up on its own volunteer after seeding from the crop last spring.  We allowed it to go to seed and the plant reproduced itself many times over this year.  The cool weather will keep it from bolting and we will enjoy it with scrambled eggs for many breakfasts to come.

The Sugar Snap peas are beginning to trellis up the cattle panels I have for them to climb on.  They are planted thickly and will soon completely cover the trellis, producing crisp, sweet pods for snacking on.

I'll show you some of the rest of the garden in Part II of the premature garden tour coming up early next week.

Turnip Greens

"Thank God for good directions and turnip greens..."  - Billy Currington from his song, "Good Directions"

I've tried year after year to develop a taste for turnips.  So far, no dice.  I just don't like 'em.  At all.  My eyes fool me into thinking they are potatoes in the pot, but the taste is just so different to me.  A little bitter - just not tasty.  I know plenty people disagree, but I just can't like them.  But, turnip greens are another story.  Turnip greens, especially when young and tender, are absolutely delicious.  I planted a row of turnips entirely too close, but intending to feed the turnip roots all to the cows over the winter.  The cows really like them.  I've read numerous stories about farmers in the old days keeping their livestock healthy over the winter by feeding them root crops like turnips and beets.

Turnip seeds are very, very small.  I have a brown paper bag of turnip seeds that I've had in the freezer for years and years.  Despite the age of these seeds, the germination has got to be near 100%.  After planting them this year, I put the seeds back in the freezer.  I must still have 1/4 of a pound of seeds.  At this rate, I'll run out around 2030.

The turnips are planted on the first row in the garden, so it is very convenient to go pick a "mess" of them each night before supper, wash them up, and cook them.  We've had a few warm days which have brought some bug out of dormancy to begin eating some of the turnip greens, but for the most part, they are healthy and fine.

Tonight we're just eating turnip greens, but Tricia likes to mix mustard greens with them, along with chard, kale and beet greens.  We'll wash them up and then slice them and put them in a cast iron skillet to cook them down.

So delicious and so healthy, too! 

The turnip greens are located at the 12 o'clock position on the plate above.  I ate all those and went back for seconds with the quickness!

Roasted Root Vegetable Medley

The root vegetables that we planted in the winter are the perfect size for pulling right now and we've been enjoying them lately.  The ground is not too wet and not too dry, so when you grab the vegetables, they pull right up from the soil.  Years of working in compost, leaves and other organic matter into the garden is really paying dividends in terms of soil quality.

Here is a nice little 'mess' of root vegetables I pulled for supper tonight.  From left to right we have carrots, turnips, bull's blood beets and chioggia beets.

As far as roots and greens, they can both be eaten, but today I was in a charitable mood and tossed the greens over the fence to the cows, goats and chickens who promptly ate them and begged for more.  I brought the root vegetables inside and Tricia washed them and cut them up and put them on a cookie sheet.  She added a couple tablespoons of melted butter and olive oil, 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, thyme, and salt and pepper. Then she'll garnish with parsley and toss around on the cookie sheet to coat everything nicely.

I think the vegetables look almost as good as they taste.  These get placed in the oven at 375F for 30 minutes.

Many times, if you steam vegetables or cook them on the stove top, the color fades away in the water along with nutrients and taste.  That is not the case with roasting vegetables.  When you roast vegetables, the dry heat of the oven caramelizes the sugars in the vegetables, yielding a delicious dish that gets us going back for seconds.

We still have a row and a half of carrots to pull as well as a row of beets.  I'm sure we'll steam some, but roasting them is my favorite way to prepare them.

I Love All Vegetables Except for One...

When I was a kid, I was kind of a picky eater.  I didn't like mustard greens, spinach, brussels sprouts, or any number of other vegetables.  I didn't venture out much from green beans, petit pois peas and carrots.  I know many young people are the same.  I don't know at what point my taste buds changed or my vegetable horizons broadened, but I absolutely love vegetables now - even semi-weird stuff like kale, chard, and bok choy.  Don't get me wrong, I love to eat meat, but I like to have a bunch of side dishes consisting of good homegrown vegetables.

There is one vegetable; however, that I just don't like.  Turnips.  Believe me, I have tried to like them. I've tried to cook them different ways - roasting it, boiling it, making a few different recipes with it. I've tried picking them when they are young and tender before they develop a strong taste.  I've tried to fool myself into thinking it is a potato, but it's to no avail.  I just don't like the taste.

I still grow the doggone things though.  I have a full row of them planted. Additionally, the other day while harvesting the sweet potatoes, there were a few turnips that had come up volunteer.  I pulled the big turnip root out of the loose soil and admired the turnip greens.  Now, I can eat the turnip greens, but not the roots.

Even though I can't eat them, there's someone (or a few someones) than can eat the roots, though! Those ol cows of ours...  They love both the roots and the greens.

I stood at the garden fence and pulled our three or four mature turnips and fed them the greens.  I then took the big old turnip roots and cut them up with my pocketknife and fed chunks of turnip to those girls.

They loved them.  To show their appreciation, they belched.  It was a nasty smelling turnip belch that stunk up the place with the foulest of odors and made me stop feeding them turnips and shoo them away.  They need to learn some manners. Goodness gracious!

As I mentioned I have a full row of turnips planted primarily for the cows.  They should mature in late January and the cows will look forward to me picking turnips and feeding them that.  I'll likely thin out the row now and then by pulling and eating the tender turnip greens.  I don't know, I might even try eating some young turnips to see if my taste buds have changed this year.

A Tasty (Easy) Way to Prepare Turnips

I have had my eye on three big turnips that came up volunteer this year in the garden from seed from last year.  The foliage is huge and lush.  I wasn't the only one looking endearingly at the turnips.  The cows assembled by the garden fence to admire it as well.

The turnip greens are healthy

A quick tug brought the turnip root out of the soft, rich soil, yielding a fine looking turnip root, wider than my foot!

The turnip root is fat!

Now, in what might seem to be sacrilege to some, instead of cooking down the turnip greens and serving them and the pot liquor over hot buttered cornbread, I used my pocketknife to cut the turnip greens off and tossed them over the garden fence to the cows, goat and chickens, who promptly moo'd, baa'd and clucked approvingly of my generous offering.

Sharing the wealth with our animals

I brought the three big turnip roots inside, scrubbed the roots clean, and used Tricia's nifty QVC vegetable chopper to quickly dice the turnips into a uniform size. Those three roots filled the 'catch' container beneath the chopper almost 3/4 of the way.

Chop! Chop!

I poured about half of the bowl of diced turnip roots on a baking pan one layer deep.  Then I drizzled olive oil, salt, and cracked black pepper over the turnip roots and stirred them all up with a wooden spoon to coat the surfaces of the turnips with oil and salt & pepper.  Finally I spread them all out one layer deep and began preheating the oven to 400 degrees.

Olive oil, salt and pepper

Here is the "before" shot.  They look just like potatoes, don't they?  In fact, I toyed around with the idea of telling Benjamin that they were potatoes so that he would try them, but figured that was too deceptive!  Turnips have never been a real favorite of mine.  Probably for the reason that I'm fooled visually into thinking that they are potatoes.  When I eat them, in my opinion, they have a sharp finishing taste that is just too strong for me.  I've been looking for a way to prepare them where I'll like them.

Turnips - Before

When the oven had reached 400 degrees, I put them in.  Every so often, I would stir them.  To tell you the truth, I didn't even time how long I left them in the oven. When they had browned and were soft, I pulled them out and served them as a side dish to some spaghetti and salad.

Turnips - After

Here's the verdict: They were very tasty.  Actually, it is my favorite way (so far) to prepare them.  They were soft with a roasted flavor and the sharp taste that I found unpleasant was gone.  I finished the ones on my plate and brought the leftovers to work today.  This weekend I'll roast the remaining half bowl of diced turnips that I had left.

The two rows of turnips that I planted in the garden for the cows are still small - only about two inches high right now, but I'll harvest a few of those when ready and roast them for sure!