Parsnips on the table and seeds in the soil

I have seeds in the ground two and a half weeks early!   Wow!! 

 Today was a marathon of digging and planting.  After three days of warm weather the soil was thawed-out and dried-out, so I began turning the beds in my garden.  The forecast for the next few days has rain, so I knew I had to get a lot done.  I pulled the second half of the parsnips and turned in some good mulch. 

Most recent addition to the garden series time lapse

 In the bed closest to the plum tree I planted greens, radishes and favas, as well as lettuce and kale to transplant.  I planted crops that like sun but are quick, in 'the shade zone' because by the time there is shade from the tree, these crops will be done.

Nero di Toscano (kale) with Pirat (lettuce)

4 varieties of nameless saved lettuce seed from last year

Pak Choi

Bloomsdale Longstanding spinach (seed is from '07)

Plum Purple and Halestone (radishes)

The Windsor favas are on the end and will not be shaded, I know they take a while

Two beds down....

Golden Sweet peas went in, next to a mystery snow pea that I love!

Purple Top turnips went on along side the peas. I'm trying to get a quick crop in.

Bull's Blood and Red Ace beets went in there as well.

I have my fingers crossed for all of these seeds, but have more of each of them incase they don't come up.  

So far I think I'm off to a solid start, so many early veg varieties, and I am digging around in the garden on April first!!!!

My kit and booty

An update on my little green houses:

Cabbages-  these look so great!  They are up and lively, they don't have true leaves yet, when they do I'll start hardening them off a bit quicker then transplant then straight into the ground!!!  Woohoo!

Leeks- haven't seen any:(

Onions- I see a few but they are super tiny, don't think they will get to the right size any time soon.  Not a big deal, it was a great learning experience.

Spinach- 3 are up, no true leaves yet... 

And so it begins!!!

Fall harvest

I went down to the garden yesterday and peeked under all the remay and straw.  I found spinach and swiss chard.  The spinach is super dense, the leaves are a really rich green and very thick.  It is tucked in under a light remay.  I used a tomato cage, laid on its side to keep the fabric off the leaves.

  The swiss chard is still hanging on, of the two varieties I planted the fordhook is doing much better than the five color silver beet.  The fordhook is a green chard with white stems, whereas the five color comes up in.... about five colors.  I pick all of those leaf by leaf so that the plant can keep on growing.  The bok choi though I cut out whole.  I had to leave a lot of it in the garden, as there were slugs and snails tucked behind the stems.  

There is also futo negi left, they are the gigantic bunching onions I was given earlier this year.  They grow like chives but are very large, I can't wait for them to spread.   I think they will fall into the hardy catigory, they show up very early in the spring and are one of the last to go in the fall.

What to do with a pile of roots and bok-choi...

Well I say get your salt and chilies we're making kimchi!! Yum. 

 

I used the recipe from Sandor Katz's book Wild Fermentation. His web site is here.  

In short the process involves adding julienned vegetables to a brine, then mixing them with minced fresh ginger, chilies and garlic. The whole mess is then packed into a container, I used a half gallon mason jar.  It sits on your counter for 4 days to a week 

depending on the temperature, until it is bubbly and sour... in a really good way.  

Again that is the abbreviated version, it is pretty easy though, and very adaptable.  I had atomic red carrots, daikon radish, bok choi and leeks left so that is what went into the jar!  Last year we had beet, carrot, leek kimchi. Tasty but very pink.  Traditionally there can also be fish or oyster sauce added, I'm just not that adventurous yet.  

This batch has just the bok choi ribs in it, (not the green parts I thought they got too slimy) and I left them whole, but they are so mustardy

 that I might chop them up in the next batch.