Officially this starts the second 4-week session of the winter garden. Obviously, it is still pretty much salad fixings – but there are some shifts to take into account. Bok Choi is replacing Cabbage as the second-green, the early radishes are done and gone, and white and red beets have greens big enough to be interesting.
The first raised bed lettuce is coming to the end. It had red iceberg and a romaine called ‘winter density.’ Both of these are still available this week. The next big bed has a couple of new varieties which will be ready later in this session, or possibly as late as the first weeks of green season. Winter Density is the go-to lettuce for maximum lettuce per head; the second types include “cegolaine” and a new variety, “winter brown” which is a heritage type.
The outside garden has two root crops planted in early September – a crazy radish called “Minowase” – which tastes a lot like horseradish eaten raw, and parsnips. The parsnips are really too small to give out, but the Minowase is available to the adventurous, or the soup person. Rumor is that they should be cooked. As you can tell by the giant finger the Minowase is still relatively small.
Last week a member asked for the thinnings of the carrots – they make a good flavor adder to salad. The next set of radishes hiding behind them still are small roots, but the greens have good size. They also need to be thinned, so.. ask if you would like some.
Here’s the summary:
| Lettuce | Winter Density Or Red Iceberg – your choice, it is all getting nearly past prime. |
| Cabbage | nope, need some time to firm up the heads. Bok Choi instead. |
| Roots | Radishes if you want the greens. Turnips are going to seed (hot in the greenhouse = go to seed. baby beets tho. |
| Greens | Mustard (curly is pretty sweet, Southern is spicy) Turnips, Beets, Carrots (small, from thinning) Spinach – continues to be sparse, starting to accelerate |
| Herbs | Chives, Arugula |
Coming soon… Chard. Bigger beets. Kale is slow right now, and getting attacked by some nefarious critter. Slug? Rabbit? Russian?
And, so it goes. Potatoes go in the ground next week (St. Paddy’s day), started lots of broccoli and cauliflower for main season, busy times.
