My kitchen garden at midwinter

December 21, 2005

Granted, mine is the ugliest of all the kitchen gardens here, which is why it’s unbelieveable that upon my return to Occitania, I was able to pluck leafy greens at midwinter! I fully expected to find nothing, bugs and more nothing, but to my great surprise there are sun dried tomatoes, sorrel, sweet raddichio, leaf cabbage, red cabbage, beets, beet greens, sage, rosemary, mint, broccoli, and soon… bruxelles sprouts. Gleaning is yielding enough food for a birthday party luncheon on the 24th!

The beets are only good for soup at this point.

These are the gentlemen that teach me everything there is to know about gardening. They were quite concerned that you might think that they always dress this way and specifically asked me to mention that these are just their gardening clothes. Outside of the garden, they can look rather smart. Fashion aside, I am forever greatful for the amount of knowledge that they impart to me.

debra at 12:54 | | post to del.icio.us

5 Comments »

1. I love your garden! I had collards, kale, radishes, and beets growing in Maryland last winter. This year I only have kale.

   I think the gentleman are dressed for gardening. I love the colors in that sweater! :-)

   Comment by Vegan Momma — December 22, 2005 @ 15:13

2. That first image there is pretty.

   Mine is a swamp today. We’ve been in a complete deluge all day and there’s no end in sight. SLOSH !!!

   Comment by Dr. Biggles — December 22, 2005 @ 23:49

3. You know, VM? I think that the leaf cabbage I’m growing is actually kale. The seeds were given to me, dried but still on the plant. No one buys seeds around here, they just collect them from the previous crop.

   Comment by Debra — December 23, 2005 @ 16:50

4. Dr. Biggles, you’ll be thankful for all the rain now, come summertime. Now doesn’t that sound like subsistence-farmer talk? I believe your EB growing season is even longer than ours. We’re more like El Valejo Centro over here.

   Comment by debra — December 23, 2005 @ 16:54

5. Riddle me this: what’s the difference between collard greens and kale? It may sound like a really stupid question, to anyone raised in the South. Probably like, what’s the difference between zucchini and cucumbers?

   But still, enquiring mind wants to know…

   Comment by debra — December 23, 2005 @ 16:59