Thanksgiving Tomorrow

      Happy Thanksgiving to everyone tomorrow.  It is my favorite holiday.  A time to gather with friends and family to enjoy the day.  To eat. To eat, then eat some more.  Probably to nap in front of the TV while a slow football game is on.  It gives me great pleasure to have a fall garden, to be able to pick fresh veggies to add to the Thanksgiving Feast.  Direct from Pop Pop's gardens.

A beautiful radish harvest,  11/20/2012

Swiss Chard to pick,  11/20/2012

And lettuce for a salad,  11/20/2012

Total haul,  11/20/2012

      Wow, what a nice haul, and so much fun gathering it.  The radishes in the middle, salad greens to the left, arugula to the right, and a mess of swiss chard greens at the top.  Plenty of delicious fresh veggies to go along with the turkey.

A Community Garden Benefit

      For most of my gardening life, I have been a person who gives away the extra daffodil bulbs or tomatoes, or gasp, a bulb or two of garlic.  Now maybe the saying "Tis better to give than to receive" might be politically correct, it is fun to receive as well on occasion.  This morning I picked a bunch of extra scallions and stopped by a gardener's plot on my way out of the park.  His nephew has a plot right next to his, and the nephew has swiss chard planted much too densely.  Would I like to help out by thinning the chard patch?  Well, yes.

Swiss Chard transplants,  5/17/2012

      These were very nice chard plants, probably just the right size to transplant.  The larger ones went directly in the ground at my home garden.  Smaller and bare rooted plants were replanted to cell packs, and placed in the shade to develop a good root system.

Nice new Chard patch

      These plants probably will wilt badly and look like goners, but I expect they will be fine in a couple of days.  I had good luck with some Swiss chard overwintering this year, so I am happy to get these plants.  I did not mention in my blog my earlier disappointment about my Bright Lights swiss chard seedlings.  Had several six packs of beautiful chard coming along.  Put the flat out on the picnic table six weeks ago to harden off the plants.  Are we thinking squirrel yet?  Yep, they had themselves a lovely treat of minigreens.  Right down to the nubs.  The plants have survived by some miracle, and soon will be able to go into the ground to face their next battle.
      But back to the park story.  As I was really, really about to leave, the nephew asked if I liked radishes.  Well, yes.  By 8:30 AM, I had already eaten three small ones from my meager garden supply.  Well, yes, I would love some radishes.  I have had to practice great restraint to be able to put these in the fridge to share with my wife.  Of course I had to taste test one of the small ones.  Was it good?  Well, yes.  It was actually better than good.  Actually scrumptious.  Is it lunch time yet?

Resplendent Radishes

      A google search for the word resplendent yields this entry: Attractive and impressive through being richly colorful or sumptuous.  Pretty much describes a good radish.  Having had great success with radishes last fall, I planted them in force this morning.  Here is what I put in:

      Yes, that could result in a lot of radishes.  Hopefully so.  I have not had great success with growing radishes in the spring and early summer.  They seem to like cooler weather, so I am hoping this early April planting will work out.
      I had fabulous radishes that were planted last September.  Maturing into the cooler weather resulted in plump radishes without the bite from warm weather.  The best radish patch was actually the result of spilling seeds by mistake onto one of the wood chip paths.  Please see one of my posts from last year:

http://fromseedtoscrumptious.blogspot.com/2011/11/gardening-in-wood-chips.html

      So hoping to capitalize on last year's success, this morning I planted the radish seeds at the ends of most of my beds, some directly into wood chips:

Radish seeds spread,  4/5/2012

      Some seeds were dropped directly on top of the chips next to this cold frame.  You can see the area planted because it is a little darker in color from having just been watered.

      Some other radish seeds went into this bed with mushroom soil.  Will be fun to see the difference between growing in wood chips versus a standard planting bed.  Another reason for planting at the ends of the rows is that I am quickly running out of space, and these precious little spaces were available.

      These white radishes were harvested on 11/23/2011 from a September planting.  I hope this spring planting is equally successful.

Last of the Radishes

      One of the main reasons I keep this blog is for my own garden record keeping.  Being able to include pictures is a huge additional bonus.  I had recently read that radishes will go pithy when exposed to hard frosts, so this morning I picked all of the remaining mature radishes.  Scanning back through September blogs, I see that I planted the seed on September 12th.  There, actual proof of the value of the blog.  The planting worked out perfectly, as I have harvested the best radishes I have ever grown.  They certainly do well growing into the cool weather as they mature, rather than growing into hot weather with a spring crop.  Three plantings a week apart starting on September 1st would probably be perfect.  

The end of the radish crop, 12/17/11

Trying to be a twofer

      I will really appreciate this end of the crop, knowing that a spring crop is months away.  But to have radishes well into December has been great.

December Harvest

      We went to a small party last night where everyone was supposed to bring a dish other than the main entree.  We had decided to take our great standard of veggies and dip, featuring veggies still fresh from the garden.  Picked yesterday,

Various radishes, 12/10/11

Last of the broccoli crop, 12/10/11

      Alas, we heard that a desert dish was needed, so Cindy made her beautiful little Christmas tree or wreath cookies.  There were three plates of cream cheese and crackers, but no veggies.  Boy, would I have enjoyed those radishes!  But now, there are more for me.

The Carving of the Thanksgiving Cabbage

      Bear with me for one more story about the chinese cabbage.  You will be thrilled to know that with Barb and Em taking some home, there is very little evidence left.  But back to the carving...

Thanksgiving morning, 2011

      This beauty was a volunteer from some plants from the spring season.  Those were less than spectacular, and I never had a harvest, though they were pretty to see in bloom.  I really wasn't expecting volunteers for a fall harvest, but there are several, and boy were they champs.  Illustrates the benefits of fall gardening.

Breaking off the outer leaves

      I am after the tender leaves of the "head" of the cabbage.  The outer leaves are kept for stir fry, saute, or a baked casserole.  Those inner leaves are used for dipping in the sour cream dip.  Calories don't count on Thanksgiving, right?

Finally on the table, 11/24/11

Veggie plate

      Fresh from the garden to the veggie plate were radishes, broccoli, green onions, and celery leaves as a garnish.  Garnish nothing, grand son Wesley asked if he could eat it.  And did.
      A good time had by all.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Bounty

      Our Thanksgiving will be celebrated early tomorrow at noon, so that Emily and family may move on to a second glutinous sitting in the late afternoon.  Whoops, I meant to say gourmandish.  Well what can we come up with from the garden for the Thanksgiving feast?

      Oh no, where did the chinese cabbage go?  I am happy to say It went home with me, foiling the deer and the voles for maybe the first time.  So to the young buck who was waiting till Thanksgiving to share this delicacy with Dosey Doe, I got there first.  The outer leaves will be saved for making a delicious baked cabbage dish, and the smaller inner leaves are going on the veggie platter.  The chinese cabbage has a much milder flavor than regular cabbage, and it is crispier too.  Can be used raw, stir fried, or baked.

Safely cut and ready to transport, 11/23/11

Ready to pick, 11/23/11

Egyptian Walking Onions, 11/23/11

      Emily is in charge of the salad, but I was in charge of the salad greens.  The green onions may go either in the salad or on the veggie and dip platter.

Salad greens and green onions, 11/23/11

Rogue radish patch, 11/23/11

      And remember that little patch of spilled radish seeds?  The ones that had the audacity to grow right in the wood chip path?  Well they continue to provide the nicest radishes that I have ever had.

Radishes from wood chip path, 11/23/11

       Together with a more familiar red radish volunteer and three beautiful young heads of broccoli, we have a fine addition for the veggie platter.

Broccoli and radishes, 11/23/11

      And lest we forget the days of summer, we harvested one of the white Casper pumpkins from our stash on the porch.  We are actually going to have pumpkin as a side dish, but there is so much that I think we will freeze some for muffins or pies.

Casper Pumpkin, 11/23/11 but picked months ago

George and Casper trying to find out who is bigger and badder, 11/23/11

George won that battle

      So preparations are being made for the feast tomorrow.  Had I talked with Barb and Em, we could have pooled our supplies of swiss chard for Cindy's spanekopeta.  But instead, we will have to settle for using frozen spinach.  Bummer.
      I am thankful for the opportunity to have family together for Thanksgiving, and I am happy to have so much fresh organic produce from my garden.  I am thankful for Moira Sheridan and Bob King showing me the possibilities of fall gardening.  Way beyond just the tomatoes and cucumbers of the summer.  Maybe you can have your own Thanksgiving goodies next year.
      Gobble gobble, have a great turkey day!

Gardening in Wood Chips

      I have written about using wood chips in the garden in several of my earlier posts.  The chips keep down weeds, prevent working in mud, and in my opinion, look good in garden paths.  But people want proof that it works, so here we go.

Radishes in wood chip path, 11/10/11

      Clumsy old me, fell over as I was kneeling to plant seeds back in September.  Knocked over the seed packet I was holding, right into the path of wood chips.  No big deal, can't pick em up.  So lo and behold, turns out it was the radishes I knocked over, and not only did they sprout, they prospered!  Look certainly as good as the intended radishes next to them in the bed.

Beautiful white radishes

Lookie what I found

      Not only were they beautiful, but scrumptious as well. I cut off the roots, need to wipe the radishes off..... where's my rag?  Pants will work.  Shh, don't tell my wife.  Ate them right there, holding on by the stems.  They were not technically French Breakfast Radishes, but it was only 8:30 AM.  Yummy.  And to think that they grew perfectly happily RIGHT IN the wood chips.

Salad Fixings

Salad greens from Bellevue, 10/27/11

      The fall greens are coming along so well at my park plot that I need to pick nearly everyday.  We had a wonderful salad of these beautiful mixed salad greens, plus one of the remaining Dr. Wyche tomatoes and THE last, boo, Cherokee Purple tomato.  Also added was a big fat carrot from the garden.  It was far to ugly a carrot to deserve a photo, but was delicious none the less.  And to top it off, were these bad boys below,

Radishes, 10/27/11

      I planted white radishes and mixed radishes about 5 weeks ago.  These are the best radishes I have ever grown.  Apparently the secret is a fall crop, with the cool loving radishes finding cooler weather as they grow, rather than being fried out by some heat wave in the spring.  I'm a believer.