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.

No Wasted Space

      It's cold, 43 degrees.  It's windy, gusting to 15 mph.  And it's wet and muddy.  My hands are cold, wet, and muddy.  All to be expected when trying to garden in late December in Delaware.  Why bother you wonder?
      Because there is an empty space in a cold frame and it is supposed to drop to 23 degrees tonight.  Not quite comfy temps for lettuce out in the open.

Hark, a no no.  Open space!  12/28/11

Free range lettuce, 12/28/11

Filled cold frame, 12/28/11

      Problem solved.  While the green frilly Tango Lettuce could take tonight's cold temperatures, I was not sure about the red lettuce.  So those plants are now tucked in safely.  Knock on wood, the voles don't seem to cater to this frame.  Maybe after they wipe out everything else, they will move over.  We'll see.

Christmas Salads

      *** Happy Holidays ***

      Here it is Christmas Eve!  Getting ready for the good eating tomorrow.  Emily is in charge of making a salad for Christmas and the day after.  She asked good old Pop Pop to be in charge of the basic salad greens.  Gasp, I actually picked them yesterday as, one, they will still be plenty fresh tomorrow, and two, yesterday had a forecast high of 50 degrees rather than today's forecast of only 40 degrees.  Yesterday easily won out.  Even though we will not have snow for Christmas, we will still have snowflakes, as I cut some yesterday.

Tatsoi, also called Tah Tsoi

      Tatsoi makes such pretty little rosettes.  It grows close to the ground when crowded, and makes these great green snowflakes.  If grown on 6 inch centers, it will get a little taller and less dense.  I like it crowded.  These were grown unprotected, and may be just as ready to be picked a month from now.  The next picture shows them before trimming.  As you can see, very little needs to be thrown away.

Tatsoi, cut 12/23/11

Various lettuce types, picked 12/23/11

      Em, here are the lettuce pickings for the salads.  I can pick some more if we need them for the second get together on the 26th.  Below are the thick stem Chinese mustard and arugula if you want to spice things up a bit.  If not, we can put the arugula on the veggie plate.  Barb will make it magically disappear.
      Happy Holidays!

Thick stem chinese mustard, tatsoi, and arugula