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.

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!

Thanksgiving Greens

   

       Yes there was a fall harvest.  Several gorgeous open heads of radicchio developed from a spring seeding of a Burpee mesclun mix.  I just had to try to make a salad wreath from the radicchio picked Wednesday, November 24th.

      The only plants to make it through the hot summer from the spring mesclun planting were several of these beautiful bronze flat heads.  After lots of picture surfing on the web, I have concluded that they are radicchio.  I have no clue as to which variety. 

       These were the various greens picked to stuff around the radicchio. On the counter are pickings of mizuna mustard, chinese greens, red russian kale, tango lettuce, pea plant tops, tah tsoi, pak choy, frizze, arugula, red ribbed dandelion, and oak leaf lettuce. 

      Pictured above is the completed project.  Turned out to be both beautiful and delicious.  It is now the middle of January as I am rewriting this as a Blog post, and wow do I wish that I could sit down with this beauty for dinner!

      After the Thanksgiving feast, I took daughter Barb over to the park to look at the garden.  Somebody had cut and taken my other five radicchio heads and topped out the red ribbed dandelions!   Nothing else was taken, but to say I was irate and bummed is a major understatement.  Foul words were probably heard at the park. To rip off a fellow gardener on Thanksgiving was an insult to all gardeners.  The Friday morning after Thanksgiving I went over to the park to resurvey the damage under better light.  Nothing else taken or amiss.  Looking very carefully in one bed near the dandelions, I spied one, then another and yet another foot print!  I was going to go to the park office to see, if with my new evidence I could have the culprit arrested, but I didn't really expect that they had identifying deer hoof prints on file.  So, with the crime solved my anger was significantly appeased.  I had been visited by the dastardly deer herd, not two legged thieves.  Much easier to accept than some other gardener helping themselves.  Interesting that the only things chomped were both of the chicory family.  And lucky that the topped produce will regrow over time from the deep tap roots.  So the gardening goes on.  Have to build some cold frames to protect some things from the oncoming winter.  Hoping your Thanksgiving was good -  George