Let It Snow! a big house/tiny garden report
It's December in upstate New York, Northeast USA. We're looking at a supposedly harsh winter coming at us fast and hard. So far, that prediction has been right on the money.
I went away for almost two weeks around Thanksgiving, with the expectation that I would have another two weeks at home before a really hard frost hit us- plenty of time to harvest the last of my veggies and to get winter preparations done in my tiny garden. The day after I returned home, however, we got a brutal cold snap, so cold I was unable to work outside much at all. This is how my back yard looked for several days:
I worried that nothing would be usable under that fabric once I could get to it; the fabric claims to offer protection down to 28 degrees, and we'd hit 21 a couple of times. But when I could finally open it (the bricks and the fabric they were holding down had been impossible to pry from the frozen earth for a few days), I found that nothing was frozen!
My few rutabagas were nearly frozen, but not so solidly that I couldn't pull them out of this here sorry looking rutabaga "patch."
One nice salad of arugula later, I went out and harvested all this:
which, when cleaned, left me with a few pounds of veggies fresh from the garden - a bonanza of food for little ole me:
I've started in on the food I put by for the winter months. I'm excited to see how far into winter I can get eating veggies that I grew and preserved myself. So far, Thanksgiving had several of my canned items on the menu, edible kale and parsley are still out there, and I nearly always have a jar of some pickle or other open, along with several ferments, in my fridge. Potatoes, onions and one cabbage are storing nicely so far in a back closet with the heat turned off. Several items are dehydrated, although a pint of shiitake mushrooms had to be tossed as they had become moldy and infested.
Look. We hear a lot about food shortages, but that is utter rubbish. If there are food shortages, it will only be because so few of us bother to grow our own. Plant something in the ground or in a pot, or a bag or a plastic cup, whatever you can, and start learning how to grow food, if only to sprout some seeds, or to put a pot of rosemary on your windowsill. It tastes better, is more nutritious and far less toxic than food you buy in grocery stores, but there is so much more to consider here than your RDAs, your toxic loads or better tasting food.
Food you grow yourself, or was grown specifically for you, is infused with a priceless fuel, a scientifically unrecognized nutrient-
LOVE without measure or price.
of a vast organism.
make like a sprout
This is my entry to Hive Garden Community's monthly garden challenge for December 2023.
Congrats on covering your bed with the plastic. It always amazes me what a difference it can make to keep the crops from total damage. I do this with my raised beds in early spring to start my cool-season crops here in western, N.Y. I have been gardening for over 50 years and I am still learning and experimenting with new ways to keep on growing. Right now, since it is December, I will start growing microgreens in my plant room again. I still have Rutabega in the garden but I think I planted the seed way to late to get a winter crop. Always learning. Great job on your garden.
Thanks! I'm in Allegany county NY. Where are you?
Wow that fabric is a winner! Did I tell you how much I love rutabaga? Or swede, which is what we call it. Rutabaga sounds so FOREIGN 😂
I LOVE your adamant 'LOOK'. PAY ATTENTION, people! Plant! Eat!
Stay warm ❤️❤️ and happy xx
That makes you the only other person I know who does like rutabagas!!! Few people even know what they are here in the US, but if I say "yellow turnip" they get completely turned off. I love turnips, but rutabagas are something else. They give that special something to root veggie and apple stews. Hm. I feel a recipe post coming on...
I wonder if they're the same - I am pretty sure they are! Maybe people just don't know how to cook them. I adore them roasted - they are so sweet!
They're turnips. Americans shudder when they hear the word "turnip." Their loss!
I like them roasted too, with rosemary (and lamb, if you're a meat eater). They are quite sweet, and these that froze a bit are even sweeter. I gotta get them in the ground earlier next year so I can have more of them.
Bring it on!
My mom and grandma never planted rutabaga (or turnips) and I didn't even see the things in grocery stores, so I never learned how to grow or cook with this mystery-veggie.
Oops, my reply showed up in the wrong place.
You'd said you feel a recipe coming on.
I'll have to look online for how to cook with turnips and other root veggies.
They are VERY HARD and therefore difficult to chop up and cook, but my niece does. She sautees these cute little cubed beets and squash and such in coconut oil in a skillet. She who attended that herbal college in Minneapolis, the one inspired by Matthew Wood and Sanjay Popham.
Oh how much I have to learn.
How I'd love to get my youngest child out of the city and into a homesteading life of planting her own food ... but if she ever raised calves, she'd never let anyone eat them. Even chickens. She eats meat, yes, mostly chicken and less so the red meat. Seeing pigs in a truck on the interstate, heading to the slaughterhouse, gets her wrought up. And cows, peering through the slats of a big truck. I once had white feathers sticking to the windshield after following a truck full of turkeys, heading to the processing plant before Thanksgiving. Sad Times, for our tasty little friends.
Keto dieters often start with medical reasons - one guy with diverticulitis can eat meat and eggs and precious little else - but I wouldn't like to see our culture shift to a meat-based diet. I'm allergic to gluten, barley, quinoa, amarantha, etc, and I was already anemic since birth, so I rely on red meat for the iron I can't get from grains.
Lamb with rosemary! I've actually cooked that, thanks to Miles.
Next up, turnips too!
Don't let them get so big and they are easier to cut up. I also just found out that if you let them freeze a tad, they get softer. Just leave them under a bale of hay until spring!!! lol
I can't remember where I got this recipe, but it was lamb shanks, rutabaga, a few other root veggies, rosemary, tomato and orange peels. All cooked together in a stew. I popped a slab of good gouda (not smoked) on top, and man was it ever good! If only my cookbooks were unpacked! If I think of the name of the chef I'll let you know.
Wow! Great job on being able to harvest during the winter 👏👏👏
I'm not sure it was worth all the work involved, but that can be improved upon. Thanks for stopping by!
It sure can. This is a beautiful attempt
💚🥕🍠🥬💚
👨🌾👣💃
;^)
Your post made me smile. Inspiring. Looking forward to finding a house with a garden, again, from February onward.
Oh I hope you do! It enriches life enormously to get outside and work with nature.
I'm glad your veggies mostly survived!
I had a very good year this past year, mostly because I am starting to understand more and more about how to do it. My first year, five seasons ago, I got nearly nothing at all.
I don't have much luck, but I still keep trying!
You'll figure it out then. There's a lot to learn, to be taught by the plants and insects and other entities themselves.
So good to see your veggies were not destroyed by the frost. It’s always so exciting to be eating food from our own gardens 🤩
!LADY
I was quite surprised they were in such good shape. Good to know. Maybe next year I'll start all these a bit earlier, although I can't remember when I started them this year. Late August I think. One of these days I'll get better at taking notes. Thanks for stopping by!
I know the feeling! At least you’ve planted something and have something to harvest 😉 I didn’t plant anything new this year, so I only harvested blueberries, strawberries and a few red currants 😂
!ALIVE
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Your vegetables look so hardy and delicious!
It seems like the grocery store vegetables are getting a lot worse. Some stuff starts degrading the moment it leaves the store and in weird ways. It's so bad that the only thing I will buy is potatoes and garlic, and those are even getting iffy now. I've started growing garlic, have 1 successful sprout out of 5 planted so far.
I discovered recently that a lot of stuff is grown with PGR's (Plant Growth Regulators) in food, and is FDA approved. It's banned for use in cannabis because somehow mutates the compounds and is considered toxic to smoke. Most of the cannabis in my area is laden with this toxic stuff. It's strange that it's legal for food but not smokable. In my mind that says it's bad in any form.
We need more people to start home gardening food the way you do, as a means of "fighting back."
Humanity is not in balance with nature and the degradation is accelerating.
I met a woman once who called herself a grassophobic, when I asked her why that was the case, she said because she is a shitophobic and does not want to step in any. She was not joking a single bit and used those words in a very serious way. She said there was no way anyone would ever get her to step on grass under any circumstances.
Grocery store veggies are very old by the time they get to the store shelves. Zucchini, for instance, is inedible if you ask me. Once you've grown your own you realize just how unfresh all those "fresh" veggies really are. I don't know what they are treated with on the trucks and in the stores, but I've seen the rapid degradation once they hit my home too. I buy very little food in grocery stores now, and go there mostly for paper goods and pet supplies.
That poor woman probably has many other health problems too.
That’s amazing that that little bit of fabric helped ward off the cold. Those vegetables look awesome! Nothing like homegrown, organic vegetables. Looks like possibly later in the week, early next week there’s a snowstorm predicted for your area. Have fun with it! Lol it’s only a matter of time before it moves further south, and we get slammed. Can you believe it’s been almost 2 years without a measurable snowfall for us? Crazy.
I hope not, I'm supposed to be driving to Nashville next week. I guess I better keep an eye on the weather. Thanks for the heads up.
Do you want the snow? I love the stuff. It's so pretty, sounds are muted, the world takes a short break.
Home grown 100% agree.
I never imagined that a fabric could preserve the vegetables grown in your garden. Good strategy @owasco I think I have to experiment with growing potatoes and carrots.
Potatoes are pretty easy but for me, carrots have been quite tricky. Good luck!
Praying for a good and chill winter on your end guys. I remember the news from the last year and it was scary!
Last year's winter was mild where I live. Lovely really. And I don't have to garden so I get a break.
Good to hear!
Where are you based? I really enjoyed the post. #FreeCompliments
Yuhh looking on the coverage image I can say that on my greenhouse's top level of the snow after last snowfall was more than 10sm
Wouldn't that be good for keeping heat in?
Of course it's good for the top but in my case my gardening season is over. Just indoor flowers and succulents are now till the February.
Also such big layer of the snow doesn't let to go through it sun light.
Besides it from the sides it's not so big amount of the snow so it doesn't keep warn enough.
I see. Looks like you have real greenhouse, not the silly one I have. Mine if really kind of difficult to deal with, hard to open and close. I have to rethink it.
My greenhouse is 6 meters long and nearly 3meters wide also it covered with polycarbonate so it's enough for 4-5 years depends on policarbonates thickness and sun protection
The snow is very thick... what is the temperature fi there.
Today it is in the 30's F.
This means a lot, huh?
no no, water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It's cold today, and is likely to be even colder for the next three months or more.
Yes, my friend has never felt like that. If there is snow where I live, of course I will be healthy and happy because I have never felt it before.
Tiny garden with fantastic results. Being that we are within a stone's throw of each other we are experiencing the same weather, cold and lake-effect snow, daily.
The food one grows tastes nothing like that bought in the grocery stores and much of that flavor comes from knowing that what sits in front of us on the plate is because of our efforts.
I've heard the same thing, this is going to be a brutal winter
I'm getting ready for it today in my Allegany county home - installing a whole house generator. That probably gives Hochul nightmares, all that gas I'll be using.
I hope the brutal weather holds off until after New Years - I'm driving to Tennessee and back before then. Last year, Tennessee had the brutal weather, and it was 40 degrees colder there than it was here! So much for going to warmer climes.
You know she's turning over in her sleep. We came within a whisker of installing one here, but it just didn't fit into the budget. Bring on the flashlights for one more year.
That sounds like a good time, hope the weather holds up for you. Anymore, I hate driving in snow and ice conditions.
Go figure with the weather, but anything has got to be warmer than here.
lol 33 degrees is not so bad! Course, I haven't left the warm house today except to take out the garbage...
The generator is expensive, but the newer part of this house is all electric, even the water in and out, so I kinda need it. I figure it's a decent investment for resale anyway, and one big worry off my plate. If we get that awful winter, I'll be toasty and comfy in my house.
Well done with that little greenhouse, it really worked! I need one to stop the monkeys from scavenging, you've inspired me to put something up in the garden.
I cannot agree more with you about the joy of freshly harvested veggies growing one's own backyard, the taste far surpasses those in the stores. My late uncle used to grow hiw own herbs and a few veggies on his apartment balcony high up on the 18th floor.
One thing I learnt from my Granny was to replant the roots of leeks, spring onions, celery, etc. It really works! I've planted pineapple tops and the plants are flourishing, just curious to see how long it's going to take to bear fruit. I live in a subtropical area so we never have snow, seldom get hail as well. But you've made me determined now to fulfill my late hubby's dream of building a greenhouse, I have a very skilled helper. The only thing I can grow now, is herbs. The monkeys even pull out spring onions when desperate. Too much of their territory is being taken over by humans with all the housing estates!
One thing I will never have to deal with is monkeys!
I didn't know that about the roots of onions and celery. I'll have to try it this year. I wonder if I could get anywhere with those inside during the winter. I miss spring onions an awful lot during those wintry months.
I think so many more of us can grow at least some food than do. It much healthier, not only the food but also the activity itself.
I hope you do get that greenhouse going.
I spoke to our gardener cum DIY guy, a gem of a worker, and he said he would be able to build one, but it may only happen in autumn as it's our rainy season here and one can almost see everything growing in front of your eyes, so the garden needs constant attention. Those monkeys are real pesky!
I hope you're keeping well @owasco xxx
I found that a lot of my stuff survived the 16F we had a couple times and I still have parsley unprotected in the Big garden. I’m glad your hoop house served you so well!
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STOPor to resume write a wordSTARTYour garden is amazing! You always amaze me. Lettuce growing in the snow. This is one time I dare to ask "What next?" (the most dangerous question: I've learned not to even THINK it.)
Have you tried the kitchen-scrap method of planting?
I got carrot and celery tops to grow but you know WHAT NEXT: bunnies ate 'em all before they ever got close to proving they were viable.
This video -