One of my deep desires is to provide as much of our food and medicine as possible from our allotment garden. For so many reasons. Quality. Freshness. Nutrition. Eating organic food. Conserving. Spending less. This joyful and satisfying endeavour occupies a lot of my time during the growing season and at least some of my time and attention all year long. An additional goal is to eat fresh vegetables in season and buy no retail grocery produce for as much of the year as possible, a practice which has become deeply ingrained in me.
It's a sweet life. But occasionally I have to talk myself down.
The beginning of September this year for example. The nights start to cool down. The hours of sunlight decrease. Some plants stop producing. Lettuce has long since bolted. Pole beans have rust spots. Cucumber vines dry up. Squash leaves turn brown and crumble away. The garden starts to look very sad indeed. I feel a twinge of panic. Oh, no. What will we eat? This is silly of course, since an integral part of summer gardening is putting food by for winter.
Now, at the beginning of October, I'd like to show you a gallery of the food still available in our garden. It fills my heart with gratitude. I hope you'll enjoy a look at this seasonal produce, and maybe even catch a new idea or two for your own food supply.
You can click each photo for a better view.
Mountain Magic Campari Tomatoes
The main-crop Amish Paste have very few fruits left on the dying vines. These Mountain Magic campari tomatoes are another story. I will harvest the clusters to ripen in the house. As well, two Sungolds and one rogue still have cherry tomatoes for picking in the coming days.
Abrello d’Sarzano Zucchini
The three zucchini plants are still trying hard to produce, and they do, but the zucchinis are not getting big. Cold nights keep them from sizing up. Next week I will cut all the small fruits, then we’ll pull the plants and send them to the compost pile.
Sprouting Broccoli and Leaf Lettuce
Purple sprouting broccoli’s days-to-maturity is 26 weeks. What? Yes, you plant them in the fall and harvest the shoots in early spring. Both cabbage moths and rabbits are thwarted by this giant pop-up net. Around the bedding plants I sprinkled lolla rossa lettuce seeds that I dried in the garden so there will be some winter greens too.
Spilanthes Toothache Plant
Common names for spilanthes are jambu, toothache plant, electric daisy and buzz button. I grew so much last summer that I didn’t need more this year except for seed. I experimented by leaving six plants to go to seed over the winter. Only one new plant grew, so now I know to start spilanthes as bedding plants in the spring.
Purple Cabbage
I transplanted eight of these under the squash trellis so they wouldn’t have to deal with hot summer sun, and protected them with netting for six weeks. Aphids ruined one head but seven of them are doing beautifully. Quite the contrast to the poor showing I had in the spring.
Peppers
Seven pepper plants are still in the ground. Our climate is not ideal for them most years; very few ripened to their final colour. I will pull the plants, remove the soil and hang them upside down in the garage where they will stay fresh and even ripen a bit more before they are used.
Hollow Crown Parsnips
I know this looks like a hot mess. The good stuff is below the ground. Hollow Crown parsnip roots will keep in the garden until Christmas or later. They don’t seem to be bothered by any pests. This 3’x4′ bed holds an abundant amount of late autumn food that needs no tending.
Parsley Herb
Many savoury herbs want heat, but parsley thrives in the fall weather. Spearmint is also happier without hot sun so I hope to dehydrate both of these before long. Parsley is often thought of as a garnish only, but it can be used more substantially, as in tabbouleh for example.
Leeks and Evergreen Bunching Onions
These will hold in the garden until I need them. I mightn’t have tried leeks or evergreen bunching onions, but the seeds were deeply discounted. So glad. Growing them by the pole beans turns out to be bad companion planting; next year I’ll put them along the edge of the pepper bed.
Daikons and Carrots
These fall-crop carrots and daikon radishes are undamaged thanks to their home under the netting. The daikons have already yielded some lovely roots and their greens are edible too. Daikons go deep and break up the soil. I’m hoping for seeds for winter kitchen sprouts too.
Other food I didn't photograph:
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- five substantial Blue Vantes kale plants – I can harvest some young leaves during the winter, and in the spring they will produce seeds that I'll save for planting and for kitchen sprouts
- a dozen Cylindra beets – they will keep very well in the garden for a few more weeks
- one celery plant – the stalks are skinny but the leaves are tasty in soups and stews
- a new bed of closely sown kale under netting – I'll pick these baby greens for winter salads
- the last four of a generous squash harvest – a few butternuts were still a bit green at the stem so I'll leave them on the vine for a few more days
As you can see, there is still plenty of garden produce to keep us going.
I'm okay. I feel quite calm now.
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!
So enjoying your pictures Karen, and the comments along with them.
Here in Ontario we had our first frost warning, but it was further up north.
I brought in my pots of herbs just in case. I am sitting by my balcony door and looking at a line of trees on the hill, and there are already lovely colors beginning to show. Fall is so beautiful, but winter is close at hand, and I am not a fan of ice and snow, but there is spring coming along right after winter and I think on that.
Best wishes.
Barb\.