Harvesting Mache

Not much is growing in the garden right now. In fact, what is still green seems to be hanging on for dear life. Except that is for the mache, which seems virtually impervious to whatever winter throws its way.


We've developed quite a taste for this hardy winter green. Traditionally the whole mini-rosette is picked and looks so pretty in a salad. Best of all,The leaves are packed with so much flavor - fresh and floral, it's a wonderful thing to experience especially during this bleak time of year. Next winter, I may forgo winter lettuce all together and plant a whole bed of mache.


On a side note, the claytonia may be the hardiest winter green of all but it's not doing much of anything right now. I've tasted it and boy is it good. The leaves are fairly succulent with a wonderfully wild taste. I'm hoping that it will eventually take off as the days grow longer and the temperatures get a bit warmer.

First Harvest of 2011

It felt good to kick off 2011 with a fairly decent winter harvest (by New England standards of course). Today I picked a good amount of mache (aka corn salad), which we prepared lightly dressed with a simple vinaigrette for dinner. If you've never grown or tasted mache, I'd highly recommend it. This hardy winter green is very delicious and simple to start from seed. The leaves are mild and have a slightly floral flavor reminiscent of rose petals.


I also harvested a bit of spinach, which has proven to be very disappointing this winter. I haven't been able to harvest nearly as much as I did last year. The plants seem completely unfazed by the cold but are not growing at all (probably because I've been too lazy to cover the bed with some fabric row cover). Plus the voles have been taking much more than their fair share.


Speaking of voles, they are having a field day with my Red Russian kale right now, toppling whole plants and scattering stripped stems everywhere. They've already done away with my winter carrots and Swiss chard. I never thought in a million years that they would become such a problem this time of year. Building one of those industrial-sized 5 gallon bucket mice traps is definitely on the top of my list of things to do this spring. Anyway, I harvested as much kale as I could (no sense in leaving it for the little bastards) and some thyme to store in the fridge.

On a side note - I love the look of Red Russian this time of year. The leaves are so beautifully tinged with shades of purple.


And yes, more Meyer lemons. I'm sure you're all sick of seeing them in my harvest posts but considering the climate we live in, every single one is so very precious to me.

Finally, I've decided to forgo weighing my homegrown produce this year. I'm glad I did it last year but after a while, the effort began to feel tedious. I'll still post about my weekly picks and envy your harvest totals though!

This Week's Harvest - Garden Update

It's been two weeks since I've peaked inside my hoop houses. By the look of things, the garden is indeed in a state of transition. Among the healthy plants (spinach, carrots, kale, chard and wild greens) lay the dead and/or inedible ones (lettuce and wild arugula). Pretty soon, I will dig up the last of my carrots and turn over sections in each bed to make way for early spring sowings. Yesterday, the temperature underneath the garden fabric reached 70 degrees F for the first time in many weeks. Has the January Thaw actually arrived?

I made the mistake of not harvesting all of my Tango lettuce by Christmas this year. This variety has proven to be very cold hardy. In fact, it still looks pretty healthy. Unfortunately, the constant freezing and thawing have rendered it much too bitter to eat. I will just have to accept the fact that unless I can find a way to maintain a minimum temperature of 32 degrees F inside my hoop houses, winter lettuce is just not an option. And wild greens should be grown in its place. I'm wondering if the bitterness will diminish as the weather warms up or should I just pull them up? Any advice?

Seemingly unfazed by the weather is the mache...

and minutina. I sowed these wild greens way too late last fall, a mistake I will not repeat this year. My guess is that they won't truly take off until either next month or March.

The narrow leaves on this wild plant are succulent and very interesting to look at.

Off topic a bit, the chard in this pot is not doing nearly as well as the ones I have planted in the ground. However, it does look like it will stick around for me to transplant in a couple of months.

This week, I ended up harvesting 1.71 lbs of carrots and 0.16 lbs of greens for a total of 1.87 lbs. This will be my first (albeit slight) taste of these wild greens. I hope I like them.


Finally, I'm finding it interesting that my winter carrots continue to size up even in the frozen ground. They are still tasting very good and showing no signs of pest damage. I can't imagine a winter without these carrots now. If you'd like to see what others are harvesting or show off your own, visit Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.

Welcoming the Winter Garden

It's official. The winter garden is finally here. When I broke ground in late July, I really had no idea what to expect from my garden when December rolled around. All in all, I'm really happy with how things have turned out and I'm glad that my crops have made it this far. The real test for them, however, will come during the next three months. I've done a few things this week to further winterize my garden, which I will get into in another post. But for now, I thought I'd mention a few random observations from this past weekend. In no particular order:


I decided to pull up my pea plants finally. The vines were still relatively healthy with only minor signs of mildew, but I figured at this point, they weren't going to be doing much of anything anymore. What I've learned from my fall peas this year is that in all likelihood, I chose the wrong variety to grow. Next year, I will aim for one with a shorter maturity date. Also I noticed that I may have set them back a bit by direct-sowing them in early August when the weather was really too hot to support them. I think next year, I'll start them either indoors or in a cooler/shadier spot and transplant them into the garden in early September. Also, I noticed that by harvesting the main shoot, the plants responded by focusing most of their energy into maturing the existing flowers and pods. The plants also started to produce multiple side shoots. I think I'll do some research on whether pinching the main shoot produces side shoots that will provide a larger pea harvest in the spring.


All cleaned up, the radishes now look a bit lonely in this bed.


I planted out my rosemary this past weekend in a south-facing raised bed behind our garage. It has spent the last year and a half in this pot and was so root-bound that it was nearly impossible to get it out without breaking the pot or ripping the main stem from the roots. I am not hopeful that it will survive the winter unprotected, but who knows, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.


The supermarket softneck garlic I planted in mid-October is really reaching for the sun. Still no signs of the hardneck ones I purchased from Seed Savers Exchange.


My first sowing of minutina is really starting to take off now. I love the look of their thin jagged leaves.


My first sowing of mache is growing pretty irregularly. Germination was about 60% and some plants are really lagging behind the others in their growth rate.


I spaced my second sowing of mache 1 inch apart instead of 2 and germination was a bit better - about 75%.


The leaves on my cranberry vines are now completely burgundy. I had underestimated their ornamental value when I purchased them last summer.

Finally, I've only posted about my starfruit tree once before. It had spent most of the summer outdoors and really suffered when I brought it inside earlier this fall. In fact, it has lost more than half of its leaves. However, I think it's finally starting to adjust to the diminished light indoors and is growing again. I think I'll re-pot and fertilize it soon. The flowers of the starfruit tree are really quite striking. Here is my earlier post on this plant.

Fall Blues - Garden Update

I have to admit, I'm not quite sure how I feel about my garden right now. For some reason, I thought I'd be a bit more excited than I am about the fact that I still have things growing. Not that I'm disappointed by how my fall garden has turned out this year, I'm just feeling a bit ambivalent about it all. Does anyone else get the fall blues this time of year?

I'm taking some much needed time off from work this upcoming week. Maybe all I need is a full day in the garden (which I haven't been able to do in ages) to get me out of my doldrums. I still have to dig the remaining half of my garden for next year. There's really not much to report right now, but here are a few random tidbits:


Our wacky weather caused my white stem pak choi to bolt. I never thought that this would be happening this late in the year.


Here is my attempt at making leaf mold this year. As the piles pack down, I'll continue to add more leaves. I wanted to chip these leaves first to speed up the process but alas, I think my wood chipper is permanently on the fritz. Any ideas on how long it will take for these leaves to break down? They are mostly maple.


I have some fall green manure growing in a couple of my beds. I wanted to clear the remainder of my plot and sow green manure in preparation for next year, but unfortunately, I never got around to it. As a result, I have a ton of seed remaining. Hopefully, they will remain viable for next fall.


The mache that I sowed back in early October hasn't been doing much of anything. At this rate, they won't be ready to harvest until early Spring.


Garlic shoots! It's nice to know that they are alive underneath all of that straw mulch.


Ever since I harvested my pea shoots, the plants have been pouring their energy into making pods. I've been harvesting them young and they are quite delicious.


Finally, I will start harvesting some spinach leaves either this weekend or the next. I noticed that some of the older outer leaves are starting to turn yellow. I'm wonder if this is normal or if the temperature inside my hoop houses get too hot during the day. Everything else seems to be enjoying the added warmth. I think I'll devote an entire bed to spinach next fall and not cover it until very late in the season.