We were really late in planting our crops for fall harvest, but despite our bad timing, there are a few vegetables that have done really well and along with the young greens we have plenty of fresh veggies to keep us well fed.
Fall harvesting lately has consisted of turnips, potatoes, brussels sprouts, beets, and young chinese cabbage. Our turnips turned out perfect this year. Hardly any root maggots. We've been looking up all sorts of turnip recipes online and so far we have made glazed turnips, added them to chicken soup, and have been eating them thinly sliced in salads. Eaten raw, turnips taste kind of like radishes. We've also been using their greens as a substitute for kale.
In the same bed as the turnips, we planted rutabagas and radishes. The rutabagas did horrible. Some germinated, but were quickly eaten by slugs. None got even close to maturing. Radishes did well but were over-mature and woody before we got around to picking them. So, fall 2011 will be known as the season of the turnips.
This was the first year we grew brussels sprouts. We planted them in the spring and while they are forming sprouts, they are really small and full of aphids. The aphids are a pain to clean off because they hide in the layers. Once cleaned and steamed the sprouts taste really good.
Other crops we have been picking lately are beets and various greens. Our beets are really small, but tasty. The chinese cabbage we planted hasn't quite formed heads yet, but we are eating them as salad greens and using them in stir fry. Kale and bok choy are also staples this time of year. With our fall harvests and our stored veggies (potatoes in the ground) (winter squash and garlic in the basement)(corn, peas, beans in the freezer) we're eating pretty darn well.
This week the weather has definitely gotten colder and we'll see how long everything holds up in the garden.
