Goodbye Garden

It's mid November and time to harvest the root vegetables that were planted in mid July. This is our second crop of beets and carrots and the first time we planted a crop so late in the summer. We wanted to see if a mid summer planting would leave enough time for a good harvest in the fall. And it certainly did work out fine. In fact, we could probably have planted even later judging from the size of these beets!

The beet leaves are not in good condition due to several frosts we have had so far, but the roots are still firm and will be fine for eating or canning. These are Detroit Dark Red Beets, an heirloom variety that produces very dark red, extremely sweet roots, up to 3 inches across.

We will likely can these beets in the next week because, unfortunately, we do not have a cold storage area. Our wood stove is in the basement, so that area is too warm to store vegetables.

Generally we would pull the carrots up by hand, but in this case we have to use a fork because the carrot tops are missing! Probably due to raccoons, deer, or some other animal that invades our garden under cover of night. The carrots themselves are ok for the most part, although a few look like the voles were nibbling on them. These carrots are of the Nantes variety which perform well in heavy or rocky soils.

We're having a rutabaga for dinner tonight so we will only pick one today. Due to the size of this one, we will probably be eating rutabaga for the next two days! But these can stay in the soil for a few more weeks or until the ground freezes solid. In fact, they'll tend to get sweeter after a few more frosts.

After cutting the tops off, the root vegetables are pre-rinsed with the hose before coming inside to be rewashed and trimmed. The home grown vegetables may not look as pretty as the supermarket variety but we know they are organic and as fresh as they can possibly be.