Garden Share Collective - December 2014

As you can see the beds are almost empty. Bed 3 has my bamboo poles stored in a tarp waiting for spring to come.

Beds 4-8 have few things in them. I do have the kale that is getting over wintered. There is some mache below it. Bed 7 had Asian greens and a bit of chard. Well that was taken out earlier in the week. We had a thaw and I figured it wasn't getting any better with all the freeze thaw cycles, so it is now in the fridge. The bed has since been cleaned up and covered in compost like most of the others.

Around the corner in the Circle Garden I have some spinach. Like the other photos it was take earlier in the week. Since then I've picked some of the spinach. The rest will overwinter and will provide early spring greens in late April.

November Completed

• Planned next year's garden
• Went through my seeds and see what I need for next year
• Cleaned up beds as they were harvested
• Covered empty beds with compost for the winter
• Winnowed the mustard, fennel, dill, cilantro
• Stored 8' bamboo in tarp
• Harvested and stored the carrots
• Harvested and stored the parsnips
• Collected leaves for next year's compost
• Put excess compost into small bin for use next year

Harvests

Harvests in November included bunching onions, broccoli, carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, bok choy, kale, celery, celeriac, chard, spinach, cilantro, mustard seed, parsley, sage, and beets. The total weight was 84.3 pounds, almost half of which were carrots as they are a big storage crop for me.

Preserving

Not much got preserved this month except the carrots and parsnips, which are now stored in the fridge and in the basement. I did add a couple of kale packets to the freezer, but used up a couple of chard packets. So that was a wash. And I've been eating from the winter stores already especially from the orange vegetables - carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes. I've mostly had plenty of greens still from the garden. But now it has all been picked. And the garden is put to bed for the winter. I won't be picking anything more until April. Well maybe a bit of kale, but maybe not.

Tally of what is in storage from the garden:

Frozen

• Broccoli: 19 servings
• Celery: 5 cups (Oh how I wish I had more)
• Chard: 17 serving
• Chinese cabbage: 10 servings, 4 soup packets
• Corn: 14 cups
• Cucumber juice: 2 quarts
• Kale: 43 servings
• Spinach: 24 servings
• Zucchini: 9 cups
• Carrots: 20 cups
• Burritos: 11 servings
• Mizuna Soup: 4 servings
• Basil: frozen leaves
• Cilantro: frozen leaves

Canned

• Rhubarb syrup: 4 half pint jars
• Gooseberry jam: 2 half pint jars
• Peach cobber filling: 4 half pints
• Peach preserves: 4 half pints
• Peach rum sauce: 6.5 half pints
• Dill Relish: 10 half pint jars

Basement

• Carrots: 25 pounds (some in fridge)
• Parsnips: 4 pounds
• Onions: we ate 10 of the 11 braids that were stored already, just 1 left
• Garlic: 3 pounds
• Waltham Butternut: 24 (avg. 3lbs each)
• Sweet Potatoes: About 45 pounds

December To Do

• Sip tea under a blanket and read seed catalogs
• Plan what fruit trees to buy to replace the figs
• Order next year's seeds

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