Harvest Sunday

Chioggia Beets

In this part of the U.S., it's gotten very cold...at least for me and my plants. Sunday's daylight hours were cold enough that it necessitated bringing in most of the harvest. I was disappointed in my fall harvest...not in my seeds...everything sprouted and grew. In fact, I will continue to plug Seeds Now without reservation. No, the problem was most definitely going from temperatures in the 90s in September to much less sunshine and far cooler temps (50s-60s) by late October. November brought nights in the 20s and 30s and not nearly enough daylight hours for the peas to bloom. I know next year to start earlier, but with a patio in direct sun for more than 10 hours a day in 90 degree temps, starting cool weather plants in August is almost impossible.

I need not sound too gloomy, it has been fun to experiment with new crops like the chioggia beets pictured above. I am a huge fan of plants that are edible from top to bottom. So although only two beets grew to any size of significance, those two plants also produced two bags of greens for juicing. Sunday's harvest meant I got to experiment making homemade beet chips for the first time! I also chopped of a leaf of beet greens to eat on my homemade fish tacos for lunch. It was just as good (and healthier!) than leaf lettuce or romaine.

Italian flat-leaf parsley

I had a good sized amount of parsley and chocolate mint to harvest as well. But my favorite harvest of the day was my celery plant.

Okay, it was looking very pitiful. But there's two great things about this celery: I grew it from organic celery I purchased back in the spring and it's yet another plant you can eat from top to bottom! Check out this website for how to grow celery. This is precisely how I did it, with the exception of growing it outdoors. I still have a lot to learning to do about blanching celery to make it look and taste like the store bought. But I also discovered that by not blanching it, it has a deeper green color and is actually healthier! I also never had to harvest the entire stalk and could cut off from the two plants I started from June to November. That's right, I've not purchased any celery since April or May.

Now, are you ready for the other three amazing features of celery?? 

1. I could feed the leaves to my son's bearded dragon for the last six months.
2. The leaves can be harvested and dried to use for celery salt (just add sea salt to it, to taste).
3. The root ball is even edible

I wasn't even aware of this last benefit and threw one big celery root away about a month ago. Just a few days later, during a grocery shopping trip, lo and behold there were celery roots right next to the horseradish, jicama and ginger roots. Who knew? Well, apparently Gourmande in the Kitchen did. While searching through a blog for holiday gluten free recipes, I came across her recipe for Celery root and cauliflower puree with greens. Yes, this will be one dish on our Thanksgiving table this week.

I have to confess my sadness at closing down the outdoor patio gardening for the season. It's been a great learning experience and it's only about three months until I start my seedlings indoors. My kids are beginning to sense my obsession as the indoor growing is taking over our dining and family rooms. I keep pointing out that walking over to the window to harvest your chard is much more preferable than going out in the cold to the store. I'm not sure they get it yet. They will.