Do you remember when I was so proud of my rutabaga last year I took a photograph with it? This year I took a beauty shot with my carrots,
This is not that shot. This is my I'm gonna need to remember to pre-treat shot. I ran up to the garden on a warm afternoon this week to plant my garlic. And yes now is the time to plant garlic.
When I was there I remembered the carrots and beets I planted in August. I really didn't think I had much of a chance with them. I know things like this because I am an experienced and astute gardener.
Who is often wrong. Quite regularly, really. I have 7 more photos of myself with the carrots and a series of portrait shots featuring just the carrots in a variety of scenes; lounging on the soil, fronds swaying in the wind.
Therefore the quickish trip to the garden to plant 120 cloves of garlic also became a carrot harvesting trip. This because of the chomping mouths of things with teeth. I had to harvest the carrots before whatever was taste testing them came back.
Then I tried to peek into the hoop house I had over this year's broccoli to see what kind of weed-fest I was dealing with under it. I didn't care about the weeds once I looked because I found an entire STUNNING head of broccoli.
I'd given up on this variety, Purple Magic, ever producing off shoots after I cut the main heads. They all produced really nice, big, purple heads this summer and then never did another thing.
Out of nowhere ¾s of the stalks are throwing up (that's a technical gardening figure of speech) another stalk with a small head. I took 3 more beauty shots of the broccoli in different locations.
I absolutely said I wasn't going to show more carrots, but this photo of the row serves the purpose of introducing you to the beets.
The row of beets is to the left of the carrot rows and didn't do nearly as well. A 3' portion of the 16' bed did well with the remaining feet just not bulbing up much.
On October 30th I headed home with the carrots, a head of broccoli, swiss chard, dahlia tubers and enough dill stems to fill my fist. I'll continue to harvest the swiss chard, keep an eye on the rest of the beets I left in the ground and gather the dahlia seeds.
I also brought home the panty hose cabbage and the experiment worked. The tight panty hose prevented any more moths from laying eggs on the cabbages so the cabbage is perfectly clean.
It will turn into a batch of cabbage rolls or cabbage roll soup in the future.
Unless I decide I want to have a summer meal this winter, with hamburgers, corn, fries and coleslaw. I'm no air traffic controller but I'd say that's a tough call to make right there. Cabbage rolls or snowstorm coleslaw and BBQ?
Snow More Cooking
I made 8 servings of chicken parmesan with egg noodles. Half go to my stash for a winter of no cooking and the other half go to Betty for her freezer.
I don't have a recipe, I just make it. The sauce is basically my homemade pizza sauce recipe, and then I just cut the chicken breasts in half lengthwise and pound them out. Coat with flour, egg then well seasoned bread crumbs. Fry in olive oil. Top with sauce, mozzarella & parmesan cheese. Broil until bubbly. (these ones are slightly over-broiled)
Out My Kitchen Window
I realized tonight that if my kitchen windows were up higher on one side of the room I'd block out a lot of icky view and instead have a focus of this view.
This doesn't end with a shot of me hammering out a wall. Although that would be a fairly standard assumption you could make of me.
I did a bunch of other stuff but it's all a bit of a blur because of the biggest thing I did this week, launch The Christmas Pledge with more people joining this year than ever before.
Oh! I also dug up a bunch of dahlia tubers and split them. A bunch, not all of them. The rest will come up this week and I'll store them in sand again because it worked so well last winter.
Now that The Christmas Pledge is over I'll continue working on The Christmas Gift Guide and have that for you in the next couple of weeks. It's getting so big I might have to make it free eBook that you download like The Christmas Pledge.
Have a good remainder of your weekend, I'll be making a lasagna to freeze and buying a can of whipped cream as per The Christmas Pledge instructions.
What a haul! Congratulations! Do you love carrot cake? That's among the yummy things I am making with my carrots. They're among my favourite things to grow. :)
Carrots, I mean. Not cake. Although I'd love to be able to grow cake. :)
I just spent part of last night talking with Betty about how I'd use all the carrots.😆 Carrot cake came up and she's pressuring me to make something called "Copper Penny salad" which is apparently made with a can of tomato soup and carrots. I'm really pushing back on that suggestion. ~ karen!
Keep pushing back on the copper penny salad. Sounds gross. But try carrot cake ice cream~ Food Wishes by Chef John recipe. You carmelize the carrots, use some cream cheese, and its a no churn recipe. Amazing.
And your August planted haul if carrots is Beyond Amazing ! Wow.
You got me curious. I looked it up. Typical '50's salad. I might give it a go just to scare the kids at our next potluck. :D
My mother insists she remembers it being delicious. ~ karen!
A set of half-height louvered accordion shutters (or whatever height blocks the icky part of the viewand looks "right") would be a lot cheaper and simpler than hammering out a wall, makes it a feature, not a bug. Or even a set of old timey cafe curtains along the bottom half of the window.
I'm looking for more grown up fixes now. Actual renovations to make the most of my little cottage. I do love a cafe curtain though! ~ karen
Big pot of chicken soup with fresh from the garden carrots for the sick hubby.
Thanks!
Always welcome with coffee is a Karen post - thanks for dropping in!
Great post! I've used straw, shaved wood and peat moss to store dahlia bulbs, but had to throw it away afterwards. Do you reuse the sand or use it in a soil mix or ...?
I do both. Last year I put it in my compost pile so I'll be buying new sand. Otherwise you can bake the used sand in the oven and wash it to sterilize it. Which yes, is indeed a pain. ~ karen!
Your beauty shot with carrots is just divine. These photos offer us an amazing look at what you have been growing and working hard to bring to harvest.
Please do bring us up to date on the owl(s).
You have an alien 👽 sitting next to the Swiss chard in your cart! Must have been Halloween. 🎃
I view any post that has me doing a Google search as a massive success on many fronts. Today it was Swiss Chard. As a certified and Bonafide carnivore I am mostly an imbecile when it comes to oh so many plants. But now I know about another one that I'll likely never eat. Congratulations on the carrots, your labours of love continue to reward you.
You should check out @vickisveggies on Instagram. She is a farmer in PEC that does a lovely sexy carrots calendar. It’s hilarious and I’m sure delicious after the shot
Some of those carrots DO look a bit on the mature audience side, says my immature, snickering child brain.
As always you are informative and inspiring,no judgment but what are your plans for all those container pots. I try to think I could manage something in this vein. Best...
Hi Lorrie! I'm not sure which pots you mean. The great big ones behind me in the first photo are what I plant my sweet potatoes in. :) ~ karen!