So much food already

It looks like I am dropping to once or twice a month for this blog. It is not because there is nothing going on. There is so much going on, I don't get around to blogging. We have been pushing really hard to get the Arroyo Community Garden up and running and we are pretty darned close. There is now a blog for that garden, so I will probably not talk about it too much here any more.

In other news, over the past several weeks, we have been harvesting the following food:

Romanesco Broccoli

Back in August I planted romanesco broccoli. It grew and grew and grew and grew but never brocc'd. I was ready to give up hope but it is winter and not much else is growing, so I left it. I have finally gotten a few heads starting in January.

 

It is a difficult to predict variety, as the heads are forming ever so slowly over the course of two months, but it is delicious and satisfying to have in the middle of winter.

One of them got so big and top heavy that it fell over and had to be staked up.

Just started seeds of regular broccoli for spring.

Rocktober

Goodbye summer crops.  Tomatoes are still hanging on, but the weather just changed and the days are short. The chickens go to bed at 6:40 pm. Most of the winter squash is done (would have had more if the chickens hadn't gotten out so many times). I pulled out some zucchini and all of the melons.

The corn is over and I have been pulling out the stalks.  Not as much corn per plant as I had hoped for, but maybe better luck next time. Some of the fall winter things I planted are almost ready like fennel, beets and potatoes.  I have been replacing summer crops with broccoli, romanesco broccoli, brussels sprouts, green onions, lettuce, chard, kale.  I need to clear some more space for the starts I already have and for the peas, carrots, spinach and fava beans I intend to plant.

I am going to harvest the remaining peppers and tomatillos this week.  The lady at the seed store told me that tomatillos freeze well.  I hope so.  I dried a bunch of tomatoes in an electric food dehydrator and now we have three big jars full.  I keep meaning to build a solar chimney dehydrator or something like that but I keep having other things to do like painting the outside of the house (which also kept me from updating this blog).