Experiments

This year I am trying a few new, to me, winter vegetables. I bought Napa cabbage seedlings, planted in one of my 4x4 raised beds, it survived Hurricane Florence and prospered. It is magnificent and very tasty. I bought shallot bulbs and they are up and doing well.
Now for the one that excites me most: fava beans. I have meant to grow them for years but, not sure exactly how to grow and tend them, did not buy seeds. This year I watched some videos did some reading and bought seeds. It took a lot of self discipline to wait and plant them late Fall but I did it. Doubting they would come up I pretty much forgot to check them but when I did there they were! Fifteen of the sixteen seeds germinated and are producing leaves. They will bear in early Spring if all goes well.
In other news, we have just a few more broccoli heads to harvest, mustard is still producing, the kale is beautiful, radishes are thriving under cover as are lettuce, arugula, Swiss chard and (gasp) spinach. We have abundant parsley this year. I gave away parsley seed heads at a regional Master Gardener event and was advised to rub the seeds off the seed head without covering with soil. I tried it and now have a now have a nice bed of parsley! I will never tease off the seeds again...

The broad bean experiment begins. 

Broccoli

Broccoli. The ubiquitous brassica we take for granted is truly a thing of beauty. In truth, I think all brassicas are pretty. I did not grow up eating from this category of food at all. Rarely were they served, not even the most Southern of them all, king collard. Food for the poor, I had no idea how to cook them when I finally grew them. A friend explained the process and I read recipes to come up with a method.

Back to broccoli: I microwave for less than three minutes in a covered dish with a splash of water. Squeeze on lemon juice and that is it! Food for the gods. 

Now the greens: Collards and turnips are strong stuff so I add in other greens-kale, mustard, rutabaga-to tame them a bit. A tip; a grating of nutmeg rounds out the flavor.
For those who buy their greens: Use kale for Caesar Salad following the America's Test Kitchen recipe. No kale rubbing required. There is a trick. Soak the torn greens in 110 degree water to tame the sharp notes of the green.
Saluda!

Which is the fairest of them all? It is a hard call. (Curly kale)

An aside: My personal favorite is mustard. Every year I let a few plants go to seed and save them for the next year. As they bloom the bees, all types, harvest the pollen. Bees love brassica blossoms! Also, the flowers are quite tasty in salads, especially mustard which adds a spicy, bright yellow kick.    

Spinach!

I planted spinach multiple times this season. There were plants before Hurricane Florence, and her cousin Michael, but they literally evaporated sometime while we were busy preparing, recovering, and putting things right. I tried again. Nothing. It was too hot, too wet, too humid, too dry for weeks after the storms. One last go, I thought. What have I got to lose, I thought. Nothing, I thought. So, two week ago when the days were warmish and the nights outright cold I planted again. Then I covered my raised beds (Agribon 19) of lettuce and Swiss chard and assumed the worst. Yesterday I uncovered to check the lettuce and...behold! the spinach has germinated and seed leaves have emerged. I could only laugh. I think I've found the right formula. Warm-ish soil, days in the 60's, and cold nights under cover. Forget the planting guides. They were right before climate weirding but our epic storms have shown me anything goes.

Look closely. Radish to the left of me, lettuce to the right, here I am...

Also, Charles Dowding (No Dig guru) informs in his video on spinach that Spring plantings are forced to send up flowers when the days get longer and warm. explaining my Spring planting failures. In his climate, which is much cooler than ours, he over-winters seedlings which then produce when the days lengthen and the air warms. Now I understand my failures. These babies will probably not produce until months from now. I can wait.  We've got kale! :)

Peppers

We picked a peck and more of bell peppers this year. They came off steadily. Keeping well in the fridge we ate them every few days, many ways but they have come to the end of it's run with these cool nights. I had Scott take a photo of me with the largest, most productive pepper yesterday. It is almost as tall as me. Fun.

All the Fall and Winter plants are perking right along with rains coming every few days. They need little tending-no weeds, no watering, no bugs, no covering. Broccoli is starting to head. Kale is pretty. Brussels sprouts are growing. Parsley is flat out amazing. I followed a tip from an ag extension agent who recommended I just rub the seeds from a seed head and scratch them into the soil. Ka-ching! I think they all germinated and they all look good. I do really like parsley. A season without parsley is really sad to me-something I learned the hard way.

Fall is here!

We skippity hopped right past Indian summer and into mid-Fall! In a matter of days I put away all my summer clothes and pulled out winter garb.
The sun came out today encouraging me to get out and dig, clean, compost and mulch. I checked on some lettuce, arugula, radishes and spinach planted a over week ago growing under cover and found all have germinated but the spinach. I also planted more garlic. All are planted in 4x4 raised beds. The lettuce varieties are  Oak Leaf and, new to me, Spotted Alepo bought at the Monticello gift shop. The radishes are Sparkler. In an adjacent 4x4 bed are magnificent Chinese cabbages just heading up and more lettuce: Marveille de Quatres Saison (an heirloom French variety that grows right through winter) and Black Seeded Simpson. Swiss chard is doing OK.
Today's harvest? Okra pods full of seeds for next year's summer harvest.

Recovery

Our little town and my little garden endeavor endured unbelievable amounts of water from Hurricane Florence. It bends the mind to have nature turn in such a way, more so because we, at least me,could not imagine worse than Hurricane Matthew. Florence shattered records and many more lives than Matthew. In the plus category we were as prepared as we could be for an epic storm we thought would never come.
Into the bardo we slid, oddly resigned, preparing best we could knowing the garden would drown which, it did. This time the woody herbs died within days. Gone were the sage, tarragon and rosemary, poof. The root vegetables evaporated too tender to put up a fight. Oddly, the basil and okra survived though they are known to withstand heat and dry. Our brassicas- broccoli, Brussels spouts, mustard, kale and cabbage-not happy for want of sun and too much rain looked sad but have miraculously rebounded, I think. In the past week I have planted leafy fall vegetables like lettuce and spinach slowly rebounding from the same reaction I had to Matthew's floods which was, inexplicably, to recoil from gardening altogether.
Putting one foot in front of the other in order to order oneself I participated in the Robeson County Agricultural Fair as planned, won a handful of blue ribbons, and volunteered as a Master Gardener going through the motions akin to living while grieving grave loss. I have cried many tears and many times on account of  this regional catastrophe. After Matthew I felt we had done the worst. Now, I wonder if it will get worse, when, and where. In the meantime, I carry on differently.

Chinese cabbage in raised beds post Hurricane Florence 2018. 

Lists

Hurricane Matthew destroyed our garden beds with at least 24 inches of water here on Chestnut Street. It was an awesome lot of water. Our internet service was also down the better part of a month. Fun times. I escaped to my daughter's house where I mostly talked about hurricanes and...my garden. Then I went to Fifth Season garden center and bought seeds, in particular broad beans which I have never grown.
I have been asked to make a list of my favorite websites. Here goes.
https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/fragrant-tuscan-herb-salt
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/
https://www.motherearthnews.com
https://www.ces.ncsu.edu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUUpBvbCaY (Charles Dowding videos)
https://www.weather.gov
This is a start.

Red okra flower. Isn't she pretty?