Of all the beets planted, only one made it through the Polar Vortices this winter. We are having it for dinner tonight. It was a chiogga.
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Adding:
Just because it’s pretty doesn’t mean it tasted any less like a beet. Chioggas don’t have a lighter taste just because they are striped instead of being burgundy. And the only way I eat them is roasted. I think pickled beets are foul.
The German Red hardneck garlic is seriously behind the softneck varieties. So, it didn’t get harvested today. And I don’t expect to bother growing it again because one clove never made a plant at all. So, I’m not very enthusiastic about it.
But, the Red Toch
And the California Early
are just gorgeous. And huge.
That’s a quarter next to the Red Toch I pulled last week because I couldn’t stand waiting any longer. I expect I’ll be cooking with it tonight.
My ginger and turmeric pots show no signs of life. Except a volunteer basil and the purslane that seems to pop up from every pot that has ever been on our deck in the turmeric pot. I was moving the basil and purslane into a pot to give to a friend and found the turmeric root. It is still healthy looking and has a little toe of white coming out.
So, I’m continuing to water the pots and trying to remain patient.
I do wish I would see a little green, though.
I have debated with myself about writing about flowers here. But my hands get itchy in the Spring and I am more likely to plant something that blooms than something to eat. And the 2 things aren’t mutually exclusive.
I have a row of roses down one side of our back fence and irises between the blueberry bushes on the other side. Irises are also scattered around in some other places.
Usually, I plant plants and, occasionally, I plant seeds. I haven’t always been successful with seeds, so I tend to prefer getting little pots of things already started. But, zinnias and marigolds have been successful with seeds. Cypress vine seeds a couple of years ago would have been more successful if I had remembered I’d planted them and not weeded most of them out. However, I have put zinnia seeds over by the roses and shook marigold seeds there last Fall. There are some Chinese Lantern seeds by the sunchoke bed and purple coneflower seeds planted at the end of the row nearest the Don Juan.
I get fretful waiting for things to bloom and made a spreadsheet to help me keep up. Chuck thinks that a little obsessive, but it’s interesting to me to see how the weather affects my plants. And it helps me keep from fretting when I want to see blooms a months before it’s reasonable.
That’s probably a fair warning.
The weather this Winter and Spring has been brutal. After I felt safe about the temperature and planted any number of things, we got a lovely hard freeze. In particular, my potatoes were nipped. Because the bags that I planted the sweet potatoes in were far too heavy to bring in, I couldn’t even try to save those.
The white potatoes were totally destroyed. Two of the sweet potato slips have come back after freezing to the ground. The sweet potato piece with roots is dead. So, I should get sweet potatoes from one bag.
We had a Yukon Gold potato on the table that never got eaten before 4 very healthy eyes developed and I put them in the ground yesterday.
I am the Audience 