beet greens

I thinned some beets and cooked them up. Delicious. There were even a few 1-2 inch roots. Its a mix of three colors of beets, yellow, red and purple. To cook, I wrapped the larger beets in foil and baked them at about 375 about 20 min. I sauteed some onions and yellow peppers (delicious ones from the Belmont CSA farm) in olive oil and butter, then sliced and added the cooked beets. Last I added the beet greens and cooked everything until the greens wilted. The best beet green I've had!

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harvest of big beets

I just love great big, dark red beets. I pulled lots of them this weekend. The big dark ones are a variety called Lutz. They are recommended as good winter keepers. I expect they will sweeten as they keep. I'll save these in my basement in a paper bag along with my potatoes. I have planted a fall crop of these that I hope will grow in time before the frosts come. Even if they don't, I have plenty of beets!

The lighter colored beets at the right of the tray are Chiogga's. These are very sweet now and we are eating them as fast as we can. Sweet and pale reddish with very tender leaves.

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harvests from my vegetable gardens

little beets

While I'm on the theme of winter root vegetables - these are beets I pulled from my garden on Sunday. They are a lot smaller than they appear here. I'm sure they will be tasty, but next year I hope to be able to grow good sized beets. I think beets may be a crop that needs more sun than I have in my home garden, so I'll plan to grow them in my new plot next year.
beets (Beta vulgaris)

beets

I have a few good sized beets now from a spring planting. Still a lot of small ones. The seeds were called Rainbow Beet Mix from The Cook's Garden. Its described as a mix of all of their beet varieties that will mature at different times over a long season.

An added comment on the weather: I thought this was fall. Its as hot as mid-summer today! Good thing I planted a lot of fall crops. If this keeps up, my garden will grow until Christmas! And my nice fall sweaters will stay in my closet.

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thanksgiving menu

I have been planning my Thanksgiving menu. I will have 10 people to serve: my parents, my brother and his family, my mother-in-law and us. I am hoping to serve fresh vegetables from my garden: Sauteed Swiss Chard, Glazed Carrots and a dish of roasted winter vegetables that will include beets. I have lots of carrots, so that one should work out. I'm hoping to have enough chard and beets. One week of growing time left. Temperatures were up close to 70 degrees F today, so things are growing.

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thinned beets and carrots

I thinned my carrots and beets again. The beet greens are yummy mixed with lettuce greens. A few of the carrots were big enough to eat.

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thanksgiving harvest

Today I harvested my Swiss chard and beets. Also, many carrots - maybe half of my remaining crop. It's the day before Thanksgiving. We've been cooking all day. I'll serve these garden vegetables tomorrow.

Daucus carota beets (Beta vulgaris)

winter root veggies

On of my favorite vegetable combinations for this time of year. Its a mix of carrots, parsnips and beets. I wrap the beets in foil and bake at 375 for an hour, then peel and slice the next day. Boil sliced carrots 8 minutes, adding sliced parsnips for the last 5 minutes. Then mix everything in a baking dish with herbs and olive oil and bake for a bit. Good additions are potatoes, celeriac and onions. I have a rutabaga in the fridge I will try soon too. I also like to turn it into eggs and hash for breakfast. Yumm!!!

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potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

harvest

Here's yesterday's harvest. Skippy and I went out to our community plot with a big empty bag and came home with it full!

At the very far left is a little bit of spring broccoli that is still producing florets. Then come some tricolored radish that I just started pulling. They are very pretty and perfectly spherical. The cukes, a pickling variety and a slicing variety called Rocky, and are coming in fast now, though they are still small. I try to pick the summer squash small before it gets out of hand. This harvest has two patty pan (Starship and Sunburst). They are nice and sweet. I'm starting to pull lots of carrots now (I had a bunch more that I didn't wash for this picture). This variety is Mokum, my early carrots. My two other varieties are still growing. There are two varieties of beets here: Lutz (dark purple) and Chiogga (pale reddish). I cooked them tonight with their greens and the Chiogga are especially tender and sweet. At the far right are onions that are starting to bulb nicely. And last of all, a nice bunch of basil.

Its actually been several months now since I've been in a grocery store. That's one of my favorite parts of growing a vegetable garden. I buy meat at the local farmer's market or fish monger, and our milkman (Crescent Ridge Dairy) delivers dairy products. We make an occasional trip to Cost Co and that's all. We just eat lots of fresh summer vegetables.

I haven't photographed my lettuce in a while, but I've been supplying our salad bowl since May 31 without any purchased lettuce. My challenge is to make it through the summer heat. Last year I couldn't do this and had to buy it mid summer. Right now all of my spring sowings of lettuce have bolted and this week we'll eat the last of it. I'm hoping my Summer Crisp Batavian lettuce will be ready to harvest next week. This is a heat resistant crop recommended by Gretta, my local CSA farmer.

Daucus carota beets (Beta vulgaris)

fall seedlings

Well, my new seedlings look pretty wet here. They're getting a lot of rain, but are doing fine.

I like to plant most seeds in potting soil in cell packs. Its easier to keep an eye on the baby sprouts this way.

On July 18 I planted:
Lettuce, Red Summer Crisp, 1 6-pack
Escarole, Bionda A Cuore Pieno, 1 6-pack
Beets, Lutz, 1 6-pack
Broccoli, Green Goliath, 2 6-packs
Broccoli, Green Sprouting Calabrese, 1 6-pack
Dill, Dukat, 2 6-packs

On August 3 I planted:
Lettuce, Prizehead, 2 6-packs
Fall greens mix, 3 6-packs
Lettuce, Four Seasons, 1 6-pack
Lettuce, Bibb, 2 6-packs
Endive, Batavian, 2 6-packs
Plus one 6-pack I didn't label and don't remember what it is...

I want to try to remember to plant some fall carrots and radish tomorrow at my community plot.

Here's my entire planting record for this year.
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today's harvest

I harvested a lot today since we had a birthday to celebrate. Lettuce, radish, onions, baby carrots, spinach, beets, zucchini, yellow squash and basil.

Cucurbita pepo (squash) beets (Beta vulgaris)
harvests from my vegetable gardens

radish (Raphanus sativus)