Winter Gardening...Treasures at Your Fingertips!

 Having grown up in New England, I have always loved winter....skiing...snow forts...ice skating...and the beauty of the bay frozen along the shore. Those days are now just a distant memory, but I still delight in the snowy landscape outside my window here in the mountains of east Tennessee!

Each week I get to enjoy grocery shopping in my garden where I've grown cold hardy crops and am storing them in the ground. I gently pull leeks from the leaf mulched raised bed, carefully loosen the long parsnip roots, and with gloved hands gently remove beet roots from the soil. In the canning garden I have a long row under a low tunnel. I have Swiss Chard

nestled there that has been mulched heavily and now is showing signs of new growth amid the older leaves. Back in the kitchen garden I have a covered bed with spinach, vit/corn salad, and a winter hardy lettuce mix that will take off soon as the daylight lengthens. I find these trips to my garden in winter to be exhilierating...like I'm winning a contest over nature. 

This winter I've often ventured out in the snow to "shop" in my new gardens. (We've been on this farm one year now this past week!) I don't know if you understand, but after being outside most of the day during the other three seasons, long days inside is a bit confining to me. But when I combine the thrill of finding the week's fresh vegetables with the sting of the biting, icy wind I'm ready to head inside to the fire! 

This is my leek bed. I transplanted my leek starts into this bed after my spring peas harvest was over in June.  I mulched it with oak leaves that were falling in our front yard. This is a square foot gardening  bed in my kitchen garden, and I planted four leeks per square foot. 

I call this winter gardening, but really it's just a different kind of low maintenace root cellaring. We live in zone 6B and we've had temperatures in the low teens so far this year, but a few times a winter we get single digit or even negative temperatures. We've had 8 snows and a lil' ice... I'm learning my micro-climate here at this farm, so this year this is all a fun experiment!

 

The first key to "winter gardening" is really timing your fall garden to maturity before light levels drop below ten hours daily. (It's more complicated than that, but that's what it really boils down to.) Here at lattitude 35.4 I time my winter vegetables to hit maturity around the first week in October. By then we may have had a sneaky frost followed by a couple of weeks of Indian Summer, but light levels are dropping quickly towards too low. 

You may be buying seeds now for this spring and summer, so I'll share a few tips if you'd like to "grocery shop" in your garden next year, enjoying the benefits of your fall garden far into the winter.

1.  By choosing the right vegetables to grow in the fall and store in your garden during the winter they'll be cold-hardy enough for the cold days of winter. There are key words or phrases I look for when scanning seed catalogs...cold hardy, good keeper, overwinter, holds color in severe cold, vigorous cold tolerant, hardy, stores well, sweet flavor after frost, and even looking at the country where the seed originated. (Whew! That's a long list but you get the idea.)

2. Have a written plan; then work your plans. Knowing ahead of time what you need to do is half the battle come August.  Only having the right seed is part of your plan. It must be grown to maturity before the light levels decrease in the fall. I use a blank calandar to write down when things need planting. Then the key is to refer to it often. :)

We've always begun thinking fall about mid-August here, but it goes a bit more tecnical really. You must plant crops you want to stay in your "garden root cellar" to maturity before the light levels fall below 10 hours a day. There are others more qualified than I am online that you can read up on this. I like to keep things simple and count back from our first expected frost the days to maturity and get my crops in the ground on time.

3. Yes, I know that by August you are hot and tempted to stay inside canning...fall planting comes at the busiest time of the year. But if you want the winter harvest, you must do both...at once. Don't fight it, just know you're nearing the end of your gardening year and this last push will have great rewards!

4. We also have relied heavily on our root storage crops in the "root cellar". Red and white, and sweet potatoes along with a veriety of winter squash and storage onions. 

 For some of those winter crops it'll take planting in June! Those crops for me have been Brussels Sprouts, leeks, and also my storage crops of potatoes, (late March) sweet potatoes, and all the winter squash and pumpkins. 

So, as you choose your seed this year, think ahead. Explore the possibilities of an in-garden "root cellar". 

Our family has been learning that we don't have to can/dry/freeze quite as much when we can rely on the garden year-round. Here is one of my new family favorite winter meals! 

As usual, the amounts are really up to you and how big your skillet is. I use a 12" cast iron skillet and it serves us twice! (What a change from past years when I fed 15!) The breading recipe follows.

We call this our Winter Garden Skillet
(The melon slice was tray frozen in the middle of summer, and it's been a big blessing this winter!)

First harvest a veriety of your winter crops and access what you'd like to include in your meal. 

I like to harvest for the week on Monday, and it's also my cooking day. (We assign the children days to cook too.)

This is my leek bed, and I pulled a half dozen for the week.

This  beet bed is a raised bed and has been supplying our beets up till today (Late January). I've been pulling from the canning garden since...

Kholrabi

Parsnips and red potatoes

Cabbage

Beets, Parsnips, Cabbage, leeks

Saute diced vegetables with garlic in an oven proof skillet. (I reccommend a cast iron pan.)

Cut up your chosen meat and cook in a bit of olive oil until done.   I've used pork, chicken, and sausage so far this winter.

Combine the meat and vegetables in your skillet.

Mix the quick Sourdough bread topping:

1 1/2 C. Fed Sourdough

3 Eggs

1 t. Salt

2 t. Baking Powder

2 T. Melted Butter

Pour this loose batter over the skillet of meat and vegetables. 

Top with cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

This topping is a great way to include a healthy bread with your skillet meal! I've put just about everything under it...Mexican, leftover vegetables and a mixuter of meats, and can't wait to try an Italian version. 

So, as in the past I've asked you, "What is in your hand?" What are your resources right now? Use them with this bread topping and you'll have a new skillet meal that will bless your family on the last frosty days of winter. 

Then look ahead to your garden past the dog-days of summer. What can you grow in the fall, and enjoy all winter long? Prepare now for the new challenge!

Abundant Blessings,

The Farmer

&

His Wife

Val

P.S. Today I used this idea to serve a quick midday meal. I used all the leftover meat and vegetables in the frig to make a super quick meal. I didn't have fully fed sourdough, but it worked pretty good still. I added Parmesan and Mozzerella cheese to the top and baked it. I was thanked for thinking ahead and having a great meal ready! Don't tell anyone my secret!