Early December Garden to Kitchen

We have had a mild autumn/winter season thus far in my zone 7 Maryland garden.

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We have had a balmy autumn / wintertime time of year thus far in my zone 7 Maryland garden . Still able to do job in the garden and land in bounty to create warm seasonal dish aerial . Time for harvest whatever is still usable , cleaning up the garden , last - minute planting , get quick for the vacation and wood job .

The latter warms us more than once . From felling to sawing , load and splitting , stacking and hauling and eat the stove and keeping it stoked day and night in the cold-blooded atmospheric condition , it fill a lot of time and energy .

The garden always seems desolate to me this time of class with withered tomato vines , dying pepper plants and putting surface , flowers and herb that have wilt from freezing temp at night . However , I ’ve gather seeds to dry and am still harvest wild greens like blowball , mouse ear and a last flower of foliage from the nettle darn . Soup , wilt greens , spanakopita or pie ?

There is still life story out there ! Though I did n’t get the Allium sativum in until late November , it is putting out shoot under the world that is nestled beneath a duncish layer of wheat shuck mulch . I am always captivated to get my box of constitutional Allium sativum for planting from Filaree Farm . ( www.filareefarm.com ) It seems expensive ; you get what you pay for and their option and quality of garlic is selection . It is challenging to select just a few : artichoke , tuban or hardneck , white , regal or ruby-red , marble or striped ? I am enjoying this year ’s harvest – I employ garlic day by day to fend off cooties ( not just vampires)–and I love roasting the whole bulbs until indulgent and creamy to smirch on toast , scatter on top of pizza or focaccia or thrash about with pasta . I also wish it just popped from its skin into my mouth !

I lie with all of the orange vegetables and they are so good for us ; their coloring material is indicative of carotenoids , which are so good for us . Not just carrot ; both sweet white potato vine and wintertime squash vine are on a regular basis on the card here . From oven - roasted to grind , in soups and stew and merge with risotto , grains , pasta and as a pizza topping .

Now , with the vacation upon us ( how did it get to be December already ? ) , I am think of gifts that I can create with garden - grown bounty for the cook , gardener , friends and family … more on that in the next web log !

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Although the garden appears to be dead–indeed these tomato vines are spent–it is really just going to sleep for the winter. Click on other pix to enlarge and read captions.Photo/Illustration: susan belsinger