Hoop House Goodies

Here's a pic of the hoop house and the smaller cold frame all covered up for the winter. We're trying the cold frame without the straw surrounds this year - just to see what happens.   They say that it's the soil temp that matters, not the surround.   As long as the soil is covered and gets some sun, it'll stay warm enough to grow greens and things. 

I planted lots of greens in the hoop house in October, a few days before we put the cover on.   They will grow very slowly because we're not getting a lot of light this time of year, but by Christmas we should be able to start to harvest out of the hoop house. 

Here is a baby carrot.   It'll probably be early spring when they're ready.   Just after I planted the hoop house, we had 5 inches of rain one day.   It sort of scrambled the seed.    My carrots and radishes are no longer in rows in the hoop house.   I don't think they care, as long as they have enough elbow room. 

More Cold Frame Goodies

I planted a row of fennel in September in the small coldframe.   It is growing and looks quite happy.     We're planning another fennel gratin for Christmas dinner.   

A much faster growing winter veg is the radishes.   I got HUGE ones this fall - bigger than eggs.   Some are bigger than duck eggs.   They're a handful.   Cool weather radishes are less spicy than ones grown in the summer garden.   We've been enjoying radish sandwiches made with leftover natural yeast pancakes.   Mmmmm.

January Radishes

I pulled these up out of the cold frame a couple of days ago.   There are still a bunch more waiting to be harvested.     I planted the seeds in October.

Pretty.

Winter Cold Frame

This is the inside of one of the cold frames on Christmas day.    To the front of the pic are a couple of rows of radishes.  

You'll notice that I didn't plant them too close together this year, so they actually had room to grow nice radishes.    Yay, Robin!    

In the center is a row of cilantro and in the back of the pic are a couple of rows of arugula.    All doing very nicely.   


Here's a view of one of those gorgeous radishes that had enough room to grow this year because I was smart enough [finally!] to only plant the seeds every 2 inches.  

Pretty!

What you don't see is the row of fennel that I pulled up and made into a fennel gratin for Christmas dinner.   Mmmmm.

Rat Tail Radishes

I like radishes a lot, but I always forget to thin them and they don't grow big.   Which is irritating.  Because then all you have is a long row of leafy tops that aren't good for much. 

Plus, they don't like the heat.   So mostly I grow radishes in the cold frame over the winter.

This year I decided to try the rat tail radishes that I found at Baker Creek.

They're supposed to not mind the heat and you eat the seed pod instead of the root.

I figured they wouldn't be bothered by a little crowding.

And it turns out they have really cute pink flowers.

And after a while those little pink flowers turned into these long green seed pods that look like rat tails.

Hence, the name.  Take a look at the first pic up there.  See the long pods?   That's what I'm talking about.  

They have that classic radish taste and stayed nice and crispy even in the heat.   The heat only encouraged them.

And then all the sudden the plants were loaded with pods.

As in - the pods are taking over the world. 

So we clipped a big bucket full and brought them in to see what we could do with them.

They're good sauteed with butter and garlic.    And curry - I like them with red curry.

They're great raw on sandwiches.

They're great stir fried.

And they're great dehydrated!!

We found that the toughest part of the pod is the pointed tip, so we snapped the ends off like beans, and we dried a bunch.

Dry them until they are crispy and brittle.   They should break apart easily.

Then we broke them up and put them in a jar to pop into soups instead of celery.

They're kind of good just dried - like popcorn.

Only I doubt they'll ever replace popcorn as a snack. 

It'll be interesting to see what else we find to do with them this year.