Indian Summer

This past week our first frost was followed quickly by several others. It has been downright cold. The garden, however is flourishing. Radicchio is heading up; the turnips, beets and radishes are fattening beneath the ground. Today the sun is bright and warm, although the tide has clearly turned.

On Sunday, my parents came to visit. In the morning before they arrived, I went to the garden to stock up. For dinner I roasted chicken on a bed of leeks. Fingerling potatoes and garlic from storage were combined with the final bunch of carrots from my first planting and roasted in another pan with a simple vinaigrette. My father loves beets, so yet another pan went into the oven. I lightly coated the beets in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. A fall green salad accompanied the feast, with romaine and buttercrunch lettuce, escarole, radicchio and baby spinach partnered with apples, walnuts and blue cheese. Mmmm. Oh yes, the salad also included the first harvest of my second carrot crop "Purple Haze," which looks fabulous sliced paper thin, with its purple skin contrasting with its bright orange interior.

In the afternoon, before dinner, I took mom and pops down to show off the garden and pull some more leeks and carrots for them to take away the next morning as gifts. I included one glistening white bulb of garlic in their bag of goodies.

Monday was bright and cool. I took the day off work and spent it running errands. In the warmth of the afternoon I returned to the garden, cleaning up the last of the dead tomato vines and other warm weather crops and planted garlic. I planted 120 cloves, nearly twice as much as last year. Spanish Roja was the variety I planted most of, nearly 50 cloves. I saved almost all of this year's Roja for seed. The balance was planted with Music, German Red and Russian Red. I will probably go back and add some Bavarian to the mix, since it did so well for me this season. "That's quite a commitment of ground to make for one crop," another gardener said as we talked while I planted. "Not just one crop," I replied pointing to where this summer' s garlic had been followed by fall cabbages.

Next year Brussels sprouts, come hell or high water!

As I was weeding around my Kale I noticed that Mache had started to sprout from the seeds fallen from this spring's flowers. A gardening cycle has come full circle. There is much more to be done before the snow is thick on the ground and much more to be eaten. But I will have more time to write about gardening as I do less of it. I will return to some of my promises from earlier posts and flesh out discussions about crop rotation, garlic and potatoes. And I will dream, because that is what gardeners do during winter.