Despite winter’s rep as a food-less time of year, a season during which many home growers and their yards hibernate, waiting for warm weather and the common edibles that come with it — we’ve been having a good growing experience. Our cold season crop has been a windfall compared to the pest-devastated warmer months earlier this year. Without the context of a bountiful spring and summer, we’re looking at our food-producing December garden with wonder.
This winter has really been our first harvest. Being able to head out into the yard and choose from several different ready crops is what I had in mind when I started this effort, and that’s where we’re at now.
Would I like more variety, more volume? Yep. But for now, I’m feeling pretty good about being able to walk out the back door and snip, pick, or pull romaine and butterhead lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, broccoli, peas, chard, oranges, or tangelos. Just last night we combined a few of these for salads and sides to our meal, eating more than 300 calories from the yard in one sitting — more than half what we need to get to 15 percent for the day.
I feel optimistic for the spring planting as I order seeds and imagine the hearty yields they’ll bring. But I also recognize that our successful winter garden relies in part on the inactive pests hibernating in their dens like warm-season gardeners.
They’re waiting for spring, too.
Your veggies look delicious! I confess that, although I could grow winter crops, I want to rest a bit during our brief winter. More power to you!
Those photos of the winter crops look great.
We’ve been enjoying our winter harvest as well. The lettuces that we planted are all doing well, and we’ve got onions and leeks brewing as well.