Our Winter Garden

We live in the northern part of Idaho in zone 5-6. The last few years we have had milder winter temperatures ranging anywhere from -15° up to 40° in December and January, but we have had -40° wind chills in prior years. The garden being pretty much dormant from December through April makes for a rough time if you want to eat anything green.

About four years ago I started experimenting with growing winter greens under row covers, and it has worked very well for us. The hardest part, other then snow removal, was figuring out just what we could and could not get to grow or at least survive in the winter months.

I have compiled a list of plants that do well for us in the winter - all have made it through the winter one way or another and returned to life at the first sign of spring. Some of these plants do well into December, wither away after a few harsh frosts only to make a dramatic comeback as soon as the temperature stays above freezing for a week or two. Other plants hold steady throughout the winter months.

Arugula - It usually makes it into January, but if mulched a little bit will come back in the spring..wild arugula seems to do best.

Boc Choy - Always makes it through the winter in good shape, the biggest problem is the voles seem to like this plant in particular. Bolts quickly in the spring.

Beet - Bulls Blood beet greens, or should I say 'reds', do well all winter and as long as I keep them cut back they are slow to bolt in the spring.

Cabbage - Does well as long as they are small going into the winter and are mulched.

Chard - Mature plants don't usually survive the first couple frosts but come back in the early spring. Small young chard often provide for us all winter.

Chives - Chives die out in the cold but come back in the spring.

Cress - Belle Isle Cress can do well all winter.

Collard Greens - Ours usually have severe slug problems in the fall but by spring are a whole new plant.

Chicory/Endive - Belgium endive and wild garden chicory do well into December and then suffer much the same as chard only to come back strong as soon as the weather warms. I grow some Wild Garden chicory that has re-seeded itself for the last 4 years.

French Sorrel - My favorite sorrel, next to wild sorrel, likes heat and withstands a couple frosts, much like chicory comes back every year as long as it is left alone and allowed to re-seed.

Kale - One of my all time favorite plants, and the most hardy of all the winter greens. Dwarf Blue Curled Vates (make sure and use the dwarf type) and Red Russian seem to do especially well.

Kohlrabi - If mulched well it will survive well into the winter under row covers.

Leeks - We mulch the leeks and if the voles don't get to them first they come back in the spring.

Mache - A very hardy plant that we sow in the fall for spring greens, it is not a cut and come again plant like all these others so we usually save it for early spring salads.

Mustard - Another plant that can be harvested all winter long.

Onions - If left in the ground most will produce green onions in the very early spring.

Oregano - A garden perennial that can be harvested for soups, pizza, or salads all winter.

Parsley - If kept a little dry it easily survives the winter.

Purple Broccoli - Early Purple Sprouting is an heirloom bred for overwintering and if mulched a bit they do just that, providing spring florets.

Purple Peacock Broccoli Kale - A cross between Green Goliath broccoli and two varieties of kale is new to our winter garden this year but seems to be holding up so far...fingers crossed.

Radicchio - Young radicchio will hold throughout the winter, we plant Radicchio di Treviso.

Radish - Greens do well in cold weather but it really attracts mice and voles.

Red Sorrel - Under cover it is very cold hardy, not very flavorful but a welcome addition to a mid winter peasant salad.

Rutabaga - Greens come right up through the snow in a mild winter.

Salad Burnett - New to our winter garden but we have high hopes for it. Adds a very interesting flavor to salads.

Spearmint - Holds up fairly well much like oregano as the leaves are very desiccant.

Spinach - Spinach does well throughout the winter and really comes to life in the early spring.

Turnip - The root bulb and greens normally hold up well all winter if the voles and mice share them with us.

Short of moving to a warmer climate for fresh greens all year long, this is how we have to make do through the way too long winter months!

Let's Salsa

Every year we grow enough tomatillo plants to provide us with 10-12 gallons of fruit. This year we grew both purple and green tomatillos, they love sun and once started are a surprisingly hearty plant, at least for us. They are grown in cages made of field fencing, some of ours grow over 6' tall and almost as wide...in a good year.

The tomatillo fruit is enclosed in a paper-like husk that is filled in as the fruit develops. We usually pick them just before they split open the husk as at that point they tend to crack.Once cooked they have a sweet tart flavor that is very unique. We use them mainly for salsa, and have come to enjoy the taste of tomatillo salsa so much that it is now one of our favorites.

Here is our simple but tasty recipe;

Thaw 1 1/2 quarts frozen tomatillos in a saucepan over low heat, draining water a couple times. Once thawed, break them up with a potato masher and add the following.

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
A few cloves of chopped garlic
A couple small chopped onions
1/2 cup lightly diced cilantro
1 tsp. whole cumin seeds slightly crushed
Salt & pepper to taste

Serves 4


In our house it is served with quesadillas, eggs, over baked or raw grated squash, and is especially good served over a bowl of rice.

Saponaria Officionalis...What?

"Did you know we can grow plants to use for laundry soap" he said one day? "OK, sure, whatever" I said rolling my eyes. He showed me the articles proclaiming it's cleaning powers, it's saponins, it's sudsing action, "and they still use it in museums to clean fine fabrics" he said. Should have guessed he was serious, you would think I'd have learned by now. The soapwort was planted. It was quite lovely and grew quite well. And just before the first frost I found myself in the garden with my old kitchen shears cutting down the plants and stuffing the greens into big garbage bags and bringing them inside to make soap.

"We will try your soap experiment" I said, and so the soap making began. Those shears were used to chop the leaves and stems into smaller and smaller pieces. Huge pots of water were put upon the stove to simmer and the greens were dropped inside to extract the soap. I smashed them and mashed them and then did it some more. It was entertaining and lunatic at the same time and by days end we had 12 large detergent bottles of homemade laundry soap. At this point, I was fully engaged and decided to add a cup of vinegar to each bottle to avoid possible mold problems also knowing that vinegar was reputed to clean clothes.

And yes, we are using the laundry soap exclusively now and saving money in the process. Cold water, no bleach. Before the snow fell the clothes were hung on the line to dry. Now they are draped over drying racks in front of the fire. There is something interesting I have noticed regarding soapwort - the clothes are really soft even though not dried in the clothes dryer. Noticeably soft. I do like that. Our jeans, shirts, and sweaters are clean and fresh. Does it remove harsh stains from light colored towels and rags? No, not perfectly but I've decided in the future I will buy dark colored towels and I won't notice the difference. Does it work like Tide with bleach? No, but I know that what's being absorbed into my clothing and going down the drain is a perfectly natural ingredient. I like that too.

Endive for coffee, stevia for sugar, nicotina for organic pesticide, soapwort for the laundry, and I believe I hear rumblings about a plant that acts as a numbing agent for sore throats and toothaches. Mr. H. has repeatedly told me he can grow anything we think we need to buy. Perhaps I shouldn't second guess him anymore...

The articles below contain more in depth information regarding soapwort.

http://www.purplesage.org.uk/profiles/soapwort.htm

http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weedguide/singlerecord.asp?id=280

http://herbfest.net/blog/soapwort-or-bouncing-betty/

Mrs. H

Another Fine Day

It's cold this morning, but the sun will shine today and the birds outside my window are having a great time in the feeder.

January has passed and a new and shorter month lies ahead. If I really try I can almost conceptualize warmth and green and growth...well almost anyway!

Please, I'll Pass On The Carcinogenic Nuts

We have a weakness for nuts - I mean we really crave them. I suppose you could say that we are nut-a-holics. In amongst the fruit trees in our little orchard there are also hazelnuts, black and English walnuts. The only problem is that the hazelnuts will not start producing until this fall and the walnuts are still in their infancy. Mrs. H has decided that we will be adding almonds and more hazelnuts this year, but a big nut harvest is still many years away.



This fall we bartered eggs and some cash for around 50 lbs of unshelled English walnuts that we hoped would get us through until spring, though they are going fast. My wife picked up another 15 or so pounds of black walnuts from a neighbor who did not want them. We are realizing why now as they taste pretty strong and are next to impossible to shell. After removing the outer husk the nuts were set about the fireplace to dry for a few weeks and are now quite edible.... well the English walnuts anyway.


So we caved in and bought a can of peanuts the other day, not organic as those are impossible to find in our area. I got to thinking about the on-going salmonella outbreak in peanut butter and decided to check it out and see just what it is they do to the peanuts before they leave the field as far as pesticides go. We are usually very careful of late about the few (mostly condiment) food items we still purchase and whether they are organic (supposedly chemical free) or not. So I thought that since they are a legume that grows under ground hopefully they are not sprayed all that much. To my dismay, the first article I came across talked about how they are one of the most carcinogenic and pesticide contaminated food items out there and that's just one of the problems with peanuts.

http://www.thatsfit.ca/2009/05/19/the-problem-with-peanuts/

Yeah, well that's just great...here I have been stuffing my face with poison. I am strongly reminded at this point why it is that we grow our own food - the only pesticides on my food are the ones that drift over from 'Chemical Joe's' house. He's our neighbor that likes to saturate his entire field in poison every year in order to kill a few weeds....his weeds seem to actually like it though as they grow a little bigger every year. By the end of summer his entire field is nothing but a dusty toxic wasteland.

I did a little research and found insecticide products commonly used on peanuts include phorate, methomyl, esfenvalerate, cyhalothrin, carbaryl, acephate, azadirachtin, cyfluthrin, diflubenzuron, disulfoton, fenpropathrin, indoxacarb, propargite, pyrethrins , rotenone, spinosad, sulfur, and zeta-cypermethrin. As near as I can tell these are all still in use today, it is hard to keep track of what has been banned, is still in use, and what the new poison of the day is.

Here is some info on the first one in the list, the rest are not much better.
Phorate - Approximately 3 million pounds are used in the U.S. annually, 80% of which is applied to corn, potatoes, and cotton. Phorate is a 'restricted use pesticide' due to high dermal, oral, and inhalation toxicity. Toxic to fish, birds, and not so good for humans either.

The Phorate response in peanuts remains a mystery to researchers.
http://www.peanutgrower.com/home/2003_AprilPhorate.html

A mystery no longer -


Pesticide Spray Proves Disastrous In Salkiana Village, Jalandhar
http://www.countercurrents.org/en-kvm040806.htm

Tea / Bamboo Plantation Owners applied Phorate. Boy dies and over 40 people hospitalized
http://www.getipm.com/our-loved-ones/stories/india-phorate.htm

Pesticides May Up Asthma in Farm Women
http://www.webmd.com/asthma/news/20071228/pesticides-may-up-asthma-in-farm-women?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Thus my long standing love affair with the peanut has come to an end, I will bestow my affections upon a nut closer to home...after all, a peanut is just a lowly legume.

Oatmeal For Breakfast

There is nothing like a nice warm bowl of oatmeal and apples for breakfast, especially on a cold morning.

Especially if you are a flock of hungry chickens.


Not too warm though, we wouldn't want to burn their little chicken tongues.



Do chickens have tongues?

Much Ado About Compost

This past fall I decided that I have had enough with compost piles. Each year we end up with this massive pile of debris from the fall garden clean-up. Every spring one wheel barrow after another of composted material is hauled into the garden. In between we have to keep this huge pile turned so that it will break down enough to use. So this last fall, instead of continuing the ritual of hauling stuff to the pile, turning and waiting, and then hauling it all back into the garden. I decided to leave it right where it was.

They call this sheet composting, which is simply working matter straightaway into the soil and letting it break down there instead of in a pile. Supposedly, this can cause a temporary depletion of nitrogen in one's soil. This is not a issue for me as my soil is a little too high in nitrogen anyway, mostly due to the giant, hot, pile of compost that I have been using. Too much nitrogen is conducive to aphids and this has been a problem for us lately; one reason I am looking for a different method of adding organic material to my garden.

Before winter I pulled up all of the remaining plant materials, broke it up a bit, and distributed it amongst the garden rows. My fava bean plants, of which we grow many, were chopped up and added lightly over the whole garden. Weeds were left to grow after August, being careful not to let them go to seed, so that they would be there to provide material as well. We are fortunate to have a yard full of maple and mountain ash trees that shed huge amounts of leaves every year and these were also spread throughout the garden.



Wood ash was then added to each row, our soil is very acidic and this helps to neutralize it. I'm always careful to spread it lightly so as not to make the soil too alkaline. Potatoes like acidic soil while my brassicas do not...hence the aphid problems. Ash is obtained from the wood stove and also collected from burn piles created during spring clean-up. It must be stored in a manner so that rain will not leach the beneficial nutrients away and is kept in buckets in the barn - after it has cooled of course. I have observed in previous years that some crops really love having a bit of ash worked into the soil around them. I have grown freakishly huge carrots and beets in areas where ash has been spread.


The project was concluded by shoveling a thin layer of dirt over the top of everything. It is now up to the worms to work their magic. I know from prior experience that whereas bacteria break down a hot compost pile earth worms do most of the work in an area that has been sheet mulched. I always find many more worms in a cooler pile of leaves or compost than are ever found in a really warm one.

Hopefully the outcome will be good, saving time and effort. I will then only have a small kitchen scrap and chicken manure pile to tend which does need to be hot in order to destroy pathogens.

A Boy In The Garden

Four and a half years ago an unexpected surprise came into our lives. He was named Hunter and is our first grandchild. This is something of an anomaly for us as my husband has never had children and now he was a grandfather at the age of 35. That has taken some getting used to for sure. At any rate, by our own choosing, we have taken a large role in helping out with this boy and are learning much about life, love, & laughter again through the eyes of a child. What fun we are having!

For the past year he's been in our care three days a week and we take this opportunity seriously. Great effort is put into helping him develop in all areas of his life. We work not only on educational and intellectual pursuits but we encourage his sense of humor and have fun with crafts, cooking, and chores.

There is one particular area, however, where we are purposefully putting in an extra special and thoughtful influence that we hope will have a lasting impact in his later years. His eating habits. Unfortunately, his diet away from us consists of McDonald's and fast food, daycare lunches of white bread, Ritz crackers, putrefied & hormone filled milk and way too many sweets. Once, while talking on the phone to my son I asked him what they were having for dinner and he said chicken nuggets and french fries. When I asked about a vegetable, he said the fries were potatoes and that was the vegetable. Ay, yi, yi...

Since birth he has spent time with grandpa in the garden. Dirty clothes, hands, and feet were cleaned in an old stock tank filled with water. Naps were taken under the shade of a tree using his plastic swimming pool for a portable bed. Worms were collected and played with and let go again. Countless times he stumbled and fell into grandpa's newly established crops - that being both irritating and comical at the same time.

All the while, he's been learning what food is and where it comes from and how delicious it can be. He can identify a carrot, beet, onion, garlic, zucchini, broccoli, kohlrabi, cabbage, kale, mustard and anything else we quiz him on. We take garden tours and walk and talk and snack. Which tastes better the bean or the pea, the strawberry or the raspberry, mustard or arugula?

A favorite garden activity of ours is the salad game. It requires a big romaine leaf into which a green onion, a piece of kale, sorrel, and anything else that will fit into it is rolled up into a salad sandwich. Hunter is then asked to 'hold' the sandwich but not to eat it. He squeals with laughter as he runs through grandpa's rows (this is where we sometimes get in trouble) and I chase him down trying to get the sandwich back - all the while he is stuffing his face with it. After a couple of these 'sandwiches' he's had a good supply of his daily greens and we've had a lot of fun in the process. He loves showing off his biceps, or 'broccoli muscles' as we call them and going out to feed the chickens in the evening without the flashlight as he believes all the carrots he's consumed have given him super eye site.

We've fed him almost exclusively organic foods and rarely have any sweets or treats for him. He's never even noticed that while here he eats no meat. At age four he cooks his own eggs from start to finish, under supervision of course. Daily snacks include broccoli & peppers or carrots and apples dipped in peanut butter, or a favorite of his, fried zucchini. If he eats everything at dinner he ends the day with a square of dark chocolate. This has become the norm at our house and he does not nag us to buy him cookies or candy while shopping because he knows - it's not going to happen. The other day, he looked in the fridge and saw a couple of cans of Coke in the back that I bought for my son & daughter-in-law who were visiting from Vegas during the holidays and he said in amazement "grandma, you've got pop in there" and that was it - he didn't ask for or expect to be given any - it was just a statement of fact.

Our hopes are that when he is old enough to make his own food choices, he will have developed a taste for 'real' food, and will make wise choices that lead him down the road of good health. My regrets are that I did not do this with my own sons when they were young. I thought I was doing them a service by feeding them breads & cereals that were 'fortified' with this vitamin or that mineral and meats and milk that had who knows what done or added to it before it arrived on our plates. Sadly not, and now they pay the price for not knowing or liking the taste of a tomato or carrot fresh out of the garden. I am grateful for a second chance to try to get it right.

Mrs. H.