broccoli

Everbearing strawberries ready to eat…

Ahhhh.
The ever-bearing strawberries are bearing again. Kallie ate the first red, ripe, sweet, incredibly juicy strawberry from the garden this week. She pronounced it delicious.
I’ve eaten some of this broccoli, really I have. And I have another plant that hasn’t bolted yet, so I will be eating that one, too. But I love letting some of them bloom because I think they are so pretty and delicate. Broccoli isn’t something I think of as delicate. In fact, when Kallie was little we used to call them trees at the dinner table. But the blooms are so different.
So close…The bluebonnets are just swelling up with foliar pride with all this delightful rain. I can’t wait to see them in all their blue splendor. They have self-seeded throughout the playscape pea gravel — it’s going to be a show.
I’ve seen many Texas mountain laurels blooming all over town, but mine are holding back just a little. Buds abound, though.

The Italian parsley is huge. I’m sure that the caterpillars are going to be very grateful when I have to turn it over to them. I’ll have to get out there and sneak some for myself before they get here.

Broccoli brings back blogging…


After my holiday hiatus from blogging, reading blogs and pretty much anything that didn’t have to do with a kid birthday, Thanksgiving & travel, a holiday party for 160 for which I cook, company for New Year’s, and another kid birthday, I’m baaaaaack!

And this broccoli brought me back. This pretty, fresh and delicious green goddess adorned our dinner plates last night. Only a few of the winter veggies I planted actually survived our fall attack of the critters. Specifically, 2 broccoli plants, 1 green cabbage, 1 red cabbage and 1 cauliflower. The broccoli was the first to ripen.

I know sometimes there isn’t a lot of difference in the flavor of a few of the home grown vegetables and those you buy. But for some veggies, it’s a world of difference — like tomatoes, or last night’s broccoli.

And that was it. All gone. Makes me mad at the critters all over again.

But it sure was tasty.

And it makes me want to plant some more winter veggies this week…and blog about it!

Growing goodies in the garden…

Though it’s winter outside, there are still wonderful vegetables growing in the garden.

Planted in early fall, these edibles love the chill of winter.

I know my gardening friends are already harvesting and have pulled up some lovely carrots. Mine were planted a little later, but I’m eager to check one of the larger ones.

My 8-year old is a veritable bunny, and would readily crunch on raw carrots at every meal. She will have a blast when we harvest these.

Don’t you just love the little vegetable marker? It’s an antique spoon with a hand-drawn label.

This Dwarf Satsuma Orange is in the greenhouse — it would not have liked our few light freezes. The warm humidity of the greenhouse provided great conditions to help it ripen. It’s the first year for the orange (with me) and it produced 3 oranges. We’ve eat two of them and they were sweet and juicy and had very few seeds. I can’t wait to eat the third one! Doesn’t it look tasty?
Growing happily, I can’t wait to eat the cauliflower with a creamy bechamel sauce, just like my mother made it and my German Oma before her.
The red cabbage adds a burst of color to the winter vegetable garden and brightens it up. Naturally, I’ll make German red cabbage with it.
I’ve already harvested some small broccoli florets, but there are just a few still hanging on. Next year, I will plant many more of them.

Also growing in the garden right now, I have artichokes, Swiss Chard, parsley, sage, cilantro, and strawberries.

Now it’s time to start seeds in the greenhouse. I know I will be ordering a variety of tomato seeds to try, but there is a world of other vegetables that work well started as seeds before the last frost in a warm indoor environment.

I can’t wait for the spring garden. But I have to eat the winter vegetables first!

Are you eating vegetables from your winter garden?

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