Garden Reflections - Root Crops
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| French Breakfast Radishes |
Root veggies are so yummy! I love radishes, thinly sliced and served on buttered baguette with arugula and flake salt. I love frost sweetened carrots, freshly dug and rinsed under the garden spigot. I love beets roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper, or in a refreshing sorbet. And I love potatoes (technically a tuber but I consider it a root crop) any way they're prepared
Beets
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| A variety of beets from 2015 |
My beets grew well this year, at least, the ones that survived the chickens did. The girls got into the garden and picked nearly all the beet seedlings before I could shoo them out and only half a dozen escaped their attention
I ate the smallest ones right in the garden and the others I roasted with dinner. Next year I plan on planting the same as I did this year but I may cover the patch with a row cover until the beets are large enough to withstand foraging hens. I harvested almost 3 1/2 pounds of beets with their greens this year
Carrots
I plant the bulk of my carrots in July for fall and winter harvests. I do this for three reasons. First, carrot root nematodes are only active in the spring, so I avoid them by planting in mid summer. Second, I don't have enough room to grow a significant crop in the spring but by mid summer my spring crops are done, opening up space for fall/winter crops. Finally, fall carrots are sweeter due to maturing in cooler temperatures and being harvested after frost. I've harvested about 12 pounds of carrots this year and there are still several pounds in the garden
Parsnips
Parsnips are a lovely vegetable and are really undervalued. They require only two things to grow well, time and deep loose soil. I plant mine in July and basically ignore them until November. We love them roasted, in stews, pan fried and in muffins. So far I've harvested 5 pounds of parsnips and there are still about a dozen left in the garden
Potatoes
Potatoes are in my blood. My Finnish great grandfather emigrated to Washington State in the 40's where he bought land on the banks of the Chehalis river and began farming. Some time in the 50's he traveled back to Finland to visit relatives. While there, he obtained a few Yellow Finn potatoes which he smuggled back into the U.S. He planted them on his farm and, in a few years, was providing gourmet potatoes to many restaurants in the Puget Sound region
This year I did an experiment with my potatoes. When I dug my potatoes in fall of 2017, I replanted seed potatoes at the same time. Since I usually get a good crop of volunteers I wanted to see if fall planted potatoes would grow well. Unfortunately they did pretty poorly. There were issues with insect and rodent damage and many of the seed simply didn't germinate. I harvested nearly 23 pounds of potatoes and they were rather small. I plan on doing another experiment next year to see if potatoes grow better and/or produce more in containers or in raised beds
Radishes
I grow French Breakfast radishes every year. I am currently working on developing a pink flowering cultivar of the variety so I didn't harvest many roots this year. The whole radish is edible and besides the roots we enjoy the greens in salads and snacking on the young seed pods. I'll be growing a few other varieties this upcoming gardening season
My root crops produced 43 1/2 pounds this year
Carrots
I plant the bulk of my carrots in July for fall and winter harvests. I do this for three reasons. First, carrot root nematodes are only active in the spring, so I avoid them by planting in mid summer. Second, I don't have enough room to grow a significant crop in the spring but by mid summer my spring crops are done, opening up space for fall/winter crops. Finally, fall carrots are sweeter due to maturing in cooler temperatures and being harvested after frost. I've harvested about 12 pounds of carrots this year and there are still several pounds in the garden
Parsnips
Parsnips are a lovely vegetable and are really undervalued. They require only two things to grow well, time and deep loose soil. I plant mine in July and basically ignore them until November. We love them roasted, in stews, pan fried and in muffins. So far I've harvested 5 pounds of parsnips and there are still about a dozen left in the garden
Potatoes
Potatoes are in my blood. My Finnish great grandfather emigrated to Washington State in the 40's where he bought land on the banks of the Chehalis river and began farming. Some time in the 50's he traveled back to Finland to visit relatives. While there, he obtained a few Yellow Finn potatoes which he smuggled back into the U.S. He planted them on his farm and, in a few years, was providing gourmet potatoes to many restaurants in the Puget Sound region
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| Yellow Finn potatoes from the former family farm |
This year I did an experiment with my potatoes. When I dug my potatoes in fall of 2017, I replanted seed potatoes at the same time. Since I usually get a good crop of volunteers I wanted to see if fall planted potatoes would grow well. Unfortunately they did pretty poorly. There were issues with insect and rodent damage and many of the seed simply didn't germinate. I harvested nearly 23 pounds of potatoes and they were rather small. I plan on doing another experiment next year to see if potatoes grow better and/or produce more in containers or in raised beds
Radishes
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| 2016 radishes bundled for up for friends |
I grow French Breakfast radishes every year. I am currently working on developing a pink flowering cultivar of the variety so I didn't harvest many roots this year. The whole radish is edible and besides the roots we enjoy the greens in salads and snacking on the young seed pods. I'll be growing a few other varieties this upcoming gardening season
My root crops produced 43 1/2 pounds this year
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