Garden Journal 10/29/11: Twenty-Five Degrees this Morning

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Cold kale in the kitchen garden

Realization of the Day:

Sometimes it's better to wait until the sun hits the garden before venturing out to see how your plants survived the cold.

Last week it dropped down to 24 degrees, and this morning it was 25. Everything was icy, but it's amazing how quickly the cold hardy plants recover as soon as they defrost in the sun. A few hours after snapping this photo, you couldn't even tell the kale had been totally frozen.

Our official frost date here in Missouri is October 15th, but this year we had our first light frost nearly two weeks before that. Since we're located down in a little valley, we often have earlier fall frosts and later spring frosts than predicted. On clear nights, it also gets colder down here than 'up top' during the fall and winter, which means if the forecast says low 30s, we figure on low 20s. Now if only that were true in summer, too.

The weather has gone up and down this month, and we've had everything from sunny days in the 80s and rainy nights in the 50s to days in the 50s and plenty more frost. In other words, it's been a typical October.

Despite a dry September, the autumn color has been beautiful around the farm this year, thanks, in part, to an unusually wet August; you can see some of it here.

Summer is definitely over, but there's still a fair amount going on in the garden:

More below. . .

—Some of the spring kale, including the plant pictured above, has come back to life now that the weather is cooler and the cabbage worms have finally frozen.

—The 4'x8' raised bed I seeded last month with several types of hardy greens has one strip of baby kale plants in desperate need of thinning. The rest of the seeds, which were several years old, were duds.

—The chives, which are very cold tolerant, are still doing well despite only being covered with floating row cover during the two coldest nights.

—The comfrey patch looks better than it ever has, with lots of huge, healthy leaves I've been feeding the chickens.

—There are a few purple basil leaves that haven't frozen yet, thanks to being covered with old bedsheets, but for the most part both the purple and green basil plants are history. You can read more about how to extend your basil growing season here, and find out what to do with purple basil (including my favorite pesto recipe) here.

—During the past two weeks, I've picked over 30 pounds of green and partially ripened Roma tomatoes from my six plants, which I've been letting ripen in the kitchen. The sprawling plants didn't start setting fruit until late in the season because it was too hot this summer—disappointing because this has a really bountiful harvest.

The flavor and texture of tomatoes that ripen indoors after being repeatedly subjected to outdoor temps in the 30s are less than ideal, but they're much better than no tomatoes, and still miles above than anything you can buy in the supermarket, especially this time of year. Quickly roasting them coaxes out lots of flavor without taking hours of oven time.

Just mix together some good olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a generous amount of salt and pepper, and a dash of sugar. Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise, scrape out the seeds (but not the cores) if you like, spread them evenly, cut side up, on a a heavy duty baking sheet (I love my commercial baking sheets) lined with unbleached parchment paper, and drizzle with the olive oil mixture.

Roast at 450° for about 30 to 50 minutes, depending on the size of the tomatoes and how you like them roasted—then try not to eat the whole batch straight out of the oven. I scattered some on a pizza last night instead of sauce, and they were fantastic (you'll find my favorite easy pizza dough recipe here).

—I've been halfheartedly covering up some of the other varieties of tomato plants that are still loaded with green tomatoes, but even during the summer their flavor was disappointing. I need to get back to starting my tomatoes from seed rather than having to rely on the meager (and boring) selection of plants available locally for sale.

—The homemade greenhouse has mostly been taken over (as usual) by volunteer Swiss chard, but there's also a big patch of lemon balm, a pot of Greek oregano, three small pots of rosemary I bought last spring, one of last year's rosemary plant barely clinging to life in the ground (I am so good at killing rosemary), a few volunteer parsley plants, two scraggly sage plants, and a whole lot of Swiss chard seeds I never got around to collecting—which is why I always have such a bumper crop of volunteer plants.

Swiss chard is cold tolerant, heat tolerant, even more versatile than spinach, and so easy to grow from seed. (That Swiss chard growing post also includes links to my favorite Swiss chard recipes.)

And I guess that's about it. I had big plans for direct seeding more cool season, quickly maturing fall crops like lettuce and arugula (read about how to grow them from seed here and here), but that never happened. I did,however, manage to plant a 4'x8' raised bed with garlic last week—on time for the second year in a row!

I'm hoping to write about this year's gorgeous garlic harvest and my recent garlic planting soon, but you know how that goes. In the meantime you'll find all of my previous garlic growing posts here.

So what's going on right now in your autumn garden? Sowing? Growing? Picking? Planting? Or maybe just cleaning up and dreaming about a beautiful spring?

© FarmgirlFare.com, where it isn't how badly you freeze, it's how well you survive defrosting.