What have you done today in the Garden?

Today there were plans to eat a meal. With this delightful future to contemplate...I cheerfully hopped on the bike and peddled out to the lottie.
It was bitterly cold, but ach--leeks. I have a real weakness for those.

I spent a long time there in the little garden house working puzzels, reading and watching the birds. Naturally, I had to take a walk now and then to chat with other mafkeeses that were on the complex.

Once home, I laid them out.


Here you can get an idea of the length of the blanched portion.


Gotta go and eat now. Wish you were here!

 

I have to ask...what did you cook up with your very nice looking leeks?

 

Thanks DONNA--The shortbreads are not yet in the stores.

2of--It sounds like your arch is working well for you. I am already thinking about which climbers to get. They will probably be Clematis', as I am partial to those.

The leeks: They were cleaned and chopped-up. The bulk went into freezer bags. The dish was a stirfry with meat and a bag mix of flavouring. Next to that were penne noodles with a bit of butter stirred through. I found it quite tasty.

 

love that archway! I would have bought it too. Its going to look fantastic there.

 

Thank you Cheryl. I have great hopes. I hope that I will be able to get hold of some good climbers. It's one thing to decide what I want...but another to find a place that sells what I want.

 

We had not had leeks for awhile and we wanted to get some yesterday. We went to the supermart and there was none. Wish I can plant leeks here ... big SIGH!

Your leeks looks yummy Sjoerd and now I also want to eat stir fried leeks with pork belly.

Time to go and look for leeks again.

 

Just looking out at the snow...
Sjoerd, those are beautiful leeks.

 

Thanks BEEKER and KK.--Those things really are nice to have, fresh or frozen. I still have some left, so I shall eat them fresh a few more times during the winter. I have some spring leeks out there as well and hopefully as the winter leeks phase out, the spring ones will kick-in.

 

Today I went to the lottie to harvest Pak Choi and parsnips.
We had a nice stir-fry meal with all veggies from the lottie and some meat.
It was delicious. A little dab of kersenvlaai (a thin cherry pie with csiss-crossed strips of dough over the top and sprinkled with coarse sugar crystals). A dollop of whipped cream was in order to top it off with.
Mercy!

 

HA!!
I found two tiny heads on my broccoli!!!
They are each about the size of a quarter.
I guess it's better than nothing.
My better half and I will gorge ourselves tonight!

 

Wayduh go Beeker! That is great news.
Are you sure that they are broccoli's and not Brussels sprouts? hahaha.
Just joshin'.

All kidding aside though--I deem any accomplishment in the garden as a success--big or small. The fact that you have a broccoli of ANY size at this time of year in New England borders on the miraculous.

Well done, you.

 

I picked leaf lettuces today, and thinned the last row of turnips (giving the greens to the hens, who dearly love turnip greens). Checked the peas, but they are still just blossoming, and not setting pea pods. Guess there won't be fresh peas on the Christmas dinner menu :'( . The broccoli is growing and looking good, but not setting heads yet.
The garden is almost all cleaned out--just a couple of cherry tomato plants and their trellises to pull, and then to manure the gardens and till.

 

Thank you, Sjoerd.
I'm stunned. It's snowing again and I have broccoli!
We never did get to move the bed.
I'm not so sure I'll have a second garden bed next year. We'll see.

Hmm... Brussels sprouts...
Where's that catalog...

 

Finally there is a sign of spring here. "A sign" is all that I needed. I removed most of the TBS (tall brown stuff) that I had left standing throughout the winter. I removed this and placed it on my veggie beds until it is time to plant them with the coming seasons' crops. I did not remove the debris around the base of the perennials though as it still freezes overnight.

It was sunny, so I took off in the auto to find big mountains of wood chips deposited by the city government throughout the city. The back end of the auto was filled completely and I almost dreaded bulling the wagon from the garden club's parking lot to my lottie (~250 meters).
Ach, but it wasn't as heavy as I expected and I was able to tow it all there in one trip.

The day before my bride and I gad dug up the composted wood-chips from the paths the day before so that all that we would have to do was lay down the root cloth and dump the chips in the path and spread them.

Almost "Before":


The "After""


It was a good day because it was sunny and the timing was perfect. At the end of the day it began to rain and is still raining as I type.

I spent periods in-between the work, over by the bees and saw that all three of the hives was alive. the bees were out in numbers, making orientation and sanitary flights. I also saw that all three were having pollen brought back--a good sign.

Oh yes---I almost forgot: I planted my broad beans in root trainers today.