February 29

Harvest for February 29

Since this day doesn't really exist, hard work should be forbidden.  That was our idea, anyway.  While we did pay attention to the daily grind because nobody else has seen fit to make this a holiday yet, we did make time to take in the pleasures of our garden.

In about thirty minutes, we were able to harvest a week's worth of fresh produce.  Ummm... this is February and we're still pulling stuff from our garden.  Hard for a girl from New England to wrap her head around.

Having a few small plots to plant a row or two veggies in has been such a blessing.  Dave and I only manage to get to our friend, Patti's, house a couple of times a month now but it's such a treat when we do.  You see, Patti has four really nice raised beds on her horse farm she wasn't using so we are now "sharecropping" on her land.  Our back yard will soon be suitable for a veggie garden, but it wasn't quite there in October when we decided to put in some winter crops.

As you can see from the photo above, we have a lot going on in those four little beds.  Radishes, turnips, parsnips and beets for root veggies (the carrots we planted for her horse and donkeys didn't survive a gopher invasion).  Great big heads of delicious kale, assorted lettuces and arugula for greens, Broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, fava beans... the list goes on.  We even put in three types of garlic, leeks, shallots and two kinds of onions to make sure we'd have some "spice" in our winter diets.  

What fun this has been!  It's been a wonderful experience working side by side with Dave.  Learning about the different crops and their seasons here in California and trying to figure out how to outsmart those darn gophers (didn't Bill Murray finally resort to dynamite in Caddyshack?)

Not only did it add sustenance to our diets, it really strengthened our relationship.  We love to work with one another on projects like this.  We're gearing up to start our back-yard garden now.  I'm starting seeds for about 25 different veggies and herbs today.  Dave's been preparing the soil in the raised beds on our tiny terrace.  Ten heirloom tomato plants are winging their way to us via US Mail for arrival next week.  This should be interesting.

Don't be surprised if you get a can of tomato sauce from us for Christmas again this year. :-)