winter solstice
On the darkest day of the year, I have to admit that I have gone South. Sat., Dec. 22, 2007, 1:08 A.M. EST (06:08 UT), marks the solstice—the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. I am now almost midway between Boston and the equator in Naples Florida, visiting my parents for Christmas. Quite a contrast in weather and sunlight. 40 degrees warmer, almost two hours more sunlight and NO SNOW! Boston, Massachusetts latitude N42.3, daylight 7:10am-4:15pmNaples, Florida latitude N26.1, daylight 7:11am-5:41pm Below are…
planning for next year
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Since we are snowed-in tonight, I am starting to plan my garden for next year. This is a list of what I planted from seed this year and how it did. Also, whether I would like to plant the crop again next year and in which garden. I also was very lucky to hear from Gretta Anderson, the farmer at our local CSA, of her favorite varieties this year. (Thanks!) These are Gretta’s favorites:lettuce – summer crisp/batavian is the only thing that grows in the heat of summer, tastes great…
more snow!!!
Well, its starting out to be a wild winter. Last year we had almost no snow. In fact, snow before Christmas is fairly infrequent near Boston. The map below shows the frequency of snow depths in the US of at least 1 inch on December 25th.In the Boston area, its less than a 50-50 chance that we’ll have snow on Christmas Day. So far this year we’ve had lots of ice and snow. The storm today gave us about 10 inches! That’s on top of last week’s 3 inches. And…
Google broccoli
I couldn’t resist comparing the new Google image of my neighborhood with a nice brassica crop. The new satellite images were taken early in 2007, probably March it looks like to me. Definitely early in the morning – about 7 am. My vegetable garden is that big dark shady spot to the west of the largest head of broccoli. This really makes me look forward to my new sunny community garden plot!! Brassicaceae
Belmont CSA mid-winter veggies
Its getting pretty cold for northern vegetable gardens. But, even under several inches of snow, there are veggies growing. Skippy and I took a walk over to the Belmont CSA garden, a mile from our house and grown by Gretta Anderson.I wish I had such beautiful vegetables. She has very nice heads of broccoli – probably her second harvest of this row. I planted mine too late this year and will remember that next year. This broccoli hardly seems to notice the snow. I’m not sure what’s under the row…
super kale soup
I planted this kale early last spring. It was bitter when tasted it in September. Not now. It made one of the best bowls of soup I’ve ever had. We’ve had several good cold nights now, which helps improve the flavor of kale. Today, at 25F, as our first serious snow started to fall, I picked a big bunch. Since I also had some nice dried beans from my summer garden, I opened my Portuguese kale soup recipe. Back in September and October, when these beans ripened, I didn’t have…
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy
weeks and counting until my last spring frost
My garden this week
Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!
