Febuary 4, 2013

Lindsay:


For the past several days, we have been enjoying a break from the cold and moist weather we had been experiencing since the middle of December. Now, most of the snow has melted, except for in the deep shadows of a hill or forest canopy. Mud has replaced the snow and ice, the winter boots exchanged for the muck boots. The hens are out foraging on the newly exposed earth, the yolks of their eggs bright in the morning frying pan, now more orange than yellow with the added carotin of the fresher diet.

February Evening Glow

The melted snow has also exposed the garden with its winter crop of root vegetables patiently awaiting harvest from the cool, soft earth. On a sunny afternoon this weekend, I harvested 3 gallons of carrots and parsnips.

I was very pleased to see that some of the parsnips were really rather large, extending almost 2 feet in length and with good thick roots. Similarly, the carrots grew to a good size. While some thin, small or oddly shaped root vegetables are somewhat inevitable in a home garden, a bigger is not necessarily better, the length, thickness and shape of the roots do indicate something about soil quality and growing conditions.

Part of the harvest
(the board is 10" wide)

For example, length tells us about the degree of soil compaction at different depths, thickness tells us about competition and planting density, and shape tells us about the degree of homogeneity in the soil environment (e.g are there a lot of rocks the roots have to grow around? clumps of clay that the roots cannot penetrate? etc).

These roots were all seeded in the spring, grew over the summer and left in the ground until harvested. Since the parsnip and carrot grows fully underground, it is protected by the thermal mass of the soil itself against hard freezes. In contrast, beets grow partially above the surface of the soil and so while they can survive light freezes, my experience is that they will become mush after a deep freeze.

I'm looking forward to parnship-carrot latkes, fried in home-grown lard!