The calendar on the wall says that another year is coming to an end. I’m not really big on resolutions, and today finds me no more introspective than usual. I went for a nice walk this morning, enjoying the balmy (for December) weather. Rain and thunderstorms are headed our way later on. Hopefully 2010 doesn’t go out with TOO much of a bang!
After lunch I took care of a few gardening duties, and I started some planters of mache, which will hopefully give us some of the nutty tasting little leaves by early March. I had hoped to have some already going by now, but I ran out of planters, or so I thought. Earlier in the week I found two planters that had been hiding from me. I must have walked by them a dozen times without noticing them. They had been used for lettuce last spring.
Perhaps one goal for 2011 should be for me to be more organized – hah! I yam what I yam, as Popeye would say.
I also got the last harvest of the year today. I picked a big bucket of kale, which should give us plenty to eat for our New Year’s greens, as well as some for green smoothies. Today’s harvest was the Starbor and Savoy Cross varieties. I have to say to look at them you’d never know the leaves had been subjected to so much freezing weather, plus at least three rounds of snow and freezing rain.
kale harvest
All of the kale plants seem to be alive, though the Lacinato is struggling. With any luck we will have a nice flush of growth from the survivors next spring before the plants flower and go to seed.
Today’s harvest brings our yearly total to just under 900 pounds – 893.5 to be exact. This is the first time we’ve weighed all of our garden output for a whole year, so I have no idea how that might compare to other years. It doesn’t really matter, we’ve had plenty to eat ourselves and to share with others in 2010. So how could a year like that not be a good one? I can only hope that 2011 treats us so well.
I wish everyone out there a happy, healthy, and blessed New Year for 2011!
Happy New Year to you and your wife.
Yum! your harvest looks delicious!
happy new year!
Your kale looks great. Ours isn’t as developed as yours but come Spring, we’ll all be enjoying our greens!! Good for you getting some new seeds planted. I hope to do the same real soon. I did a flat of some violas the other day — just couldn’t stand not being in-the-dirt!
Hope you and Lynda have a nice New Years Eve!
Yes, it felt great to be ‘in the dirt’ today! It will likely be a quiet New Years Eve here. Which is not a bad thing!
The wind blew one of our cold frame tops all the way open and smashed it around so Jim had to clean up a lot of tempered glass out on the garden paths. Today there was a tornado just up the hwy from us about 25 miles.
Hope your coming year is healthy and happy! I have certainly enjoyed my visits here and resolve to stop by more often in the future!
I thought about y’all when I was listening to the news about the tornadoes. Glad to hear you are well, though not so good for the cold frame. I had one picked up top and bottom one time. I found it in pieces about 50 feet away from where it was originally sitting.
Wishing you all the best in 2011!
Happy New Year! The kale looks perfect, I could have used some yesterday for a butternut and white bean soup I was making. I ran out of kale, so had to substitute spinach, but it just wasn’t quite the same. Our Lacinato isn’t doing well either, it seems happier in spring than fall. By the way, love the new header photo, the greenhouse looks beautiful bedecked with snow!
Happy New Year! That kale looks awesome!
Congratulations on a great harvest and gardening year and I hope you have an excellent 2011. Your kale looks great. Also, we made a wonderful and very simple brown Irish soda bread the other day and I thought I would share the recipe link with you…it was a great bread and so easy to make. Brown Irish Soda Bread
Thanks Mike, I will check out that recipe!