December Update

Today I want to share a few of the things that are going on here this December. I’m still bringing in a few harvests, cutting greens and herbs as needed. The winter planting of lettuce in the greenhouse is beginning to size up nicely, and I made the first cutting this week for a salad. The red varieties don’t always color up as well in winter, but both the red and green types have tender leaves and a mild flavor. I have it growing both in salad boxes and in the greenhouse bed, and hopefully they will keep us supplied during the winter months into early spring.

lettuce growing in salad boxes

lettuce for salad

We have been enjoying our crop of sweet potatoes at every opportunity now that they have cured and are ready for eating. I used small roots from Purple, Korean Purple and Beauregard to turn into a batch of Sweet Potatoes Pommes Anna we had for dinner one night. The sweet potatoes get crispy around the edges and tender in the middle, and this dish always seems to steal the show whenever I make it! I use my mother’s ancient cast iron skillet for this dish, which is just the right size for it. I am thinking she would have enjoyed the sweet potatoes as well.

Sweet Potatoes Pommes Anna in cast iron skillet

Speaking of family, my wife and I enjoyed a belated Thanksgiving last week with our friends Steve and Sharon in Alabama. Steve was married to (and divorced from) my wife’s sister many years ago, and after her sister’s passing this summer she reached out to him to share the news. We got along quite well with them on our first visit, and decided to go back again for another visit. They had several friends join us for our ‘2nd Thanksgiving’ feast, and it made for quite an enjoyable time for me.

Thanksgiving table

Steve is a woodworker and gardener, among other things, and he and I worked on several pieces of wood while I was there. One is a piece of cedar he cut from their property, and we ‘etched’ it for me to bring home and turn into a base for a towel rack and toilet paper holder in our guest bathroom.

etched cedar with raw edges

We did seven pieces in all, which should keep me busy finishing them all. We used several types of wood, including red oak, maple, koa and birch along with the red cedar. Some will get turned into art pieces, a couple into clocks, and others into who knows what!

etched pieces in shop

etched red oak

I cut some collards to take with us to Alabama, and we had them for our Thanksgiving dinner. They cooked up tender and sweet, and we finished up the leftovers the next day. I’ll be cutting some more for us this weekend to cook up for a side dish.

collards in garden

I’ll close with an photo I got one afternoon this week at sunset. The sky was lit up red in all directions, and all I had to do was stick my DSLR out the back door to capture the image – no filtering needed!

sunset at Happy Acres

That’s an update of what’s been going on here in December, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!