For many, the growing season is over. Chilling nights and multiple frosts have done in even the most hearty of vegetables. My harvests are either drying (herbs and flower seed heads), frozen (tomatoes), or put up (blackberry/beach plum jam). But I am able to still pull fresh greens from the garden every day. And with any luck, it should continue into the new year.
All of my current greens were started in late August and put into their respective cold frames in September. I have had great success using Fedco’s Winter Lettuce mix consisting of Winter Wonderland, Red Tinged Winter Lettuce, Tango Cutting Lettuce, Cardinale, North Pole, Winter Marvel, Hyper Red Rumple Waved Lettuce. I also put in separate seedlings of Claytonia, Verte de Cambrai Mâche, and transplanted a few Afina cutting celery.
These greens stopped “growing” a month or so ago, but they are now in stasis, fresh as can be. Lifting one of the cold-frame panes, a rush of warm, fragrant air emerges. The heat of the sun warms the space during the day, and the thermal mass of the wall behind it keeps the area warm.
Before it gets too cold, I carefully select the leaves for tonight’s salad. Picking each leaf individually, I can’t help but snack on a few. Summer may be over but the flavorful harvests are not.
