Monday, November 12, 2007

Last harvest

The easiest way to get at the sprouts is to tip the plant over and rip the leaves off.


Here you can see the sprouts up close -- they are very tricky to snap off the plant at times!


Here is Roxy, grinning at the me from where the tomato plants used to be -- she's excited about all the leftovers. YUCK!


Not everything is dead in my garden! I still have French Taragon, Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary .... and check out the size of my Mint! Considering the current cost of fresh mint in the supermarket, I figure this bush is worth a couple hundred dollars! Now I just need to get off my butt and cut, dry and crush it!

After spending a busy afternoon yesterday sorting out the kids' upstairs closets (Asher's closet, in Gabe's room, which used to be our backup storage closet, is now emptied and ready for the little man's clothes! Yahoo! This was a HERCULEAN task!) I decided to tackle the garden. The plants were all brown, withered versions of their former selves, which always makes me kind of sad -- so I tend to put this task off at the end of the season. But the Brussels sprouts needed a final harvest, so Gabriel and I went outside into the chilly afternoon -- a perfect, cloudy, cold fall day! Now Brussels sprouts might sound gross to some, but I LOOOOVE the ones that we grow! First of all, they are smaller (therefore, sweeter) ... mini versions of the large ones you buy in the store. Second, they are fresh. Third, they are marvelous when chopped all up and sauteed with some butter and salt. YUM! I spent over an hour bent over, pulling these little buggers off the plants yesterday -- it's pretty rough on your back and your fingers, but I had a huge bowl to show for my efforts when I was done. I still have four plants to go, but I'll get around to that sometime today! Afterwards, Gabe helped me rip out the dead tomatoe plants, eggplants, cabbage and sunflowers. And of course, Roxy had fun chewing on the dead veggies and brown plants. Ewwwww.

4 comments:

+gmjameson said...

We must be getting old because suddenly I, too really like Brussels sprouts! I have a tremendously tremendous recipe for them from Momma Miller (Krista) and will have to put that on the family recipe site.

Roxy made me laugh! What a pooch she is!

I dried eucalyptus and am waiting for the rain to stop so I can bring in the lavender and rosemary, oregano and chamomile (have you ever grown chamomile? I have no idea what to do with it but good grief it smells divine!)

Love you!

DawnK said...

Sounds like you had a great garden! We need to see if we can salvage any of our basil. Your mint plant looks quite happy yet.

We grew some Gaillardia Fanfare this year and those flowers survived the frost. They are STILL blooming. Look them up. They are cool-looking flowers.

C Staude said...

You may be able to dig up a small part of each of your spices and put them into pots in your front window for having fresh through the winter. Then in the spring, you could replant them into your garden. Also, you can freeze the sprouts... you'd have to blanch em... (quick dip in boiling water - check a cookbook for times) then pop em into freezer bags and enjoy them this winter!

Your garden was fantastic this year!

I also have a great recipe for frozen pesto cubes.... you make the pesto and spoon it in tablespoon amounts into an ice cube tray. Pop it out and into a freezer bag... instant pesto to toss into soups, pasta, stir fry - whatever! It works great!

Have fun! and yes, your Roxy is a HOOT!

marzi said...

have you ever pickled the sprouts? i grew up on them and loved them. if you're a pickle person, you have to try it. haven't had them in forever, but i could eat a whole jar!