beets!

A couple days ago, we harvested our first crop of beets:

This was our second attempt at growing beets, and we were happy to get a crop this time. After planting some last August, we tried again in February. It's amazing how important it is to plant crops during the recommended season.

We have also learned, and this really goes without saying, to plant only the food you will actually eat. We are fans of greens (arugula, spinach, kale, lettuce, collards, etc) and we planted a bunch in February. It seems that we can't eat them fast enough, and I'm just glad that only about half of what we planted actually came up.

"winter" crops

My dad grew up on a farm in rural Minnesota. His sister lives on a farm with her family, though I do not know the extent to which they farm anymore. One day, years ago, she told us a story about how long it took my uncle to go out and feed the pigs. Apparently, it takes him quite some time to do this chore. Then one day, my cousin fed the pigs instead and it took him a fraction of the time that it takes my uncle. My aunt asked him why, and he said it's because when he goes out to feed the pigs, he feeds the pigs. He doesn't walk around and talk to each one of them.

When my aunt told us this story, it was pretty funny (I guess you had to be there, or perhaps, I'm remembering it as more funny than it really was). But I understand what it was like for my uncle. You see, Drew can water the garden in a fraction of the time it takes me. When he waters the garden, he just waters the garden. When I water the garden, I walk around and look at all our plants, checking each one out. Sometimes, I even walk around and look at our neighbors' garden plots.

At the beginning of February, Drew and I planted out winter crops- carrots, onions, beets, swiss chard, broccoli, kale, lettuce, spinach, spinach mustard, beans, arugula, and collard greens. Some of what we've planted has come up, like the broccoli, spinach, spinach mustard, beets, kale, arugula, and carrots. Some is slow to come up- collards and spinach. And some are stubborn and have refused to come up- beans, onions, lettuce, and swiss chard. We can't be too disappointed though; our garden has been good to us.

Tonight we harvested the kale and the spinach mustard for a lasagna that is in the oven as I blog (it smells delicious in case you're wondering). We also harvested some fabulous arugula for sandwiches for tomorrow.

Here's the spinach mustard:

And the kale:
An aerial view:
And another view: