Henny Penny Farmette

This year I planted a winter garden. I’m growing most of my vegetables in cold frames.

Snow peas seem to thrive with the protection of a cold frame

When the water outside is frozen and the grass and rooftops glisten with frost, it’s a thrill to see lush green vegetables growing under glass in my garden.

Bok choy growing in my cold frame

Vegetables like spinach, broccoli, French breakfast radishes, bok choy, and sugar snap peas are thriving where they’ve been planted in good soil under a cold frame.

Cold frames are easy to construct. Basically, they are transparent covers over a prepared bed of soil. Mine are made of old, salvaged windows that crank open and are mounted atop some of our four-by-six-foot raised beds. Cold frames protect against rain, wind, ice, and snow. The frames can even protect somewhat against infestation by common pests.

Lush, leafy tops of beets suggest the color of the root bulking out beneath the soil

It’s important to provide ventilation by opening the cold frame on warm days. Under glass, the heat intensifies and could burn your tender plants. When night-time temps plunge, keep the cold frame closed. You can pile further insulation against the frames using bales of straw or hay or bags of raked leaves.

Inside these protected glass spaces this time of year (in deep December), a variety of cool-season crops can be cultivated. Consider planting seedlings of green leafy plants like kale, mustard greens, cabbages, turnips, radishes, carrots, beets, lettuces, broccoli, and onions.

Plant red, yellow, or white onions in the fall for spring harvesting

Our farmette is located in Zone 15. We live in a sheltered valley inland from the San Francisco Bay and east of the Berkeley hills. We get really hot summers with temperatures that climb into triple digits. In winter, we get frost and freezes and more rarely a dusting of snow.

Long after other gardeners in our area have put away their trowels and shovels, I’m still at it. Gardening puts food on the table. When we are quarantining ourselves from others, we can focus on our passion for gardening and grow cool-season crops in late fall, early spring, and, yes, even in winter with the help of a cold frame or two.

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My summer garden is wild and chaotic and bountiful at the beginning of the season. You’ll find fruit trees, vegetables, vines of melons, corn, and perennial lavender and other showy herbs and flowers. Like a grand dame of faded elegance, the garden has matured and looks a bit weary and spent now that Labor Day approaches.

Just because the peak growing season is coming to an end, it’s not the end of garden chores. The following tasks can be started now.

HARVEST AND STORE

Heirloom butternut squash and sugar pumpkins

For some crops, the harvesting goes on. Examples include tomatoes, potatoes, melons, and winter squashes like Butternut that store well. If you haven’t already harvested the garlic, it’s a good time to do that.

Cut sunflower seed heads and place them in a warm area to dry.  Collect seeds from cosmos, nasturtiums, and other flowers to preserve for next year’s garden. Work out storage options, especially for food items to be harvested.

Snip summer table grapes and other varieties if they are ripe . . . or let them hang a while longer for extra sweetness.

These Merlot grapes will turn deep purple and taste quite sweet when ripe

CLEAR BEDS

Depleted, dying, or dried annuals can be dug, pulled, and composted now. If you plan to let the garden rest, plant a cover crop so the ground doesn’t become hard scrabble. The cover crop will feed the soil.

DO FALL PLANTING

If you intend to do a fall planting, take time now to enrich the earth with amendments. Turn and rake the garden soil. Put plants directly into the prepared earth and water well to get them off to a good start.

Lettuce and other greens  are easily grown in raised beds

For quick second crop before the weather turns cold, plant greens such as spinach, kale, and arugula. Cool season crops like beets, broccoli, and cabbage can go directly into the ground now, too.

CUT FLOWER AND SEED HEADS

Cut flower heads of hydrangeas for drying. Insert plant markers near peonies and other perennials that will die completely back during winter. Gather bunches of mint and other herbs, tie with string, an hang in a cool, dark place to dry.

CREATE MULCH

Designate an area to create a new compost pile. Use garden detritus and fall leaves as the trees begin to drop their canopies to enter winter dormancy. The resulting mulch will enrich the soil for next year’s garden.

Store onions in burlap bags; pomegranates keep in the refrigerator for up a month

CHECK ON FALL PRODUCE

Pomegranates, persimmons, and pumpkins will soon be ripening. Ensure that these plants continue to get water. Check for pests and any signs that might indicate nutrient deficiencies that could show up in the leaves. Figure out your options for storing or gifting excess fruits and veggies. For example, pomegranates keep well in the fridge or remove the seeds and put into bags for freezing. Save  and dry rinds for potpourri.

TURN THE SOIL IN GROW BOXES

Aerate and amend soil in grow boxes and raised beds for cool season crops. Do these chores before the rainy season and cool weather arrives. Your garden, like a young maiden who flourishes from attention, will produce bountiful vegetables, fruits, berries, and flowers during its next growing season.

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If you enjoy reading about farmette topics, gardening, and keeping chickens and honeybees, check out my series of cozy mysteries from Kensington Publishing in New York.

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The cool season of spring is the optimum time to grow seasonal greens for salads and healthy blended shakes. In my kitchen garden, I’ve planted a variety of lettuces, spinach, kale, and chard. Most salad greens are easy to grow also in containers, raised beds, and window boxes when gardening space is limited.

The newly planted Swiss chard shown here is a valuable source of Vitamins A, C, and K

Add compost and aged chicken manure to enrich the soil with nitrogen. Plant heirloom seeds about 1/2 inch in the soil, cover, and water. Within a week or 10 days, you should see the seedlings pop up. The greens will be ready to pick in about 25 days.

Water the plants to keep them hydrated but don’t drown the plants. When you are ready to make a salad, snip the leaves you want with kitchen scissors. New leaves will soon form if the roots are not disturbed and the plant continues to get nutrients and water.

Spinach can be started in seed cell flats and then transplanted into your garden when all danger of frost has passed

SALAD OF FRESH GREENS

1. Snip a variety of greens in the early morning. Wash and thoroughly dry the leaves.

2. Place them in a bowl and crumble on some sharp cheese such as your favorite goat cheese or a Gargonzola (blue-veined, sharp tasting, and crumbly).

3.  Add 1/2 cup sugared or candied walnuts.

4. Add some slice red onion and a handful of dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots.

5. Drop into the bowl some slices of a pear such as Bosc (considered the prince of pears).

6. Gently toss the salad and then spritz with red wine vinaigrette prior to plating on pretty salad serving dishes.

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Nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, and berries are not difficult to grow. Some can even be grown in containers on a sunny patio. My favorite superfoods include blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries as well as artichokes, assorted leafy greens, and figs. But in general, superfoods are those foods rich in nutrients, vitamins, fiber, antioxidants, and/or omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

The dark purplish color is characteristic of the brown turkey fig, and this tree needs a lot of space in the garden

On the farmette, I’ve planted several fig trees that are semi-dwarf and include White Genoa, Brown Turkey, and Mission varieties. These  trees produce two crops each year–one in spring and the other in the fall. The fruits can be dried or eaten fresh and contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and phenol for the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease.

I’ve planted raised beds of strawberries, including Albion, a variety that produces berries from June to October, and Sequoia, a dependable berry that produces fruit from June to early frost.

In half barrels, I’ve amended soil and planted thornless raspberries and blackberries. I like growing them in containers with trellis support because otherwise they spread all over any area of the garden where they’re planted.

Artichokes are lovely plants with gray-green foliage but need a lot of space

We planted one artichoke a couple of years ago. It dies back in late fall only to return in the spring as a new plant with shoots containing the small chokes. Artichokes are low in calories and aid in the lowering of cholesterol because of specific compounds found in the edible parts of the plant.

Early in the spring when I put in my sweet garden peas, I also plant leafy greens such as kale, collards, lettuces, and spinach. Some of these come back the next year after their growing season is over.

Pink unripe blackberries will turn dark purplish-black when ripe

Blueberries are easy to grow when you remember to plant them in acid soil. These berries are considered a superior brain food. They are low in calories (84 calories per cup) and provide about 24 percent of the suggested daily amount of Vitamin C that the body needs.

Except for the fig trees and the artichokes that do better in areas of the garden where they have plenty of space to spread, the other nutrient-rich foods mentioned can all be planted and raised in containers. It’s so easy to grow most of these plants, why not give it a try.

Pomegranate seeds add sweetness and crunch to salads but can eaten fresh, or you can extract the juice to make a lovely sauce.

Use fresh pomegranate juice if you would like a delicious sauce to use in salad dressing or other culinary creations. Pomegranate sauce made into a warm salad dressing dresses up a plain spinach salad like nothing else.

The warm pomegranate dressing is made by combining to blend 1/2 cup pomegranate sauce (recipe below), 1 Tablespoon of honey, 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger, 1 cup California extra-virgin olive oil, and 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts. Warm the dressing and pour over over a pound of freshly washed spinach leaves, 1/2 cup red onion, and 1 orange (peeled, seeded and with segments quartered).

Here’s how to make and preserve the pomegranate sauce.

INGREDIENTS:

5 cups of pomegranate juice (reamed from about 10 large fruits)

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Wash thoroughly ten large pomegranates.

Cut in half and use a reamer to extract the juice from the seeds, discarding the membrane.

Strain the juice through cheesecloth several times to obtain 5 cups.

Combine the juice, lemon, and sugar in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.

Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and simmer at 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Reduce the sauce by half.

PROCESS:

Have ready 4 half-pint jam jars that have been washed on a hot cycle in the dishwasher and dried.

Fill the canner with water, place on heat, and bring to a simmer.

Simmer jar lids and rings.

Fill the jars with the pomegranate sauce, leaving 1/4 inch head space.

Affix hot lids to the jars and screw on the rings.

Lower the jars on the rack into the canner (water must cover the jars by at least an inch) and boil the water for 10 minutes.

Remove the jars of sauce and allow to cool.

Check seals, label, and then store until needed.

For more delicious recipes, farming tips, and beekeeping strategies as well as a cozy mystery, check out the first book in the Henny Penny Farmette series from Kensington Books in New York. Available on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and in other online and traditional bookstores everywhere.

If you love the cool season plants like lettuce, spinach, kale, onions, leeks, sugar snap peas, and artichokes, Valentine’s Day weekend is the time to start planting cool season crops in the Bay Area and other warmer climates.

When the early blooming varieties of apples break bud, it’s time to think cool season planting

I put in onions throughout the cool season and am rewarded with burlap bags of red onions, yellow, white, and the walla walla variety for kitchen soups and other culinary creations during the first months of the year.

My husband is building more growing boxes (4 x 4 x 3) in which we shovel amended soil, some planting mix, bone meal, blood meal, compost, and chicken manure. The soil will grow almost anything.

This is the time to also tuck some herbs in a pot for use in the kitchen

This weekend, we’re moving a couple of citrus trees and three rose bushes. I’ll feed and water and watch for the new shoots to show within a week or two if the weather stays warm. So, you see, Valentine’s Day isn’t just for lovers but also people who love to garden.

French sugar pumpkins are small to mid-size–perfect for pies

This time of year the French sugar pumpkins, persimmons and pomegranates are ready to harvest and that means it’s also time to plant cool season crops.

My summer onions formed large bulbs that I have already harvested; it’s time to replace them with bunching onions

Yesterday I turned the dirt in one of my large planting boxes, added in some aged manure and other soil amendments, and planted  red and yellow onions for soups and salads during the fall and winter. I harvested seed from my summer onions and during the winter months will grow the seed in flats for spring planting.

The cool days ahead are perfect soup days and that means carrots, fennel, cilantro, cauliflower, potatoes, and bok choy will also find a place in my fall and winter garden.

In other raised beds and boxes, I’m planting heirloom lettuces, radishes, and spinach. These traditional salad ingredients are best grown during the fall or early spring as hot weather tends to make them bolt.

The lettuces are already easy to grow in boxes with good soil

The pumpkins are ready for pie-making and Halloween carving. The persimmons are perfect for custards or for eating fresh when absolutely ripe (otherwise, the fruits are so tart they will make you pucker). And those lovely red pomegranate seeds are delicious eaten raw or tossed into salads.

For a list of Northern California cool seasons vegetables, check out Sunset Magazine’s edible gardening guide at http://www.sunset.com/garden/garden-basics/cool-season-crops-00400000042441/. If you plant to purchase seed f0r your own cool season garden, I urge you to choose non-genetically modified  and open-pollinated seeds so that you can harvest.