Roasting sweet potatoes

 They are almost too pretty to eat!

Germination testing

It's seed germination testing time.

Any seed we want to carry over from last year or was saved by us last year, gets germ tested.

Seeds get laid on old cloth diapers in numbered rows, then another diaper is put on top. We keep them warm and moist.

Within 4-6 days the seeds have germinated enough for us to decide if they are healthy enough to use this growing season.

 

Eating local in the winter

  There's really nothing to even scavenge in the garden these days.  The extreme cold a couple weeks ago put an end to everything except for the remaining carrots that got a foot thick blanket of hay.  Some years we still have some fresh greens mid-winter, but some years, like this, there is nothing to be found.  

  Cold weather or not, one can still eat local all winter long.  It just takes some planning ahead.  Canning, freezing, dehydrating, and root cellaring can provide a constant supply of a wide variety of things to eat.

  Here's an okra dish we made recently with all dried vegetables: okra, tomatoes, onions and powdered garlic scapes.  We added some water then cooked it a short time in a pressure cooker.

 

Sweet potato tastings

 We've been doing some family sweet potato tastings now that the sweet potatoes have fully cured. If you'd like to do your own tastings, try our sweet potato sampler bag which includes at least 8 varieties. It's an easy way to explore the range of tastes, textures and colors sweet potatoes come in.

Small sweet potatoes

   Our normal way to cook sweet potatoes is to bake them directly on the oven racks.  The skin blisters just enough for easy peeling. 
  But this doesn't work so well for the smallest of the sweet potatoes; it is tricky to keep them from falling through the racks and their small size makes it hard not to overbake them. 
  So our favorite way to enjoy baby sweet potatoes is coat them with butter and salt and put them on a baking tray to roast.  We then eat them, skin and all.

CSA share

Sweet potatoes, Chinese cabbage, turnips, scallions, snacking peppers, peppers, carrots, lettuce mix

 

Yacons

  What can you eat raw that's crunchy and sweet mid-winter?  Yacons.  

  A friend gave us starts to these South American tubers years ago and they've been a family favorite since. 
  We mostly eat the yacons raw, simply peeled and sliced.  They are a great snack.  We've also grate them onto salads or combine them with grated carrots and a sweet salad dressing.
  They are also a low maintenance crop.  After the last chance of frost in late spring, we roll out a round bale of mulch hay over the length of the row we are going to plant into, creating a thick weed free and moisture holding layer.  We then set the transplants 3 ft. apart.  Then we simply let them grow. 
  By fall they have grown to large bushes, about 4 feet tall and touching each other.  We let them frost a few times then dig them.  Unlike digging potatoes, you need to be very careful as the tubers are brittle.  We slice the ground in a circle around each plant then lift out the plant.  The part just below the soil is the propagation part.  These we trim then store in slightly moistened sawdust in a building that doesn't freeze for the winter.  Come spring, we break the propagation part into pieces then start in pots in the cold frame.  Underneath the propagation part when digging, is the edible tubers.  Some are skinny as a finger.  Others are bigger than a hand.  We bring some into the house right away to cure for a couple weeks.  When the skin looks a bit wrinkly, they are ready to eat.  The others we store in the freeze free outbuilding and bring in the house to cure as needed.