Fresh Local Food in January?

When we got snow last month, it had been warm right up until the day it snowed.  And when it snowed a few inches all in one night, the ground underneath stayed soft because of snow being an insulator.  The bare spots where the wind swept through froze solid, but everything blanketed in ankle-deep snow stayed protected from freezing.

Then, we warmed up again.  And the snow melted.  I realized I had never mulched the garlic I planted in the fall, so I figured this warm spell was a perfect chance to go out to the garden and get that done before we had a real freeze that would heave those garlic bulbs right out of the ground, wrecking my chances for a good crop in 2013.

This weekend, I got my garlic mulched finally.  I finally got the grape vines weeded too.  Somehow I always end up neglecting my grape vines late in the season.  Maybe that's why they haven't done much for me so far.

While I was out there, I also pulled some of the tall dead weeds that hadn't been taken care of at the end of the gardening season. The ones that were just standing around making things look bad. In my weed removal efforts, I discovered several green and growing things in my garden--in January!!

                      

a lettuce seedling sprouting where some of the summer's lettuce had bolted and gone to seed

spinach looking better in January than it had in the fall

 (I harvested some and we ate it for dinner on Saturday)

kale that definitely didn't care that the calendar says 'winter'

There are still rutabagas holding out in the garden, and turnips in the feed plot we planted out in the woods.  We might be months off from having juicy red tomatoes or sweet, toothsome ears of corn, but we're still eating fresh and locally grown food in January at this little place here.

Saturday night it rained, and most of Sunday it did too.  Now, on Sunday night, we are getting a fresh coat of snow.  More insulation for the green and growing things!