4th week of November 2009

Broccoli We've come to the week of Thanksgiving. There is certainly much to be thankful for in this season - healthy children, a generous harvest and God's many provisions. Due to a very mild November, we can also be thankful for extended harvest in the garden. This bowl of broccoli was picked from a row of spring broccoli that kept sending out side shoots all season. The lemon calendula flowers are still blooming beautifully and even provided a bouquet for the Thanksgiving table. Also pictured is the fresh picked salad that we enjoyed for our feast. It contained Winter Density lettuce, arugula, mizuna, mache, spinach, chervil, sorrel along with radishes and pea blossoms, calendula petals, borage and a few stray nasturtiums. There are still other goodies left out in the garden that we will continue to harvest till the temperatures dip to the mid 20's - cabbage, kale, turnips, carrots and others. Then we'll rely on the coldframes to keep us in greens for the winter.

Thanksgiving The Holiday Market at Local Roots, the new indoor farmers market in Wooster, was a big hit. There were 42 vendors that day and a generous crowd of shoppers. The homemeade paper cards and my cold framing DVDs were the top sellers at my booth. I'll be gathering more things to take along for the December 5 market at Local Roots plus I volunteered to do children's activities that day. My plan is to give the young shoppers some farm fun by letting them churn butter, play with worms and make corn husk dolls. It's exciting to see a local foods outlet like this get off to a grand start. You can learn more about them at Local Roots website.

With garden activity coming to a close, I am starting on some much neglected housecleaning and we are getting our house winterized. The cows will be coming off the main pasture and into the barn for the winter next week. Our energies will be turning to indoor things like our homeschool schedule, computer tasks and music lessons. Over the winter months you can look for a monthly garden journal to update you on what's happening and what we are planning for the coming year. A seed catalogue arrived just before Thanksgiving but I'm not sure I'm quite in the mood to check it out just yet.