Hearty root vegetables
Although growing season is over, that doesn’t mean we still can’t enjoy yummy vegetables from the garden. In fact, the stir fry I made this week has ALL fresh veggies from the garden - parsnips, carrots, beet greens, rutabaga, summer squash, and celery. We’ve only had our second frost of the season this week, so we’re blessed this year with a mild fall.
Our family enjoys growing something new in the garden every year. One new veggie this year my daughter picked out - purple carrots. They surprisingly grew quite well and were even easier to clean up than the rest of our ordinary orange carrots. Perhaps a new annual crop?
The late frost was especially nice as a gardener so we could leisurely pick peppers, green onions, greens, herbs, tomatoes, celery, etc. Far better than the years I would have to spend hours harvesting immature veggies only to sit ripening in the basement for weeks (we’ve eaten tomatoes into December) and/or frantically covering / uncovering plants every couple of days.
But even with the frost, there’s always still plenty in our garden. In fact, this is our chance to finally eat a few items that we’ve been tending all summer. That’s because some veggies such as parsnips and Brussel sprouts get better after the frost!
Almost every parsnip I’ve pulled out this year is a conversation piece. (My husband admits that self sowing the seeds many be the culprit.) Each gnarled root resembles the fingers on ginseng roots rather than a single taproot parsnips traditionally grow. My grandma would always take the nicest ones and preserve them in a jar to showcase. If only she would see these parsnips!
With our family still gathering produce from the garden, I’ll share in an upcoming post more about Brussel sprouts - which not only get better after the first frost. but are the first seeds we plant in early March.
Many people have had a bad experience with Brussel sprouts, but have you ever had them prepared the “right” way? Check back in to find out more!