Lemons and Some Rough Math

I'm not a big numbers guy, but I'm excited about this year's pending lemon harvest.  I bought my little potted lemon plant two years ago for $15.99.  The first year I harvested 5 lemons.  Then the plant grew a little bit.  This year I've got 14 on the tree.  Organic lemons sell for $0.99 at the local grocery store.  19 lemons x $0.99 = $18.81.  I figure I've spent approximately the positive difference of $2.82 on water and fertilizer since I bought the lemon.  So by my rough estimate this little tree just paid for itself.

I'm already looking forward to the smell of citrus blossoms, more growth, and more lemons next year.

Beets are Good Eats

Chioggia Beets.

Back in August I planted two short rows of Chioggia beets, an Italian heirloom that has a striped interior rather than the traditional beet red color.   I tried growing beets 2 years ago and only succeeded in growing greens with small roots, so this was my second attempt.  After some soil preparation I planted the seeds in 4-foot rows and kept them watered very well.  It wasn't very long before the seeds had germinated and I had greens reaching for the sun (and hopefully roots reaching for nutrients).  I kept a close eye on them and sure enough -- my plants actually looked like beets!

I decided to harvest them today because my taste buds ordered me to do it.  Based upon what I saw on top of the soil I figured I was in good shape.  But once I started harvesting them I noticed dozens of hairy roots all over the beets.  This was not what I was expecting.

Hairy Chioggia Beets.

I started to get sweaty and nervous as each beet I pulled yielded the same results.  Masses of hairy roots.  I decided to put my fear aside and harvest them all, let the taste of the beets do the talking.  After rinsing them, cutting and saving the greens for tomorrow, and slicing them open, I was quite pleased.  The interior revealed the classic swirl-like (some say bull's eye) pattern that makes the Chioggia so unique.

Quartered beets on a baking pan.

My wife also added some freshly picked carrots, garlic cloves, olive oil, oregano, thyme, toasted walnuts, and salt and roasted them in the oven.  She topped off her bowl with chevre, and I opted to keep mine plain.  Goat cheese is a bit too goaty for me.

The final product.

The roasted beets and carrots were good eats for sure.  I'd definitely consider it a successful crop this season.  But I'm still wondering why my beets didn't look like what I expected them to look like.  Guess that means I need to hit the books and read more about soil preparation, watering, etc.  But as I always say, the most valuable information comes from actually attempting to grow things in the first place.  You'll never know if you don't try.

First Frost

I woke up this morning to find a hard frost on the ground, the first frost of the year in Newport News.  I've been expecting it, but for some reason was surprised to see it through my bleary, tired eyes.  The air was crisp, and so were my veggies!  Fortunately most of my plants are hardy and tolerate frost quite well, which is a major reason I planted them.

Frosty head of Winter Density lettuce.

This Winter Density lettuce head was very frosty.  If you look closely, you can see where the dew initially beaded up on the surface and then froze when the temperature dropped.

My carrots held up well.  The roots seemed unfazed as I walked around the garden in my slippers, but the weight of the frost caused the carrot tops to bend down at an awkward angle.  This isn't overly important because the roots themselves are what I plan on eating (even though you can eat immature carrot greens).

Carrot tops, a bit on the chilled side of things.

My bed of kale was indeed happy to feel the freeze.  Kale often benefits from a frost or two, and I'm hoping to make some kale soup later this week.  Here is a pic of a kale plant with ribbons of frost tucked into the deeply ruffled leaves.

Crispy Kale.

Surprisingly my potted citrus plants, which I left outside all night and are still loaded with limes and lemons, were not covered in any frost.  I attribute this to the fact that they are positioned significantly closer to the house, which unfortunately is as well insulated as a hairless dog, and leaks heat to the outdoors.

My poorly insulated hairless dog, bathing in the sun to soak up heat.

I haven't had a chance to see how everything else in the yard tolerated the frost because it was already dark when I got home from work (a major bummer of the late months of the year).  But I'll likely post again sometime in the next few days with an update.