Harvesting Vegetables from the Greenhouse
It's the day before Thanksgiving, and here at my Bedford, New York farm, everyone is busy getting ready.
Yesterday, we began gathering all the ingredients for my holiday feast, including harvesting vegetables from my indoor greenhouse - a special structure I created several years ago that was inspired by Eliot Coleman, an expert in four-season farming. My gardeners, Ryan and Brian, began planting in my vegetable greenhouse earlier this fall, and over the last few weeks, we’ve seen wonderful crops of beautiful organic produce emerge.
Enjoy these photos.
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- This greenhouse has 16 wooden garden boxes to fit the entire length and width of the space, so we are able to plant many crops. Raised bed gardening allows good drainage, prevents soil compaction, and provides protection for those plants that may otherwise get trampled. I am so happy to have this greenhouse where I can grow fresh, delicious vegetables during the cold months.
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- I asked Elvira to pick lots of beautiful carrots from the garden for our Thanksgiving feast. We planted two boxes filled with carrots.
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- Here is one ready to harvest. When picking carrots always be gentle. With some harder soils, it helps to loosen it first with a garden fork before pulling the carrots up. The beds in this greenhouse are constantly being tended, so the soil is soft and the carrots slide out pretty easily.
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- In just a few minutes, Elvira picked all these carrots. She picked both orange and yellow carrots – carrots also come in red, purple and white varieties.
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- Nearby is our bed of growing beets. These are the leaves of the beets. Beets are sweet and tender – and one of the healthiest foods. Beets contain a unique source of phytonutrients called betalains, which provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and detoxification support.
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- This is curly parsley. This comes from the same family as flat-leaf parsley, but curly parsley leaves are thicker and ruffled. Some also say its flavor is a bit stronger in curly parsley than in the flat-leaf varieties.
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- I also grow bok choy, one of the popular Asian greens. Asian greens include bok choy, mizuna and the mustards. Bok choy, pak choi or pok choi is a type of Chinese cabbage. Chinensis varieties do not form heads and have leaf blades with lighter bulbous bottoms. These grow so well inside the greenhouse. They come in bright green…
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- … And this red. This special variety has dark red leaves with green undersides.
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- And look at these beautiful lettuce heads. I have several boxes filled with just lettuce.
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- These lettuces are slightly more mature. We always plant in succession. Succession planting is a practice of seeding crops at intervals of seven to 21 days in order to maintain a consistent supply of harvestable produce throughout the season. This dramatically increases a garden’s yield, while also improving produce quality.
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- It’s a real treat to have lettuce like this all year long. I am often asked why I grow so many vegetables. My daughter and her children are vegetarian, so I grow lots of greens for them, but I also share them with friends, use them for television and photography shoots, and of course serve them when entertaining.
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- The gorgeous Swiss chard stalk colors can be seen from across the greenhouse. They are so vibrant with stems of red, pink, yellow, and white. Chard has very nutritious leaves making it a popular addition to healthful diets.
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- This Swiss Chard has more pinkish stalks. The most common method for picking is to cut off the outer leaves about two inches above the ground while they are young, tender, and about eight to 12 inches long.
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- I also grow a lot of spinach. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, and a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron and vitamin B2. We use a lot of spinach at the farm for my green juice – a must-have every morning of the year.
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- These are broccoli leaves. We just started growing broccoli indoors this year. They are all developing so beautifully. To grow broccoli successfully indoors, it must get at least six hours of direct sunlight per day or grow lights timed to provide the same amount of direct exposure. And they need room – each broccoli plant should be allowed at least a couple feet of overall space and six to 12 inches of soil depth.
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- Celery is part of the Apiaceae family, which includes carrots, parsnips, parsley, and celeriac. Its crunchy stalks make the vegetable a popular low-calorie snack with a range of health benefits.
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- The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, and mostly eaten raw as a crunchy salad vegetable. Long scarlet radishes like these have a straight, tapered shape, similar in appearance to a carrot with curved shoulders and a distinct point.
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- Also stored in this greenhouse is this grapefruit tree, which finally bore fruit!
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- Not far is a Star Fruit tree. Star Fruit is juicy with a delicious tart flavor. The yellow fruit is three to four inches long with a waxy skin and five prominent ridges. Star Fruit is low in calories and low in sugar. When it’s grown in the tropics, one Star Fruit tree can provide fruit for up to three families because of its prolific fruiting habit.
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- I am looking forward to a season filled with bountiful harvests from my vegetable greenhouse – there’s nothing quite like the taste of fresh organic vegetables from one’s own garden. Now — on to all the Thanksgiving feast cooking!
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