Harvesting from My Vegetable Greenhouse
There are so many delicious, organic greens ready for picking in my vegetable greenhouse.
My outdoor garden beds are bare, but there are lots of fresh, delicious vegetables thriving inside my special vegetable greenhouse located behind my Equipment Barn. As many of you know, its design was inspired by Eliot Coleman, an expert on four-season farming. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, does a great job with succession planting to keep the produce coming. We have been harvesting some beautiful vegetables over the last few days. I find it so gratifying to have fresh, organic produce available in the middle of winter.
Enjoy these photos.
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- During the winter months, my gardeners keep a good eye on this vegetable greenhouse – temperatures are monitored and the beds are kept clean and weed-free. The inside of my vegetable greenhouse is always toasty and warm. Most of the energy comes from the sun through the big windows, which can be programmed to open for ventilation or cooling when needed.
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- All the greens are looking fantastic this season. Here’s our bed of parsley. Parsley is a flowering plant native to the Mediterranean. It derives its name from the Greek word meaning “rock celery.” It is a biennial plant that will return to the garden year after year once it is established.
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- Cilantro, Coriandrum sativum, is also known commonly as coriander or Chinese parsley. Coriander is actually the dried seed of cilantro. Cilantro is a popular microgreen garnish that complements meat, fish, poultry, noodle dishes, and soups.
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- Here is a crop of arugula. Arugula is a cruciferous vegetable that provides many of the same benefits as broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts. Arugula leaves, also known as rocket or roquette, are tender and bite-sized with a tangy flavor. My chicks love arugula – they rush to it as soon as it’s placed in their enclosure.
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- Mache greens, Valerianella locusta, are cold-weather salad greens. The sweet, slightly nutty leaves are tender and juicy. Not only does mache go by the name corn salad green, but it is sometimes referred to as lamb’s lettuce or fetticus. Corn salad greens are high in vitamins B and C, iron, folic acid and potassium.
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- This is called celtuce. Celtuce, also known as stem lettuce, celery lettuce, asparagus lettuce, or Chinese lettuce, is a cultivar of lettuce grown primarily for its thick stem or its leaves. It is especially popular in both mainland China and Taiwan, where the stem is interchangeably called qingsun or wosun.
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- We’ve been picking lots of wonderful radishes. 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.
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- And everyone knows I love fresh lettuce. It’s a real treat to have lettuce like this all year long. This leafy lettuce has excellent flavor and texture. Here, one can see how we grow it in succession, so there is always lettuce ready to pick.
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- This variety is ‘Mirlo’ lettuce. It has large tender bright green leaves that are full of flavor. ‘Mirlo’ is widely adaptable and grows well in spring, summer, and fall.
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- Kale is related to cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, and brussels sprouts. There are many different types of kale – the leaves can be green or purple in color, and have either smooth or curly shapes.
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- This lush green kale will go into my green juice.
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- And so will the spinach. We harvest a lot of spinach all year long. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, and a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron and vitamin B2.
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- We grow several beds of spinach in this greenhouse. All these plants are grown organically and have no chemical taste at all.
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- The Swiss chard stalk colors are so vibrant with stems of red, yellow, rose, gold, and white. Chard has very nutritious leaves making it a popular addition to healthful diets. Swiss chard is a tall leafy vegetable that’s part of the goosefoot family – aptly named because the leaves resemble a goose’s foot.
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- Next to the more mature Swiss chard are these younger Swiss chard plants – again, showing good succession planting practices.
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- This vegetable also has a colorful stem – beets. These 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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- Sanu goes right to the spinach to pick a big bag of these leafy greens – there’s nothing like the taste of fresh organic vegetables from one’s own garden.
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- And look at these beautiful radishes. Elvira picks another few from the garden.
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- In another bed are these beautiful growing turnips. When harvesting, we always gently remove the surrounding earth first to see if the vegetables are big enough. If not, we push the soil back into place. These turnips look perfect.
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- Elvira picks a couple hands full of turnips. Turnips are smooth flat-round and white vegetables that mature early and are best harvested young – when they are up to two inches in diameter. The flavor is sweet and fruity, and the texture is crisp and tender.
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- Once inside my Winter House, Sanu and Elvira wash the vegetables in cold water.
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- Then they are all dried very well and stored in the refrigerator.
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- Here’s Sanu washing the turnips.
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- Look how beautiful and perfect these turnips are – and all grown in my garden.
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- It was a good harvest. Very little goes to waste as these vegetables taste so pure and delicious and are a joy to eat! I can’t wait to share them with my family.
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