Winter Survivors

The idea of over wintering gardening has always been appealing to me. Fresh vegetables from the garden, year round, sounds wonderful. I've read about gardeners in my zone (6) and colder having success with growing  root vegetables and cabbage over the winter. Trying it is on my someday list. I expected it to take a bit of planning and effort on my part. I didn't know how easy it could be; as in I did nothing.

In the fall I planted several fall crops. The broccoli was fabulous. The cabbage was good. The spinach didn't do much, but I haven't had much luck with it in any season. The radishes and turnips were prolific. So prolific that I didn't get them all harvested before winter hit.

Root vegetables like turnips are tolerant of the cold. Our winters are typically a little cold and snow followed by above freezing temperatures. So, after the first winter blast came I figured I would harvest the turnips when we got some nice days. The nice days were few and far between this winter.  This was our the coldest winter, with the most snow, in a long time. The weather combined with the fact that the turnips were planted in our out of the way garden meant the turnips were never harvested.

Imagine my surprise, when on a trip to that garden a week ago to check the soil, I saw rows of greens growing. The turnips survived the winter and are now putting out new greens. The turnips themselves are delicious. I was afraid that they might be rotten or woody. The greens are mild, and we are enjoying fresh veggies from the garden tonight; turnip greens served with Pioneer Woman's Turnip Gratin. (Adjusted for the ingredients I have on hand.) And had I known (or checked) we could have been enjoying turnips all winter long. Who knew they were such winter survivors?

- Oh and I forgot to mention the spinach survived the winter too. It had the tiniest bit of new growth on it. We'll see if it actually produces anything.