Frosty mornings...

Brrrr. It was cold this morning. I am very glad that Andy and his dad finished up putting insulation in our house yesterday. (It was 49F in our great room on Sunday morning. There is nothing like seeing your breath at the breakfast table.) Our peas froze on the vines. We are picking them anyway, though they are limp and floppy. Our lettuce did manage to survive the freeze. Our basil in the field has been toast since the first frost, but the basil in the greenhouse was doing well until last night. It is a pile of mush now too. Our nasturtiums froze, which was a bummer because I was going to give them out in the salad mix this week. The baby lettuces are hanging in there (except for the amaranth leaves, which are all curled over from being nipped by frost. The celery has weathered the cold fine. The broccoli raab has hung in there (I think), and should be sweeter for its efforts. The cabbages are fine, and some may head up in time for next week. The turnips are little, but the tops are delicious. Radishes are coming along, and some will be available for you this week and probably next. We dug the sweet potatoes this morning after we were sure that they were not going to get any larger. We decided that the white fleshed ones are really hard to be pleased with. If you plant them early, they grow one 6lb potato. If you plant them later, they grow one 1/2lb potato. We were hoping for a greater quantity of spuds of a managable size. We will probably grow them again, so we might hit the golden mean next time. And if not, save them for dinner parties. They store amazingly well.

The raised bed in our greenhouse is built and about six more wheelbarrow loads of dirt might get us enough to start planting things in it.