Thievery

I am not the only one harvesting fall crops from the garden this week.  The broccoli, which had miraculously grown back after being eating down to the ground by the hens, was putting on beautiful young heads, about 4 inches across.  I was getting excited, figuring I would start to harvest them in about two weeks.  This morning, however, I found one plant had been removed from the garden, roots and all, and was sitting neatly on the lawn, with the broccoli head itself missing.  The picture tells the rest of the story:  our smaller dog, Jo, has regularly reached into the garden to munch lettuce and kale right off the plants.  She now is taking backyard snacking to a whole new level.  You can't really tell, but her little tail was wagging frantically in the photo.  She had no remorse whatsoever.

Oh frabjous day

I don't know why I thought of a line from Jabberwocky, the poem, as I wrote the title to this blog, but I did, so please just humor me!  Of course each time I look in the garden this time of year I really do have a frabjous day.  We have so much lettuce!  Red turnips and white turnips that are so tender and sweet grow alongside carrots and arugula.  I even had my first kale harvest this week. 

I found out kale is just as good as arugula when sauteed in oil with garlic.  As a twist, I deglazed the pan with apple cider, and tossed it all on whole wheat pasta, then topped it with roasted sweet potatoes, turnips, and rutabagas.  There is nothing like a fall garden meal.  When you add that the air is cooler and the mosquitoes are almost gone, as are most of the garden pests (except for aphids in my garden), it just makes the fall garden something special.

The chickens usually appreciate the December garden as well, as it means fresh greens for them, most every day.  I was concerned, however, when I gave them the precious tops from my red turnips, and they turned up their beaks!  A few hours later they changed their minds, and ate all but the red veins in the leaves.  I wonder if chickens can taste bitter, and if those greens were just a bit too strong for them.  Maybe they wanted them sauteed!