Harvests then and now

At the end of last summer I dug around to see what was up with the potatoes, which I'd been neglecting along with everything else in my clay-heavy, acidic, poorly drained garden. There were some nice suprises in there, certainly enough for a small potato party.



One was a Russian Blue (I had planted red, yellow and blue varieties: Red Chieftain and Yukon Gold were the other two):



The good news was no sign of wireworm, although the Russian Blue looked a little poorly from some unidentified rot/ailment/grub and I got very few whole potatoes.

And then in December, I rooted around in a couple of containers. In a large pot I found some Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) that had survived the frosts of November (with a peanut for scale):



Delicious both raw and roasted like a potato. It's a root vegetable from the Andes, which I bought at Seedy Saturday last year from Carolyn Herriot. She sells them through her website. Not cheap, but one will give you a harvest and tubers for the future.

Someone else at Seedy Sat last year provided the Jerusalem Artichokes which are also wonderful both raw and cooked. I bought some more from Metchosin Farm this year. Mine grew happily in a less than perfect location (a recycling bin), and resisted frosts even better than the oca. This one apparently spreads like anything, hence the bin, which probably curtailed their growth a bit.



Today's harvest of greens included some new growth on last year's collard greens, which are calcium-rich and useable like cabbage leaves; the last of the brussels sprouts; and some of spring's best offerings: kale buds, which are sweet, tender and similar to young broccoli.