As those of you following my blog will recall, in my Harvest Monday, December 12, 2011 post I decided to continue to push my luck, harvest only as needed, and hope I will have garden fresh produce for Christmas. Well, I came out pretty good only lost the Chinese celery.
Green and giant red mustards both survived and grew, though slooooowly. Harvest a bunch of the green mustard on Thursday. All went into a pot of soup (meatballs, tofu and bean thread) which my daughter and son-in-law enjoyed when they arrived on Friday afternoon. From the garden to the pot in less than 24 hours, what a treat for late December!!!!!
Both flat and curly leaves parsley also survived.
Lessons learned: unprotected mustard and parsley will survive temperature in the teens, Chinese celery will not survive below the low 20’s. Unprotected collard and kale also survived and I will have sufficient for one or two meals to share with my company the next few days plus the parsnips and leeks still in the ground for them to take home. Not bad for this time of the year.
Visit Daphne’s Dandelions http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/ for more Harvest Mondays.
Garden to Wok 
For some veggies, survival seems to depend on the size of the plant. The big red mustard plants are dead, but the smaller mustard plants, with leaves only 4″ long, survived. For Christmas dinner I foraged a salad from the garden – mache, parsley, green sorrel & red mustard. I added kale harvested a week ago.
Readers – our gardens are only 2.5 miles apart so we have similar weather.
Hello Mary,
That’s quite a Christmas treat! Thanks for the info about the size of the plants, never occur to me that size matters. I will observe and monitor what’s left in the garden.
Good Job overwintering your vegetables. Fresh fare in the dark days of winter is a real boost to the spirit.
Hello Kitsapfg,
Yea, it was a real boost to the spirit. I was grinning from ear to ear while harvesting. Of course this is not a normal year, weather wise.
I love it when plants do something unexpected like survive extremes you thought they may give up in. Somehow it makes me feel strangely proud of them.
Hello Liz,
You are so funny. Yes, I should be proud of them too especially since they survived the extremes all by themselves and without protection.
I love the giant red mustard, yummy raw when very small or cooked when a bit bigger. Too bad about the other not making it; is Chinese celery a form of cabbage or something else?
Hello Mary,
Chinese celery is a celery. The stem is pencil-like, more flavorful than regular celery but not as tender.
Whoa! your plants are doing SO WELL. I’m super impressed. I can barely keep herbs alive.
Hello Joanne,
I am just lucky this year. Really is very unusual to be harvesting those greens this time of the year in my part of the world.
Sounds like you had a delicious harvest in tough conditions. Hope you are enjoying the holidays 🙂
Hello Shaz,
Yes, it was a delicious harvest, a real treat for late December. We are still enjoying above average temperature, will see how long my greens can last without protection.
Sounds great! Glad it survived. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Lynn
Hello Lynn,
Thanks Lynn, I had a wonderful Christmas with my kids. Wishing you a Healthy and Happy New Year.
Happy to hear about your ‘luck’ with the greens… your parleys look very healthy…
Hello lrong,
I guess it is a good thing to push one’s “luck” sometimes. Wishing you a healthy and Happy New Year.
I know what you mean about slow. My beets are still alive and I have been using the greens, but the beets themselves are still so small. I probably have to wait until Spring.
Hello Vickie,
Glad you are able to still harvest your beet greens, that’s a treat and just think, you will be having garden fresh beets in the spring another treat.
Thanks for sharing. I’m always eager to learn more about overwintering veggies.
Hello Jody,
Well, cannot say I put any thought into overwintering my veggies, just pushed my luck and got lucky.
Good job on extending your harvest through winter. Those greens look crispy.
Hello Diana,
Thanks, I was just lucky.