Saturday, November 21, 2009

Minnesota winter hardy plants

We all know that Kale is hardy and ours has survived well into the freezing days of November. This is the plant from last year that I let grow again this spring and provided us with leaves in spring and seeds in the fall.



We also discovered last year that chard is also quite hardy. It is hard to believe that these plants have already been completely frozen a number of times.



Some of the new discoveries this fall have been...


Carrots, I guess that makes sense and probably applies to all root crops.



Parsley is also quite hardy which I was surprised to find out. I figured it as a warm weather crop like cilantro but man was I wrong.



For greens we really like how late in the season Mizuna lets us have spicy salads. I think it is a brassica so I guess that makes good sense.



Well that is a few of the things still growing in our garden as of today.

3 comments:

Jo said...

Some other hardy winter plants still growing in my garden -- Canada thistle, broad leaf plantain, burdock. At least they don't have time to set seed ... probably.

Frustrated Farmer Rick said...

I can't help with the thistle Jo but the plantain and burdock can both be eaten.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadleaf_plantain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burdock

I keep meaning to make the dandelion and burdock root beer recipe down the page here.

http://www.rivercottage.net/SeasonalRecipes~May/525/RecipesfromRiverCottageSpring.aspx


I say eat the weeds!

Frustrated Farmer Rick said...

We had dinner on December first from those carrots roasted with potatoes and those kale leaves wilted with olive oil and garlic. Who says you can't eat fresh, seasonally and well in Minnesota?