Fall and Winter Gardening

Most of my fall garden has been planted. For the root cellar I've planted red beets, golden beets, carrots, kohlrabi, cabbage, and celeriac. In the unheated greenhouse area (it's open now but will be covered up after we start getting frosts) we have six squares. I've planted one square of swiss chard, one square of fall lettuce, and one square with some scallions and spinach. I plan on another square of spinach, and two squares of winter lettuces. Lettuce and spinach grows very, very slowly in the winter so I'll need a lot planted. I learned this last year. I've also planted a few brussels sprout plants. They are out in the open and will be fine until January or so.

The book I'm using as a guide for winter planting is called Four Season Harvest and is written by Eliot Coleman. It's been invaluable in learning about winter gardening.

Last year Eddie built a portable greenhouse that covers six of our raised beds. We put it up in November and took it down in March. We ate spinach and lettuce all winter long from the greenhouse. I'm hoping it will do even better this year. The soil is in better shape from all the great compost we've been making, and I have a little better idea of what I'm doing.

Right now we're still enjoying lots of tomatoes, some cucumbers, melons, incredibly delicious zucchini, peppers, eggplant, and carrots. We had our first fall lettuce yesterday. It was tender and delicious!

Today's Menu:

Breakfast: Uncured Pork Bacon, Over-easy Fried Farm Eggs, Gogurt with Blueberries
Main Meal: No-Noodle Lasagna, Cucumber and Tomato Salad, Fresh Melon
Evening Snack: Shrimp Cocktails, Wine, Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce

No-Noodle Lasagna

1 lb. grassfed ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 eggplant, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil

Step One: Put a little olive oil in a large skillet and heat to medium. Add crumbled ground beef and all of the above ingredients. Cook and stir until beef is no longer pink and vegetables are tender. Drain if necessary.

1 28 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
Italian seasoning
salt and pepper

Step Two: Add the above ingredients to the meat and vegetable mixture in the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer and let cook until the other components of the dish are ready.

1 lb. of ricotta
2 eggs
salt and pepper
Italian seasoning

Step Three: Combine the above ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

8-12 oz. shredded mozzarella

Step Four: Assemble - Put half of the meat mixture in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan, cover with all of the ricotta mixture and about 1/3 of the mozzarella. Then cover that with the rest of the meat mixture and all of the rest of the mozzarella.

Step Five: Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until bubbly and a little brown on top.

Variation: You can leave out the green pepper and eggplant. If you do, cut the spaghetti sauce down to half a jar and assemble in a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan.

Enjoy!