Swiss chard and green tomatoes

I harvested most of the tomatoes in the mountains today, both big and small.  The weather for tomorrow is a low in the high 30's, and a high in the 60's (°F), so  tomato ripening is not in the forecast.  I cleaned up the spent plants, sowed some collard, mesclun, and kale seeds, thinking optimistically, and about bed protections (row covers), and started work preserving the harvest.  I roasted about half of the green tomatoes (large and small),  froze them, but also put bags of fresh green cherry tomatoes directly in freezer bags, too.

I'm still left with a (quite) large container full of green tomatoes along with a biggish one full of green cherry tomatoes, in addition a number of half-ripe large tomatoes, and a bowlful of red cherry tomatoes.

Swiss chard and green cherry tomatoes

We had chard tonight, fresh from the garden, along with wahoo from the NC coast.  A lovely dinner.  There wasn't a reason to buy greens at the farmer's market this morning; it basically was an enjoyable stroll, picking up some winter squash and fresh eggs. Both are delicious.

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Red cabbage

A spring cabbage from a past garden

Chopping up a (store-bought) red cabbage to add to a vegetable mix this evening had me wondering about where it had been grown. A traditional cool-season crop, cabbage requires cool weather and a long growing season to mature.

Was this a freshly-harvested cabbage from somewhere in coastal California? Or somewhere in Florida? Imported from Mexico? Or was it a refrigerated stored cabbage, thanks to the modern equivalent of a root cellar?

Hard to know, since a quick search revealed only that California and Florida were likely sources of fresh cabbage in the US this time of year.

In our normally mild winter climate in South Carolina, most cabbages (and their relatives) do quite nicely planted in the fall (or early spring), but we'd harvest heads in early summer. In colder winter climates (think the Northeastern US or Northern Europe), you'd be able to harvest in fall and store through the winter.

But cabbages of various sorts are grown around the world, and I'm remembering seeing some sort of cabbages in most of the local markets that we've visited, whether in Asia, Europe, or South America. I've posted these images before - totally enormous cabbages grown in the mountains of Northern Vietnam.

Giant cabbages growing near Sapa, Northern Vietnam

Carrying cabbages to market

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Giant squash and other oddities

Young small squash are absolutely delicious, and not shippable at all. From home gardens and farmer's markets, they're a summer highlight. I like to enjoy as many different summer squash as I can, and for some reason, am hopeful this season to avoid the dreaded squash vine borers that allow me to harvest one or two from my vines, before causing collapse of the entire plant.

Who knows why I think my pattypan, flying saucer, eight ball (Ronde di Nice), cocozelle, butterstick, etc. C. pepo squashes might avoid them this year? Extra cold weather this winter? Late planting? Unusual optimism? We'll see. I'm sure my reliable tromboncino squash (a C. moschata variety) and perhaps the mystery summer squash mix (AKA small young gourds) will provide nice fruits regardless (uh, unless the woodchuck(s) are extra hungry).

But I always pick my squash when they're young and tender, knowing that that's when they're the best.

But I was a bit dismayed to see giant patty pan and zucchini offered up at our student farm's market this afternoon; maybe I missed the small ones earlier in the market, but why would anyone buy giant patty pan squash? They're really only good as a source of (uninteresting) fiber.

Clearly, we're missing the farm to table connection with some of these young students.

But maybe I need to get over and help them harvest earlier, too.

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