Giving thanks for the 2010 harvest

Green tomatoes picked before frost, ripening on trays

We’ll be staying close to home for Thanksgiving so can source the majority of ingredients for the feast from our 2010 harvests. As with every growing season, there were notable ups and downs but thanks to unusually good weather for plants, the successes far exceeded the failures. Here’s a list of what’s still available fresh and preserved for the Thanksgiving menu and beyond.

In the garden (protected with floating row covers)
Rainbow chard
Kale
Leeks
Fennel bulbs

Stored in the root cellar (cool moist storage)
Brussels sprouts
Red, green and Savoy cabbages
Red and golden beets
Celeriac 
Carrots

Growing in the hoop house
Flat leaf parsley
Scallions
Sage, thyme, chives, tarragon, mint and oregano
Lettuce, mache, curly endive and arugula
Radishes

Growing in pots in the house
Rosemary
Lemongrass
Key limes
Thyme, parsley, mint, shallot greens, cilantro
Belgian endive (in a cool, dark closet – not ready yet)

Dry storage in the house
Potatoes – German butterball
Winter squash – Carnival
Garlic and shallots
Tomatoes (green tomatoes ripening on trays in mud room)

Preserved
Dried morels and porchini mushrooms
Hot peppers including dried red, frozen serranos and anaheims, and habanero sauce
Frozen basil pesto
Frozen sweet corn
Dried beans – several varieties including tiger’s eye and Hidatsa shield bean
Poppy seeds
Tomatoes – dried, oil-roasted and canned salsa
Raspberry jam, mixed wild berry jam and apple butter
Violet and elderberry syrups
Maple syrup
Dried herbs for tea including nettles, raspberry leaf, red clover blossoms and mint as well as roasted dandelion root
Dried herbs for cooking including thyme, dill seed, coriander and oregano.

Products that failed to make this year’s list due to poor timing, seeds that weren’t viable, not planting enough or just plain forgetting to plant them at all included onions, pumpkins, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, Chinese cabbage, and cilantro. Pickles aren’t a big priority for us but I wish we’d gotten around to at least making dilly beans. I will aspire to include all of these and more on the 2011 Thanksgiving harvest list.