Wholesome Wednesdays: Carrots

I harvested this very strange little carrot and just had to share him with the world. He was planted in some beautious potting mix stolen from Gabriel Valley Farm, a local organic grower (when working at The Natural Gardener, about a million squash plants died after being not purchased for too long and me and my co-workers spent a few hours dumping the plants and saving the potting mix. Victory was mine). Anyway, the potting mix has a lot of crystally shiny bits, which i think may have impeded the progress of the carrot and caused it to divide thusly:

Carrots are clearly good for you, though they're a bit higher in sugar content than some other vegetables and maybe not as great a choice of a 'calorie free snack' as say celery would be. Here's the breakdown:

• Very low in saturated fat
• No cholesterol
• Very high in dietary fiber
• High in manganese
• High in niacin
• Very high in potassium
• High in thiamin
• Very high in vitamin A
• High in vitamin B6
• Very high in vitamin C

But as you can see, kind of high in sugar per the rest of their nutritional content.

I recall growing up that carrots were supposed to help you 'see in the dark'. Natural news says this about carrots and vision:

"It turns out carrots really do give your eyes a boost because they contain beta-carotene, which the body is able to convert into vitamin A, an essential vitamin for healthy vision. Vitamin A, also called retinol, is key in fighting vision problems like cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and night blindness. It is found primarily in fish oils, liver, eggs and fortified dairy products. However, if you don't eat animal products, you can make sure you are getting plenty of vitamin A by eating fruits and vegetables that contain carotenoids like beta-carotene, which the body then converts to useful vitamin A, called "provitamin A." "   -http://www.naturalnews.com/020364.html

But don't forget the dark leafy greens with their cartenoids as well - we all need a balanced diet to get the vitamins and minerals we need and which help each other be absorbed and utilized. Having a ton of iron of vitamin A is great, but you also need their counterparts that facilitate their absorption.  As a general rule, try to eat at least 1 or 2 servings of richly colored vegetables a day - think spinach, kale, beets, carrots, even red wine. But i also remember my friends in high school who were dieting, eating a baggy full of carrots and thinking they were doing their body good: sugar is sugar, my friends. Try mixing up raw carrots and celery or jicama or radishes along with some homemade hummus that's low in oil. That makes for a satisfied, balanced, and reduced sugar lunch snack. And celery is filling, man! Try eating a whole bunch of celery and you'll be exhausted by the end just due to the crunching. ha.

Anyhoo, here's to your health, and enjoy the rest of your wednesday.

It Happened. It Froze.

8:30 am. Right now i'm seriously wishing these darned trees had lost all their darned leaves and would let the morning sun shine through to resuscitate the frozen babies in my vegetable garden. Everything is frozen.
The peppers in their securely covered patch with lamp seem to be okay ... but not thrilled. Their onions cohabitants look stunned, and the garlics in the bed nearby look positively displeased with life.

The main vegetable patch under its tent city construction? I peer under the sheets and see a sorry sorry sight. A touch to a baby spinach leaf reveals stiff rigor mortis of plant body.  I have never tried to garden in an actual winter before, so this state of frozen garden inhabitants is quite unsettling, frustrating, and fear inducing. Will I fail in my winter crop as well as my summer? Will my hard work and love be repaid with dead plants, stunted and non-producing? Was i fooling myself thinking that "cool weather plants" really didn't mind getting a touch of a freeze?  This will be a learning experience for me - hopefully we'll get something to eat this winter (since i missed all my tomatoes this summer on a wedding vacation) and not just a whole lot of chicken snacks and compost.
Sigh.
9:30 am Hurry up, sun! The babies want to feel your warm embrace. If only the garden were on the other side of the house..... but then it would only get am sun, and that is insufficient.
 I'm noticing that i piled some leaves here and there as mulch. I was afraid to smother the plants underneath so i mushed them around exposing the tops of the lettuces etc to the air- but i think i should have just covered it all with leaves and maybe spared the plants underneath them. This freeze just caught me unprepared.

Have to keep reminding myself: gardening is learning. you do not know everything. you will make mistakes and kill plants occasionally.... i just wish they weren't plants i was counting on for food!
I live in zone 8 and have plans on moving to a northern version of zone 8 (yamhill valley in oregon). This is the first year i have seen a hard enough freeze to fill a bucket with more than an inch of ice.

9:45 am. Need to walk to the gym now, cooolld walk.... but i'm feeling hopeful. I pulled back a little bit of tent city to let the sunshine in, will leave the rest covered and light on peppers until i get back from yoga.... it looks like the peas are becoming happily pliable again, the little kales seem unphased, the broccolis thawing out.

12:30. Hope is in sight! I've pulled back some of the sheets and uncovered the peppers and turned their light off. Peppers have just a bit of frost bite on their edges, not bad. All the winter crops in the main garden seem to have sproinged back to life, great. Eggplants have bit the dust, but that was to be expected.

Looks like I may not be a failure after all.

So far so good!

What zone do you live and garden in?
What do you do as a gardener in winter time? When do you call it quits? What precautions do you take before freezes? What crops do you expect to survive and produce throughout the winter in your area?

An Evening in the Gardens

I felt the need to take some pause and reflect on the emerging and regressing beauties in the gardens.
Spinaches and greens are germinating and growing stronger, the bell peppers are slowly ripening to vibrant colors just in time for an end of season harvest, the garlic are peaking out their slender green heads, and the multiplying onions are, well, multiplying. These, along with some awkward volunteers, are filling the gardens with beauty and daily change. It's a great season here in Austin.