Fall Garden and Salad Mixes

Our fall garden this year includes the following: mustard greens, spinach, radishes, broccoli, kale, and collards. Of these we are currently selling mostly salad mix, kale, and radishes. Although we will have quantities of the items items to sell shortly. The picture is of me with the first handful of radishes harvested this fall. The other photo is the bed of fall salad mix and kale. We had never grown kale before or used it in salads. We had obtained some before but it was too large and too tough to eat and we were turned off by it. It was sort of like chewing twine. I think we ended up giving that to the chickens. But since growing our own, we have found that it is just great when picked smaller and more tender. Just wonderful in salads. And packed with vitamins and minerals. The kale mix I planted contained 3 varieties. I think the purple stemmed variant is the best. Our salad mixes are something special. You really can't find it anywhere else. We grow spring, summer and fall salad mixes. They are a mix of 10-12 different plants. We grow this in the smaller "kitchen garden" as it is shaded and well suited for lettuces and salad crops. You want dappled sunshine for lettuce, the shade of the maple tree is perfect for it. And the kitchen garden is close to the house so we can water the garden effectively. The seed is somewhat expensive but worth it. I get it from a place in Oregon called Wild Garden Seed (www.wildgardenseed.com) Contact them if you'd like to get their catalog. We sell the salad mix for $3.50 for a gallon size bag which is very reasonable; this probably makes about 6 dinner salad portions. The customers that have tried it are dedicated. You would only find something like it at a very high end restaurant. I hope to continue growing fall crops in our cold frame on through the holidays.