Hearty root vegetables
Stir fry with all homegrown veggies fresh from the garden and venison complemented by a bouquet of marigolds from our flower garden!
Although growing season is over, that doesn’t mean we still can’t enjoy yummy vegetables from the garden. In fact, the stir fry I made this week has ALL fresh veggies from the garden - parsnips, carrots, beet greens, rutabaga, summer squash, and celery. We’ve only had our second frost of the season this week, so we’re blessed this year with a mild fall.
Our family enjoys growing something new in the garden every year. One new veggie this year my daughter picked out - purple carrots. They surprisingly grew quite well and were even easier to clean up than the rest of our ordinary orange carrots. Perhaps a new annual crop?
The late frost was especially nice as a gardener so we could leisurely pick peppers, green onions, greens, herbs, tomatoes, celery, etc. Far better than the years I would have to spend hours harvesting immature veggies only to sit ripening in the basement for weeks (we’ve eaten tomatoes into December) and/or frantically covering / uncovering plants every couple of days.
But even with the frost, there’s always still plenty in our garden. In fact, this is our chance to finally eat a few items that we’ve been tending all summer. That’s because some veggies such as parsnips and Brussel sprouts get better after the frost!
This giant parsnip reminds me of a ginseng root.
Almost every parsnip I’ve pulled out this year is a conversation piece. (My husband admits that self sowing the seeds many be the culprit.) Each gnarled root resembles the fingers on ginseng roots rather than a single taproot parsnips traditionally grow. My grandma would always take the nicest ones and preserve them in a jar to showcase. If only she would see these parsnips!
With our family still gathering produce from the garden, I’ll share in an upcoming post more about Brussel sprouts - which not only get better after the first frost. but are the first seeds we plant in early March.
Many people have had a bad experience with Brussel sprouts, but have you ever had them prepared the “right” way? Check back in to find out more!
With the beautiful fall, I prepped my carrots outside.