Tag Archives: carrots

Dark Days Dirt to Dinner Hunter’s Stew

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Everything But the Huntee

For some reason the holidays and all the local eating have brought out a craving for Hunter’s Stew. I originally intended to do it with venison, but had a hard time finding the cuts that I wanted and the buffalo I was offered instead admittedly looked fabulous. It may have come from just outside the 100 mile radius we’re shooting for, but the duck and the rabbit were both local, as were all the vegetables.

The stew started with Dirt to Dinner garden-grown onions, carrots, potatoes and pumpkin, seasoned with thyme, rosemary and parsley, also out of the yard. I planned to add in the shallots we grew, but forgot and used garlic instead. I would have happily added parsnips or celery, but neither of them are ready yet. The peas you see in the picture never made it into the kitchen. They were delicious straight out of the pods.

Garden Snack

The stew will be served with a turnip-rutabaga mash to soak up the delicious broth. It has eight hours in the crock pot to go, but I’m not sure I’m going to make it that long. I was worried that the duck would give the stew a greasy feel to it, so I only added the browned duck legs and it is smelling just right.

The Thankful Garden

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Rutabaga

I’m amazed at all the things still going strong in the Dirt to Dinner garden at this time of year. In the Midwest, where I grew up, all I had in my garden in late November was frost.

If you’d like to see all the ingredients we have available this year for a Thanksgiving feast, I made a VoiceThread to share them with you.

If you just want the short-list of what is growing, it goes something like this: Ancho peppers, artichokes, arugula, asparagus, basil, beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, chives, chicory, collards, ginger, gourds, Hungarian peppers, kale, Komatsu, luffa, mustard, onions, parsley, parsnips, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, tomatoes, turnips, sage, shelling peas, snap peas, snow peas, spinach, strawberries and a lone watermelon.

The Last Winter Carrots

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Starts hardening off

Starts hardening off

This morning some of the starts that have been growing under lights in the garage are having a field trip out into the partially cloudy day. We still have at least five days until the last date of expected frost, so I’m going to give them a few hours a day up to all day over the next week or so as they get ready for possible planting on the 28th.

We have beets, two different kinds of tomato plants, three types of onions, Swiss chard, spinach, bush beans, cabbage, cucumbers and some flower starts pictured here.

 

 

Last night *something* went through the carrot patch and perfectly munched the Winter carrots, leaving the separated tops undisturbed on the soil. At least our raiders left us everything we need to make nice compost to grow more carrots!

The Last of the Winter Carrots

The Last of the Winter Carrots

I got out a digging fork and gently dug around to find the last of the remaining carrots that have wintered over.  Next year I will do lots more of them. These were delicious and very welcome in stews and soups. There are a few small patches of carrots coming up and there are three or four varieties ready for the Dirt to Dinner kids to arrive on the 28th. My favorite way to plant them is using carrot tape, which I have just found out how to make oursevles, so I’ll be adding that to the project list.

 

 

 

 

Here’s what we ended up with when it was time to make lunch:

Romeos Ready to Cook

Romeos Ready to Cook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have two different varieties of potatoes started and will be able to plant them in bags or various containers for the kids to experiment with. I can’t wait to see how they do. We should be able to start eating new potatoes about half way through our program.

Potatoes Growing Eyes

Potatoes Growing Eyes

 

Eye See You

Eye See You

What Wintered Over from 2008 into 2009

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kaleRussian Red Kale did well in a not very sunny spot in the raised beds through rain, cold, hail, frost and crazy dogs running through the beds.  It stores well and is great in soups.

Utah something Celery did wonderfully well.  I picked it from the outside in and used it all winter long.  It wasn’t bothered by anything and has wonderful spring-like color in the garden in a low sun area.

White onions have been growing since Fall.  The tops aren’t pretty since the frost, but they are growing some new green stems that seem more sturdy.  Who knows?  Maybe the tops always die down when the weather gets severe?  We’ll have to see how they do next year.  It’s also time to get more onions in so they are well established as the day lengthens.

Beets would not come up for love or money this Fall.  I planted them several times and got nothing but weeds.  Will try these with the Spring crew and see how that goes.  Maybe in Jiffy pots so they can sprout inside and then go into the garden???

Several varieties of carrots did well all Fall and Winter long.  They are tough to get started.  I have small patches of them trying to get going so we have more for Spring.  I could have easily used twice what we planted, maybe more.  But they were fun to have. I especially liked the ball type variety but the seed packet is now lost.

Collards were not as hardy as the kale, but they made it through and we like the taste better than the kale.  Could have used more of these guys, espcially since the chard did not make it through the winter well.  It was bug riddled and yellowing by October.

The artichokes you couldn’t kill with a shovel.  They are already back and looking great.  I suspect they would grow in cement mix if you let them.

Peas had a very tough winter.  The second they sprouted something came and ate all their leaves off over and over.  We started some right after the new year and they seem to be doing better so far.  I’ll protect this batch as seedlings better and see how we do.  I might have to go back to buying starts for these guys.