Yay for the rain!

I'll admit it, usually I spend a little time trying to arrange the vegetables, at least so you can tell what's going on. Today, not so much, and the proportions of the vegetables are a little funny to me. On the bottom left there are shallots. These are leftover from the bumper crop that came this summer. They store wonderfully, but really they're so good you'll probably use them right away. They're kind of like an onion, but much more flavorful so use them in smaller quantities. Onion's not really right, I seem them compared to garlic sometimes, which kind of fits in some ways, but isn't right either.

Kale is back. There was a lot of aphid leftover from the summer but the leaves are looking great now so I'm cleaning up the plants. If you do find any aphid on the leaves just wipe them off (or ignore them), they're completely harmless. This rain and cool weather has brought out amazing color in the plants. They should continue to increase in flavor as the temperatures drop.

Celery, just one small stalk. I toss this in as something to chop finely with the shallot, sauté and use as a base for soup or cooking beans. It's probably not something you want to eat raw, although you could. It should have a ton of good celery flavor packed in and if this weather holds we'll get a little more. The plants went in late and didn't do terribly well, but the ones that survived are starting to take off. Unfortunately it doesn't hold up to frost so we need some more time.

Lettuce continues, and I'm still not sure if this is the last week or if it'll be next week. I did the lettuce plantings a bit differently this year, with bigger blocks of the same variety, meaning less week to week variation. I'm not sure if this was the right thing to do. Let me know if you'd like more variation from week to week next year.

Finally, there's a really big Hakurei turnip in the photo. My fall turnips completely failed, but Kji had this monsters as extras (a few folks get reasonable sized ones). I had a couple of bites, they're actually very tasty, although they wont' keep for long. The turnip greens are good cooking as well.

This is the first day of bike deliveries in the rain. I can tell it's going to take a few months to get my "outfit" just right. All in all, a pretty mild day though. The rain is germinating the cover crop that was seeded last week which is great. It also means no more irrigation work this season, also great!