December 12

There's no snow, but the ground is cold and hard. I covered the parsley and chicories with leaves to protect them from the cold, and I forget about them. Or if I do remember, it’s after dark, when I can’t be bothered to dig through frozen leaves for a handful of greens. Otherwise, leaves work well. I’ve tried hoops and row cover, but it’s easy to be sloppy putting them up. The second heavy snow usually collapses mine, and I hate trying to keep the row cover from tearing, rolling it up neatly, finding a place to store it. In gardens, like in everything, it’s best to work with your nature.
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We do have pumpkins that can be roasted, some jars of jam, and a big basket of garlic. The potato harvest that seemed so meager has actually been pretty nice- not enough to sustain a family through a winter, but enough. This weekend I learned to cook potatoes in the woodstove, so it seems necessary to grow some bakers next year. I’ve wanted to grow Green Mountain potatoes since reading John Thorne’s Maine potato essay, but no one seems to have them available. Carola seems good enough.

The Nearings strung cabbages up by their roots for winter storage and kept apples in boxes of leaves. I’m not crazy about everything the Nearings wrote, but I like the idea of stringing cabbages. I’m much too lazy to blanch and freeze things, and it's nice to have tasty things around to look at and eat. My cabbages this year were shaded out. The heads never grew bigger than golf balls.