In 49 of the 50 United States, an organic vegetable garden does not exist in the month of January. We are so fortunate in the state of Florida to have warm enough winter months to actually grow our fall vegetables for five or six months straight, depending on the weather. The rest of the country packed up their vegetable gardens months ago due to the harsh cold. Here in Orlando, just like last year, we have yet to get a hard freeze and not even much of a frost.
Let’s spotlight some wonderful fall vegetables and some delicious recipes to make sure to get the most out of your fall garden.
As radishes can be one of the easiest and quickest vegetables to grow in the garden, you may quickly find yourself with an abundance of them. If you have so many radishes you just don’t know what to do with, use your radishes in a stew! Radishes, when cooked down, have the texture of a potato without all of the starch. The entire radish root and the radish greens can be used together by simply roasting them with a little bit of olive, oil lemon juice, and your regular seasonings. They’re just delicious!
The parsnips are growing like crazy in the garden right now. These crispy root vegetables can be turned into parsnip fries. Just slice them like you would a potato into the shape of fries, then add olive oil and seasoning and roast them. A simple dipping sauce can be made with some Greek yogurt with ranch dip seasoning, and then it’s time to party.
It can be so fun to grow a huge broccoli or cauliflower plant in the fall season, but the problem is they take several months from seed and they’re close to one and done. If you want more of a continuous harvest from your broccoli plant, choose the stir-fry variety that will continue to produce larger quantities of florets for the rest of the season. Then, to get the most out of that big plant that takes up at least four square feet in your garden, once it starts producing, be sure to utilize the leaves by harvesting them and eating them in salads or stir-frys. The broccoli leaves add a broccoli taste and a crunchy texture that will elevate any dish.
As for the tomatoes and peppers, if you’re still growing them like many of us are, be sure to cover them up to protect them from the harsh climate when we dip down into the 30s. Besides that, their production may have slowed due to the cooler weather, but they should continue to produce and be healthy throughout the season. Don’t forget to harvest green tomatoes that are of size and let them ripen on your countertop for the next two weeks to help the plant produce more in order to have more to harvest.
If your peppers are looking healthy but not producing as much as you’d like, give them a little spray with some Epsom salt mixed with water. It’s just about ¼ teaspoon mixed with 8 ounces of water. Be sure to spray directly into the flowers and pour any excess water around the base of the plant for the roots. This will give the pepper plant some additional magnesium and help promote pepper growth.
Happy gardening!
Amber Harmon is the owner of My Nona’s Garden, where they sell and service low-maintenance, elevated, organic vegetable gardens. Their mission is to bring health, promote growth, and provide vegetable gardening education to local communities, one garden at a time.
Visit www.MyNonasGarden.com for more information.
“We make organic vegetable gardening easy!”
