Best Seeds For Planting In Jan/Feb in Any Climate

Hello all! I got a seed order yesterday which has prompted me to create a list of the best seeds for planting outdoors right now, in January, even if you live in a sub-freezing climate. I was so excited by the email below -- I think it is great that so many of you are starting winter gardening! Here is what this couple wrote to me:

“Hi Caleb. My wife and I have just finished reading your Forgotten Skills book and would really like to start our own winter garden. I have built some cold frames out of free wood I found on KSL.com and we already have a system for starting seeds in the house. We are excited to use open-pollinating seeds and garden for more than just 3 months out of the year. I don't know if starting off in the middle of winter is the best idea but we really are too excited to wait until spring. So we would like to order some seeds from you:

One packet of America spinach
One packet of Grand Rapids lettuce
One packet of Buttercrunch lettuce
One packet of Scarlet Nantes carrots”

This is Caleb again. Some of these would not all be my first choice for beginners to plant in January, so I thought it would be helpful to share my experience with what works best from seed outdoors in winter. Here is what I would recommend to any of you itching to start winter gardening today! I have all of these seeds available for order now.

1. Cascadia Peas. Why? Because they are almost unbelievably frost hardy -- more hardy than all other peas I’ve tried. And they germinate in cold soil. And, best of all, you can eat the leaves and they taste just like peas -- just like them! -- in salads, so you can start harvesting something immediately. Of course, don’t overharvest the leaves or you won’t get actual peas!

2. Mizuna. This extraordinary Asian green grows unbelievably fast. It does not seem at all fazed by bitter cold, and it has a beautiful frisee leaf. The goal of planting from seed in January is to get food to eat self-sufficiently as fast as possible, which is why Mizuna is a great choice. I just planted a bunch of this seed and it is growing very well.

3. Rutabaga. These wonderful root vegetables only sprout in cool weather, and right now they are thriving at my house, planted this month from seed. These make the very best mashed potatoes. You probably haven’t tried a rutabaga. They are like a cross between a carrot and a sugar beet in flavor. You’ll love them!

4. Red Orach. This is a relative of spinach and you eat it used just like it. It produces beautiful red-purple leaves that can be eaten raw or sauteed. I love it in an omelet! This vegetable just loves to sprout in winter. And it’s great to have a fresh winter “green” that isn’t green!

5. Basil. We can never get enough of this herb at our house. Can you even eat pasta without basil? And if you are not putting basil on your beef roasts, you are missing out! Yet basil can be finicky to sprout if the weather is not cool. It will sprout in January, and do even better in February.

6. Amsterdam Forcing Carrot. I have never been able to start carrots in January until I found this very old European winter carrot. I am one of only two seller of this seed in the U.S. -- it is extremely difficult to come by. The great thing about planting carrots in January is that it really starts you on your way to being self-sufficient year-round in carrots, like we are at our house. And it’s fun!

7. America Spinach. This is traditional spinach, and it will sprout in January, but it can be slow to grow, especially in the beginning. But once it is up and going, you’ll have spinach all spring!

8. Grand Rapids Lettuce. This is by far the fastest growing lettuce out of more than 100 varieties I have trialed -- it is just amazing. If you want self-sufficient fresh lettuce fast, this is the place to start. In a hot bed it grows an astonishing four inches A WEEK! It is cut and come again -- so to harvest, just cut it off at the soil level. It will grow right back, over and over again. 

9. Extra Dwarf Pak Choi. A fun miniature Chinese cabbage that grows very fast and loves cold weather. Tender and succulent to eat, great in salad, steam, raw, or stir-fry!

10. Osaka Purple Mustard Greens. Purple and green leaves with a spicy kick. Put a little in a salad for a burst of taste.
I’ve chosen all of these for the winter garden beginner. They are the easiest to sprout, and the most durable in bitter weather. Now a couple of quick notes on planting seed outdoors in January and February. You must at least have a cold frame made of greenhouse plastic or glass. You must place the cold frame in the garden where you want to plant for at least a few days with sun before you plant. All snow has to be melted, and the ground has to be unfrozen (which is what the cold frame will do for you). Everything on the list above will sprout faster, and grow three times faster, if you put it in a natural hot bed covered by a cold frame. Everything you need to know about hot beds and cold frames will be in my new Backyard Winter Gardening book which comes out in February. In the meantime, you can email me and I’ll try get to you, but remember I get hundreds of emails every single day, so be patient with me :) Here is the link again for buying my seeds -- and remember, all of the advice above is not from books, it from my garden. We believe we are the last family in the U.S. to grow an extensive winter garden. Join us! You won’t regret eating fresh and free in winter! -Caleb

14 Years Ago, I Tried to Kill Myself

Fourteen years ago, during a difficult divorce, I tried to kill myself. Over three weeks I had lost 52 pounds because I could not eat. My hair had begun falling out in chunks. Narcolepsy, insomnia, and night terrors took over. Panic attacks would force me to the floor. I had no money and was about to be homeless. I felt like I was sinking in hopelessness. I thought the only way out was to kill myself. I had chosen the method, time,  and place. I was ready and eager. It is hard to explain how desperately I wanted out.

The experiences that saved my life are sacred to me. Acting on an inner prompting, my cousin, Suzanne, bought me a plane ticket to her home in Washington D.C. That ticket convinced me to put my suicide aside temporarily. In D.C. I was given a gift by a stranger which convinced me that I might have something to contribute. When I got home, my cousin, Joy, tearfully told me that her children needed me, and that if I killed myself, they would suffer. My friends Branden and Lance took me on five-mile sledding runs in the mountains -- and for the first time in weeks I felt a thrill, a thread of living. Seeing light in my eyes, they took me sledding over and over. Branden made me come to dinner, and I began to eat. Their kids took no notice of my gloom -- they just wanted to play with “Uncle Caleb”. They were a bright light to me.

Today, it is hard to connect that crippled life to the happiness I know now. I’m grateful I didn’t kill myself.

As I began to find my feet in a new life, I saw the world differently. I realized there was nothing and no one who could hurt me more than I had already hurt. So I had nothing to fear. Without fear, I felt free. I could try anything. There could be no meaningful failure. I vowed never again to work a job that did not make me happy. I vowed never to think about money. I knew what had real value, and it sure wasn’t money. I lost the fear of saying no, and the fear of being told no.

With my new ambition, I called the local university and asked to teach a writing class for their adult continuing education program -- my dream. I’ve been teaching ever since. And in that first class, I met the love of my life, my wife Charmayne. She had pixie hair, black leather boots, and a force of presence. She was a tiny sexy little thing, sauntering into class late on the first day,  mysterious and beautiful. She had the confidence and ease of someone who had lost her fear.

Turns out, she had also suffered. Her story is not mine to tell here, but I’ll give you one sentence. She had been left unconscious in a pool of her own blood on her kitchen floor as her children watched. She had suffered more than me.

Today, she has chosen to free herself and her daughters by forgiving the man who did this. She had seen anger cripple other people. She wanted to show the kids that, as she puts it, “you don’t have to sit in your own garbage.” This created space in her life for me. Her decision to let help everyone let go of the past humbles me.

Charmayne had six daughters. I had no kids. We had both vowed never to marry again, considering what we had been through. For the first time, fear was part of my life again. But this time was different. I married Charmayne because, while praying out loud while driving alone on the freeway one day, a voice said “This deserves a chance.”

That answer to my prayer was powerful. I obeyed. But I was scared, and so was she. A few days ago we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. We are not scared anymore.

Every good thing in my life has come with Charmayne. Six step-daughters who welcomed and embraced me. Two weeks ago, they gave me and Charmayne our sixth grandchild, a girl. Today is my fortieth birthday, and I have six grandchildren. There is no step between me and them. This love is a new experience for me. Our oldest grandson lived with us for the first five and a half years of his life. This changed me.

Over the past decade, I have lived every dream I ever conjured. I have become a bestselling author. I love my work. I am a full-time journalist with a voice. I am a writer, a teacher, a renaissance gardener. I have made it my goal to be a useful person. What if I had killed myself?

For my fortieth birthday, I have given myself two gifts I thought I could never achieve. For thirteen months my wife and I have been doing yoga at the local gym. If you know anything about me, you know the words “Caleb” and “gym” go together like the words “righteous” and “Monsanto”. (I couldn’t resist). Yet, 13 months later, yoga has changed my life. Because of yoga, I was able to learn to ski. Every person in our family skis. When my oldest grandson learned at age five, I saw opportunity slipping away -- I’m not getting any younger. This fall I graduated from Brighton Ski School.

My fortieth birthday in particular is a moment to take inventory. I’m a big guy at six-foot-four. People my height statistically don’t see age 70 very often. I am two-thirds done with the useful portion of my life -- if I’m lucky. My clock is ticking. All our clocks are. Fourteen years ago, I didn’t see the joy ahead. I’m grateful for the people who helped me see a future.

At least one person kills him- or herself every day in the state where I live. My family has suffered a loss in recent years. Our town has suffered what seems to be an unfair share. If you are thinking of killing yourself, don’t do it. You are needed. There are people you have not met who will need you. You will change their lives. Your decisions will have influence in the future beyond your understanding.

That whispering voice that encourages suicide is not the voice of love, nor the voice of God. Be careful who you listen to.

There is life after this world. But emotional pain is solved more easily here -- where you can make changes. Don’t give away your liberty to choose and change.

If you hurt, ask for help. “And God shall wipe away all tears from [your] eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

This is what happened to me. I’m grateful I lived to find out. -Caleb

A Video Tour of My Backyard Winter Garden -- Jan. 16 2013

The goal of having a winter garden is fresh eating and self-sufficiency.Winter gardening is the easiest gardening you'll every do. All you have to do is harvest -- no weeds, no bugs, not watering. Just eating!

Winter gardening is only possible with winter garden seed, the varieties used to feed the world for hundreds of years before the invention of hybrid seed and the modern grocery store. I grow and sell some of the rarest seed in the world, including winter garden seed that you can get nowhere else. You can find it here. No one spends more time and money working to save them from extinction than I do. Thank you for viewing my winter garden tour. Please take a moment to share it with your friends. And check out my new Backyard Winter Gardening book on the Amazon link to the right. -Caleb

Finished Being Fat

Learning to finish is a rare talent. The world is full of people who start -- especially at this time of year. My friend Betsy Schow has written a book about her own journey cutting her weight in half by learning how to finish. What I love about this book is the humor and voice. She never lectures. She doesn't take herself too seriously. But she is serious about learning to be a finisher.

Finished being Fat takes us on Betsy's accidental adventure that started out as yet another attempt to get rid of the weight around her middle, but snowballed into a year of changing her life, marriage and the way she raises her kids. While achieving a bucket list of impossible dreams on the side.

Whether your goal is losing weight, running a marathon, cleaning out the basement, or all of the above, this book will teach you how to achieve more than you ever thought possible without sacrificing your sanity or sense of humor.

Now let's hear from Betsy herself: 

"Let’s dispense with the shameless plugs at the start shall we? Buy my book, change your life, and learn to finish. Visit me at www.betsyschow.com to get your own free calorie budget and link to a beginner’s yoga routine. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Deseret Book and Seagull Book.

"Now onto the good stuff. During my adventure I learned my big fat problem had a whole lot less to do with being, well, big and fat, and more to do with the incredibly loud voice that screamed in the back of my head. As I was losing weight it would say, “Give up. You know you’re going to get fat again.” As I would write it would say, “Give up. You know no one is ever going to pay to read anything you’ve written.” After hearing that little voice for years, I believed it without question. I trusted that voice to be absolutely correct, so I did what it said and I gave up. On everything.

"Yes, that voice was just me, and it kept me from everything I truly wanted in life. I could, and had battled the pudge countless times in the past. But it was never permanent because of that nagging little demon that sat on my shoulder telling me what a loser I was. Some people, like Caleb, are born with a little cheerleader in their head that screams, “Look out, get the heck out of my way” the rest of us get the heckler that says, “You suck”. If I wanted to move beyond the ghosts of past failures, I had to kill off the voice and learn to finish what I started.

"Whether you are trying to write and publish your first book, working on losing weight for good, or just want to do something that seems impossible in your life - here are a few methods to get rid of the negative nagger in your brain.

Murder most foul
Use all of your creative juices and kill off the boogeyman in your head. Drown it, clobber it, attack it with a horde of demonic geese - just visualize you conquering your worst enemy ... you.

Tune it out
If it dares pop up again while you’re writing or running, or doing some other equally important thing to get get to your dream, then start singing showtunes. Okay, not really. But I’ve found if I’m listening to music or actively speaking or singing then I can’t listen to the little voice and all it’s yuckiness.

Change the conversation
If you hear something enough, you start to believe it. So start hearing good stuff instead of bad. Don’t go fishing for compliments to all our friends, do it yourself. Self affirmations, though cheesy and somewhat dorky, actually work. Some people go to the mirror and say, “Hey good looking”. I personally would say to myself, whenever I as doing something hard or scary, “You can do it, you’re awesome and you never give up”. After a while, I started to believe it.

Put up or shut up
This is the be all end all. Prove the stupid voice wrong. Everyday. Commit yourself to a life of finishing and give up being a quitter. Each thing you finish will build into a little mountain of proof you can show yourself. When the little voice says, “You can’t” point to the finishes you’re piling up and say, “I can. I did.” Every deadline you make, every race you finish, every day you survive - count them up and give yourself credit.

Shutting out the voice was just one of the things I learned on my journey. But now that I have, I’ve kept the 75 pounds off for almost 2 years now. Within a year I managed to run 2 marathons, 5 halfs, write 3 books (and sign contracts for them), and come to find a peace with who I am.  I can do anything I set out to do as long as I keep moving forward and never give up again.

I am a finisher.
Are you?

My Winter Garden, Jan. 3 2013

Happy winter, everyone :)

Two nights ago we had our lowest nighttime temperature so far this winter, hitting minus-four degrees below zero! Yet I'm happy to report that we still have loads of fresh winter vegetables, both in the backyard garden in cold frames (under a foot of snow!) and in the geothermal greenhouse, which is heated only by the heat of the earth, without any artificial heat or electricity. I recorded several videos today of me in the backyard garden opening cold frames for you to see inside, but this darn blog won't accept the videos for some reason. I'll try again in another post. In the meantime, here's a January tour of my winter garden, both in the greenhouse and outside in the cold frames. My new book is called "Backyard Winter Gardening: Vegetables Fresh and Simple, in Any Climate, Without Artificial Heat or Electricity, the Way Its Been Done for 2,000 Years." This book is the first vegetable-by-vegetable guide to winter gardening to be published in the U.S. to my knowledge. And it is now available for pre-order through Amazon :)

Above is a cluster of tomatoes in my geothermal greenhouse. I'm testing different varieties of tomatoes this year, and though they are getting larger faster, they are not ripening as fast as some of the varieties I used last year. Within the next week I will plant seeds from more than 20 different tomato varieties to test for winter germination. You will notice in the photo that the leaves of this tomato plant have suffered damage. This is because two nights ago our low was minus-four degrees, and last night it was zero. The geothermal greenhouse has no artificial heat, and the bitter cold damaged some leaves. But the plants are alive and will grow new leaves. The tomatoes are unharmed, though the cold does wrinkle some of them.

I have planted about 120 varieties of seed in my greenhouse to test for winter germination. I'm testing everything from peas to beans to squash to exotics, onions, carrots -- everything. I've learned the hard way that you cannot guess with varieties might be winter tolerate. Seeds from some countries that have never had a frost show excellent winter sturdiness, and seeds with names that would hint they would do well in winter don't even sprout. So I've made it my mission in life to test every known open-pollinated variety for winter germination. I've spent several thousand dollars just for seed in the past couple of years. Shhhh - don't tell my wife.

Above is a picture of one of my great frustrations this winter -- I believe I have a vole in the greenhouse. It's dug at least 20 feet of tunnels, which I have collapsed and flooded over and over, trying to hint to this creature that it is not welcome. But its very cold outside and I guess this vole thinks my wrath is better than Mother Nature's. The vole has been eating tomatoes like nobody's business, so I finally went and bought these stupid traps, hoping to catch it. But try as I might, I only snap my own fingers. I can't get these dumb things to stay set. Erg. I'm going go buy some glue traps next. The vole has also been eating my pea plants down to the root. So far the damage has mostly been tomatoes, and I have lots of tomatoes, but still...

Above is a picture of one of my backyard cold frames. We have a foot of snow outside right now, and these cold frames were literally frozen to the ground and have not been opened in two weeks. In this frame I planted three kinds of lettuce that I've never winter tested before. The variety in the middle failed, but the lettuce on each side is doing well -- not the best winter lettuce in the garden so far, but not bad.

This, above, is a shot of part of my geothermal greenhouse. In the foreground is a pineapple plant, in the background is peas and a bunch of containers where I'm testing seed varieties for winter germination.

This, above, is a picture of baby cabbages and mature lentils in a cold frame in the backyard garden, surrounded by deep snow. 

This is the fig tree in my greenhouse. It as only now begun to lose its leaves.

For five or six days last week, the temperature in my greenhouse was 34 degrees, and I had just planted more than 50 varieties of seeds -- and despite the cold and lack of sunlight (it was very stormy) I've had several plants begin to grow. An excellent test! When my tests are complete, I'll reveal the winners, probably in a book or maybe in a limited-time blogpost. Stay tuned :)

Above is the winner of 18 different kinds of lettuces I'm testing for winter germination. 

I'm especially hopeful about this picture, which is a cucumber seed putting out a root. Cucumbers have been grown in cold frames overwinter for more than 2,000 years, yet I have not been able to find a variety that will germinate in winter. This is the first cucumber I've tried which has developed a root. But I've learned from hard experience that just because a seed develops a root in winter does not mean it will grow leaves. So I'm watching. We'll see what happens. 

Another germination winner!

I'm testing more than a dozen kinds of peas for winter germination. You can see in this picture that two different kinds of peas are popping out of the ground -- so far, so good!

An over-view of a part of the greenhouse, with peas and containers of seeds planted for germination testing. 

Self-Sufficient Christmas

Every Christmas Eve, we do two things at our house. First, we go to our church for a short devotional, after which every single person is given a brown paper bag with an orange, peanuts in the shell, and a few candies. This tradition began 70 years ago, at the height of the Great Depression, when this was a very small town indeed, and families were looking at quite a bleak Christmas. The Burgess family owned an orchard (they still do), and they scrounged up some apples and a bit of candy and gave them to everyone in the town at church on Christmas Eve. There is no more perfect way to celebrate Christmas Eve, and we never miss it.

Afterward, we came home through the blowing snow to my scratch stew. This year, our stew was completely self-sufficient. You can see a picture of it above. The carrots were from our winter garden. I used in two kinds of potatoes, white russets and a rare all-red potato. The onions are from our garden, and, I'm proud to say, even the beef is from our property. Normally our beef comes from my parents' farm. Now we have our own beef. I diced an entire rump roast for this stew.

Delicious, and wholly self-sufficient. This self-provident stew is probably a close replica of what the original folk here would have eaten on Christmas Eve during the Great Depression. Certainly most of the farming families (it was all farming families then) would have used their own vegetables in their winter soup, and most likely their own protein too. Having our brown paper sack with an orange and peanuts, and a Christmas devotional, and self-provident stew felt like a humble and appropriate way to remember those who came before us, and their sacrifices. -Caleb

Fresh Lettuce, Yet It's 5 Degrees!

Today, Dec. 20, 2012 at dusk (4:45 p.m.) it was 24 degrees in my garden. Yesterday it never got above freezing at all, and last night the low was 5 degrees -- so cold we had to run the kitchen faucet all night to keep the pipes from freezing. Despite all this, we have a bounty of wonder in the outside garden.

It bumped above freezing long enough this afternoon to melt a little bit of the snow, so when me and the kids went out to pick lettuce, the cold frames were literally frozen to the ground -- some of them I couldn't pry open at all. Here is what we got -- fresh lettuce, kale, collard greens, and Swiss chard (pictured above). There are lots of other things out there too -- carrots, rutabaga, onions, peas, and more. If I ever get a half-hour I'll try to finish posting the photos from the full December winter garden tour.

One more thing before I sign off. When it was 24 degrees in the garden, we decided to go warm up in the geothermal greenhouse -- where it was a balmy 80 degrees! So warm and beautiful we didn't want to leave. I checked on the 50 varieties of seeds I planted a couple days ago, and the kids dug in the dirt and played. It's warmer in there than it is in the house! No artificial heat or electricity, either in the garden or in the greenhouse, yet full of fresh food, despite the bitter 5 degrees last night. -Caleb

Winter Garden -- Geothermal Greenhouse Dec. 2012

Here are pictures from my geothermal greenhouse -- heated by the heat of the earth, watered with snowmelt and rainwater all winter. No electricity, no running water, no artificial heat!

First, the good news about the tomatoes: I found the first two red tomatoes of winter! Now, the bad news: I went on vacation for a week, and forgot to water the greenhouse before I left, and the sun came out and it was 140 degrees in the greenhouse when I got home -- and the tomatoes were wilted from lack of water. I saved them, and but as you can see above, the plants are not looking the best. But there is more good news -- the plants are shooting our new, strong sprouts, and the sprouts are flowering, thank goodness. My fresh winter tomatoes are my pride and joy.

I bought this Kadota fig tree two and a half years ago at a nursery in St. George. I’d never had a fig tree before, but this variety is stable down to 35 degrees, so I knew it would be fine over winter in my greenhouse. It spent the summer outside in the garden, and last winter in the greenhouse. I assumed it would go dormant, and I didn’t water it, and all the leaves fell off, which I assumed was dormancy, and it nearly died of lack of water before I wised up. The root survived, and what you see above is all new growth from this summer, where it spent the summer in the garden again. In October I brought it into the greenhouse again, and have kept it well watered, and lo and behold -- the leaves have not fallen off, and neither has the fruit. But the fruit has also not ripened. Last summer it ripened all summer and I ate it all. Hmmm. I think it needs compost. Will these figs ever ripen? I’m hoping to see progress after the winter solstice at the end of the December. The solstice has a magical effect on plants in winter. (The solstice is the day when day and night are equal, and then the days begin to lengthen thereafter.)

The traditional winter cantaloupe, grown in hot beds in winter for hundreds of years. Mine got hit by the same heat and lack of water that hit the tomatoes, but is still alive. It should begin to thrive after the solstice. I’ll keep you informed. 

This is my three-year-old stevia plant. This is the plant they use to make natural sugar. Some of you have tasted it on my garden tours -- pure sugar in the leaves. I use it in recipes coming out in the back of my winter gardening novel -- yes, novel -- in April 2013! Each winter, the stems die back and the plant resprouts from the base. Above you can see the new shoots. I’m hoping to sell some live stevia starts this spring -- if I get around to doing the propagation.

Last winter, I wanted flowers in my greenhouse over winter for a splash of color, so I went to a local nursery and bought some pansies -- the only thing they had. Little did I know the plants were infested with aphids, which immediately infested my greenhouse. (I dealt with it organically and successfully and self-sufficiently. There is a whole chapter about it in my vegetable-by-vegetable guide to winter gardening, coming to bookstores everywhere April 2013 -- yes, I have TWO books coming out in April! Anyway, disheartened, I went back to the 200 year old books to see what people were growing in their greenhouses -- and found geraniums were among the best. So I got some geranium seed and sprouted these geraniums. I left them in the greenhouse all summer in the 140 degree heat and I assumed they would die, but they just hung out all summer -- and now they are thriving in December! Best of all, no aphids!

This is a Christmas cactus. No sign of blooms yet. This also spent all summer in the greenhouse, bearing the heat, and it is growing and happy in December now.

Three winters ago, my neighbor came over one day with a pineapple top they had planted and kept in the garden just for fun. It was growing, and they didn’t have a greenhouse, so she said, here, you have a greenhouse, you take it. So I did. Over the summer it looked like it was dying -- and then this fall, it sprouted a whole new plant off the side, as you can see above! So perhaps I will eventually get a fresh pineapple?! We’ll see. I’’m told it takes three years to mature a pineapple plant, so maybe this plant is on schedule. 

This is a test of greenhouse peas. I have done some testing of winter peas in the outside garden, but not a lot in the greenhouse. I was out of the peas I usually plant in the greenhouse over winter, so I’m trialing two new varieties. I planted these about three and a half weeks ago I believe. Both types are doing well, but one kind, over the past few days, has suddenly begun to shoot up and grow taller than the other. But both types have about the same amount of leaves per plant, and it is the number of leaves that determines the number of peas the plant will grow, so being taller may not actually mean anything in the end. I’ll keep you updated in January.

Well, with every success there is also problems. Some animal -- I suspect a vole -- has dug into my greenhouse to eat my chard. I”ve filled the hole and saved it once, and I’m trying to save it again. This chard plant is three years old. But it is December -- I suppose the vole is hungry. Luckily, I have LOTS of chard in the outside garden. 

This is my orange tree -- interestingly, it does better in winter than in summer. The greenhouse has some humidity and I think the dry summer hurts it. Now if I could just get some oranges...

And this has nothing to do with the greenhouse, but I thought I’d give a quick update on our baby chicks. They were hatched out, naturally, by one of our hens on Nov. 12 -- extremely unusual. We had three. When we came home from vacation, one had vanished. But the two that are left are thriving, despite the bitter cold. They have a good mom!

Christmas gifts from me to you -- recipes, seeds, yeast

As my Christmas gift to my blog readers, below you will find free recipes. And I’m encouraging everyone to give self-sufficiency for Christmas this year in the form of heirloom vegetable seeds. The squash seeds from our property -- all meticulously isolated for purity -- are available now, with winter lettuces, etc. I’m also giving free seeds with any order of $15 or more (my choice). I’m offering free LIVE natural yeast with every paid seed order of $15 or more. Check here to see the list of my seeds, which include some of the rarest in the world!

If you’d like signed copies of my books to give for Christmas, please email me with your order. Forgotten Skills is $20 for two copies, plus $5 shipping. Art of Baking with Natural Yeast is $25 for two copies, plus $5 shipping. To order, email calebwarnock@yahoo.com.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.  -Caleb

FASTEST, EASIEST COOKED WINTER SQUASH

Recipe copyright Caleb Warnock

1. Wash a winter squash. Cut into large chunks.

2. Steam on the stove with a blossom steamer or steamer pot. Dense squash (hubbards or Potimarron, etc. ) will be done in 20 minutes. Light squash (pumpkins) will take longer -- about 30 minutes.

3. Pierce with a fork to check that squash is now tender. Serve with butter.

OR, TO MAKE PUREE

3. let the squash cool about an hour. Using a butter knife or steak knife, remove skin from each piece. Puree in a blender, or through a mesh strainer using a spatula.

CREAMY CARROT BUTTERNUT SOUP -- IN A CROCKPOT!

Recipe copyright Caleb Warnock

1 medium butternut or other winter squash, cooked

1 cup cream

2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/2 teaspoon salt

7 carrots, finely diced

1 onion, chopped

1. Put broth, salt, chopped onion, cream, and cooked pumpkin into blender for 20 seconds.

2. Put pumpkin mixture into a crockpot on low. Add carrots. Cook 3-4 hours on low. Enjoy!

Fresh Winter Garden -- December Lettuce 2012

Hello All :) Here is the December 2012 update on my winter garden. Below is what my garden looked like on Dec. 11. Two nights before these photos were taken, the low temperature was 9 degrees. Despite the chill, a FRESH winter garden is not only possible, but will possibly be the easiest gardening you've ever done.


If you look carefully, you can see my simple cold frames under the snow. Below are pictures of what these cold frames are hiding from winter! Keep in mind there is absolutely no electricity or artificial heat involved here. Just a cold frame -- varieties of which have been used for more than 2,000 years. The first documented cold frame was used by Emperor Tiberius in the first century Rome. He grew cucumbers in winter. I wish I had his seed. I'm still trying to find a winter cucumber.  

Here is a picture of some of the winter lettuce inside the first cold frame:


This is a larger view of the same cold frame, showing several varieties of winter lettuce:


 
Here is a different variety of lettuce in cold frame #2. This lettuce is Winter Green Jewel Romaine, an heirloom (never hybrid). I'm the only seller of this seed in the world. This is the world's best winter lettuce. You'll see more of it in a moment.





Below is a picture of Winter Green Jewel Romaine sticking out of a cold frame, with snow on it, and it as been exposed to a night of 9 degrees -- and it hardly seems to notice!


This is my largest cold frame of lettuce. It is about 8 feet long and two feet wide. There are mustard greens up front, and the rest if Winter Green Jewel Romaine:


What can I say? I even have winter frogs :) I bought this in Oregon and had forgotten all about it until I found it in a sea of snow. I couldn't resist a picture.

This is cold frame #4, with several test varieties, and one proven variety:


This is a close-up of the east end of cold frame #4. In the back you will see Caleb's Deep Winter, which I introduced to the U.S. this year. I am the only seller of this seed in the country. (I am now sold out of this variety.)



Cold frame #5: This is the fastest growing lettuce I've ever found, and I've tried probably 100 different kinds of lettuce (and will try more this summer). You can also see multiplier onions in here. This lettuce gets huge and has already been cut down. It grows right back, despite the temperatures.