Thanksgiving delivery

I gathered up the second-to-last harvest from the rooftop garden for a delivery timed for the pre-Thanksgiving Fresh Market at Breakthrough Urban Ministries.  

Mustard greens with yellow turnips in the background.

Multi-colored chard.

Breakthrough Urban Ministries is located in East Garfield Park.

The delivery was flush with greens and root vegetables - multi-colored chard, mustard greens, radishes and yellow turnips.

The spread on the Fresh Market table.

Yellow turnips and radishes

The collard greens are now the only veggies left on the roof!  They will get harvested before it gets to freezing daytime temperatures.

The collard greens holding their own against the cold in the late fall rooftop garden.

The Dormant Season Begins

Okra stalks and the lower-growing cold weather stalwarts

It is already mid-November, and the vegetables in the boxes are at the end for this season.

The okra didn't make it to maturity after all - the time from planting at the end of July to the first cold weather was just too short for these tropical transplants.  Though we haven't had a "hard freeze" yet, the okra leaves have withered, leaving just the tough stalks standing, as you can see in the photo above.

Notice also that there are still some leafy greens at the bottom of the okra stalks.  While the okra can't tolerate the cold, some plants do quite well in it.  Vegetables in the Brassica genus (collard greens, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower to name a few) really shine when the weather turns colder and the days get shorter.  They have a clever adaptation to survive in colder weather - they move water out of their leaves and into their roots, to prevent the leaves from freezing.  The leaves then have a higher concentration of sugars, which is very tasty! 

Collard greens, getting sweeter as it gets colder