Friday, December 31, 2010

New Year's Eve Harvest

We finally had our first blizzard of the year, and it dropped a nice pile of snow on us. I wish we had it earlier as the snow is a perfect insulator for the pod. I've been sick as a dog, but I did go out and shovel the snow off the pod. I don't have a support in the middle and it seemed to hold up just fine with about a half a foot of snow piled on top.

The plants really haven't grown since I last peeked in it a couple weeks ago, but I felt it was time to give them a try. So on New Year's Eve I harvested Kale, Salad Greens, and a little spinach. That's kind of awesome.

Despite the cold the greens have held up well overall. Some have cold damage on them, but the majority are perfect. The greens taste great, just like any cold weather greens only better.

The Kale has held up amazingly with no signs of any cold damage on it. The flavor is unlike anything I have ever tasted before. Sweet, but with a number of other complex flavors that made it hard to put any in the bowl as I wanted them to go straight into my mouth.

It is a little difficult to harvest out of the pod if you don't completely remove the top. Since Michelle can't lift anything at the moment I had to leave it in place and just reach in as best I could.

I was really shocked to come across this daddy long legs in the pod. I wasn't really expecting much bug life in the pod.

Further inspection revealed that there are munching bugs in the pod as well as this leaf had a hole chewed out of the middle of it. It still tasted amazing though;)

On another note I broke my thermometer so no more readings for now. I blame the delirium caused by the cold. Clearly that's why I put it on top of the car like a dolt and forgot about it.

4 comments:

Michelle Clay said...

Michelle here. I have to add some more information. Opening this thing in the snow was a bad idea, because snow tumbled in onto the edge of the box, so that it no longer sealed properly. Chris had to shovel all the way around it and then hold it open while I scooped out the snow. Annoying.

Also, while the weather was below freezing, the box was frozen shut. Forcing it open would have damaged the seal. Another design flaw. Shouldn't the point of this thing be to enjoy a harvest in the middle of winter?

However, above-freezing days do happen, and the taste of that young kale is just to die for. I have never tasted anything like it. Like a nice lettuce in texture, but with a sweet little radishy zip. Nothing at all like the mature stuff, which I wouldn't contemplate eating in a salad. This is very salad-worthy. NOM NOM!

hero爺 said...

Well did to C4 san!

I think the pod has a suitable circumstances for the bugs also.

Diana said...

Fantastic! Harvesting fresh veggies in the snow. I'm jealous!

Carolyn ♥ said...

Lucky you to have fresh veggies in the snow! Hope you get your design flaws worked out... and hope you're soon feeling well.