Chard----Beating the Reaper

Today is the 9Th of November. It snowed about 5 inches, a wet heavy slush that weighted down the cedars and buried the Chard. The temperature hovered all day just above freezing. While yesterday I did manage to get a small bowl of red raspberries for my cereal, that was it on the fruit front. No more.



But this evening as I slipped out of the wood pile, there was a few leaves of very green Chard peaking through the snow. While many of the plants had been picked down there still remained a good meal of rich greens under the snow.

While it has been freezing every night, the Chard always rebounded during mid day and seemed to still be growing, and certainly remained very edible. But the forecast for tonight is 26 and tomorrow night 22. In the world of chard that is reaper time. While they have not gone gently into that good night, there was no way growth could go on much longer. It was time for the last good-by for this season. Not bad I would say.

The next fresh vegetables will show up in April, so unless we go to the just-in-time delivery of fresh things from Mexico and South America, it is 5 months of laid-away vegetables and fruit. Interestingly, it was not that long ago when only stored, or canned products was the way it was for everybody here in the north.

I do remember as a kid getting oranges and grapefruit in winter, but not much more. Wonder what the Native Americans ate?