We’re having an unseasonably warm couple of months here in Winnipeg.
While there is normally a warm spell around this time—there’s a winter festival every February that includes snow sculptures and it seems that every year it’s warmish at that time and the sculptures melt a bit—but this year has been warmer than normal. In fact, tomorrow it’s supposed to go up to +8 degrees Celsius. After that, though, we’re expecting a winter storm and some colder temps, so it’s evening out a bit.
The main concern about a too-early spring is that the perennial plants might come up a little too early, then be damaged if there’s a cold spell. However, since they’re perennials, they can likely get through it just fine. We won’t be planting anything until it’s finally and fully on the warmer side of things, which tends to be around the May long weekend.
The one exception is garlic. We normally plant that in the fall and let it rest under the snow all winter so it sprouts up first thing in the spring. We didn’t have time to do it last fall, so as soon as the ground is workable, we might plant the garlic so it’s still in there nice and early.
The seed orders have arrived
Last month’s garden update included a lengthy list of what seeds we need to order, what seedlings we’ll buy at the greenhouse, and what perennials we can expect to come up.
Sometimes it makes me think of this meme that was sent my way a while back:
We plant a lot of different things. When people ask me what we grow in our garden, I rattle off forty or fifty things and end my list with “I’m sure I’m forgetting a few plants”.
But when our goal is to grow all the food we’d need in a year—vegetables, some fruit, herbal teas, and alternative proteins—that requires the huge diversity that we’ve got going. It also helps balance things out if some crops do better than others. This past year, broccoli did very well, but peppers didn’t do as great as the year before, so overall it averages out to about the same total load as last year.
I’m working on a blog post for how to plan a garden to provide food for a year. It’ll mostly be based on our own experience, which may not be applicable to every reader, but it will hopefully provide a good starting point for those who are interested.
Still figuring out mushrooms
Last year we planted king oyster mushrooms under our cedar trees.
The results were…less than stellar.
After creating two large beds for mushrooms and investing considerable time and energy into it, we got one piddly mushroom.
However, in hindsight that might be best. While oyster mushrooms are great for cooking, they’re not great for preserving—while they dehydrate fine, they apparently don’t rehydrate very well as they turn into mush—and if we’d harvested a huge bounty, we’d either have to eat it all ASAP or throw some in the compost.
We are, however, determined to make the mushroom thing work.
I did some digging around and it looks like winecap mushrooms are beginner friendly for garden growing and my local mushroom supplier has winecap spawn. I still have to do more digging to see how well they dehydrate and rehydrate. However, this will likely be our next mushroom venture.
Keeping busy in the kitchen
I’ve had a little more time on my hands lately, so I’ve been working on a few things here for the blog.
Recent posts include:
I’ve got a few more projects coming up that I hope will make it on the blog too, including:
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Sourdough Bread
- Irish Soda Bread
- Pressure Canned Beef
- More Wine Recipes
- (I always forget to take photos which is why they don’t show up here too often)
- Dinner Recipes That Use Your Harvest
Looking ahead to spring
Next month’s garden update will likely be brief like this one, but then once May rolls around we’re launching full-on into garden season and these updates will be packed with photos and info. The summer is a hectic time of year and we’re always exhausted by the end of it, but we love it. And when it comes to this time of year, we’re already itching to get started outdoors.
I am getting excited for planting! And yes to sneaking in that early garlic.