These are carrots, gone to seed. They are from my test patch. I am rejecting this variety, as they are going to seed in the first year. I want a variety that will produce only a root the first year. Then I can store it and eat it. When I want seed, I will save some roots and plant them back in the ground next spring. Then they will flower, as in the picture, and produce seeds.

This is called redroot, a weed. It is an Amaranth. It has grown up to 8' tall in our garden. This is a seed head. These green flowers produce shiny black seeds, that when cooked burst open and produce a cereal like cream of wheat. This is a different species than the commercial amaranth sold in stores, but it is an edible nourishing food.

This is garlic. It was planted about the first of September, from cloves dug the same day. I had not harvested it on time and all the wrapper leaves were gone. I was told that this early planting, rather than waiting til the end of October, as most growers do, would give me better bulbs. Last year was my first year of growing garlic. I decided to just plant it all, rather than harvesting any for the kitchen, so I can increase the size of my patch. Only hardneck varieties will grow well in my northern climate.

This is butternut squash. The leaves are just about all dead. They squash have that chalky haze that indicates that they have reached maturity. We will soon be picking them. The chalky haze is due to many different species of microorganisms, replacing the ones that assisted the fruit in it's growth.

These are Concord grapes. I got this variety from a friends' backyard 30 years ago. This variety had been growing in his yard for 75 years. This year I harvested half of the grapes from each plant. They were averaging 15 brix. Within 3 days, the remaining half now averaged 19 brix. When God says to leave the fruit that you missed while picking, for the poor, the stranger and the beasts, He is giving them the best quality fruit. I observed a similar incident one winter in a Florida citrus grove. A freeze was coming. Half of the tangerines were picked from each tree, in part of the grove. The remaining fruits on these trees was not freeze damaged, because the brix level was increased in these fruits. In the section where no tangerines were picked off the trees, the fruit was freeze damaged.

This is Green Ice lettuce, a looseleaf semi-heading type. This patch here is from seed that I saved. It is the best tasting and sweetest of the lettuce varieties that we have grown here. It is enjoyable to eat straight, as is, out of the garden. To save seed, leave several plants in the ground and they will shoot up a flower stalk. It will grow 3-4 ' tall and will have hundreds of tiny flowers. When the flowers finish blooming, each flower head will have several seeds in it. Cut the whole stalk and let it dry and save all the flower heads. It will look like a mess of debris, but scatter it on tilled ground for a fall crop of lettuce. That is how I got the patch that you see in the picture.

Here are some of my fall greens. On the top is collards, which need to be thinned. In the middle is Chinese cabbage, variety fun jen, a very delicious tasting green. On the bottom is Red Russian kale. They were put in the first week of August; it is now the second week of September. These greens can take alot of frost. The Red Russian kale has stayed alive after temperatures dropped to 5 below zero, because it was mulched with 8" of leaves, which kept the roots alive.