First Frost

Well, the almanac said that our area would have its first frost on October 30, and it was dead on.  The morning of October 30, I wandered out to the garden and discovered wilted crookneck pumpkin leaves and wilted sweet potato leaves.  A light frost had hit overnight.

I did a little picking that day.  Only the vining plants were wilted, and I went ahead and picked the last of the ripe crookneck pumpkins.  This week I will harvest the sweet taters.  I also picked a huge handful of strawberries!  Yes, our crazy little strawberry patch is still producing.

They're not really the same as the berries we get when they first start producing, but they taste good.  I'm not complaining at all about a strawberry that I harvest on October 30.  Just getting anything is amazing to me.

The evening of the 30th, the frost was harder.  The next morning, thick frost covered the turnips, radishes, most of the leafy stuff in the garden.  A 5 gallon bucket of water I left outside had a layer of ice on the top.  I thought that maybe that was it for the turnips, but I was wrong.  This morning I checked them, and they were just fine...

These turnips laugh at frost.  They smack frost around a little bit, and demand frost bring them a Coke and make them a sammich.  Nonetheless, I need to pick these things this week.  I was giving them a little longer to let the roots develop more, but I don't want to miss out on turnip greens cooked with onions and bacon.  Time to pull.