EATING FRESH ALL YEAR ROUND

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FALL HARVEST & STORAGE

Which vegetable stores well? Where? For how long? Mort Mather sorts out the details in part one of our Harvest Special.

I am continually amazed at all the things that go on in a vegetable garden. Each year is different — changed by the weather, by my own "experiments" with fertility, by the varieties I grow, and perhaps by my attitude. Each vegetable is different in color, size, shape, taste, growing characteristics. Take storage characteristics, for example. There are some vegetables that can't be stored while others can be thrown in a corner and stay wonderful for six months. Go figure.

I grew up with my mother telling me there was no such word as "can't," so I better fix that. You can store lettuce by drying it. I just don't know what to do with dried lettuce. Smoke it? After more than 20 years of harvest success and failure, bounty and boondoggle, I've planted just about everything that I thought had a fighting chance in our northern climate, and the list that follows, though not absolutely comprehensive, provides a bird's-eye view of how your produce should be doing at the end of the season, as well as some storage secrets that will keep a steady supply of it on your dinner plates through the year.

LETTUCE

There are a number of vegetables that I don't store any longer than they will keep in the refrigerator. Lettuce is one of these, but I love lettuce so I want to have it fresh from the garden for as long as possible. I extend the season in the spring by starting seedlings in the house. The first lettuce from transplants will reach the table in mid-June. That planting will have pretty much gone by in a month, which is when the second planting, planted from seed in mid-May, should be ready for harvest. Plantings in mid-June, mid-July and mid-August will keep the lettuce coming until November. We have even had lettuce from the garden on the Thanksgiving table. People in more southern climates may not think that is much of a feat, but our first fall frost comes around September 20.

Lettuce is not killed by early frosts because the cell walls are more elastic than most vegetables. When the water within the cells expands as it freezes, the cell walls expand also. Tender crops like cucumbers die at the first light frost because their cell walls burst.

KALE, KOHLRABI, RADISH & TURNIP

Kale is another hardy vegetable that we don't store. It is wonderful in soups. I like it steamed and seasoned with vinegar. This is the way I like spinach also. Spinach in the spring and kale in the fall is the way I like it. I just don't care for kale well enough to want it around a lot. It will last longer in the fall than lettuce and it seems to get better after a frost. I can't tell you how long kale will last because the deer always cut the season short for me. One of these years I will keep them out of the fall garden.

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