Flame Tree Co-op We are a member-owned, not-for-profit co-operative with a focus on sustainable, local and ethical food. Buena Vista Farm A family farm dedicated to practicing sustainable agriculture and encouraging people to make connections with where food comes from.

Farmers By Choice Farmers By Choice in Bulli is a square metre yard which is a thriving urban farm. Green Connect At Green Connect, we create jobs, reduce waste and grow fair food. Popes Produce Inspiring homegrown food adventures. Local groups and resources.

Local Group Sustainable Illawarra Facebook Group. Local Group Slow Food Is Good, Clean And Fair Food. Watch Organic Regenerative Farming is the Future of Agriculture The Future of Food In this film, organic market gardeners Frank and Josje talk about why the supermarket system doesn't work and how Community Supported Agriculture fits into a new story for food growing.

Play Video. Read Suggested books. A Pocket Guide to Sustainable Food Shopping — Kate Bratskeir View Book. For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems — Nicole Masters View Book.

Browse What is Sustainable Food — Sustainability Victoria SBS — What about sustainable vegetables? Conserve Energy future — 7 Things You Need to Know Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture Sustainable Table: All things ethical eating.

These approaches are widely employed in specialty crop agriculture today. Modern pesticides are far, far less toxic to us and far less damaging to the environment, and used in an IPM approach they are a key part of making sustainable use of the other resources that go into growing a crop.

One of the most challenging issues for specialty crop farming is that many require a great deal of human hand labor. Future demographic trends towards an older society mean that manual farm labor will only become more difficult to supply and more expensive.

Any changes that allow increased mechanization or changes that reduce labor costs e. more uniformity of maturity for harvest will make a given crop more sustainable. As land, water and labor supplies are stretched, this sort of intensification makes more and more sense.

This is really a post-farmgate issue, but since most growers intentionally grow intending for sales to one of those specific markets, I will include it in this list.

Society has a preference for fresh produce and there can certainly be flavor and nutritional advantages; however, getting fresh produce to distant markets in good condition is an energy-intensive endeavor. There are some fruit and vegetable crops that can be very flavorful and nutritious in frozen form, and with good insulation, once the energy has been spent to get it frozen, it can be stored and shipped that way quite efficiently.

A good comparative life cycle analysis LCA could define which commodities might be best delivered frozen, at least for parts of the year. You are invited to comment here or email me at savage.

sd gmail. My website is Applied Mythology. Steve, One of the changes we are seeing here in the Great Northwest is density, which could be 9 on your list. As we go through the planning process, and giving sustainability its due diligence, we know that for optimal land use we need to plant as many as four times the number of trees per acre as one would have in a traditional orchard.

By controlling height and width of the trees it simplifies overall management and decreases man hours required for pruning and picking. The orchard becomes a pedestrian enterprise eliminating the needs for ladders and minimizing the need to have as many implements.

Additionally we cut fuel and chemical costs further per ton by the increased efficiency. March Update: Click the link. Tatsoi is a very cold-hardy green down to 10°F, —12°C , one of the ones we grow in our hoophouse to feed us after the winter solstice, when the crops have started to be fewer in number and each is less abundant in production rate.

We have also grown this one outdoors in the fall for early winter eating, but no longer do this as the rate of growth inside the hoophouse is much better.

I have been writing about a particular Asian green once a month since last May. Like Asian greens in general, tatsoi is a great crop for filling out winter CSA bags or market booths, and ultimately, dinner tables. Because the Asian greens are so varied in color, texture, shape and spiciness, you can add a lot of diversity to your crops by growing a selection that is easy to grow and can all be treated the same way.

They are as easy to grow as kale. They germinate at a wide range of temperatures and make fast growth much faster than lettuce in cold weather! Botanically, tatsoi is Brassica rapa var. narinosa , cousin of other turnip family greens such as Chinese cabbage , Tokyo Bekana , pak choy , mizuna and komatsuna.

It is a more distant cousin of the Brassica oleracea greens such as Vates kale, Chinese kale and kai-lan, and of crops in the Chinese Mustard family, Brassica juncea the frilly mustards like Ruby Streaks and Golden Frills.

Tatsoi is a relatively small plant with shiny, dark green spoon-shaped leaves and green-white stems. If given plenty of space it grows as a flat rosette, but if crowded it takes on a flowerpot shape.

For sale, the whole plants are cut and the leaves banded together, so crowding them does not at all make them less marketable. It has a pleasant mild flavor. Although we transplant most of our brassicas, to allow the beds more time without this crop family which we grow lots of , we direct sow this one, which will have many plants in a small space.

Tatsoi has similar care requirements to other brassicas. Very fertile soils grow the best Asian greens, so turn in leguminous cover crops or compost to provide adequate nutrition. Asian greens are shallow rooted — Pay extra attention to providing enough water to prevent bitter flavors and excess pungency.

Do close monitoring for pests, which can build up large populations during late summer. We do nothing special for our tatsoi, but if you have a lot of brassica flea beetles or uncontrolled caterpillars, cover the sowings or new transplants with insect netting such as ProtekNet.

If you are growing tatsoi outdoors in late fall, you could use rowcover to keep your plants alive longer into the winter. We make a second sowing in mid-November. The first sowing will feed us for two months, November and December. The second sowing will feed us for a much shorter period of time: the second half of February, first week of March.

It would bolt if we tried to keep it any longer. After this, we harvest individual leaves for salad or cooking. Once we get close to the time the plants would bolt, we pull up whole plants and use them for cooking.

Overcrowding can lead to early bolting. In the big scheme of things, we harvest Tokyo Bekana and Maruba Santoh for heads in December, along with our first tatsoi; our first Yukina Savoy, our Chinese cabbage and Pak Choy in January, our second tatsoi and Yukina Savoy in February and early March.

Non-heading leafy greens such as Senposai, spinach and chard feed us all winter until mid-March when we need the hoophouse space for spring crops. Read more about Yukina Savoy here in March. This planting of spinach is to be used as bare root transplants outdoors in March.

Since I got home, I updated my Winter-Kill Temperatures list, which appears in the slideshow. Compared to my list for , there are a few differences, nothing major. We had some extremely cold weather, as I reported last week with some sorry pictures of lettuces.

Now I have some photos of the outdoor crops too. The Vates kale had mixed survival, the rowcovered Reflect and Avon spinach are damaged but OK, the Tadorna leeks are battered but hanging in there so are we! For several years I have been keeping records of how well our crops do in the colder season.

I note each increasingly cold minimum temperature and when the various crops die of cold, to fine tune our planting for next year. Your own experience with your soils, micro-climates and rain levels may lead you to use different temperatures in your crop planning.

Our double-skin hoophouse keeps night time temperatures about 8F 4. In the hoophouse 8F warmer than outside plants without extra rowcover can survive 14F colder than they could survive outside; 21F colder than outside with rowcover 1.

For example, salad greens in a hoophouse can survive nights with outdoor lows of 14°F °C without inner rowcover. Lettuce, mizuna, turnips, Russian kales, Senposai, Tyee spinach, tatsoi, Yukina Savoy survived a hoophouse temperature of One of many wheelbarrows full of compost we spread on our raised beds every year.

Photo Wren Vile In the past year, my top post has been Soil Tests and High Phosphorus Levels. Ugly, but not dead yet! Tokyo bekana outdoors on January 7, after several cold nights, at least two at 20F, two at 18F, one each at 15F and 12F.

Photo Pam Dawling In third place is Winter-Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Vegetables , and in fourth place is Winter-Kill Temperatures of Winter-Hardy Vegetables Pulling garlic scapes. Photo Wren Vile Cover Crops in Summer is number 6 in popularity.

Crates of potatoes in our root cellar. Photo Nina Gentle Harvesting Melons is next. Young bush bean plants. Photo Pam Dawling Green Beans All Summer is close behind. China Rose Winter Radish. Photo Seed Savers Exchange You can find a wealth of information on my website about growing, harvesting and storing winter vegetables.

Fall and Winter Vegetable Growing Season extension into cold weather Prepare your garden for colder weather: plant winter crops if there is still time, use rowcover on hoops to protect crops from wind and cold weather, plant up every little bit of space in your greenhouse or hoophouse.

com: Winter Gardening: Best Crops to Extend Your Harvest Shannon suggests using a variety of strategies. See my posts Fast Growing Vegetables Cold-hardy vegetables Winter-Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Vegetables Winter Hardiness Cold-hardy Winter Vegetables Slideshow Cold-tolerant lettuce and the rest Fall-grown senposai.

Photo Pam Dawling Good late season vegetables: salad greens, Swiss chard, beans, peas in climates milder than 7 , carrots, radishes, senposai, spinach, pak choy, cabbage and winter lettuces.

This category includes Asian greens, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, leeks, scallions, spinach, turnips and other root vegetables, Good crop protection so you can grow some crops through the winter.

Using a sturdy digging fork to harvest leeks in December. Photo Pam Dawling Good slow growing crops to harvest outdoors in late winter or early spring. Good crops to grow in hoophouses include arugula, beets, chard, Chinese cabbage, collards, kale, lettuce, Maruba Santoh, mizuna, mustards, pak choy, parsley, radishes, spinach, tatsoi, Tokyo bekana, turnips and Yukina Savoy Hoophouse Bright Lights chard in winter.

Photo Wren Vile See my posts Planning winter hoophouse crops Hoophouses I visited this month The hoophouse in fall and winter Sowing hoophouse winter crops Mid-winter hoophouse harvests Winter hoophouse growing Preparing for winter hoophouse harvests Hoophouse winter greens, Fall and Winter Vegetable Harvest See my posts Garden Planning, Winter Harvests Slideshow on late fall, winter and early spring vegetables Getting ready for frost, harvesting sweet potatoes Garlic harvest Snipping, Sorting and Storing Garlic Harvesting and Storing Winter Squash Vegetable harvests Harvesting carrots Harvested Purple Top Milan and White Egg turnips.

Photo Pam Dawling Here are some links to a couple of good sources for more harvest information: Piedmont Master Gardeners Garden Shed Newsletter Guidelines for Harvesting Vegetables by Pat Chadwick A list of seven basic principles of harvesting, followed by a crop-by-crop list of almost 50 individual crops and a resource list of 18 publications focused on the mid-Atlantic and Southeast Roxbury Farm Harvest Manual Roxbury Agriculture Institute at Philia Farm October Tips from Harvest to Table , by Steve Albert covers all climate zones and comes complete with a USDA Hardiness Zone Map Links to other posts by Steve Albert How to Prepare a Winter Vegetable Garden Predicting Frost in the Garden Garden Tips for October Fall and Winter Vegetable Storage I already have posts on root cellar potato storage, onion storage alliums for August , Garlic storage, Storage vegetables slide show, Root Crops April, Feb, Jan, Dec, Nov.

See my posts Storing potatoes Harvesting and Storing Winter Squash Root cellar potato storage Storage Vegetables slide show Sweet potatoes in storage. An ideal crop for winter meals, as they store at room temperature for a long time, maybe seven or eight months.

Photo Pam Dawling. Eat-All Greens rows with frost in December. October and part of November are still productive growing weeks in central Virginia. Photo Bridget Aleshire Gardening does not end with the first frost! DIY weather-forecasting I recommend learning your local weather patterns by keeping records and watching what happens.

Beds after rain, Photo Wren Vile Rain statistically fairly evenly distributed throughout the year in our county has slight peaks in January, February and March, and again in early June and August. Blackberry leaf with frost. Photo by Ezra Freeman Our average first frost date is October Four Ranges of Cold-Hardy Crops for Harvest at Various Stages of Winter This simple model helps reduce confusion and set priorities 1.

Crops to harvest before cold fall weather 32°°F and store indoors : Michihili Chinese Cabbage. Crops to keep alive in the ground into winter to 22°°F -6°C to -9°C , then harvest. Bucket of freshly harvested Detroit Dark Red beets for storage.

Photo Pam Dawling Store: B eets before °F Use soon: Asian greens, broccoli, cabbage, chard, lettuce, radishes 3. Hardy crops to store in the ground and harvest during the winter. Photo Pam Dawling In zone 7, such crops need to be hardy to 0°°F Overwinter crops for spring harvests before the main season.

A stormy winter day, garlic, rowcovered spinach beds and our hoophouse. Photo Wren Vile In zone 7, they need to be hardy to 0°°F The daytime high temperature was less than 70°F 21°C. The sky is clear. The temperature at sunset is less than 50°F 10°C. The dew point forecast is low, close to freezing.

Frost is unlikely if the dew point is 43°F or more. The Wunderground 3. The soil is dry and cool. The moon is full or new. Ice on the pond. Credit Ezra Freeman Frost Alert Card For just this time of year, we keep a Frost Alert Card reminding us which crops to pay attention to if a frost threatens.

Cover lettuce, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, beans, Chinese cabbage, pak choy, lettuce and celery. Harvest all ripe tomatoes, eggplant, corn, limas, cowpeas, okra, melons.

Harvest peppers facing the open sky, regardless of color. Often only the top of the plant will get frosted. Check winter squash and harvest any very exposed squash. Set up sprinklers for the night, on tomatoes, peppers and a cluster of beds with high value crops. Peppers that are protected by leaves can survive a light frost.

Photo Pam Dawling We really like this pepper strategy we have developed: by picking just the peppers exposed to the sky, we reduce the immediate workload and the immediate pile up of peppers in the cooler!

Frost Alert List Task Crop Notes Harvest all edible Asparagus beans Harvest all edible Eggplant Harvest all edible Okra Harvest all edible Tomatoes Including green ones Harvest all edible Peppers exposed to the sky Harvest all edible West Indian gherkins Harvest all edible Pickling cucumbers Harvest all edible Corn Harvest all edible Beans 4, 5, 6, then cover Uncover once mild again Thick row cover Squash Spring hoops or none.

Ditto Thick row cover Slicing cucumbers Spring hoops or none. Ditto Thick row cover Celery Double hoops — leave covered Thick row cover Last lettuce bed Double hoops — leave covered Set sprinklers Slicer tomatoes Overnight from before 32F till after sun shines on plants Set sprinklers Roma paste tomatoes and peppers Ditto Set sprinklers Other vulnerable raised bed crops Ditto Sun Gold cherry tomatoes.

Pick the green and the ripe ones before a frost. Photo Pan Dawling Cold Weather Crop Protection Rowcover — thick 1. Use hoops. Low tunnels and Quick Hoops are wider version of using rowcover. They need the edges weighting down.

Best for climates where the crops are being stored in the ground until spring, when they start growing again. Less useful in climates like ours which have very variable winter temperatures, and are warm enough that we realistically expect to harvest during the winter, not just before and after.

Caterpillar tunnels — 2 beds plus 1 path, tall enough to walk in. Rope holds cover in place, no sandbags.

Moreover, these food groups are closely tied to SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production. Sustainable cultivation and consumption practices of fruits and vegetables can significantly reduce food waste. This is crucial in the context of global food systems, where waste not only represents a loss of valuable resources but also contributes to environmental degradation.

Promoting sustainable agriculture practices in fruit and vegetable farming can also enhance biodiversity and soil health, contributing to more resilient ecosystems. The production of fruits and vegetables, particularly through small-scale and family farming, has a notable impact on SDG 1 No Poverty.

These farming practices can be a source of income for many rural families, contributing to poverty alleviation. By providing employment opportunities and potentially increasing farmers' earnings, fruit and vegetable cultivation can improve livelihoods.

Additionally, these practices often require less capital investment compared to large-scale farming, making them more accessible to smallholder farmers. Furthermore, the cultivation and trade of fruits and vegetables can influence SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth.

By creating jobs in both farming and the broader agricultural supply chain, including processing, marketing, and retail, the sector contributes to economic growth.

This is particularly relevant in developing countries, where agriculture remains a key economic sector. Lastly, these food groups play a role in addressing SDG 13 Climate Action.

The agricultural practices associated with fruit and vegetable farming can be adapted to be more climate-resilient and can contribute to carbon sequestration.

Moreover, by promoting local production and consumption, the carbon footprint associated with transportation can be reduced. The cultivation, trade, and consumption of fruits and vegetables intersect with multiple SDGs, showcasing their multifaceted importance.

From enhancing food security and nutrition to contributing to sustainable economic growth and environmental sustainability, these food groups are pivotal in the global endeavor to achieve sustainable development by However, fruit and vegetable by-products FVB may be transformed into fibre-rich flours and bioactive compounds, mainly bound to the fibre, thus bringing value to the food industry due to health benefits and technological functionality.

Therefore, these by-products have great potential to be applied in several food industries. Vegetable farming also helps farmers create livelihood stability.

By growing their own vegetables, farmers can reduce their dependence on expensive and often unreliable food markets, improving their resilience to external shocks, such as price spikes or supply chain disruptions.

Vegetable farming provides significant advantages for farmers looking to manage resources effectively. The crops have a lower water requirement compared to others, enabling farmers to conserve soil moisture and optimize water allocation for agricultural purposes.

When farmers incorporate crop diversification, which often includes the cultivation of vegetables, they can help mitigate crop failure due to extreme weather events. Crop diversification also provides farmers with an alternative source of income and minimizes the financial risks associated with potential crop failure.

For farmers, the cultivation of vegetables offers the added benefit of acting as cover crops to enhance soil health and productivity. When strategically implemented, vegetables can shield the soil from erosion, conserve moisture, and effectively suppress weed growth.

During the harvesting time, vegetable waste can be efficiently utilized for composting. Composting vegetable waste yields rich organic matter, which enhances soil nutrient content and structure when added back to the soil.

Together, all of these factors—improving how farmers can manage their water supply, harvests, and soils, through vegetable farming—mean farmers can optimize resources, lower production costs, and improve overall profitability.

There are many different and overlapping gardening approaches and philosophies that are safe for people and good for the environment.

Organic and sustainable approaches are similar and complementary. The program is administered in Maryland by the Maryland Department of Agriculture. A similar certification program is not available for organic gardeners.

As a result, organic gardeners vary widely in their practices with the vast majority avoiding synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Is defined as growing vegetables year after year by relying on locally available materials and resources, practicing the 4Rs reduce, re-use, recycle, rethink , and minimizing negative environmental impacts.

How to Start a Vegetable Garden.

How to Start a Vegetable Garden. Still have a question? Contact us at Ask Extension. What is Organic or Sustainable Vegetable Gardening? Updated: February 20, Organic and sustainable garden approaches Gardens and landscapes are not natural areas.

The cornerstones of organic gardening are Improving soil health by feeding the soil food web with organic matter and recycling nutrients.

Promoting sustainable agriculture practices in fruit and vegetable farming can also enhance biodiversity and soil health, contributing to more resilient ecosystems. The production of fruits and vegetables, particularly through small-scale and family farming, has a notable impact on SDG 1 No Poverty.

These farming practices can be a source of income for many rural families, contributing to poverty alleviation. By providing employment opportunities and potentially increasing farmers' earnings, fruit and vegetable cultivation can improve livelihoods.

Additionally, these practices often require less capital investment compared to large-scale farming, making them more accessible to smallholder farmers. Furthermore, the cultivation and trade of fruits and vegetables can influence SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth.

By creating jobs in both farming and the broader agricultural supply chain, including processing, marketing, and retail, the sector contributes to economic growth.

This is particularly relevant in developing countries, where agriculture remains a key economic sector. Lastly, these food groups play a role in addressing SDG 13 Climate Action. The agricultural practices associated with fruit and vegetable farming can be adapted to be more climate-resilient and can contribute to carbon sequestration.

Moreover, by promoting local production and consumption, the carbon footprint associated with transportation can be reduced. The cultivation, trade, and consumption of fruits and vegetables intersect with multiple SDGs, showcasing their multifaceted importance.

From enhancing food security and nutrition to contributing to sustainable economic growth and environmental sustainability, these food groups are pivotal in the global endeavor to achieve sustainable development by However, fruit and vegetable by-products FVB may be transformed into fibre-rich flours and bioactive compounds, mainly bound to the fibre, thus bringing value to the food industry due to health benefits and technological functionality.

Therefore, these by-products have great potential to be applied in several food industries. Foods with probiotics are in high demand by consumers given their associated health properties that make them the most popular functional foods. Probiotics have primarily been used in products of lactic acid origin.

However, nondairy foods are increasingly being used as carriers of probiotics because the population exhibits high levels of lactose intolerance.

Do close monitoring for pests, which can build up large populations during late summer. We do nothing special for our tatsoi, but if you have a lot of brassica flea beetles or uncontrolled caterpillars, cover the sowings or new transplants with insect netting such as ProtekNet.

If you are growing tatsoi outdoors in late fall, you could use rowcover to keep your plants alive longer into the winter. We make a second sowing in mid-November. The first sowing will feed us for two months, November and December. The second sowing will feed us for a much shorter period of time: the second half of February, first week of March.

It would bolt if we tried to keep it any longer. After this, we harvest individual leaves for salad or cooking. Once we get close to the time the plants would bolt, we pull up whole plants and use them for cooking.

Overcrowding can lead to early bolting. In the big scheme of things, we harvest Tokyo Bekana and Maruba Santoh for heads in December, along with our first tatsoi; our first Yukina Savoy, our Chinese cabbage and Pak Choy in January, our second tatsoi and Yukina Savoy in February and early March.

Non-heading leafy greens such as Senposai, spinach and chard feed us all winter until mid-March when we need the hoophouse space for spring crops. Read more about Yukina Savoy here in March.

This planting of spinach is to be used as bare root transplants outdoors in March. Since I got home, I updated my Winter-Kill Temperatures list, which appears in the slideshow.

Compared to my list for , there are a few differences, nothing major. We had some extremely cold weather, as I reported last week with some sorry pictures of lettuces. Now I have some photos of the outdoor crops too. The Vates kale had mixed survival, the rowcovered Reflect and Avon spinach are damaged but OK, the Tadorna leeks are battered but hanging in there so are we!

For several years I have been keeping records of how well our crops do in the colder season. I note each increasingly cold minimum temperature and when the various crops die of cold, to fine tune our planting for next year.

Your own experience with your soils, micro-climates and rain levels may lead you to use different temperatures in your crop planning.

Our double-skin hoophouse keeps night time temperatures about 8F 4. In the hoophouse 8F warmer than outside plants without extra rowcover can survive 14F colder than they could survive outside; 21F colder than outside with rowcover 1.

For example, salad greens in a hoophouse can survive nights with outdoor lows of 14°F °C without inner rowcover. Lettuce, mizuna, turnips, Russian kales, Senposai, Tyee spinach, tatsoi, Yukina Savoy survived a hoophouse temperature of One of many wheelbarrows full of compost we spread on our raised beds every year.

Photo Wren Vile In the past year, my top post has been Soil Tests and High Phosphorus Levels. Ugly, but not dead yet! Tokyo bekana outdoors on January 7, after several cold nights, at least two at 20F, two at 18F, one each at 15F and 12F.

Photo Pam Dawling In third place is Winter-Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Vegetables , and in fourth place is Winter-Kill Temperatures of Winter-Hardy Vegetables Pulling garlic scapes. Photo Wren Vile Cover Crops in Summer is number 6 in popularity.

Crates of potatoes in our root cellar. Photo Nina Gentle Harvesting Melons is next. Young bush bean plants. Photo Pam Dawling Green Beans All Summer is close behind. China Rose Winter Radish.

Photo Seed Savers Exchange You can find a wealth of information on my website about growing, harvesting and storing winter vegetables. Fall and Winter Vegetable Growing Season extension into cold weather Prepare your garden for colder weather: plant winter crops if there is still time, use rowcover on hoops to protect crops from wind and cold weather, plant up every little bit of space in your greenhouse or hoophouse.

com: Winter Gardening: Best Crops to Extend Your Harvest Shannon suggests using a variety of strategies. See my posts Fast Growing Vegetables Cold-hardy vegetables Winter-Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Vegetables Winter Hardiness Cold-hardy Winter Vegetables Slideshow Cold-tolerant lettuce and the rest Fall-grown senposai.

Photo Pam Dawling Good late season vegetables: salad greens, Swiss chard, beans, peas in climates milder than 7 , carrots, radishes, senposai, spinach, pak choy, cabbage and winter lettuces.

This category includes Asian greens, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, leeks, scallions, spinach, turnips and other root vegetables, Good crop protection so you can grow some crops through the winter.

Using a sturdy digging fork to harvest leeks in December. Photo Pam Dawling Good slow growing crops to harvest outdoors in late winter or early spring. Good crops to grow in hoophouses include arugula, beets, chard, Chinese cabbage, collards, kale, lettuce, Maruba Santoh, mizuna, mustards, pak choy, parsley, radishes, spinach, tatsoi, Tokyo bekana, turnips and Yukina Savoy Hoophouse Bright Lights chard in winter.

Photo Wren Vile See my posts Planning winter hoophouse crops Hoophouses I visited this month The hoophouse in fall and winter Sowing hoophouse winter crops Mid-winter hoophouse harvests Winter hoophouse growing Preparing for winter hoophouse harvests Hoophouse winter greens, Fall and Winter Vegetable Harvest See my posts Garden Planning, Winter Harvests Slideshow on late fall, winter and early spring vegetables Getting ready for frost, harvesting sweet potatoes Garlic harvest Snipping, Sorting and Storing Garlic Harvesting and Storing Winter Squash Vegetable harvests Harvesting carrots Harvested Purple Top Milan and White Egg turnips.

Photo Pam Dawling Here are some links to a couple of good sources for more harvest information: Piedmont Master Gardeners Garden Shed Newsletter Guidelines for Harvesting Vegetables by Pat Chadwick A list of seven basic principles of harvesting, followed by a crop-by-crop list of almost 50 individual crops and a resource list of 18 publications focused on the mid-Atlantic and Southeast Roxbury Farm Harvest Manual Roxbury Agriculture Institute at Philia Farm October Tips from Harvest to Table , by Steve Albert covers all climate zones and comes complete with a USDA Hardiness Zone Map Links to other posts by Steve Albert How to Prepare a Winter Vegetable Garden Predicting Frost in the Garden Garden Tips for October Fall and Winter Vegetable Storage I already have posts on root cellar potato storage, onion storage alliums for August , Garlic storage, Storage vegetables slide show, Root Crops April, Feb, Jan, Dec, Nov.

See my posts Storing potatoes Harvesting and Storing Winter Squash Root cellar potato storage Storage Vegetables slide show Sweet potatoes in storage. An ideal crop for winter meals, as they store at room temperature for a long time, maybe seven or eight months.

Photo Pam Dawling. Eat-All Greens rows with frost in December. October and part of November are still productive growing weeks in central Virginia. Photo Bridget Aleshire Gardening does not end with the first frost!

DIY weather-forecasting I recommend learning your local weather patterns by keeping records and watching what happens. Beds after rain, Photo Wren Vile Rain statistically fairly evenly distributed throughout the year in our county has slight peaks in January, February and March, and again in early June and August.

Blackberry leaf with frost. Photo by Ezra Freeman Our average first frost date is October Four Ranges of Cold-Hardy Crops for Harvest at Various Stages of Winter This simple model helps reduce confusion and set priorities 1. Crops to harvest before cold fall weather 32°°F and store indoors : Michihili Chinese Cabbage.

Crops to keep alive in the ground into winter to 22°°F -6°C to -9°C , then harvest. Bucket of freshly harvested Detroit Dark Red beets for storage. Photo Pam Dawling Store: B eets before °F Use soon: Asian greens, broccoli, cabbage, chard, lettuce, radishes 3.

Hardy crops to store in the ground and harvest during the winter. Photo Pam Dawling In zone 7, such crops need to be hardy to 0°°F Overwinter crops for spring harvests before the main season.

A stormy winter day, garlic, rowcovered spinach beds and our hoophouse. Photo Wren Vile In zone 7, they need to be hardy to 0°°F The daytime high temperature was less than 70°F 21°C.

The sky is clear. The temperature at sunset is less than 50°F 10°C. The dew point forecast is low, close to freezing. Frost is unlikely if the dew point is 43°F or more. The Wunderground 3. The soil is dry and cool. The moon is full or new. Ice on the pond. Credit Ezra Freeman Frost Alert Card For just this time of year, we keep a Frost Alert Card reminding us which crops to pay attention to if a frost threatens.

Cover lettuce, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, beans, Chinese cabbage, pak choy, lettuce and celery. Harvest all ripe tomatoes, eggplant, corn, limas, cowpeas, okra, melons. Harvest peppers facing the open sky, regardless of color.

Often only the top of the plant will get frosted. Check winter squash and harvest any very exposed squash. Set up sprinklers for the night, on tomatoes, peppers and a cluster of beds with high value crops. Peppers that are protected by leaves can survive a light frost. Photo Pam Dawling We really like this pepper strategy we have developed: by picking just the peppers exposed to the sky, we reduce the immediate workload and the immediate pile up of peppers in the cooler!

Frost Alert List Task Crop Notes Harvest all edible Asparagus beans Harvest all edible Eggplant Harvest all edible Okra Harvest all edible Tomatoes Including green ones Harvest all edible Peppers exposed to the sky Harvest all edible West Indian gherkins Harvest all edible Pickling cucumbers Harvest all edible Corn Harvest all edible Beans 4, 5, 6, then cover Uncover once mild again Thick row cover Squash Spring hoops or none.

Ditto Thick row cover Slicing cucumbers Spring hoops or none. Ditto Thick row cover Celery Double hoops — leave covered Thick row cover Last lettuce bed Double hoops — leave covered Set sprinklers Slicer tomatoes Overnight from before 32F till after sun shines on plants Set sprinklers Roma paste tomatoes and peppers Ditto Set sprinklers Other vulnerable raised bed crops Ditto Sun Gold cherry tomatoes.

Pick the green and the ripe ones before a frost. Photo Pan Dawling Cold Weather Crop Protection Rowcover — thick 1. Use hoops. Low tunnels and Quick Hoops are wider version of using rowcover. They need the edges weighting down. Best for climates where the crops are being stored in the ground until spring, when they start growing again.

Less useful in climates like ours which have very variable winter temperatures, and are warm enough that we realistically expect to harvest during the winter, not just before and after.

Caterpillar tunnels — 2 beds plus 1 path, tall enough to walk in. Rope holds cover in place, no sandbags.

Double layer gives 8F 4. Leafy crops are not weather-beaten. We strongly believe in two layers of plastic and no inner tunnels rowcovers unless the night will be 8°F °C or colder outdoors. Hoophouse Notes Salad greens in a hoophouse in zone 7 can survive nights with outdoor lows of 14°F °C.

Rolls of rowcover in our hoophouse ready to pull over the beds on very cold nights. Frosty daikon radish Photo by Bridget Aleshire Winter-Kill Temperatures My annual blogpost of Winter-Kill Temperatures for Cold-Hardy Vegetables is always very popular.

Winter-Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Vegetables Winter Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Vegetables Winter-Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Vegetables Winter Kill Temperatures of Winter-Hardy Vegetables Trimming roots from a leek in December. Photo Pam Dawling For several years, starting in , my friend and neighboring grower Ken Bezilla of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and I have been keeping records of how well our crops do in the colder season.

Rhubarb in spring. Photo Kathryn Simmons I also learned that there is more damage when the weather switches suddenly from warm to cold. pdf Preparing for Frost and Cold Weather. This post includes my Season Extension slideshow; the Frost Alert Card and Frost Predictions checklist again; a diagram of our winter double hoop system to hold rowcover in place during the worst weather; Double hoop system for winter rowcover.

For farmers, the consequences are wide-ranging by Sarah Vogelsong, November 3, Halloween has come and gone. But for much of Virginia, the first frost still remains elusive.

Jeremy Hoffman, Science Museum of Virginia The implications of the shifts in the freezing season go beyond a few more days to enjoy warm weather, say scientists and policymakers. Overwintered Vates kale in central Virginia in March. Photo Nina Gentle At the Organic Association of Kentucky Conference , I gave a a presentation on Winter High Tunnel and Outdoor Vegetable Production.

Click on the diagonal arrow icon to see it full screen, then click on the right pointing triangular arrow Winter vegetable production outdoors and in a hoophouse Pam Dawling from Pam Dawling.

Baby greens in a cold frame in January.