A surprise waiting at the farm... vegetables that survived winter!

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When I first arrived at the farm plot a week or two after the snow had finally melted, I was shocked to see that the fall vegetables I hadn't picked had survived winter!

I was staring at several rows of living turnips, rutabaga, kale, spinach, green onions, even some lettuce!  I'm positive that had the carrots been left, they too would have survived.

Amazing!  The farmer from whom I rent the land was surprised as well.  He couldn't remember it happening before.

I have a theory.  Our first significant snowfall came around Christmas.  We had many snowfalls after that, but I'm thinking that because we never had a thaw - yep, we had thick snow covering the ground all winter long (usually we have at least one warm front push through in the winter, that gives us a few days above freezing)... that snow acted like a blanket, keeping the frost-hardy vegetables insulated from the sub-zero temperatures. 

Whatever the reason, it rocks.  I'll be able to take fresh turnips, kale, and more to the first farmers market the first week of May!  When most gardeners in our area will only have asparagus, rhubarb, and maybe a couple of cold-hardy vegetables if they really pushed it, I'll have a variety of vegetables.  Yeah! 

It doesn't take much to amuse me.  :-)

Thanks for visiting the All Natural Mama, home to Wishful Acres Organic Farm!