A Micro-Thaw and Harvest

Though the bulk of this month has been ridiculously frigid, once in a while we get a "warm" day. Take last Sunday, for instance: 

After an early morning icy-snow situation, the afternoon temperature got up to almost the average high that we could normally expect. We used the brief warm-up to dig out the tunnels and check on the leeks:

As you can see, the plastic is a little worse for wear after being beaten down by by the snow. Once inside, Kirk really had to wrestle with the leeks to dig them out. Though we've had one warm day, the ground is still mostly frozen, even in the tunnels:

He managed to get a few big ones out, though. The leaves aren't too much to look at, but the thick stems are still fine:

Even the part under the soil was mostly frozen, so these are definitely for cooking: they'll be soft when they thaw. That's ok, though. When's the last time you used raw leeks for anything?

We also took a look at the carrot cold frame:

We had long ago dug most of the carrots out of the center of the bed (where the soil is last to freeze), but there are still a bunch on the edges. Some came out easily, so we grabbed them while we were at it:

Our other cold frames have also been uncovered:

That's our mache. It's frozen right now, so those leaves are good and mushy. The plants are still alive, though, so once it warms up in the spring we should see some new growth for some salads. 

In the meantime, we enjoyed a delicious, cheesy leek soup:

Of course, the rest of the past week has been cold and windy and wintry. Good thing we took advantage of our one, brief window of opportunity to grab some fresh veggies. I don't think we'll get to the rest of the carrots or parsnips until May at this rate.