Some vegetables really like a cooler temperature in order to germinate or to taste good. Parsley is always sweeter in the cooler months. I love to pick some to chew on while I'm in the garden doing fall chores. Parsnips aren't worth eating until a cool snap has taken the bitterness out of them. And all the salad greens are sweeter in cool weather. Carrots can be carried out over the entire winter in your outdoor garden with the simple technique of covering them with mounds of straw. You lift the straw off in order to harvest a few carrots for the winter table, and put the straw back over the ones you leave in the ground for your next winter 'picking'. Fresh is always best, in any weather!

If you are growing your winter garden inside your heated greenhouse, do a successive sowing of roots crops for a steady supply. You will find the children love having a helping hand in growing and harvesting their own food. You can turn it into a science project for them. You will want to have some raised floor beds for the winter garden inside your greenhouse. 4seasongreenhouse.com offers instant raised beds with their Eco-friendly Raised Bed Garden Kits. For more on raised beds see our How To section on Raised Beds. ~~~~~

Carrots harvested from my Garden in September

Here is a list of cold-tolerant vegetables you might want to try in your winter garden, weather you are planting outdoors or in your greenhouse:

Beets: 'Red Ace' variety is a hybrid. If you are looking for an good choice in the heirlooms, I would suggest 'Iride' (available from The Cook's Garden.com).

Beet greens are edible also, use in soups or just steam up a 'mess' of them.

Broccili: 'Green Goliath' is a quick grower available from 'Gurney's'. You might try 'Broccili Raab' which is great for cool weather flavor and production.

Sure Beets store-bought

Brussel Sprouts: This vegetable actually tastes good when home grown. It is the lack of freshness that makes the supermarket varieties so unpalatable, especially to childrens' tastebuds. I have met a lot of adults who won't touch this vegetable because of their childhood experiences with it.

Here is your chance is change a bad memory into an adventure. You don't pick brussel sprouts until the weather has really cooled down, so plant in mid summer or early fall. If you are planting in the fall, choose a fast variety like 'Tasty Nuggets" hybrid from Burpee. Brussels do take their time to mature, so they make a good 'back-up' veggie - a treat when they finally come ready. The Burpee catalog suggests you set out 5 plants per person! They think your family is really gonna love the flavor.

Cabbage: This is another veggie that taste soo much better when fresh. It takes a while for the heads to form, so do succession planting all summer long for succession harvesting all fall long. One quick variety is 'Early Jersey Wakefield' that is ready in 65 days, an heirloom variety from Ed Hume.

You might also try 'Savoy' cabbage. It is very cold hardy, is perfect for some of those vintage recipes, stuffing and stir fry. It has a very different taste to head cabbage. The Cook's Garden offers an organic heirloom variety called 'Vertus Savoy' that is cold hardy.

Cauliflower: Is another veggie that improves with cool temperatures. It can be pretty finicky about growing, but Burpee has a hybrid called 'First White' that makes nice large heads, and The Cook's Garden has a hybrid called 'Snow Crown' that is more weather tolerant.

Mixed Greens bed, Spinach (2 plantings, and head lettuce on the bottom right). Yes, head lettuce can be green and healthy. The cores are nice and sweeet on home grown heads.

Carrots: Just about everyone's favorite vegetable to grow and harvest and eat! It also seems to have the most choice in varieties. Every variety has its' best uses, but flavor is the best reason for growing them. If you want long skinny carrots, choose Burpees' 'A#1 Hybrid'. They are tender and juicy.

If you want short fat carrots, 'Parmex' from The Cook's Garden is almost round, and grows well in any soil or weather. Burpee has round carrots, too. If you want something between these two, there are nearly infinite choices. No matter which variety you grow, it will be fun to harvest your own, eat your own, and try all those great recipes that call for the best carrots to be had - from your own garden!

Greens: Which are all the lettuces, spinach, swiss chard, collards, kale, chicory, cress, radicchio, corn salad, mesclun mixes, etc. All of these flourish in cool climates. Some need cooler temps to sprout, so plant in early fall, if it turns real warm, shade them and put a fan on them to keep them cool until the weather changes again. I harvest greens by taking the oldest leaves, which are usually on the outer edge, and leave the core to grow more leaves. Just about any variety will be cold tolerant, so just pick your favorites.

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Another root crop you can start late to harvest late or harvest to keep are turnips and rutabagas. Their keeping power is phenomenol. 'Market Express" and 'Tokyo Cross Hybrid' from Burpee will work for you. Turnips are a mainstay for soups and stews, hardy winter dishes that satisfy. Want more information on how to store winter keepers? See our related article in the How To section on Vegetable Storage Methods.

And don't forget the peas, please. Especially snow peas, as they love the cooler temperatures of real early spring and fall. With a little protection, they will keep on giving you nice stir fry material. You will want to put them somewhere they can be tied to supports.

We also have a section of Collected Recipes in the Book Section of this blog. If you have a simple recipe you want to share, send it to us to include in our collection.