seeing what sticks: beets in clay soil and cabbage

I remember those early days after arriving on our homestead. Surrounded by cacti, longhorns, and no grass; I felt like I had been put on the set of an old western movie, or maybe another planet. It just seemed so foreign.

Like anything else, you get used to it. So we’ve taken the first couple of years here to acclimate to the very different growing conditions. A lot of what we’ve been planting this year and last have been testing different vegetables and vegetable varieties to see what sticks. A few rows of different bean varieties to see which one produces with the least amount of rain. Planting a row of chuffa here, a row of heat-tolerant tomatoes there.

This process has involved being wide open to utter failure, and occasionally some pretty sweet surprises.

Along with the collard greens I started in February were a couple of cabbages and Brussels sprouts. The Brussels sprouts didn’t make it, but much to my excitement we harvested our first healthy head of cabbage this week.

I think I’ll call him kraut.

Another pleasant surprise was the small test patch of beets I planted. I was told they did well in clay soil, but found that hard to believe on account of the root and all. I was happily proven wrong as I pulled up a big lovely beet a couple of weeks ago, followed by two slightly smaller ones. They were grown in a bed that hadn’t had much in the way of amendments added, so apparently they really don’t mind the clay soil.

The beet greens made a great big pot of greens for lunch that day, when combined with the trusty collards. The beet roots made a simply steamed and buttered vegetable the next day, reminding the skeptics among us why we love beets so much.

So, at the end of summer I hope to plant much larger plots of beets, cabbage, and of course collard greens to get us into the fall and winter gardening phase. Starch, greens, and plenty of sauerkraut would be most welcome.