Cornucopia of food and pests...

Some 40 lbs of tomatos had been ripening indoors for two weeks. Wrapped in newspapers, these tomatos are kept warm and free of pests. Today, I harvested 10 beautifully ripened tomatos. When kept from the harsh autumn environment, the green tomatos are ripening indoors as flawlessly as they had outside at the end of summer. The full measure of ripening would be complete within a month. Of course, we have far more tomatos than we can readily consume. So a good number of them will have to be canned to last us the winter.

The dwarf kale, which had gotten off to a great start, was abruptly ravaged by a family of rabbits. These marauders had intruded upon my garden one night and nibbled off dozens of the tender cabbages at the bud. By the time I found their paw-prints, almost half of the kale buds that I had back-breakingly cultivated were destroyed. If I was to sentry beside the garden, no rabbit would escape my arrows, but I can't be there all the time. As such, a bit of ingenuity was required upon my part. After some educational reading, I proceeded to set several snares along the garden fencing, hopefully, I can trap a few of these vermin while egressing out of the garden.

The turnips were spared by the local wild life for some reason. As such they have prospered beyond my wildest expectations. The turnip section of the square meter garden had turned into a patch of broad, lush green leaves. The turnips are naturally cold-resistent and fast maturing. All of it's heat-loving wild competitor weeds were either dead or going into dormancy.

It's only garden rival, the kale, had been badly mauled by furry pests. Thus with almost no competition, and abundent resources, the turnips are growing like wildfire. In less than a week, the turnips have taken over almost a quarter of the garden area intended for the now weakened dwarf kale. The area that these plants have already conquored was further thickened with hundreds of new turnip green leaves. As such, I collected 5 lbs worth of the largest turnip greens today. When steamed, these greens had the delightful texture of butterhead lettuce interlaced with a spicy undertone, they were absolutely delicious. And if the winter is mild enough, continuous cultivation of these greens can be maintained until late december. That should produce enough fresh greens to strech through most of winter!