Frozen Food, The Old Fashioned Way

Speaking of the great freeze (mentioned last post) we lost a few food crops and some ornamentals. The philodendron out front and what was left of the lawn were damaged pretty well, as was the night-blooming jasmin. Only the jasmin matters, since we planted it and like it, but they all look like they are bouncing back.

The potato patch did the big death, though, and was not going to recover. Planted last fall, the potatoes were well on their way to a bumper crop starting in spring. With the tops dead, we got about 10 lbs out of the whole plot.

For every harvested potato I saw 8-10 tiny future-potatoes that could have been harvested. Very frustrating, but since we don't rely on these for food, only disappointing.

The bell papers that nearly croaked in the summer heat, and have been producing prodigiously all fall and winter, simply keeled over due to the freeze, dead, dead, dead.

Interestingly, the lettuce and spinach made it just fine; eventually we figured out that the raised bed is next to the house on the south side. Not only is it warm and sunny due to the southern exposure, but the house reflects light and heat back during the day and radiates it at night. (Not such a good thing in summer though.) In addition, the crawlspace has two vents right there, and the heater and the water heater were burning all night down there -- venting above-freezing air right onto the bed.

Serendipity for sure.

The Mandarin Orange crop was meager to start with, with only two dozen fruits on the whole tree, but the tree and fruit survived. I also started a good fire in the portable fire pit next to the lemon tree, then let it burn down and sit as coals all night. Don't know if it helped, but the lemons made it through just fine too.