Harvest day

There's a pretty good chance that between now and Monday morning, we'll have had the first frost of the year. So, today I dug most of the remaining potatoes and leeks (leeks look like you ought to be able to pull them, but you can't. They're brittle), and pulled most of the daikon radishes. I left the horseradish and carrots alone - the former because it's doing so well, the latter because it's doing so poorly. Since the carrots are known to be frost-hardy, I'm hoping they'll pick up now that they have less competition.

The potatoes have an approximately Gaussian distribution, from fingertip to fist size. I've got approximately double my investment in weight of potatoes, and the standard is only triple, so I didn't do too badly this year. (Ah, biology. Where else is tripling your investment an average return?) The all-reds seem more prolific than the Yukon golds. They shall become dinner tonight.

The leeks are about as long as you'd expect, but only pencil-thick. Don't know if that's a feature of the variety or a reaction to their growing conditions. They, too, will become dinner.

The daikon radishes are an unexpected success. I planted them and ignored them thereafter, and they responded with umbrella-handle-shaped roots that are wider than my thumb. I think I shall pickle them, though not today. Maybe Sunday.

Huh.

My all-red potatoes are very pale pink inside, not red like the parent potatoes. I wonder what environmental conditions make for redness?

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In spite of the fact that the radish seeds left outside had all germinated in 24h and were mocking the remaining seeds for weaklings, I've dragged the outdoor flat inside so that it doesn't freeze. I don't quite think they can tolerate frost until they've started photosynthesizing and are able to manufacture sugars.

Anyway. Good Shabbos to those who celebrate!