The variety of cauliflower I have come to love, self blanching Incline, did do well this fall. It is an eighty day cauliflower, so it isn’t fully developed till the middle of August. It’s worth the wait. My cauliflower curds are usually four pounds plus. Because of my success with it early, over the years, I put some out in early August, for a fall crop this year. The plants grew to be quite large, three foot plus, I got eight cauliflower curds from ten plants. Perhaps another variety might do as well in the Fall. I’ll let you know next year. Any suggestions?

There was lots of broccoli in the garden this year. Because there was to be so much I chose Small Miracle 54 days and Green Comet 78 days, to begin in the basement. They were started on March 1st then transplanted to peat pots between March 25th and April 16th. All were put into raised beds on May 2nd. The broccoli should have had almost a month between maturing dates. But they didn’t know that. They all came up and matured at once. Perhaps it is our Nebraska weather?

This year’s Alliums began well. They were planted December 28, 1997. They were planted in Milled Sphagnum Moss – to eliminate damping off - and took nine days to sprout. There was Red Bergermaster 102 days, Torque Yellow Hybrid 95 days (Disease Tolerant) and Creation Shallot 90 days. They were transplanted to peat pots on the 3rd and 15th of February. On May 1st all the alliums were put into Raised beds. Virtually all my onions rotted in the ground! The shallots made it, but none of the onions survived all the wet. The raised beds didn’t keep them dry enough! It might well be that I was holding them, the onions, in the ground to show at the fairs. But the bottom line is, they rotted out, it hurt. The shallots were weird. They grew horizontally and were misshapen from my ideal. But, their savor is right on the mark. I will plant another variety next year though.

The Yukon Gold potatoes were everything I have come to expect. The Russian Finger Potatoes ( from Ronneger’s Seed and Potato Co.) were all I expected them to be. If you are into potato salad in the summer time and don’t know these potatoes, you’re missing out. They cannot be bought, period. If you would care to eat real potato salad, you must grow them.

My garden had trellised Boothby’s Blonde. This cucumber is a wonderful heirloom from the Boothby family in Livermore, Main, passed on to us by Will Bonsall through the Seed Savers Exchange. It is more yellow than a lemon cucumber, elongated and medium sized. There were too many of them. Next year I will halve the planting and plant Lemon Cucumbers. They are better in Gin and tonic too.

This is where I find the greatest value in keeping a garden notebook. Being able to look back and see where it went right and where it went wrong. This way I have a better handle on what does well in my garden. Now, while this is fresh in my mind I begin to think about seed catalogues. I have to have my have my onion seeds to plant by the middle of December or they won’t be large enough to exhibit at the fair.