My garden in November

I received an e-mail from a friend the other day asking me for advice on what she should plant for the winter months. This request prompted me to write about what is in my garden at this time of the year. It is fall in California but the days are still warm and some of my summer vegetables are still going strong; I am still picking tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. Take a look at these beautiful corno di toro peppers that will be ready to be picked as soon as they get fully yellow.

If the weather holds up I will have tomatoes on my vines until December.

The garden is also loaded with fall fruits. I have wonderful apples, of the golden delicious and fuji varieties, and lots of fuyu persimmons, which are almost ready.

Here is a fruit you would not expect to find on a tree during the month of November!

Can you believe it? A peach tree that doesn’t mature until November!  This is a special peach tree that made its way from Calabria. We call them pesche sanguine, which means “blood peaches,” and the color is just like that of  a blood orange on the inside. I peeled a couple so you could see the intensity of the red color.

They are so good, both sweet and tart. What a treat to have this time of the year!

In the past week my parents planted fennel, sweet red onions of Tropea, and cavolo broccolo, also known as spigariello, a cross between a broccoli rape and cavolo nero (Italian kale). As it grows I will show you more pictures.  The peas, fava beans and broccoli rape have already sprouted.  Here are some pictures of the baby plants.

My lettuce bed is just coming up and my arugula bed is growing quickly enough to give me baby arugula on a daily basis.

The vegetables that we plant in the fall are:  peas, fava beans, fennel, red onions, cavolo broccolo, broccoli rape; and soon we will plant more escarole and chicory.

Tagged as: arugula, blood peaches, cavolo broccolo, corno di toro, fennel, Fuji apples, fuyu persimmon, Golden delicious apples, Pesche sanguine, spigariello