It is difficult for winter vegetables to cope with the climate of this season. Temperatures are low and there are few hours of sunshine. In fact, on paper it would seem like the worst season to decide to grow. Yet in a vegetable garden life never rests, nature continues to bear fruit and the plants to require care. Those who have a vegetable garden of their own know it well: there is always something to do even in winter and it is necessary to take care of winter vegetables too. There are not many of them but they are there, there are vegetables that grow despite the frost, that resist and that are harvested between the last and first months of the year.
Winter vegetables: climate
It is perhaps banal to talk about winter weather , we all know what it is like. It is also true that there can be strong variations depending on the area of the country in which you have and take care of a vegetable garden. If we are in the Po Valley or in northern Italy, we know well that frosts are frequent and in the months of December, January and February there are very few vegetables that resist. On the contrary, if we are in the south of our peninsula we can take advantage of the mild climate and grow many more autumn vegetables, with satisfaction.
Winter vegetables: types
Among the vegetables that winter gives us, we can distinguish two different types. Some must be planted at the end of autumn to be born and develop at the end of winter and ripen during the spring. In this category we find peas, broad beans, onions and garlic , for example. Other winter vegetables, however, must be planted in the summer months to then be harvested during the winter as happens with cabbages, leeks and fennel . Then there is a third category of winter vegetables, the perennial ones such as rhubarb and artichoke that remain in the field all year round, winter included.
Winter vegetables: list
- radish
- onions
- fennel
- cauliflower
- carrots
- artichoke
- broccoli
- hood
- celery
- Swiss chard
- corn salad
- garlic
- peas
- spinach
- parsnip
- beans
- Catalonia
- rocket
- radishes
- shallot
- celeriac
- Mizuna Brassica
- asparagus
- Jerusalem artichoke
- turnip tops
- chicory
- leek
- thistle
- kohlrabi
- beetroot
- horseradish (Cren)
- rhubarb
- white endive
- Brussels sprouts
- chicory
Winter vegetables to grow
During the winter months, if we have a vegetable garden, we can take advantage of it to grow some vegetables that “love” this harsh climate. Among these are fennel and leeks to be sown in summer. Both resist autumn well and when winter arrives they are ready to be harvested, they do not like frost and can pay the damages, better to harvest them earlier.
Pumpkin is one of the classic vegetables that are perfect in winter. It is usually harvested in autumn, until November, but then it can be preserved for a long time, even for several months, so it can be eaten safely in winter.
In the vegetable garden in winter we also find cabbage, broccoli, white cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and many varieties of cabbage that we can harvest between October and December after having sown them in the summer.
Among the vegetables that tolerate cold climates well are salads and carrots. Among salads we find chicory, radicchio, catalogna, puntarelle, endive, lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, rocket, all tenacious in the face of the cold of the winter months and which are very often grown and protected with a non-woven fabric that makes them cultivable until November.
Carrots, along with radishes, chard, beetroot, turnip tops, celery, parsley, spinach, are in the category of cold vegetables, they can be harvested until the end of autumn. Artichokes and asparagus are also resistant vegetables and then we find the bulbous Lilliaceae, namely garlic, onion and shallot. The latter can be left in the garden throughout the winter while legumes can be sown between October and November, to have the harvest at the end of spring, especially broad beans and peas are suitable for autumn sowing.
Winter herbs
In addition to some brave vegetables, in winter we also find some herbs that are particularly resistant to the cold such as sage, rosemary and thyme. Rosemary is an evergreen and even sage does not feel the frost, then there is saffron that is harvested in November and develops its leaf part during the coldest months of the year. Mint has a different behavior: it loses the aerial part, to return to develop in spring.
Winter soups
Finally, let’s take a look at the recipes with which to enjoy the fruits of our garden, even in the coldest months. I suggest two particularly easy and delicious. Chickpea and farro soup and that of the Farmer.
For the first one, you need dried chickpeas, to be soaked and then cooked in the pressure cooker together with the farro to obtain a soup that is widely used in Tuscany, excellent as a single dish or as an entrée, it is also good for vegetarians.
