Scouting around on the farm this past Sunday, I noticed some interesting things still going on even though I thought everything was shut down because of the recent snow.

First off, I let some Bloomsdale spinach go to seed last summer and it re-emerged just before freeze up. That's not so unusual, the interesting part is that it appears that spinach has withstood numerous nights of well below freezing temperatures and survived.

With nothing to protect it, I'm not sure how it survived, but my guess is because the ground wasn't froze, it radiated enough heat to keep the spinach growing. It grew so close to the ground, I couldn't hardly get a knife or scissors between  the leaf and the ground.

The leaves finally froze, but I got to thinking that if this plant can survive in the open elements until the middle of November with temperatures into the single digits, then it will certainly thrive if it is protected.  

That takes me right into my next topic, spinach. When I planted garlic in early October, I ended up with an empty stretch of row of about 20 feet. Since I was mulching it anyway, I decided to plant some Winter Giant spinach and see what happens.

A check last week indicated the spinach had germinated and was roughly 2 inches high. Now this is the type of spinach that is supposed to go dormant and come back early in the spring. So far so good. It's cold enough now, so it should be dormant until about mid March.

And speaking of garlic, a check of that crop indicated roots about 2 inches long so that is going into dormancy well and should get a good start as soon as the ground is warm enough to sustain growth.

We left some carrots and beets in the field but I haven't checked them yet. Last year I dug some carrots on Thansgiving morning so I know they will be OK, but I'm not sure about the beets. I need a good surprise, maybe I'll dig some up this afternoon and find out.