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The Cultivator
Fall Harvest
The CobraHead Newsletter
October 2016
Hello, Friends of CobraHead,
 
We've already had some light frosts and we're putting the garden to bed, preparing for our wonderful Wisconsin winter.  Our harvests were mostly good this year, and as usual we had a few disappointments.  But the great thing about home gardening is that if you grow a variety of crops, something will always succeed.

In this issue of our newsletter, we talk about an outstanding and unusual sweet potato harvest; Judy shares a beet green recipe; and Noel talks about how marigolds provide a late season attractor for pollinating insects.      

How did your garden do this year? Drop us a line at [email protected].
 
Happy gardening,
Noel and Judy

Eleven Pound Sweet Potato

Our sweet potato harvest was over 50% larger than any previous planting.  We think it was due to a lot of rain and high temperatures.
Sautéing Beet Greens

We have a nice fall crop of beets.  Here's a recipe for using up some thinnings.


 
Bees Love Marigolds

Marigolds provide pollen for insects right up to hard freezes.  They are easy to grow and good for the garden.


 
I f you like our newsletter and our products or if you have some suggestions, we'd love to hear from you.

If you have gardening friends or if you know potential gardeners who might be interested in CobraHead and what we have to say about gardening and eating, please to them. 

 
It is the mission of CobraHead to help people grow their own food and to provide exceptional products and services to all gardeners.  We try hard to "walk the walk" when it comes to issues of sustainability and in deciding what is best for ourselves and the environment as we grow our little company.  We've chosen to make our tools locally, here in Wisconsin, and we think that bigger is not necessarily better.  Gardening might just be earth's great hope, and in any case it's a great hobby.

Thank you,
Noel, Judy, Geoff and Anneliese
The CobraHead Team
In This Issue
Sweet Potato Harvest
Sautéed Beet Dish
Marigolds for Pollinators
Swallowtail Caterpillar
As winter approaches I've been working to get the garden prepared for its long winter nap. When things go right, I get the garden relatively weed free and I get all the beds shaped up and covered  with a thick layer of leaves.

The years I don't get the leaves in cause me a lot of grief because I have to deal with weeds in the spring as well as beds that are hard and not ready to plant. 

I still have to plant shallots. I have to pack some mulch around the leeks so we can keep them growing after the freezes come, and I need to set up a small hoop tunnel over the beets and carrots. They are doing well, but they'll be ruined if I don't give them some protection before the hard freezes. With luck, we'll be harvesting well into December.
I don't know what the winter will bring, but I'm anticipating more snow than usual. I'm basing my forecast on the tremendous amount of rain we've had so far this year and I'm assuming that the precipitation will continue. From a gardening perspective, I like lots of snow. It adds extra insulation and in winters with deep snow cover, the beds are softer and seem more alive when I rake the leaves off and start my spring planting.
We had a winner of a $50 gift certificate. We solicit e-mails at trade shows for our newsletter and offer a gift certificate as an inducement. Chelsea Muller signed up at the recent Mother Earth News Fair in Topeka, Kansas. Congratulations!

We'd like to remind all our readers that we love to grow our own food and to help others do the same. We post articles about food growing and cooking with home grown food on our website blog, and we almost always have a discussion or several going on about food and growing on our Facebook page. You can help us spread the word by forwarding this newsletter to a friend and if you have any gardening questions, drop us a note. If we can't help you we'll find someone who can.
 
Thanks for reading our newsletter.
 
Noel and the CobraHead Team
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