Garden Update: late-November

It's late November, and the temperature in Toronto has already dipped below the freezing point. The daylight hours are getting noticeably shorter each week. The wind and rain has been angry and unforgiving. Yet still, surprisingly, plants are still thriving on my balcony.

Chives, lamb's lettuce, arugula, peas and swiss chard are among the survivors. An herb pot of dill, thyme and coriander is looking very healthy and strong. A neglected container of nasturtium appears as it would in the summer. Even a mint plant, lover of sun and heat, is alive... though its leaves are slowly yellowing.

Sensing that the killer cold weather will arrive any day, I decided to cut down and eat everything that's left growing, while I still can. Looking at the leafless plant stumps makes me feel a little sad.

Coriander and pea shoots turn into a hearty noodle soup, thyme into cheese sandwiches, and the arugula goes well with tomato sauce and pasta. But the winner of this late harvest bunch are these seeded savoury mini-scones, a recipe from an old LCBO magazine I find squirreled away in my apartment. I adapted the recipe to make it gluten-free (replacing the wheat flour with a mix of brown rice and tapioca flour) and egg-free (by omission). Substituting the spinach for chard leaves, chives for green onions, and adding chopped dill proves successful.

Warm weather seems a long way off, but a few months on the local/winter diet of potatoes, carrots and apples will make next spring's plantings that much sweeter.