I don’t think this is the last captain’s log of the year, but it’s most likely the second to last.
The days are shorter and shorter as the solstice creeps up on us, and thus I only have a limited time in the mornings before work for checking on things.
Hence the dodgy light in these photos. Golden hour is only a thing in places without fog.
My new Yerba Buena is loving it’s spot and it’s overall wetness and is rewarding me by being pretty and fragrant.
The chervil triplets look happy to be in pots, but the warping on the table means It may be time to figure out a better shelving solution. That’s 2020’s problem.
Believe it or not- those are parsnips! And I’m pretty sure at least a few are picking size. Soup time!
Ah this whole bed is a mess. Smaller fabric pots and beds are a godsend- this one… did not come from the good place. I have decisions to make once I’ve harvested more things, but again, that’s 2020’s problem.
This little fabric 2 by 2 is a wonder though, and now holds the garlic factory. Grow well little cloves, papa neanderthal wants 40 clove chicken.
Hey! Joke tree is alive! I’ll take it!
And here we see either germinating carrots, or germinating weeds. Please be carrots.
The frizzy ones might be California poppies though. Frick.
The green onions are growing now that they’re in a pot which is nice. I have more starting from seed, and I should probably plant more. We eat a lot of scallions, and they’re so easy to grow at home I cringe every time I buy them.
I realize quite a few of these pics are less then focused, I went out without my glasses and… there’s a reason I wear them shall we say.
The strawberry pots are trucking along. There has for sure been a bit of a mildew issue with them, but that’s just this time of year. All you can do is cut off the fuzzy bits and support the overall plant. It’ll all work out.
I really have to pick those leeks. And weed that pot! Rain delays exacerbating my own laziness issues is the problem here… and I’ll take care of it later.
I don’t know how but it looks like I might be getting some red onions. I basically did everything wrong and still seem to have come out on top. This is one of the benefits of growing in the wild west that is San Francisco micro-climates, sometimes your little bubble means all conventional wisdom goes out the window and you can pull out a win.
Ok, I may now be a convert to the black summer bok choy. They’re so dang pretty! They look so yummy I’m gonna have to really restrain myself from picking them young. Full heads. Gotta think of full heads. Gosh they’re pretty though.
The tea plant looks magnificent. She’s loving the rain and the shade and I pinched her tips a bit to encourage bushing and gave her a little acid fertilizer and shes just gonna sit pretty til her roots get bigger but man what a plant.
The chives are still bothering me with rectangularity.
That is all.
The Neanderthal Gardens 
What are parsnips for? I mean, are they used like a potato, or like a carrot? You know, I have cooked with them only a few times, and found them to be too woody to appreciate. I got a few odd vegetables that I did odd things with, including big radishes that I roasted because I did not know what they were. They were actually pretty good.
Parsnips can be roasted or braised like carrots or beets or boiled to add their flavor to stocks and soups. They’re very traditional in Jewish soups and stocks and add a very nice pleasant nutty flavor. They can be woody when is just like carrots which is why it’s nicer to grow your own.
Comparing them to carrots make them seem dreadful (ICK!), but I get it. They are like carrots that are not so carroty. Tradition always appeals to me anyway. As much as I loathe carrots, I grow them because everyone else wants them. I would rather grow more beets! I do happen to like radishes, even though they did not do so well in my former garden in the Santa Clara Valley. Roots do better here, so we will be growing turnips. The only turnips I grew before were turnip greens. I intended to ask if anyone wanted parsnips. I really do not know anything about them. Salsify is another root that I really want to grow, although it is a completely different family.
I would recommend parsnips if only because as non-brassicas they don’t attract the same sort of pests and while I found a few of those little black aphids in their first growing month, I just snipped off that leaf and they kept at it. Very hardy- but if you do grow them try to put them in slightly sandier soil, I didn’t and the roots got forked. Still tasty but not pretty.
The spot where the root vegetables go is quite sandy and loose. They like it there. There are quite a few root vegetables that I have not grown yet, just because I do not often try anything new. Salsify would be a stretch for me. I intend to do it though.