Fall harvest.. almost too pretty to eat?

It's almost supper time and I just made a quick jaunt up to the garden to gather some greens for a salad and some ingredients for my split pea and ham soup.. After filling my basket with turnips, celery, carrots, parsley and potatoes for the soup, I took a few min to ogle the greens.. These cold weather lovers just thrive in the cool autumn weather and I certainly appreciate the fact that there are far fewer pests in the garden now than there were this past spring when my Asian greens were desiccated by the darn slugs! 

I actually feel bad harvesting these gorgeous greens, but harvest I did and now we'll enjoy them for dinner tonight. The funny thing is that I have about 200 square feet of these delightful greens in the garden, but I didn't plant a single one. They reseeded in one of our cold frames from last winter and I just dug up and moved the seedlings in late August, relocating them to our garden beds. Ah, the life of a lazy gardener! :)


Look at the gorgeous colour and (practically) hole-free
foliage!

A carrot cold frame with a sprinkling of
autumn leaves.. The wire grid keeps
out the deer.

My last warm season crop harvest yesterday - the last
cuke, zucchini and handful of Mexico Midget tomatoes.
Adieu summer!