Our garden produces peppers and squash through the fall or until the first freeze, which ever comes first — this year it was the freeze which happened last week. Meanwhile soil vegetables, such as onions and carrots, are less affected by late fall or early winter freeze, and they continue to be available from our garden through early and sometimes late winter. We also have herbs growing year round.

Of course living near a large body of water helps to make the local climate more temperate, so temperatures tend to be a bit warmer than other parts of the country at our latitude. For example, it was rather warm today at 11°C (52°F). This all combines to increase the growing season and extends the harvest period. Making getting the vegetables for a fresh garden soup in December for us as simple as a little digging in the garden, washing and cooking.