Yesterday, I harvested the 2nd and last row of parsnips.  These were slightly better than the first:

Some of them were even almost perfect.  They were all tasty.  This was my final harvest for 2009 so the whole family got involved with putting a leaf blanket on the soil for the winter:

Rowan and Anneke used buckets; Dad used a wheelbarrow.

I spread the leaves out on the garden.  I’ve read that if you mix the leaves into the soil right away, they actually cause a deficiency in the soil as the microorganisms work to break them down.  However, leaving them on top means the decomposing happens on top of the soil.  I will look at them in the spring, and if there are still quite a few that haven’t decomposed I’ll actually pull those off before getting my soil ready for spring planting.  I might be creating more work than necessary here, but I hate to leave the ground bare and exposed all winter long.

(That orange power cord is for our Christmas lights, so we’ll have to pull that out later.)