The winter vegetable garden is in the planting and growing phase with few harvests. But winter citrus season commences. Tangerines are abundant and navel oranges and kumquats begin soon.

I sent a bag full of deliciously juicy and sweet tangerines home with my son, Tim after Thanksgiving. They won’t last long. He loves them.

Driving through the Central Valley of California we pass the Halos Mandarins processing facility. With the many varieties of tangerines grown in the state, generally in zones 8 to 11, their availability extends beyond the winter season. The Specialty Produce website list 29 varieties they offer at various times of the year. Each variety is described with listing of restaurants that have purchased recently and links to recipes. The website is a great resource.

I sent Tim off with some romaine lettuce, French sorrel and mustard greens but forgot to take a photo. He’ll have some nice salads this week. One more week and I could have added arugula to the bag of greens.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday—family, friends and fall foods make it the best. I usually host and do most of the cooking. Herbs in the garden supply the aromatics that are the flavors of Thanksgiving.

I grow some herbs in pots and others in the ground or raised beds. Elsewhere there’s rosemary, chives and parsley. Lemon verbena got too rangy and was dispatched to the compost bin recently. In a few months I’ll add to the herbal inventory as the days lengthen.

Generally, even at this time of year I can gather a seasonal bouquet from the garden. The colors available reminded us all that Christmas is around the corner.

See what other garden bloggers harvested last week at Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.