Potatoes may not do well this time of year for you, however, you have made other excellent choices.
I also grow a variety of cold hardy cole crops: broccoli, lots of kales, collards, some asian greens like tatsoi (a favorite), fava beans, peas, a wide variety of lettuces (some for now, some for later), and tons of root veg: dakon, radish, beets, carrot... lots of yummy things this time of year!

The potatoes are beneath a heavy blanket of straw. I was under the impression that if potatoes are beneath straw and compost they will survive the winter and sprout in the early spring. Would the others you mentioned not be affected by freezing weather unless also under straw and compost or inside a cold frame? I want to grow whatever I can, but just want to be sure of what would be killed by frost and freezing versus simply coverd by straw or placed in a raised bed cold frame.

Potatoes in general, can not withstand a frost. Sometimes they can but in general it is just best to plant in early spring after the last frost. Last year we had a late frost and a lot of people lost their earliest potato crop if planted too early.

I mulch heavily with straw. All cole crops do better with some frost. There are some winter lettuces which will survive many freezes, some will do you until the first deep freeze. I use a variety of methods to extend my season - one is to use a straw coldframe, you could build yourself one up off the ground, quite easily and just cover - an old screen door with glass works great as you can open the glass up and still have it screened for venting. I do this at church. At home I make tents and use both row covers (not floating, but suspended) for frost and moisture. Also plastic mixed with this...If I am conscientious i have crops until spring. I do not cover root vegetables.

Thank you for such an excellent list and your thoughtfulness in offering assistance! I am going to try using something like tyvek as a cover for my raised straw bale beds. Will be going back to the Dekalb Farmers market tomorrow to enjoy all of the beautiful and unusual vegetables. Too, I will be selecting the best of the best of some of their vegetables to save some seed for the spring. I did learn yesterday that I REALLY "jumped the gun" in already placing some sweet potatoes in a potting mix for shoots. I guess that I could just put them in the carport and hope they don't sprout too soon. Still learning at 60!

I have also purchased plants from Dekalb Farmers Market - roots, to plant that will grow. Lemongrass, if it has roots on it at the farmers market can be placed in a glass of water for a few hours to reconstitute and then be planted, various tubers can be planted - I've grown tumeric, several types of tarro, and others this way. I don't so much find any seeds as so many of the vegetables are not yet seed ready - they are picked before they are ripe for transport and then if hauled a long way they are gassed with various gasses to ripen them so the seeds are not always totally ripe and viable. Also, if the plant the vegetable was grown from was an F1 hybrid, the seed you grow won't be the same as the parent. You can get viable seeds from many of the unusual vegetables at the farmers market from places such as Baker Creek Heirloom seeds and other places now.
Have you ever tried the sweet potatoes in water? That's how I was taught. I suspend the sweet potato with toothpics in a glass, then cut off the shoots, put these in water until roots form and then plant them. I did this very late this year - planting in July and got a lot of small potatoes I'm still eating!

One great bit of news about turmeric is a recent medical news item is that it is found now to be a powerful medicine to reverse esophageal cancer! Just can't think of many things to use it in. Have had GERD for 40 years..and major surgery.
Will be going to the DeKalb Market tomorrow if you need anything. Don't some of those central and south American roots have to be processed to leach ou the poisons? I found your note especially interesting because I am exploring alternative foods of the world, not just for culinary purposes, but also because they may well be viable foods that we should be considering here with the economic crunch pending and the basic need to feed folks. The Dekalb market is light years beyond Whole foods in their offerings, both in price and variety, but SO MANY things that I just don't know how to use. Will get some lemon grass. Have several potato varieties and read of a new super sweet variety of sweet potato coming out this year called Evangeline from Louisians research. Saw a video on YOUTUBE of a "sustainable" grower with a tiny plot..one row of wheat, one row of oats, one row of corn, and three rows of beans of three varieties all planted next to one another to save seed. To each his/her own! Tomorrow at the market I will be buying some beautiful vegetables purely to save the seed. I have yet to grow a bell pepper anywhere close to the size or wall thickness from Bonnies Plants. Still searching for that elusive waxey potato I LOVED in Western England...not dry or crumbly, but incredibly an incredibly sweet white potato near chester. Also looking for unusual onions, salsify, celeriac, rooted parsnip, rutabaga to carry to seed, and other more curious findings. You can tell I'm having fun!

Bonnies plants are well chemically fertilized before they come to your garden - so that might be why they grow well here? I don't grow good sweet peppers in the city. Hot peppers, well, yep. I grow 6' bushes of 'em! Sweets, nope. Sigh.
I have salsify seed if you need some. I've got some in right now. Onions are tricky here - I grow perennial onions (several kinds) shallot and granex. I have not tried root parsnip, can't get neeps growing here save my life but I have met a few folks here who can, and I have never grown parsnip here (GAG!!!) if you like 'em. I don't think waxy potato do here. I can't even buy proper waxy potato here and have given up on that. Some things I have thrown my hands up at...the "other" farmers market (which is now closed, apparently) had lots more variety even than Your Dekalb Farmers Market has - and I could get some things there on occassion. Mostly I don't worry as I just grow the variety I like in my garden - a broader array than you can even get at YDFM!
Chester Zoo is my 2nd favorite place on earth (Ottawa is my first! Great gardens there!!) - my kitten is named Chester! My family is from Mt. Ash, Wales and my cousin grew a fantastic veg garden on the side of the mountain, it was a miracle really given there's no real soil there to speak of. The back yard was straight vertical terracing. To tend the garden gave one vertigo!

Would love some salsify seed. Though I have never tasted it,, that and scorzonela both intrigue me. We have GOT to find that waxy potato from someone across the pond.! However, I once imported pair cuttings from a collection of farmers across France who went to great effort to compile a representative of antique varieties and eved had every possible USDA approval and permit. One total JERK stopped them at Laguardia. What a huge loss and disappointment. Wales is one of the most beautiful countries ever! Like you, I have yet to grow a respectable Bell Pepper, hence my search for better seed stock at the market. Used to go to the International Market on Peachtree Industrial. You say they are closed? There also used to be a large Oriental market on Buford Hwy. No idea if they are still there. let me know if I can pick up anything for you. Now back to my PG Tips!

There was a sister farmers market to the one on Peachtree, but it was in Forest Park. Someone told me it closed. That was an awesome place.
I am convinced that sweet peppers related to hot peppers will do best here. Danita, who hasn't appeared here for awhile gave me some pepper seed she did well with. It didn't work this year for me, but I'll try again next year. Sometimes just saving seed from your own garden year after year yields the best seed suited to your micro-climate!
I'm not yet sure how salsify will do here. I've heard that our soil may not be best for it. But I'll try. If you can just find the exact right place in the garden sometimes...
Like Ramps. Ramps are hard here, we are just outside the natural range...however I have mine in a pot of moist soil in a very cool and dark spot in the garden...and voila! Up they've come again (we got them free from Whole Foods last year as the cashier thought $16.99 a lb was a ridiculous price to pay...even after I pointed out I was actually buying them to plant and multiply them...) I'm still trying to find out where the best spot in my yard for rhubarb is...

I came across this forum post just in time. I live slightly southwest of Atlanta and I really want to grow some winter veggies and onions. I already have my garlic in the ground (they're shooting up already) but I haven't started any onions nor greens, but I have all the seeds. Is it too late for me to start these plants if I start the seeds indoors say...today? Like mensplace, I'm still learning and any information will help.

Here is a link that might be useful: My blog on my veggie garden and other things

This has been my first year at winter gardening. Largely a test year, but I have been truly inspired by the many fine posts from those up north describing gardening in cold frames and hotbeds in frames covered in snow. The key seems to be having an adequate soil temperature for the seed s to germinate before the real cold hits. After that comes the need of some kind of a cover. Root crops seem to do fine, as do many in the lettuce family. From that, I will leave the other suggestions to those of more experience. I'm using hale bales for the borders and manures and compost for the soil. Next year I may have someone build me some proper two foot or even deeper beds.

Kalenplants
Check out a 10 day weather forecast website - like weather.com In general, most (but not all) plants need to get to 70 degrees to germinate from seed. You can plant arrugula, cilantro, collards, kales now. Onions you could try but you may be too late unless you can warm them a bit (such as with a little tunnel that is well vented)...I planted some two weeks ago and they are very slow because it was late and the soil isn't warming well until afternoon right now.
I make simple, cheap tunnels out of 1/2" PVC pipe and old shower curtains. Works great. I clip the shower curtains on with wooden clothes pegs. Whole assembly can store in my crawl space each year!

Most of my plants are in raised beds with plenty of manure and compost. The seeds are planted in shallow furrows, covered per package directioned and then tamped to assure soil contact. Then I cover the entire inside of the beds with the white bags from the composted manure...essentially creating a temporary greenhouse effect. Rather than just the outside temperature, this process creates a soil temp that is perfect sprouting...they all are.