Quote of the Day: Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd
Even in the dead of winter, the products of our labor were good. From the freezer we could choose broccoli or cauliflower, peas or beans or corn, anytime we pleased. In spring, we often had them all together in orgies of vegetable soups meant to clear the freezer for the next round. Though certainly we were well-fed, and spiritually content at living from our own labors, the broccoli, peas, beans, cauliflower, and corn came to have a certain sameness about them, a predictable ready-on-demand sort of quality that robbed us of much of the joy of them. The seasons were all flattened out, and one sitting to the table came to seem just like another.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
I’ve talked about learning to live seasonally many times before. This time of the year it becomes increasingly difficult. As I sow the seeds for broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and tomatoes, my mind turns to freshly picked summer vegetables once again.
The beauty of learning to eat seasonally, however, is that you learn about so many new and interesting things you can eat. In my journey to eat more seasonally I’ve discovered things like: sprouting broccoli, mache, endive, parsnip, bok choi, and so many more. Meals are so much more interesting when you’re not eating the same thing over and over again.
The majority of the vegetable consumed each week here at Chiot’s Run are root vegetables that have been stored in the cellar. There is always sauerkraut in the fridge as well. Even though I love carrots, celeriac, rutabaga and sweet potatoes, my stomach has moved on to freshly plucked produce.
I still freeze a few small containers of peas for winter soups and I can some crushes tomatoes for sauces as well. Other than that, there is not much preservation going on in my kitchen any more. Each year our diet becomes more and more diverse thanks to our efforts to live seasonally. Next year at this time, I will be harvesting chard and spinach from my greenhouse, which will fill the gap between winter and spring quite nicely and give us a little bit of a break from all those root vegetables!
If you could only choose one vegetable or fruit to preserve each year, which would it be?
Filed under Miscellaneous | Comments (15)
Oh for sure my Seckel pears, 8 or 10 jars of them, in a light syrup with star anise, cinnamon stick and a couple of cloves. There is nothing like opening one of those honey colored jars in the dead of winter and having them for dessert with a pecan shortbread…
We don’t yet produce them, my tree is still too little, but some day…
We get them from Scott Farm in Dummerston Vt, a beyond organic American Land Trust farm which has 70 different heirloom varieties. We are so fortunate to have so many local producers around us.
Are you putting up a hoop house, or a conventional greenhouse? My crean is to have a green house I can walk in from the back of the house!
to Marina C's comment
I’m for sure putting up a hoop house, but I’m also considering a traditional greenhouse as well. It all depends on how much it will cost and whether I have enough saved. I’m with you, I’d love to walk into a greenhouse from the back of the house!
to Susy's comment
I always love that photo of the green house just out Elliot and Barbara’s back door. I think that went with the old house.
to Jennifer Fisk's comment
Definitely alpine strawberries, if i could figure a way other than dousing in sugar and canning. They are sweet enough already, they don’t need sugar. Oh man, my mouth is watering already.
to whit's comment
Whit, I bet they’d be great dehydrated. All that natural sweetness would be intensified even more!
to Karen's comment
All tomato products. We bought so many tomatoes thru our CSA this past summer. I froze about 10 pints of sauce, about 4 pints of diced tomatoes in their own juice, and 5 pints of ketchup. They (or what is left of them) still have the taste of summer.
to Adelina Anderson's comment
Definitely tomatoes. We’re out of sauce but we still have a lot of packed tomatoes that I could add into stews, make more sauce or do something interesting with. I’m thinking about tomato soup this week to use some up.
We had poor luck with freezing zucchini and squash so I think our efforts now will be to eat it fresh only.
to Misti's comment
Tomatoes are my favorite. I just used up the last of the frozen ones last week. Still a few pkgs of sauce left.
My other favorite is Scape Pesto.
I’ve had reasonable luck with Patty Pan Squash if I cook it with spices, curry is a favorite, and freeze. It isn’t as good although quite edible if blanched and frozen.
to Jennifer Fisk's comment
Tomatoes.
to Maybelline's comment
How can you narrow your choice down to just one?!
to Maybelline's comment
Raspberries (in the form of jam). It’s my favorite jam of all time, and also happens to be my favorite jam to pair with peanut butter.
to Daedre Craig's comment
Oo tricky to choose one…from a practical point of view it would have to be the tomato as its so useful for all sorts of recipes.
But….I do love raspberries.
to Mich's comment
Well, I was going to say berries (hard to pick which ones – blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries would all be great!) – but then I read the other comments, and have to agree with the overwhelming majority of tomatoes… can’t do without them!
to Elyse's comment
We have raspberries and blueberries in the freezer waiting for the winter cravings I know I will have. I think mangoes would be nice to preserve – always like apple and mango juice for breakfast.
to Crinia's comment
I cant pick just one… thats like having to pick your favorite child.. its just not done. ;)
I probably eat more broccoli than anything.. so I guess that’d be my one.
The one preserved thing I wont live without is my ex grandmother in laws zucchini relish.. oh man is it good.. its high in sugar but thats the way it is.. Its not a single veggie but a mixture of many..
to KimH's comment