Kitchen Garden Journal

Greetings from the farm! Nothing at all is growing. What few crops were left in the field at the end of November have long since perished. But that doesn't stop us from eating our own vegetables several nights a week.

Actually, we tend to spend more time and energy cooking with the produce from our farm during the winter. And I'm glad for it, because at the height of the season when we're putting in 12 hour work days, cooking is often the last thing we want to do. But eating our own veggies this time of year is only possible because we devote a special effort during the growing season to canning, freezing, and setting aside the proper amounts of storable crops. You should do this, too. With a little planning and understanding of some basic techniques, food preservation is pretty simple. The first thing to think about when setting food aside is what you are actually going to enjoy eating during the winter; it is just as important to know what not to preserve. When I first became interested in food preservation, I would spend hours making jams and pickles that would just sit on the shelves. My pickles weren't very good, and I like my toast plain, when I eat breakfast at all. Let's just say moving day was a sad one.

Through the years, I have honed my list. I cannot live without canned tomatoes any time of year, so I put away cases of tomato puree and whole peeled tomatoes. We freeze peas, shell beans, hot peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, and a variety of greens (broccoli rabe (see photo), turnip greens, kale, chard, spinach). Strawberries and blueberries are also a cinch to freeze. We set aside enough garlic to get us through til March, and try to avoid selling all of the onions and potatoes, which doesn't always work. Canning tomatoes is time consuming and exhausting, but not disproportionate to the enjoyment I get out of having them. The rest of what we save is a snap: blanch and freeze or simply tuck away in the basement. It's easy and anyone who likes to eat local food should make it a summer ritual. Detailed instructions for preserving all of our vegetables are found on The Vegetable Pages.

If you missed the opportunity to preserve food this year, be sure to check out Winter Fare in Greenfield on Saturday, Feb. 6 from 10-2. (We won't be selling there because we sold everything we grew this year!) There's also a locally grown Pancake Breakfast to support the Northampton Survival Center at Enterprise Farm on Saturday Jan. 30 from 9-noon.