Like Eat Local. From the end of the Oak Park Farmer's Market in October to mid-November, we got a Fall CSA box from Farmer Vicki's Genesis Growers. Vicki farmed a second Fall CSA. With a bit of experience and the milder weather, she succeeded brilliantly. Of course one has to like turnips...but also cabbage, brussel sprouts, fat carrots, beets, greens, fall fields supplied (and this on top of plenty of storage apples, potatoes, onions and squash). A typical box looked like:
So, what happens come January? The challenge to the Eat Local challenge remains, how. Or what. What stays. What lasts. What to eat in the leaner periods. During the summer, we froze produce, especially peas, red peppers, asparagus, corn. We have not dipped into that stash. We put about 20 squash into our cold "canning" room where they joined potatoes and onions. Last year we learned that this room was not cold enough for root vegetables like beets and turnips. This year all of that went into our downstairs extra fridge.
Our garbageman comes on Monday. Time to assess. Beets horrible, shriveled and quite moldy. Turnips with some shrivel but salvagable. Big giant rhutabaga from October (!) holding on. Carrots too, show little wear. Cabbage in the fridge looks passable, just shed the outer leaves. In the cold room, most of the squash failed--Vicki warned us that her squash were too soft--we did not take heed. The oldest, summer potatoes sprout, star shaped neo-potatoe. They need to go. Bigger ones are fine, as are the sweets. We keep plenty of onions. And apples, we only stored a bit because Michigan apples are easy to get. Some of the apples mooshed; most survived. Two went into the kidz lunch today.
The challenge continues.
No comments:
Post a Comment