Put up or shut up • 08.11.10
I’m surrounded by plant matter.
Not only did we join two CSA farms this year – Porter Farms for veggies, and a fruit share through Native Offerings – but this is the second summer we’ve planted the Earth Boxes, and we’re surrounded by vegetables (pronounced with four syllables, not three, as per the Son). I heart my Earth Boxes – not only are they high enough such that the bunny living in the yard can barely reach the plants, but I don’t have to touch the dirt much at all. Very important when one is allergic to dirt. O_o
So the summer has been filled with well, putting up. Sweet pickles, dill pickles, and freezer jams. Corn everywhere – the Husband brought home 5 dozen ears from the market Saturday for our Obon party and we had nearly 2 dozen left – so now we have some on the cob in the freezer, two jars of corn relish downstairs in the fruit cellar, and dehydrated corn too. There’s dehydrated zucchini, summer squash, and plums too. Today I have to go steal some tomatoes from my mom’s garden to try this eggplant recipe for canning. Eggplant isn’t supposed to can well, so we’ll see how that goes.
None of this is really new to me – I’m really not one of the apparent throngs of people rediscovering local foods, going back to canning and freezing the summer’s bounty. My grandparents were children of the Great Depression, and my mom has always been just as frugal. Summer growing up was always full of the vegetables from the garden (probably not so great, since my grandparents live rather close to a major road, mmmmm, lead fumes!).
Starting in June, as soon as school was over, we’d float in the pool next to the garden, playing Marco Polo or volleyball, waiting for Grandpa to walk by in his plaid shorts and straw hat to toss us some peapods, so we could “wash” them in the pool water before devouring them. (Double bonus! Lead fumes and chlorine!)
Then into the heat of summer, with the canner going full steam on the electric coil, the smell of tomatoes or peaches being peeled, briefly dunked in boiling water and then shocked in ice water to loosen the skins, making them easier to peel but slippery as all get out. For some reason we always sat on Helen’s swing – now my swing, since we bought her house – snapping wax beans for freezing, stuffing them into square plastic containers before hiding them away in the basement freezer, waiting for the day they’d be boiled with a half-slice of bacon and served up alongside a pork chop and some tater tots.
The only difference is what I’ve been storing away for the winter. The Son and Daughter, foodie children of foodies, would never eat boiled bacon, let alone boiled wax beans. So it’s ginger peach chutney instead of just peaches, sour cherry syrup for pancakes and the occasional ice cream, salsa instead of whole tomatoes. The idea’s the same, but the flavors have changed and become more modern. There’s nothing wrong with that. ^_^
