ENJOY FALL'S BOUNTY AND SAVE MONEY!
Imagine rows of tomatoes lining every window sill in your house. Twenty pound boxes of apples stacked in the basement. Squash of every form and autumn colour ripping through big paper bags on your kitchen floor. Peppers being washed, roasted in the oven, packed into mason jars with olive oil and just a dash of balsamic, and finally being stored away for the winter. This is what my house looked, smelled and felt like over the last week as we filled all our free time with storing, canning and freezing as much of the fall harvest as we could. It was fun, but it was also messy and time consuming. So why bother when we can buy all this stuff year-round in any good grocery store?
It’s the affordable way to be eating local organic produce year-round. Buying produce out of season, buying higher on the ‘food chain’ (prepared foods such as jams, tomato sauces or roasted peppers) and buying imported produce is expensive whether you are buying organic or conventional food. Yet if buying organic food is a priority for you, one way to beat the bills from adding up is to take advantage of what’s in season, abundant and affordable, and then preserve it for the winter ahead.
Fall is not the only time to do this, but Mother Nature has perfectly planned the fall crops to be the ones that store the easiest and last the longest. Produce pickings are getting slimmer in November, but there still are farms and some farmers markets stocked with apples, pears, beets, carrots, garlic, onions, squash and parsnips, all of which are excellent candidates for the root cellar (or any cool, dry, dark corner of your basement which is not susceptible to freezing). As well, many organic food stores and food box delivery services will order produce by the case for you. Often times, late fall is the best time for produce deals as the markets are winding down and farmers are getting ready to close up their farm-gate or road-side stands. You can also take advantage of the lower prices on ‘seconds’, naturally marked produce which is still delicious and simply not as visually perfect – ideal for tomato sauce, apple sauce, pear jam… or just to eat.
Once you’ve stocked up and found that perfect corner for your winter stash, it’s easy:
Lay out squash, onions, potatoes, rutabagas, apples and winter pears in dry boxes no more than two layers deep; keep garlic in brown paper bags; and store carrots and beets layered in boxes with damp leaves. Check your stored produce regularly and discard any fruits or vegetables that are going bad; it is normal for a small amount of the stored produce to go bad. Different varieties of fruits and vegetables will store well for different amounts of time, so ask the farmer that you buy them from for storing advice and how long they are expected to last. Fruit that begins to soften still makes good jam, sauces for ice cream and pie fillings; vegetables losing their crispness can be made into stock.
If you can buy directly from the farmer,
you will be able to learn more about the varieties you buy and better plan how
to use them. For example, there are over 300 varieties of apples grown in BC:
In current times of busy work weeks and refrigerated airplanes flying food around the planet, many have forgotten about the times when people canned steadily from early-summer through late-fall and how an abundant pantry was a source of great pride and a sign of wealth. Regardless of the changes in times, there is still something comforting and mouth-watering about seeing rows of jars of canning lining the top shelf of any kitchen.
So get out there with your friends and make a weekend of heading out to a nearby farm, stocking up and getting busy in the kitchen. Making preserves, like bread making, enriches the atmosphere of the kitchen. Working creatively and productively with your hands is amazingly fulfilling. A full pantry shelf offers great vision of meals to come and exotic flavours in mid-winter. It will take some time, but it’s worth it.