This is our second summer participating in a CSA (community sustained agriculture). We get a large selection of vegetables each week; salad and leafy greens, root vegetables, herbs, tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and the list goes on. We don't get all of these things every week, but we haul home about a bushel basket full of goodies each Monday.
Last year I worked hard to use up all the vegetables each week, pushing two and sometimes three veggies on my family at each meal. Sometimes I didn't get enough of something to make a complete dish (for example, when we get green beans we get 1/2 pound, but that's not enough for our family. So I would buy more at the grocery store to fill the gap). To add insult to injury, I have a small garden in the back yard where I grow tomatoes, herbs, and whatever else strikes my fancy at spring planting time. By the end of last summer we just couldn't look at another vegetable.
Then I got smart, but too late in the season to be of any benefit.
This year, I am putting up the vegetables that can be easily frozen (like green beans and peas) or canned (like beets), using some for baking (like zucchini), and serving the rest (like leafy greens, carrots, and cucumbers.
It's pretty fun to be preparing foods that we'll be able to enjoy when snow has blanketed our little patch of earth and gardens have gone to sleep for the winter.
And I do mean ENJOY, for we have rediscovered the pleasures of flavorful produce. Conditioned by years of eating mass produced vegetables, we have grown accustomed to food with mild or washed out flavor.
And another benefit to storing vegetables for the winter is that we no longer dread my weekly runs to the farm to pick up more vegetables.
Maybe it's time to go blueberry picking and start planning for apple season.
