What do you eat in January?

Question

What do you eat in January when you are trying to eat as locally as possible?

Answer

A wonderful many things of several different colours, tastes and textures!

After a bountiful season, we stored away about 250lbs of potatoes, 150lbs of onions, 50 lbs of squash(which didn't survive in our storage space) and 10lbs of sweet potatoes(a tester plot).

We canned green beans, corn,chili, and loads of tomatoes.

Once we realized we could, we froze broccoli, green beans, blueberries(not from our fields), watermelons, pesto, soups and black currants(intended for jam).

And as a test we left our leeks out in the field to see how long they could last out there. Mike and I harvested them just the other day and made Leek and Potatoe soup, YUM!

Now I know you are all probably pretty excited by this marvelous amount of bounty in January but it's not over folks.

Not only do we have stored goodies, we also have fresh treats.

Yesterday Luke and I bundled up nice and warm to head out to our greenhouse to plant our first lettuce of the year(to be harvested in March) and harvest a multi-coloured bowl of salad. You might not think it possible to harvest lettuce in the dead of winter but let me allow you in on a little secret I've only just discovered after years of disliking lettuce salads...there are so many other things to put in a salad!!! We've been eating salads with greens called names like claytonia, mache, hon tsai tai, tat soi, arugula, and of course the well known kale and spinach. These are all really winter hardy greens, especially the mache and kale, the former of which will survive under a blanket of snow. They have been complemented, in our bowls, by other delicious eatings such as carrots, radishes and green onions.

Once you've set up a little cold frame you too could be the proud harvester of a plethora of lovely green, orange, red, black(winter radishes), and purple things. It doesn't take much more than a few pieces of wood and some old windows or plastic. Or if you are more into curves you could build a little hoop house. The possibilities are many. For those of you are not into the growing part, if you know a local grower in your area, ask them if they can do it! We love suggestions from our customers.

So other than eating, we have also been busy planning the year, deciding what seeds to buy, what projects we have for the year, and finishing up our meetings. The guys spent a snowy day splitting wood with our neighbour Kevin while I was researching the possibility of offering a share to low-income families with a gov't grant.

All in all, a pretty great start to the year. We are all very glad to have this time to rest, plan and re-energize for the coming season. We are going to need it!

Hope you are all well and finding lovely ways to keep warm,
Love Katherine