We just got back from a trip, visiting with friends and relatives in my old hometown of Centralia, Illinois over the July 4 weekend. As usual, a trip out of town means plenty of non-local food. Worse than that, it means plenty of processed food – potato chips and McDonald's in the car, hotdogs on the grill, sodas with every meal. We should get organized and be better prepared, so that we can eat more local food and less processed food on these trips!
When we're home, we've been eating well! Local potatoes, broccoli, green beans, sweet cherries, sweetcorn, peaches, cheese, milk, butter, blueberries, radishes, garlic, onions, carrots, tomatoes, even homemade ice cream -- we're definitely not starving!
Alas, when I bought cherries at the farmers' market on Thursday, I learned that they were probably the last sweet cherries of the season. :-(
However, to make up for that, I also bought the first sweetcorn of the season! :-) Ah, the excitement of eating seasonally! I love sweetcorn! We'll be eating plenty, of course, but I also need to research what is involved in preserving some for eating this winter.
I also bought one each of about 6 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Nice! That's another thing we need to research – how to preserve tomatoes and how to make tomato sauce for eventual use on homemade pasta, homemade pizza, etc. I'm sure our friend Patty can tell us plenty about how to can tomatoes.
We also need to research preserving green beans, broccoli, potatoes, peaches, cherries -- lots of stuff! I've got a book, Keeping the Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs, that I need to start reading. Plus, for some of this stuff, we'll need to buy some equipment, so we'll need to make some decisions soon about that. I guess it's time to get busy!
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