Greetings from the end of summer...

Our project has gone fairly smoothly, if not totally as planned. My work at the studio has, for some

Grandma and Eva picking peaches

inexplicable reason, been far, far more busy this summer than I anticipated. Because of our CSA, frequent farm trips, and just the abundance of local food in the summer, we've been able to keep up with our local eating pretty well. While many "supporting" ingredients we use (balsamic vinegar, oils, white flour, etc) are not local, the main ingredients in our diet are.
However, I know that our goal was to explore this for a full year. And, if we really want to eat locally, that means freezing, canning and drying produce now for winter.

So, how are we doing on that? I give us a "C".  We've canned pickles, dried tomatoes, frozen bags upon bags of apples, green beans, strawberries and blueberries. But I know for sure that if we were relying on those things while snowed in for any length of time, we'd be up a creek without snowshoes.

So, efforts need to pick up around here a bit. For produce, we are relying on three means of "putting up":

Canning  The Pros We don't take up valuable freezer space, food stays edible for a long time, no worries about mid-winter power outages.

The Cons? Ever see the kids who play percussion during the band concerts?
The way they run from the cymbals to the xylophone to the drums? That's how I feel trying to boil jars to sterilize, simmer the brine, prepare the veggies, and time the jars in the canner. Until you are practiced, this requires 8 hands. Or 8 friends and a couple of bottles of wine. Or, one big glass to sip once the job is complete, 4 hours later, while admiring your 8 precious pints of pickles. Labor intensive.

Freezing  The Pros Not sure what you want to do with those apples? Do they want to be butter? Sauce? Pie? No need to decide now! do the prep work and decide later. Positive procrastination/low commitment.

Also, by doing the cleaning, slicing and dicing up front, you have the ultimate in fast food. Whether it's green beans on the side, or veggies for soup, it's all cleaned and prepped.

Ben and Sylvia helped pick apples and freeze. It's nice having a tree
right by a building!

The Cons Frozen food quality can be iffy, and freezer space is limited. My husband and I are already bickering over this. Electricity is required to store, not necessarily super-green.

Drying  The Pros About as labor intensive as freezing. Food is prepped, dried on a rack, and then can

I love using Italian plum tomatoes for drying
and using later for salads and pasta.

be stored in any airtight container you like. Real pretty displayed in ball jars on distressed shelves, if you like that Country Living kind of look.

The Cons  The food can end up looking and tasting nothing like the original form. This can be a good thing, I suppose, but it can also make it less versatile. However, it can lead to rousing Local Eating games during long winter days, like the "What fruit/vegetable is in this jar?" a fun family guessing game. I can't decide if this should go under the pros or the cons.