Six weeks ago, the small beet greens and tiny beets were delicious raw. A month ago, the greens and beets were delightful boiled, roasted or sautéed. Before I get sick of beets, I’ll cook and freeze the greens and the roots being harvested in abundance this season.
We’ve lived with the luxury of eating food out of season for so long, it’s easy to forget that our grandparents ate vegetables, fruit and grains only when they were ready to harvest, no sooner and no later. Everything seems to ripen at the same time, so by saving a portion of any abundant yield, they had food to sustain them through the winter.
Some foods have a longer harvest season than others. Snap peas and snow peas are gone before I get sick of them. I have strong childhood memories of being unable to give away zucchini and of slaving over huge cauldrons filled with overripe tomatoes too damaged for salad, but perfect for sauce and soup.
Canning, freezing or dehydrating are three ways to save food between the time the growing season ends and the following spring. Most of us don’t think about that as we cruise the grocery aisles for this week’s meals.
I was in high school, accompanying my Dad to the grocery store when he picked up a package of frozen peas and said, “It’s cheaper to buy this than for me to grow them.”
It’s true, but back in the 1970’s we didn’t have to worry about genetically modified food or contaminated food shipped from thousands of miles away. Our food was still produced closer to home by farmers, not agri-business conglomerates.
It has been years since I ate fresh tomatoes out of season. They taste like cardboard. That may have to do with the stressful conditions under which the tomatoes and the people who harvest them have to work. Freezing or canning preserves the sweet flavor of the tomato. So I eat tomatoes fresh during the few months they are ripening on the vine. Before I burn out on tomatoes, I make sauce or soup.
I aspire to locavore purity, but I’ve learned to enjoy some foods that will never grow in New York’s Hudson Valley. I’ll watch for sales and treat myself to the occasional avocado, grapefruit or mango. But I know they’d taste better if they didn’t have to travel thousands of miles.
I won’t eat corporate chemical concoctions or foods that grow here, but are shipped here out of season. I’ll wait for New York apples in autumn and winter. I see apples in the stores now, but I don’t see any reason to eat them now.
Given the impact of fires and floods on farming communities, the fact that genetically modified foods are not labeled, and the salmonella issue that is currently making the news, I’m motivated to improving my locavore lifestyle.
I know who is planting, weeding, harvesting and preserving the vegetables I am eating this season. If I pay attention and plan carefully, I’ll have plenty to eat long after the growing season has ended.