It’s a Dark Time of Year for Local Food – Did You Stock Up?

For me, January signals the start of what I consider the darkest time of the year as far as fresh, local food is concerned. From now until April, the supply of fresh food from farmers in my area continues to dwindle until it seems like the only thing available to purchase is potatoes. Luckily, I planned ahead and stocked up my stored food in preparation for this time.

One of my greatest pleasures in winter is cooking a meal featuring food that I grew and then put away for off-season use. It keeps me connected to my garden and my favorite season during a time when gardening feels so far away. It also feels like I really got the most from my garden when I’m still using the fruits of the harvest three months after I’d shut my garden down.

As I’ve talked about before, I like to stock my larder in the quickest and simplest ways possible. But it does require some advanced planning throughout the fall and early winter. First, I grew and purchased large amounts of beets and carrots in the fall and stashed them away in my fridge. The hundreds of garlic and onions I harvest in summer are stored in crates in my basement. I also visited the farmers market in October and bought a large supply of butternut squash to store in the basement as well. These should all last at least until April, possibly longer.

I also made a shopping trip to the last big winter farmers market the weekend before Christmas and bought multiples of anything I didn’t already have in my fridge – cabbage, parsnips, Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.

Lastly, I have a chest freezer full of preserved food – pesto, tomato sauce, peppers, corn, kale, celery and more.

In the coming weeks, using up my storage food will be a fun game. I’ll revisit old favorite recipes that I seem to only use this time of year. I’ll challenge myself to buy as little produce as possible on grocery store trips. It’s time to focus on emptying the fridge, basement storage and chest freezer so that by the time the harvest season begins again I’ll have plenty of space to fill back up!

If you bought Super Easy Food Preserving this past summer, on each vegetable’s page I listed my favorite recipes featuring that preserved vegetable. Now is a great time to try some of those recipes – most of them are favorites that I make over and over again each winter.

What are some of your favorite winter recipes using stored-over foods? Share them with us in the comments!