by Emily Best
As an apprentice and market manager at New Morning Farm, I encourage my customers to eat locally all year round. Eating locally means you’re keeping your dollars in your own community, supporting your neighbors, and reducing your carbon footprint. Most importantly, it gives you a chance to know your farmers.
Eating locally is easy in the summer, when markets are overflowing with mounds of corn, bushels of peaches, and tables full of juicy tomatoes.
We’re now entering into the lean months, when growing grinds to a halt. We rely on storage crops and high tunnels to keep us in good eats.
2. Preserve Summer’s Bounty
Several apprentices at NMF make sauce and salsa when tomatoes are in season. I’m not there yet. I’m intimidated by canning.
So I freeze. This past summer, I froze pounds of berries, and I enjoy them every morning with breakfast. I froze sugar snap peas in the spring—and added them fried rice in January. You can freeze corn, green beans, and grated zucchini. You can freeze tomatoes, whole. I like to make a big pot of soup, and freeze 3/4 of it.
3. Experiment with Winter Produce
We recently made a frittata with celeriac. And a raw root salad, with shaved carrot, gold beets, and celeriac. And latkes, with celeriac.
OK, there is more to winter than just celeriac. But if you haven’t tried it, now is the time. Its mild, creamy flavor accents other winter vegetables perfectly.
It’s especially important to keep vegetables on the table in the winter, when we yearn for comfort foods. Try making a raw salad, a slaw, or soup. Experiment with new herbs or seasonings. Keep it interesting!
4. Grow Your Own
You don’t need to be a farmer to grow your own greens in the winter. You just need an indoor, south-facing window sill, or better yet, a large glass door. Start your seeds in the fall, and by January, you will have plants of harvestable size. You could grow a couple kale plants, or some spinach, or lettuce. Start small, and see where it takes you. If nothing else, those greens will be beautiful!
5. It’s Ok to Cheat — Within Reason
Even farmers need a little more variety this time of year. We buy a citrus to complement our apples. We buy some mangos and a couple avocados. In a weak moment, we might pick up a couple bell peppers. But not every time, and within reason. We support our local food system, but we also miss these items. If you buy them, appreciate them, savor them, value them.
And then: dig into that celeriac mash!
Emily Best is an apprentice and market manager at New Morning Farm, a certified organic vegetable farm in south-central PA. 2015 will be her 4th season at NMF, where you can find her planting seeds in the greenhouse. She believes in the power of local food systems and eating in season–connecting people to place, nature, and time, all in a bite. She blogs at the New Morning Farm website.