The Winter Months

The beautiful color of canned vegetables

Golden turnips

Asian greens

Hi Winnie and Steve,

Winter is always a bit challenging for a gardener and cook because you are down to a much smaller selection of vegetables during this season, and this is doubly true if you are relying on your own garden produce.  I did head to a lovely farmer's market with a friend last weekend, and I thought how beautiful some of vegetables looked.  One stall even had lovely colors due to taking the vegetables of summer and canning them -- I know how much work that takes!

Also thinking about the more limited choices of winter leads me to sharing a very small part of a letter a friend wrote about the importance of eating local and seasonal and organic.  We are so used to having "unlimited" choice without thinking much about how those choices impact our environment and world.

 

This letter is a bit longer than what I usually write,  but I really wanted to include a part of my friend R.'s comments from her farm in France.  She is a passionate activist for the importance of eating locally and organically and sustainably.  This is just a small part of her letter.

"I thought about all the people, many I know, who would never do what I am doing.  They would not want to be bothered with getting up early on Saturday morning ....nor would they want to stand in line in the freezing cold weather...when they could go into a warm store and buy anything they desire.  Not to mention the vegetables I get are not the washed and polished sort you find in the supermarkets, but are all covered with soil and need a good washing thus adding more time to the preparation.  But as I stood there, now looking at Gerard, the man who grows these gorgeous vegetables which I load each week into my granny trolly, his warm and gentle smile when he sees that I have come again, the small talk we have come to make as good and trusted friends, his hard worked hands that tenderly handle the growing, the harvesting, the selling, the understanding we have about how important and wonderful this food is, I know that in that moment I have want for nothing to be different."

Yes, I appreciate the limited vegetables in my garden right now, and those that show up in winter at the farmer's market and what they represent as R. says.

Thinking of you.  Donna