While it’s dragging on there is no hope yet of new produce.  There is no asparagus or rhubarb.  The trees are still lacking buds and the garden is a dead wasteland.

So what do we eat during this strange in-between time?  The question is less about what and more about from where.

We eat from the pantry.  Now is the time of year when we look most to our shelves of preserved tomatoes and fruits.  We look at the last remaining winter squashes that have managed to last incredibly long.  We open up the chest freezer and pull out bags of strawberries and peaches to make smoothies.

Yes, we still shop at the market for the cellar vegetables that the farmers have preserved nicely, like beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbage, etc.  And we are also quite happy to buy the greenhouse greens that make nice salads and remind us of the warmer days ahead.

But it’s the pantry that brings us joy.  All the hard work done in the fall makes for easy dinners now as we cook with the canned tomatoes and handfuls of frozen peppers.

Recently we tried a new recipe for Winter Squash and Apple soup and shared the recipe on Bailey’s blog.  It’s a great recipe, both sweet and savory.  It also makes great use of less-than-perfect apples, and would likely work with applesauce to.

There will be more winter squash this week as the plan is to use an acorn squash or butternut for two meals, which you can see below:

• Red Bean and Barley Soup
• Asparagus Quiche (using up the frozen asparagus), Salad
• OSG Quinoa Broccoli Wraps (from The Oh She Glows Cookbook)
• Winter Squash Soup, Fresh Sourdough, Salad
• White Bean Chili with Winter Squash (from Easy Everyday Slow Cooker Recipes), Sourdough or tortilla chips
• Mezze Night – something along the lines of fresh pitas, hummus, tzatziki, falafel, and possibly some shawarma…. We like getting carried away with some meals.

Linking up at Menu Plan Monday.  Check out more of our Locavore Menu Plans:

My wife and I have both loved gardening for a long time.  As kids both of our families had huge gardens, and our parents preserved much of their own food.

When we got married and moved into a small basement apartment in Atlanta one of the first things we did was ask our landlady upstairs if we could plant a garden in the corner of the yard.

Every winter we take the time to think about what we’d like to grow.  We consider the successes and failures of the previous year, flip through seed catalogues and online seed vendors’ sites, and make our plan.

This year we decided to try the Ontario Seed  Company (OSC), whose headquarters are one block from our son’s school!  Since we haven’t eaten anything yet I’m going to hold off on reviewing the quality of their seeds.  However, I can say that we are happy with the germination rates we’ve had so far.

The other perk of buying these seeds is that they are available locally at Home Hardware, with a huge selection available at the Uptown Waterloo Home Hardware, which happens to be owned by OSC!

This year we are growing the following things, some of which are from seeds we harvested from our own garden in previous years.  These are in no particular order:

• Old German Tomatoes
• Brandywine Tomatoes
• Roma Tomatoes
• Tiny Tim Cherry Tomatoes
• Sweetie Cherry Tomatoes
• Cubanelle Peppers
• California Wonder Peppers
• Jalapeño Peppers (from our saved seeds)
• Red Hot Peppers (we don’t know the variety, the seeds are from some peppers at the market. They are small round balls, and quite hot)
• Red Russian Kale
• Lacinato Kale
• 3 Varieties of lettuce from saved seed (romaine, red, green leafy)
• Spanish Onions
• Cooking Onions
• Garlic (assuming it pops up where we put it last fall)
• Cilantro
• Parsley
• Oregano
• Basil
• Flowers (a few varieties, but we always include marigolds)

Still to come are more of the Col family veggies, like broccoli and cauliflower, as well as all the direct-seeded root vegetables, like carrots, beets, radishes, green onions, etc.

To start our seeds indoors we prefer using 200 cell seed containers that we bought online a few years ago.  I rarely see these sold in stores but they are very useful, and last a long time. Strangely, they are not easy to find in Canada, if you know where to get them please let me know!

We’ve already discussed seed starting here, two years ago in fact.  Have a look: Seed Starting.

You can also have a look at our plans for a Hoop House Cold Frame.

This year we added a seed-starting shelf to the mix, complete with grow lights!

We loosely followed these plans, but one big alteration was holding everything together with bolts instead of screws.  This way we can disassemble the whole thing and store it for the part of the year when we’re not using it.  Being able to take it apart also makes it much easier to move the shelf upstairs to our sunniest location so our plants can enjoy both fake light from the fluorescents and real light from the south-facing window.

Because we used scrap wood that we already had the total cost of materials for the seedlings shelves was around $120 for the 2 shop light fixtures, the bulbs, and bolts.  We put two types of lights in each fixture, one standard and one “grow” light.  Grow lights are much more expensive thus I decided to use them in combination with the cheaper fluorescents.  So far the plants seem happy!

For one thing we have a huge bag of tomatoes on the floor, another full of peppers, and peaches are covering our hutch.  Luckily eventually I find the right attitude and energy and I get back to feeling good about all this cooking and preserving.   Plus everyone here works really hard:

Yesterday my young assistant and I tackled the homegrown tomatoes by turning them into an entirely homegrown salsa.  Well, it was entirely homegrown until we realized that it was way too runny because we had thrown several Brandywine tomatoes into the mix.  Thus there was an addition to the recipe of a small can of tomato paste.

Ahhh well, we can’t always be purists and that’s probably okay.  Luckily there is no rule book when it comes to eating local, just a desire to eat as close to home whenever possible.

Although this salsa is for canning we’ve also been enjoying lots of fresh salsas with whatever ingredients we have on hand.  The most obvious thing of course is the peaches, but we’ve found that most fruits work well in salsa as do many unconventional vegetables.

Cucumbers, as pictured above, are an amazing addition to a fresh salsa.  They bring a light fresh flavor of their own but also soak up all the flavors of the foods around them while adding a nice crunch and color to the final product.

Radishes are great too, for the combination of spicy flavor, color, and crunch.  Recently we added kohlrabi to a salsa, which was great too!  It turns out that as long as you meet a few requirements pretty much any fruit or vegetable can go in a salsa.  Here are our guidelines for creating unique original salsas:

1. Some crunchy things, like any of the following, nicely diced in small pieces: onions (any colour), sweet peppers, radishes, cucumbers, apples…
2. Some sweet things, also nicely diced: peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, apples, pears, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, strawberries, tomatoes, sweet corn…
3. Some fillers, (diced if necessary): black beans, cucumbers, extra tomatoes, fruit…
4. For some spice and zing: hot peppers (diced, or dry crushed red peppers if you don’t have anything fresh), cilantro, lime juice (or local options would be cider vinegar or verjus if you can find it), garlic, a dash of cumin, and salt and pepper.

I recently shared 5 salsa recipes on the Bailey’s Local Foods blog so check those out for more inspiration.  Today’s recipe is for an (almost) all homegrown salsa for canning.  You’ll need a pressure canner for this recipe because there is not enough added acid (vinegar or lemon/lime juice) to make it fully safe for water bath canning.  If you added a whole cup of vinegar it would likely be safe for water bath canning, but we didn’t want that much vinegar flavor in this recipe.

This recipe yields 7-9 pints, depending on how much you cook it down.

“How do you guys find the time?”  At least one friend has asked us that.  Now that I think about it, we sometimes ask ourselves the question.  We don’t really have a good answer.  We often mumble something like “Well we make time for it.”

But that doesn’t really seem like a good answer.  So how do we find the time to preserve in the form of ferments, canned goods, and by freezing?

We find the time because we choose to not live on a dual income.

We find the time because we would like to eat as well in the winter as we do in the summer.

We find time because we prioritize food, health, and well-being over entertainment and convenience.

But really we find the time because we enjoy it.

In general, if you enjoy something it seems you can find the time to do it.  Yes, harvest season is busy and stressful at times, but the end results are so beautiful and delicious, and they make our winter a time of celebration as we open each jar of tomatoes to make a pasta sauce or pull out some frozen peaches and berries to make a smoothie.

And really, once you make the commitment to eat locally and seasonally it provides a clarity to the question of what to eat.  It’s no longer a set of rules about which foods are okay and which are not.  It becomes a simple guideline based on what’s available.  In the summer we eat it if farmers are growing it.  In the winter we eat it if it’s in our pantry or freezer or if a farmer has been able to store it (you know, root crops, cabbages, apples, etc.). So no recipe today, just photos of what we’ve been up to.

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I completely agree with him.  Feeding my family is one of my main responsibilities as a parent and the food that I give them should always be the best possible.

How do we give our families the best possible food?  By making it ourselves, from scratch, using wholesome, nourishing seasonal ingredients.

And how do we help our children learn how to enjoy cooking and eating good, real food?  By making it and eating it together!  Smith points out that “It’s the whole point of cooking, to come together as a family and share.”

Family Meals*  is a beautiful celebration of family cooking, with wonderful photography and a wide diversity of snacks, meals, make-aheads, tips, and tricks.  The recipes are straight-forward and easy to follow.  They use ingredients that are typically found in a well-stocked pantry or fridge.  There is no use of processed foods, unless you count the “Just-Add-Water Noodle Jar” which uses instant ramen noodles but tosses the mysterious flavor packet, replacing it with a ton of real food!

Although it’s the recipes that make up the bulk of the book, what sets it apart from other cookbooks is the focus on family inclusion and tips for parents who want to set a standard for real food in their homes.  One of my favorite tips came from the “Easy Snacks” section: Make a snack shelf in your fridge where your kids can look when they’re hungry and find the “Snack of the Day.”  Fill this spot with healthy munchibles like carrot sticks and other fresh fruits and veggies.  It’s a great idea and my family should incorporate it soon since our young assistant can now open the fridge!

Another great tip is this: “Go beyond the farmers’ market and meet a farmer.  Support local so your kids can meet and get to know real people making real food.”  This is one reason why we’ve joined a CSA this year, and we couldn’t be happier!  Our young assistants go to the pickup with us and see our farmer and her team and all the wonderful food set out for all of us CSA members.  There is a clear presentation for our kids that food is not made at the store, but grown by real people!

Right, youngest assistant?  Real food is grown by real people!

After reading through the tips and cooking tricks I spent a quiet evening (Madame and the boys were gone) reading through most of the cookbook. I ended up writing down 22 recipes I wanted to try.  You know, it’s just a starting place….  I narrowed that down to one that I would share here on the blog.  The recipe is Barley Kale Tabbouleh and it stood out to me mainly because of its use of two ingredients that are very local, barley and kale!

I actually made the recipe twice, one time following it to the letter and another time with some substitutions and tweaks.  Both turned out great but I preferred the original recipe to my version which substituted cracked wheat berries for the barley.  It turns out that the wheat berries became too gelatinous, causing the whole salad to be overly creamy.  So I am glad to report that the original recipe is tested and turns out very well according to its instructions!

Enjoy this salad as a side to a good summer barbecue or as a simple yet filling lunch by itself.  Feel free to play around with the ingredients and ratios but start with the original first, it’s awesome!

My Final Thoughts

This cookbook is going to be center stage for the next good while in our kitchen.  I’m giving the book a  4/5 and that is because I would like to see more plant-based rather than animal-based meals.  We live in a time when family cooking should be emphasizing sustainability and increasingly that should mean more meatless meals.  The cookbook does contain a good number of vegetarian meals and sides, but meal plays a big role in several sections.  Other than that it is a great cookbook and I recommend it for any family wanting to cook more together!

*Disclaimer: Penguin Random House Canada provided me with an advance copy of the book to review.  The thoughts are all my own.  Well, except for the quotes. 

(It’s of course also available online but you should really buy it from your local book seller, if you care about the future of books and publishing and do not want them to be destroyed by the Amazonian beast’s every widely-reaching tentacles that would like to crush and devour all local businesses and become the one-and-only purveyor of all consumer goods, which in this case here in KW means a place like Words Worth Books.)

Anyways!  Although Farmacology came out in 2013 it has remained popular at our local library so when I finally got a copy a month later I could only keep it for three weeks.  Luckily since I was so enthusiastic about the book I was able to get my own copy from the publishers along with two copies to send out as giveaways, boo-yah!  It turns out that this is my first time giving something away on this blog that is not just for local readers and is not homemade by me.

More importantly though, I wouldn’t host a giveaway for something that I wasn’t totally excited about, and this book is just that kind of something!  So enough about the giveaway, and on to the book.

Several years ago, family doctor Daphne Miller decided to embark on a journey to visit innovative family farms to explore what sustainable agriculture can teach us about health and our bodies.  Her journey took her to a wide variety of farms with their respective farmers, and each helped her to see a different aspect of health and healing.

The book has already been widely and positively reviewed by influential food and health writers, including Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and Alice Waters, and it’s worth checking out a few of those reviews.  Thus, rather than walk you through the whole book in summary form, I would like to share with you a few of the things that have influenced me since reading the book.  A few of these I was already in favor of but now have more support for, and others are brand new!

1. Don’t Wash All Your Veggies

More and more people are talking and writing about probiotic bacteria and their importance in our lives these days, and the discussion often involves fermented foods.  However, we can also get some good members of the microbiota from our local environment straight from the soil.  The easiest way to do this is by NOT thoroughly washing all of our veggies.

I have been incorporating this into my diet lately by only lightly washing the veggies from my garden.  When thinning carrots and other root vegetables I’m even making sure to eat a few of them right after picking them, after just rubbing off some of the dirt.  This has meant a few mouthfuls of grittiness, but I’ve also enjoyed the absurdly fresh bites!

2. Buy The Ugly Veggies

For the last 100 years or so farmers have been selecting and breeding vegetables and fruits mainly based on appearance.  This is because consumers have demanded produce that looks perfect and can withstand massive amounts of transport.

Sadly appearance is pretty much the worst indicator of health and flavor when it comes to fruits and veggies.  In previous generations seeds were selected from the fruits and vegetables that had the best flavor, as well as from plants that had the most vigor and ability to survive and thrive.

It turns out that flavor is an important indicator of nutritional content.  Furthermore, plants that have gone through some hardship actually produce more nutritional compounds which are found in their fruit.

The problem is that grocers and markets reject produce that has too many blemishes. Ironically these are likely the ones that have the most flavor and nutrition! Luckily, in some cases these fruits and vegetables can be purchased as “seconds” or “#2’s.”  What’s awesome about these seconds is that they are not only healthier but also cheaper!

3. What’s Good for Animals is Good For Us

In recent years there has been much more awareness about the horrific conditions within factory farms.  Not only are these conditions unethical simply regarding the treatment of animals, but they also create environmental problems.  Furthermore, the meat, dairy, and eggs produced in factory farms is not good very healthy.  This is one reason that my family has started getting eggs from our CSA that are not only free range but also pastured.  Access to pasture ensures that the chickens are healthy and happy (this is actually research-based) and that their eggs have much better for us.

However, what was cool about this chapter of the book was that Dr. Daphne explores the parallels between stress for animals and humans.  It turns out that the same things that help chickens to be healthier and happier are true for humans!

It may seem intuitive, but access to the outdoors, and not being “cooped up” all the time inside will help us to have less stress in our lives, and lead healthier lives.  This is one more reason for us to shoo the young assistants out the door every day and encourage them to dig in the dirt.

4. Garden in the Front Yard

In a chapter focused on gardening Dr. Daphne explores the health benefits for whole communities when gardens are public and visible.  My family has always done some (or all) of our gardening in the front yard and we were quickly made aware of how this would become a talking point with many of our neighbors (or in some cases something that was discussed without us present).  Sometimes the reaction has been skepticism (that was more an issue in Atlanta than here in Kitchener), but mostly it’s a positive reaction.

What we weren’t aware of was the fact that community gardening can actually have trickle-down health effects within a community, affecting even individuals who aren’t involved in the gardening.  For example, children who participate in gardening at school end up influencing their parents to eat healthier.  And neighbors of people who garden also end up eating more fresh vegetables and fruits.

After reading this chapter I’m more inspired than ever to continue ripping up the front yard and boulevard and filling in the space with delicious and healthy edibles!

5. Use Plants for Skin Care

Lately I’ve been kind of annoyed with the endless talk on homesteading blogs about essential oils.  Part of my annoyance stems from the fact that all the people talking about the amazing benefits of these oils are also trying to convince their readers to buy them.  There’s really nothing wrong with selling a product, and I should be happy that the products are all-natural, and good for health.  Maybe my other problem with it though has more to do with my own skepticism about the benefits of oils.

However, I am a little more open to essential oils, plant-based health products, and skincare after reading about Dr. Daphne’s own experience with a funny discoloration on her face.  Her own personal health journey that begins with a lightening cream and ends with an atomizer.  In the end through trial and error she finds that what works best for her skin (and doesn’t destroy it like the chemicals she begins with) is a simple mist of distilled rose geranium, in the form of a hydrosol.

Part of the reason that plants are a better source of health and beauty products is somewhat of a mystery.  Researchers often think they’ve found a compound that is responsible for some cure or health fix but when it’s used in isolation it no longer works.  The health effects particular compounds from plants often only work when they are accompanied by all the other individual components of the plant.

Since reading this chapter I’ve felt inspired to begin learning more about herbs and plant-based healing, and to start making hydrosols.  I’m going to see what I can put together based initially on designs like this one from Mama Rosemary.

So, that is just  a little bit of what I’ve learned from this book but it’s not really why I enjoyed reading it.  Dr. Daphne is a great writer and teacher, and this comes through in the book.  It’s an easy read yet full of tons of awesome and interesting information.  Rather than being preachy, the tone of the book is humility, humor, and open-mindedness.  The reader is left feeling inspired without feeling criticized. I can’t wait for you to read it and tell me what you think!

The giveaway is thanks to the folks at Harper Collins and I’m grateful to them!  I was not compensated with $ for this review but I received a copy of the book in addition to the giveaway copies.  I plan to pass that copy along to friends and family (first dibbs anyone?).  The giveaway is open to anyone in the US and Canada, and there will be a winner in both countries.

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One thing I always loved about The Band, of which Robbie Robertson was an integral—and Canadian—part, was the way they took traditional sounds, styles, and instruments and used them in non-traditional ways.

Likewise, what I like about kohlrabi is that it is a very traditional vegetable, but one that might need some updating in its uses (um, “what uses?” you might be wondering).  Kohlrabi happens to be German for cabbage  (kohl) and turnip (rabi), and this is essentially what it is, a cabbage-turnip-veggie-thingy.  It tastes pretty much like that too so its uses are anywhere you’d use one or the other of those.

(Image of kohlrabi from allotments.ie)

I decided to take it in another direction, much the way that Robertson helped Bob Dylan take his music electric in 1965.  Okay, that was an absurd comparison, and I’m not even the first to put kohlrabi on a pizza, Kristin from Farm Fresh Feasts did it with kohlrabi from her CSA over a year ago, which partly gave me the inspiration for this pizza!

So it turns out I’m not quite a Robbie Robertson… but I’d like to think that this pizza, which I’m referring to as Kohlrabi Robertson, is something along the lines of what he is all about, bridging the gap between the traditional and the modern.  And in this case that’s using a very traditional European vegetable to make a modern pizza.

This pizza then crossed borders from a Europe to East Asia with the addition of bok choy to the base and as a topping.  Unsure of what to use a couple heads of bok choy that were getting a bit yellow and wilty I threw them in a pesto along with some kale from the garden.  After all, it was Week of Greens and I had to finish on a strong green note.

To compare this pizza—or myself—one more time to the great musician who crossed genres and helped contribute to the formation of the types of music known as Americana, Roots Rock, and Country Rock, this pizza crosses genres and blends cultures.  Oh man, this is so ridiculous, I should just stop here, but for some reason I keep reaching for comparisons.  Time to be honest, the main reason this pizza is called Kohlrabi Robertson is because the name just floated into my head while making it and I like puns.  But I really do love The Band and Robbie Robertson so I’m happy to name this pizza after him!

Oh, and I should mention that, most importantly, after all this blabbing about genres, cultures, and musical greats, this pizza was delicious.  I also have to say that kohlrabi is a new favorite veggie for me, and I think I’ll eat it in more formats than just as a pizza topping!

Cabbage moths have happily found themselves a nice place to lay their eggs—the kale, which is technically a type of cabbage.  From those eggs emerge very hungry caterpillars who happily gorge themselves on the kale!  But I want to happily gorge myself on the kale!

Now, some people might think “well, there’s enough for all of us, I’ll let the little guys stay.”  Sadly that rarely ends well.  As they grow they eat more and more, leaving skeletonized leaves and poop, followed by exponential amounts of offspring who return to do the same!  The same goes for other bugs, like the squash vine borers I was dealing with last summer…

Luckily it’s easy to either remove them and put them far from your plants, or just squish them, or throw ’em in a pail of soapy water.  And then you can keep on eating all the delicious leafy goodness!  Next week I will reflect on my week of greens and list all the ways I ate them.

(Above) Look closely to find signs of who has been here… little poops.

(Above) Look really close for a tiny egg.

Somewhat absent-mindedly I decided to toss some dill from our CSA into my salad dressing.  In a rush I used a hand blender to whip the dressing up whereas normally I just use a fork and stir.  The blender helped make the dressing super creamy and the results were awesome.  The dill added such a different flavor the dressing, at least compared to what I’m used to in dressings, and I loved it!

At our beach picnic we enjoyed egg salad wraps and the salad was an perfect addition (or at least I thought it was!).  Sorry, no pics were taken, we just enjoyed the beautiful day, the warm water, the soft (and super-hot) sand, throwing a Frisbee, and time to relax.

Thus for today’s installation of Greens Week I’m featuring the dressing recipe since it was key in making the afternoon’s salad so tasty.  And keep in mind that you can omit the mayo but it’s nice to use a small amount because it helps to emulsify (hold together the oil and vinegar) the dressing.

(Above: green onion, kale, and spinach from garden, tatsoi from CSA)

I don’t really mind since I tend to love salad and greens.  However, at some point you run out of things to do with them and start wanting something else to cook.

This week I’m home alone because Madame and the assistants went to visit her family.  In the original plan I was also going to go but then I went and got a job and it didn’t seem appropriate to ask for a week off two weeks after starting.  As it’s a bit lonely I have given myself a few things to work on for the week.

One thing I decided to work on was the greens!  I decided to eat greens with every meal for a week.  I’m calling it Week of Greens.If you’re in a CSA you should try it too, what else are you going to do with a all those greens?  Maybe, if all goes well, it will turn into summer of greens!  Or I just might hit the wall and declare an early end to the week.  We’ll see…. Hopefully I’m alive and well when my family returns.

Here’s how the week began, with a breakfast of greens with one egg and no ham.  I wanted to include ham and call it “Greens, egg, and ham” but didn’t have ham.  Anyways, it was a delicious breakfast.  Instead of ham I added a few thin slices of potatoes fried in a bit of ghee.  I topped the dish with some Ontario greenhouse tomatoes and had a nice side of local strawberries that Madame and the assistants picked last week.