It's funny how when you lose nearly an entire garden, you are suddenly aware of the abundance you actually have. I've already used up more than half of my winter food stores, (and, yes, it's not even winter yet!) but I've made quite a few
almost-completely-homegrown meals lately - oh how I love that! It's also funny that something as ordinary as this (and necessary as far as our ancestors were concerned) is somehow elusive and complicated in these modern times.
Here's a look at my kitchen goings-on, and some simple dishes that have graced our table over the past couple weeks:
Before the frost, I picked a bouquet of celery, parsley, and the last of the carrots for our first real cold weather staple -
chicken with dumplings, but made this time with turkey and goat's milk. That was promptly followed by another favorite here - curry turkey (based off
curry chicken, but again with goat's milk in
place of the coconut milk and sour cream) using carrots and onion from
the garden. And the lemon even came from my little potted lemon tree!
I made my first ever homegrown kimchee, right down to the garlic and ginger.
I've been making a weekly stock for soups (our favorites being of the Vietnamese variety), using most and squirreling away some for the freezer in preparation for Thanksgiving.
I have a big pot of lemongrass awaiting harvest and a small jar of crystallized honey, a beautiful gift from our beekeeper, and by far the best I've ever tasted. While the chickens take their annual cold weather rest, duck eggs are still in abundance, and we had enough recently to bring over to our local fire department.
How truly fortunate I feel to have such good food to eat and to share.