For the duration of our attempt to eat only local food, we have been doing 80-100% of our food shopping at Green Door Gourmet.
I found out today they are closing up for the winter in 2 weeks. I can't shop next week b/c I'm going to Arkansas for the weekend, which leaves me only 1 more trip out there fo the season. Green Door will reopen in the spring, officially April for the public.
That's right - 3 solid months - market closed.
Don't get me wrong; I'm lucky they've stayed open as long as they have. Many other CSAs closed up about a month ago or more. I've been fortunate to still be able to run out there each weekend and snag up the fall treasures.
So, needless to say, today was "stock up while you can" day for our family. I promptly cleaned out the 1/2 pound or so of pecans left. I bought 2 pumpkins the size of basketballs which I have already roasted, pureed, and put in jars to freeze. Yum! (dishwashing pending...)
I got 4 pie pumpkins and 7 butternut squash to roast, puree, and freeze as well. I am completely obsessed with the flavor of butternut squash so I wonder how long 7 will last. I have probably roasted 10 in the past month or so and we are flying through it, so I wanted to try again to stock up on it.
I got a bunch of turnips and their greens for B and some baby greens for me. B is as addicted to turnips/greens as I am to the butternut squash. I wish we could freeze them so he would have them longer, but it's not recommended due to their moisture content.
I stocked up on a few meat things b/c I fear when I go on the 15th that the meat selection will be very picked over. I wanted to snag up what I could, while I could. New chicken and sausage and brats... 2 dozen eggs (bummed about new eggs - the ones at PP are all white. I'll miss our weekly hodgepodge of brown, bluish-gray, and white ones I have grown to expect. Plus they're more expensive elsewhere...) and a ton of other treasures.
I also got a bit of Christmas shopping done! I lucked out by buying several gift sets of local treasures such as soap, tea/honey, lip gloss, GDG jelly, etc. for E's teachers and a few other friends that would appreciate them. I hope I don't regret not getting more, but I am already wondering if I shouldn't have picked up a few more of the sweet little goodies all wrapped up. My priorities for Christmas shopping are: small business and local (Nashville) treasures. I'm also a total sucker for complimentary gift wrapping or pre-wrapped treasures, so that little table of pre-wrapped (so cutely!) Nashville treasures sold at Green Door was 100% speaking my language and it was very hard to walk away. You feel my pain, yeah?
So today was stock up day. 2 weeks from now we'll be independent and trying to get through the winter. I am excited to thaw out or open up the flavors or summer and fall that we have worked so hard to lock up in jars and baggies. As anxious as I am about the lack of new sweet potatoes (somehow missed the last of them... oops!), I take comfort in the notion of 2 gallon bags of blackberries in the deep freeze that might need to become muffins and jam one day very soon. I feel like that in general. For every food I am sad to lose, I think of one we have preserved or "put up" to get us through this time. With a little luck, some inventorying and careful planning, we may actually eat best of all in the winter. I haven't cracked into anything yet b/c we've been still reveling in the fresh flavors of fall. Come Dec. 15th, I think we may have a special "Welcome Winter" feast to kick off the beginning or our unofficial season.
I'll still be posting on this experience b/c the next 3 months are what a lot of the other work has been about for us. Could we provide/put up/set back enough in the summer and fall to get through the winter on only local food? Well, the 15th is more or less the last chance to stock up and after that it's time to enjoy all the fruits of our labors.
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