Winter Produce

It's definitely winter. There's snow on the ground, snow falling outside, wind and plummeting temperatures . . . the whole works. But there are still vegetables in the garden. I think that's just nifty.

The harvesting of those vegetables, however, is distinctly less nifty. The collards aren't so bad--they just have to be cut off the stem. But the parsnips and leeks need to be dug up. And that requires spending some time out in the wintery weather, scraping away a layer of snow and half-frozen leaves (which help keep the ground from freezing around the vegetables) with a shovel that has ice on the handle. It's not quite as pleasant as plucking tomatoes from the vine in the warm sunshine, that's for sure.

On the up side, we have the perfect house for storing apples. All those apples I picked up the other day from the orchard couldn't fit in the refrigerator. The cellar is too damp, the first pantry* can get below freezing. But the house itself is perfect cold storage. At least the unheated parts. So I put the apples in the parlor, which gets no heat at all but has the advantage of being downstairs so I don't have to climb stairs to get to the apples. Handy.

Incidentally, I made leek and potato soup with those leeks. And that soup is pretty much the epitome of the Dirty Vegetable experience. Yuck. Tasted good, though, so I guess that makes up for mud in the sink.

I think I'll be going now. Peace out.

* Yes, there is a second pantry as well. But before you get all misty-eyed imagining the advantages of having two big pantries, I should tell you that both are almost outdoors, and are therefore subject to the vagaries of weather and rodents. There's not a lot of food stored in them, is what I'm saying. Mostly empty jars and canners and things.