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.
7 comments:
Yum, soup. Second pantries must be where 'lord of the rings' characters get their second breakfastes.
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I love that you still have produce to use from the garden. I need to work on that next year. Leek and potato soup - YUM!
While I'm jealous of your snow and the fact that you still have fresh veggies, I'll pass on having to go out and get them.
How would it be to just pick your lunch out of your back yard? Maybe I'll know one of these days.
I just made hearty leek, potato and kale soup. Leeks are dirt magnets and Kale not much better, what a lot of work to clean! And I was surprised that my neither my neighbors geese nor goats would eat the roots or woodier ends of the leeks (they did adore the kale stems). I bet they were just jealous of the deliciousness that was mine! Tonight gonna go for leek and goat cheese pizza.
And you'll now post your recipe for potato leek soup, yes?
I laid a hesitant eye on the vegetable garden this morning and found that the recent hard frost (no really) did not kill anything more than the predicted nasturtium.
Even the peas, with their spindly little fingers, thawed out and came back to life.
Miracle.
I didn't use a recipe for this batch--too lazy and rushed at the time to prep a lot of ingredients. It was just leeks, potatoes, chicken stock, salt, pepper--all pureed--and then lots of heavy cream added. It could have stood some more flavor. Bacon, maybe. But it was pretty damn good as it was.
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