The current contents of my refrigerator crisper drawers include five medium carrots, two mini bell peppers, and the last few small interior leaves of romaine lettuce. It has been two weeks since I have purchased any fresh produce at a store, and even that was just a minimal stop at a very small store in a very small town.
And yet, I eat salad every day.
I have been doing this by eking out my remaining lettuce with chopped collard greens from the freezer and relying on pickled beets and onions as other add-ins, besides the carrots and mini bell peppers.
Last night's salad before adding the pickled beets from the jar.
Similarly, vegetables for the rest of my family have mostly been coming from the freezer.
Last night's fried rice included frozen peas, collard greens, beet greens, and a few dandelion greens I picked by the back steps.
There's still cooked cabbage, squash, green beans, peas, and corn in the freezers. There is sauerkraut from what I canned last summer in jars on the office shelves.
We have zero fresh fruit right now, but I do still have canned apples and pears and applesauce. Plus some store canned peaches.
It has been a recurring event in my adult life to have periods of time where the stock of fresh produce in my house is very low, but it doesn't really bother me. It's just part of living really far from stores. And it's why I keep fall-back vegetables and fruit in freezers and jars.
Anyway, it just makes it that much more exciting when I do finally get to the store and come home with such thrilling things as oranges, bananas*, and cucumbers. It's the little things in life.
* My children do actually consider having fresh bananas to be a notable luxury. Low standards, as always.
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