Filling the Cupboards

Over the past few weeks, I have been keeping long hours at work followed by long evenings with other stuff to do. Jon has been keeping up the preparations for the long winter to come. I found myself flat out last weekend with some kind of bug that kep me sleeping all day Saturday. Jon was up and out to the market -- he was determined to get tomatoes to begin canning them for the coming months. And so he has. He has made tomato paste and tomato sauce. In the past we would have said we don't eat many things with tomato, but this year will be different. We figure a jar of tomato sauce will be good on just about anything in the cold of winter when fresh foods are sparse.

Every evening as we sit down to eat, one or the other of us comments on how much better the food we are eating this summer is than our usual fare of the past several years. One of the things we decided was that if I was having a lunch meeting at work, the local rules would not apply. I had several of those last week, just before I caught whatever bug I caught. I blamed part of my ill feeling on the food I had been eating. Not as fresh, more processed, nowhere near as nurturing.

We have now had local chicken -- pasture raised, and local beef. They are so good. At first we think about the cost, $3 - $12 per pound, and think it is impossible. Then we think about what we would spend eating out, which we would do, and how much better what we are eating tastes than what we would get while we were out, and we know we are on to something for ourselves and all the people we can convince to eat this way.

We bought a 1/2 bushel of peaches a couple of weeks ago. I think they were the best peaches I have ever had. They were juicy and sweet. So much better than most we get at the grocery store. We are so fortunate in living where we do. We may not have bananas or citrus fruit, but the food we do have is amazing.