Cooking Seasonally

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(Mom preparing to can tomato sauce)

Cooking through the seasons can be as much an adventure as it is rewarding. There is nothing better than going to your local farmers market and finding all the fresh regional fruits and vegetables. The taste of these local treasures are beyond belief. Why would you want to eat out of cans and boxes your entire life? That’s what so many people do. I grew up eating the food out of our garden, or off my grandfather Norm’s farm.  Today they call it “natural” or “organic”, well we just called it a way of life.  I can remember spending hours each week weeding the garden, and picking all the fresh beans, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, beets, peppers and potatoes.   Days and days watching mom, my aunts, and grandmothers canning and putting up all these fresh treasures for us to enjoy through out the winter.

(soon to become apple sauce or apple butter)

I remember my senior year of high school I decided to join the “Home Economics” class. I figured after my grandpa Cecil told me to learn how to cook, clean and take care of a house because you never know if you’ll have someone to do it for you. Yea, my grandpa grew up in the era of the women taking care of the house and tending to the family, but he was smart and knew a man needs to be able to take care of himself as well.  He and grandma Cortie are from the hills of Kentucky, and of course things were a lot different back then.  We had a choice in what we grew and bought at stores.  They didn’t.  For a lot of my family on their side of my family tree, if you didn’t grow it yourself or raise it (chickens/cows/pigs) you didn’t eat.

Well the home economics class I took planned a field trip to a local farm. Now the town I grew up in during high school was not the smallest around, but it was not Mayberry. Of course I grew up in Wapakoneta, and yes at that time it was like Mayberry there. Well when we got to the farm, I could not believe what I heard. Nobody in my class realized that farms like this are where much of the food they ate came from. Yes, they thought that milk and eggs and chicken and beef came from the grocery store.  That was the extent of it.  I guess I stood out a little bit when I was able to show them how to milk a cow, bottle feed the calfs and even show how to churn butter.

But back to the seasonal and local cooking. There are so many fresh items you can find locally. From vegetables and fruits, to nuts, berries and herbs. Some of those things you can grow in your own back yards, even if you have a very small yard.  Herbs fit right into flower beds or in pots on the patio. A cucumber or zucchini vine looks great growing over a trellis or arch in your yard. A tomato plant can be grown in a container on your patio/deck, or even now in hanging baskets, upside down on your balcony. There are so many ways and places to grow fresh home grown foods of your own. So get out there and find locally grown at the farmers market or in your own back yard.  Fresh is so much better for you  than what you get in cans from the store.

Before you can anything, Go to the National Center for Home Canning at: https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

Always follow the guidelines set forth by the National Center for Home Canning at the above link.  Do NOT just go by what I may say in my recipes or videos as it could be wrong and cause health issues.  I try my best to make sure everything is followed correctly for your safety, but you need to protect yourself and always follow the National Center for Home Canning guidelines whenever you can food yourself.

For recipes on canning tomatoes and other items, CLICK HERE !!!