growing season
I don't think I really appreciated the glory of seasons until I started growing and preserving food. These days, you can go to CostCo and get sugar snap peas and strawberries any time of the year, whenever your little heart desires.
Just imagine how wonderful summer must have been, even a generation or two ago, when that wasn't possible. Just think how excited those gardeners must have been when they saw their pea plants growing tall and blossoming. When I bit into that first sweet, crunchy pea pod last night--when I offered one to Eric and he said "Mmmm..." appreciatively as he tasted what I'd grown--I was happy. But just think how much happier we would have been if it was the first time we'd tasted something so fresh and green since the year before.
And strawberry season? I do love strawberries, and I will occasionally buy them out of season for a special occasion or certain recipe. But the grocery store ones can't compare to the melting, ripe, sweetness of the local Oregon berries.
My kids were thrilled to be out in the fields picking them. But they would have gorged themselves even more, I think, if they knew this was the only time they would get to taste strawberries all year long.
(Evie did a little better at picking than she did last year. This year her method of picking was to put a few in her bucket, eat them all up, and then hold the empty bucket out to me forlornly, saying "All gone!" as though she had no idea where those berries went.)
I love making my own jam. But I know that if I do run out (again) I can just go to the store and get more.
What if the jars that we made right now, this week, were really all that stood between us and (gasp!) jam-less toast?
Right now, summer and fall are wonderful times for us, food-wise. But back in the days before long-distance shipping and refrigeration and mega-grocery stores? Summer must have been gosh-darn miraculous.
Just imagine how wonderful summer must have been, even a generation or two ago, when that wasn't possible. Just think how excited those gardeners must have been when they saw their pea plants growing tall and blossoming. When I bit into that first sweet, crunchy pea pod last night--when I offered one to Eric and he said "Mmmm..." appreciatively as he tasted what I'd grown--I was happy. But just think how much happier we would have been if it was the first time we'd tasted something so fresh and green since the year before.
And strawberry season? I do love strawberries, and I will occasionally buy them out of season for a special occasion or certain recipe. But the grocery store ones can't compare to the melting, ripe, sweetness of the local Oregon berries.
My kids were thrilled to be out in the fields picking them. But they would have gorged themselves even more, I think, if they knew this was the only time they would get to taste strawberries all year long.
(Evie did a little better at picking than she did last year. This year her method of picking was to put a few in her bucket, eat them all up, and then hold the empty bucket out to me forlornly, saying "All gone!" as though she had no idea where those berries went.)
I love making my own jam. But I know that if I do run out (again) I can just go to the store and get more.
What if the jars that we made right now, this week, were really all that stood between us and (gasp!) jam-less toast?
Right now, summer and fall are wonderful times for us, food-wise. But back in the days before long-distance shipping and refrigeration and mega-grocery stores? Summer must have been gosh-darn miraculous.
5 comments:
very true. :) We are spoiled.
Oh, but it is still gosh-darn miraculous because it all tastes so much better when you grow it or pick it yourself!
Well said! In Canada the stinging nettles were the first edible spring greenery, and I couldn't wait to pick them (very carefully), boil them, and eat them with butter and vinegar. We were starved for fresh produce after the long cold winter.
Mmmmm Fresh strawberries right out of the field! No other berry compares! Too bad my kids are still too little for berry picking. Maybe next year will find me out in the strawberry fields.
@ Terri: Every time I hear another story about your lives in Canada, I am always so astounded. Living without electricity! Picking stinging nettles and eating them! You were like a pioneer woman. Although I do think the lack of supermarkets etc. would make spring foods more cherished, I'm not sure I'm willing to go without them in order to experience it firsthand.
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