Keeping perishable food cold over a number of days on the road takes considerable effort so I'm trying to work our way through the frozen and refrigerated foods. We are definitely making progress. Several months ago, I emptied out and sold our small upright 5 cubic foot freezer. A couple months ago, I was finally able to unplug our refrigerator out in the garage. At that time, though, it meant that the household refrigerator and its freezer section were packed to the limit.
I love my CSA but the generous share we get each week is almost a Catch-22. The abundance of fresh food that must be consumed weekly decreases our ability to use up preserved foods already open in the refrigerator. I'm not complaining! Getting farm fresh produce year round is a treat I'm going to miss. In the meantime, I'm starting to share some of my surplus with the friend who will be house-sitting for us on our house-hunting trip. She doesn't mind working for food.
Our efforts to enrich our soil have also finally paid off. We have a thick bed of rainbow chard, adding to an already bountiful portion of greens from the CSA.
I harvested this mountain of chard this morning. It will go into bibim bap this evening.
The bed still contains much more. I wonder if chard would dehydrate well? That could make a nice addition to soups on a snowy winter's night in our new home.Last year, I blanched and froze my extra greens but that won't work now with my efforts to clean out the freezer. It's only about half full at this point. Granted, some of the freezer space is simply the result of my getting rid of all the foods that seem to trigger the dizziness and vertigo. And some of the food left in the freezer, such as whole wheat flour and coffee beans (for my sweetie), can make the trip without being chilled.
The refrigerator is getting a little less crowded, too. I am cleaning out one to two jars of condiments or preserved food each week. I need to put a list on the front of the fridge so I know what's in there and remember to use it. If I don't rummage around in there, I don't think to add these foods to the meals I'm making with fresh CSA produce.
This past week has seen me eating lots of salads. I've added olives or pickled Jerusalem artichokes to some of them. I've used up the homemade thousand island dressing (vegan mayo, ketchup, sweet relish, onion powder) leftover from making vegan Reubens. The last two days, I've made tasty dressings with leftover homemade raspberry chipotle sauce mixed with either balsamic vinegar or the wine/vinegar juice from the olives.
If I do an inventory and write down everything that's left in the fridge (other than fresh vegetables) and freezer, do you want me to share it here?
8 comments:
Sure! It'll be fun to hear how you make interesting recipes to get rid of some of the foods in your fridge.
Oh, and that chard looks SUPER healthy! I've always though rainbow chard was pretty...
I absolutely love chard - that looks so beautiful. I envy you your fresh veggies now. I feel like I have not eaten nearly as many veggies over the winter as I did during summer and fall and I miss them. I go on periodic attempt to clear out the jars of things in the fridge - some of that stuff stays around forever! I would love to unplug the chest freezer in the basement - I have hardly anything left from last summer's freezing, mostly what's in there now is bulk frozen veggies from the store and bagels for my daughter, but maybe I could get it all upstairs! Thanks for the motivation.
Beautiful chard! Believe it or not, I've never eaten Swiss chard, and I really want to try it.
Any recipes you can recommend for fantastic chard? (I'm not a huge fan of kale, does it taste like that?)
Thanks!!!
Farmer's Daughter - try it in stir fry. I know, I know. I stir fry everything... :)
It does not taste like kale at all - it is much milder and almost has a buttery after taste. We usually chop it, put the stems in with a little olive oil and garlic, then after a minute or two, add the greens and just stir for a minute, then serve. Great with rice and beans, or anything.
Heather - ok, I'll post it when I get it done.
JAM - in general, I try not to open too many new jars until I finish up what's already open. That doesn't always work because some things stay in the fridge once they're made (like pumpkin butter and preserved lemons). My sweetie also doesn't like a number of things that I do.
Hope you get your freezer unplugged for a few months!
Farmer's Daughter - you can treat it a lot like spinach in cooked recipes, although as JAM suggests, you should give the stems a little more cooking time. Here's a great guide to winter greens that our CSA 'chef' put together last year.
Heather - LOL! "Braise it" is our standard answer when CSA members ask what to do with any green.
JAM - good description of the taste!
Your chard looks gorgeous. I have a question about spacing, since I am currently planting spinach in containers in sunny windows. Do you follow package directions concerning spacing or just sprinkle the seeds? Thanks for your help :)
Melanie, following package directions is your best bet. My sweetie sowed the chard pretty densely so trimming leaves out (to eat) had to be done regularly.
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