Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and other inspirations…

One of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver, has written a book that I actually CAN’T read before bedtime because it kicks my brain into high gear.  It keeps Kurt awake too, because I’m “thinking too loud”.  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is her latest book and chronicles the year that she and her family ate only local foods  (which would be hard for me because I just love olives too much).  This book, complete with recipes, thought promoting information, and how-to’s, along with a local business called Locavorious (I wish I’d thought of the idea myself!!), which is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that disperses its shares in the winter months with produce they have processed and frozen when things are at their peak of harvest NOW (genius!), have provided me with endless inspiration this summer.  A co-worker suggested I read “Saving the Harvest” for more ideas.

I was too late in signing up for a share of the frozen CSA (a good sign–I’m not the only one that thinks this is a great idea).  After I got over my initial dismay, I decided to be my OWN frozen CSA.  Last week we bought a freezer that is almost as tall as I am, and I’ve been busy filling it.  I started by visiting the web page for Locavorious (see link) to get a list going of things that freeze well.  Then I thought of more things.

So far, I have several pints of pesto (I’ve been averaging a pint per week for the past month or so), a few gallon sized bags each of yellow and green beans, carrots, corn, strawberries.  Currently caramelizing away in the crockpot are the onions I bought today at market (look for the recipe in a future post).  I plan to puree them and freeze them in amounts appropriate for various uses such as soups, pizza toppings, casseroles, sauces, etc.  I’ve also been pureeing fresh tomatoes (if you buy “seconds” at the farmers market, they are VERY cheap, about $1 per bucket, which makes about a quart of puree).  I’m planning to follow a canning recipe from the book, but I’ve also just started a trend of fire roasting tomatoes (look for the recipe in a future post) on the grill and pureeing them–most likely they will end up in pizza sauce, chili, lasagna, soup, crockpot cassoulet…uh-oh there goes the brain again…

So far, the bottom drawer of my new toy has grass fed beef (on sale) and is the future home of chicken carcasses I’ll use to make chicken stock,  which I’ll also freeze in amounts I can use for various recipes…