The Bounty of Summer Begins

Yesterday, I canned 10 half pints of raspberry jam, put up 3 quarts of dilled green beans and dried a lot of my homegrown herbs. It is very satifying to preserve food for the winter. It will be so nice to open one of those jars and taste the summer sunshine in a glistening spoonful of raspberry jam. It is particularly important to me because I can control the amount of sugar - this jam is made primarily with light agave syrup and a bit of organic cane sugar. The agave syrup is much lower on the glycemic index scale and better for you than a big blast of refined sugar. I put some of the jam in a small container to use now and it is good.

When my children were small I did a lot of summer canning. This year, I made a personal pledge to preserve as much local food as I can for the winter ahead.

The Farmer's Market and my own little container garden are bursting with summer's bounty. I had so much fun yesterday - I am bitten by the bug.

Sustaining Ourselves in the Times Ahead

This is a time like none we have ever seen. In the past few months I have begun a new practice - one that I highly recommend. I have expanded my pantry and am storing additional staple food. It is food that I like and that I eat - it is not just to be squirreled away. I eat from the expanded pantry and replenish it as needed.

Make no mistake - it is all food with a long shelf life - grains, beans, rice, pasta, noodles, canned salmon, canned fruit and tomatoes along with pasta sauce, peanut butter and powdered milk. None of us knows what may lie ahead. Be prepared. I think having a supply of food and water on hand in case we have an interruption in the supply chain or a natural emergency (look at the folks in Kentucky without power right now).

I dried a fair amount of tomatoes and zucchini this summer and put up pickles and pesto. It is so neat to use my own food. I intend to can even more food this summer.

Localization - eating from our local foodsheds, supporting local economies by purchasing from local business, keeping our hard earned money in our communities - all are going to be key in the months ahead. I am by no means a "survivalist" nor am I building a bomb shelter in the backyard. I just think it is prudent in this uncertain time to be more self-reliant and to be vigilant about helping your neighbors - for it is in-community that we will thrive.

The photo is sunset over the Mississippi River taken from the Science Museum of Minnesota on January 24.

Sustaining that is the key word. Store a bit of surplus for yourself and for a neighbor too. There are some great websites about this topic if you are interested I can post some links. Talk with you soon......................