:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

Two nights ago the first major frost descended on our valley as temperatures plummeted into the 20’s over night. We covered the basil, tomatoes, swiss chard, green peppers, and lettuce in our garden, but the basil and tomatoes got nailed all the same. Fortunately we were able to pluck a bunch of tomatoes off the vines, but the basil was generally beyond repair.

It has been wonderful this summer growing so much food in our garden. I haven’t had to buy lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, or tomatoes all summer, and we’ll be eating frozen swiss chard, tomatoes, and basil all winter (the basil is in little balls ground up with oil).

I wouldn’t exactly call it self-sufficient, but it is freeing to have a bit more control over our food. We know exactly what’s been done to it, trusting that it’s safe. We have also spent a good deal of time picking wild apples and no-spray blueberries this year, and have made applesauce and jam respectively, in addition to freezing some berries and apples for future baking projects.

I like all of this because I’m planning ahead, thinking of tomorrow. The growing season is limited, and so I need to work hard today in order to preserve our food for the coming months. I still need to be part of a CSA and to take trips to the grocery store, but we have laid a foundation for the coming winter by planning ahead.

Living with more awareness of the seasons and their effect on our food supply, what we eat and how we eat it, has taught me to be patient, to wait. I can’t always have exactly what I want, when I want it. Now that it’s winter, the only way I can eat a blueberry is by defrosting some for pancakes or putting blueberry jam on my bread. All summer I had to wait for apples until they were ripe on the tree next to my work. It runs counter to the have-it-now culture of consumption: wait for the right season, plan ahead when you have abundance.

Curiously, this seems to have changed more than diet.