Goodbye, Harvest Season

My favorite farm stand is literally a stand at a farm...

Fresh potatoes are two dollars for a huge bag, peppers, tomatoes and beans, a dollar a quart, and it's all so delicious...why would you ever buy the stuff in a supermarket again?

...and if you can't eat it all at once, there's always canning!

The harvest season is coming to a close, with the local farm stands all shutting down around the end of the month. Corn and soybeans are still out in many of the fields, but I've noticed the combines poised on the perimeters for harvest... 

One of the things I've really enjoyed about moving back north has been the easy access to fresh food from local farms. It makes eating healthy so much easier. Also, I've been intrigued how so many women here are really into gardening and canning. 

Last month I took a canning course at the 577 Foundation, one of my new favorite places. I'll post a run down on "everything wonderful" about this unique community center at another time, but for now, let me just say that the canning course was a godsend. I've had the Ball Blue Book on canning and preserving for years, which I used for jam recipes that I would seal with melted paraffin, but I was always nervous about doing hot water canning from written instructions, without actually watching someone else first. Yet I found out that with a minimal investment in canning equipment, hot water canning turned out to be easy enough. The woman who gave us canning lessons at the 577 Foundation, Deb Trzcinski, did a great job, teaching us basic canning skills with an easy but really delicious pear jam! (Gorgeous taste and texture--who knew pear jam could be so good?)

This year, I canned spicy pickled okra, mushrooms, pickled cauliflower and my own salsa. I missed the fruit seasons (except for apple and pear) so I'm waiting for next year to try canning some jams. It's given me such a feeling of pride and accomplishment, as well as a little pantry full of tasty goodies for much less than I would have paid for them at the store (have you checked out the price of a bottle of salsa lately? Or okra pickles?) And it's wound up being a very nice hobby. 

I will miss my weekly trips out to the farm, coming away with more fruits and vegetables than I can carry to the car in one trip, usually for less than $10. I like knowing I'm helping our local farmers, and sincerely hope I am "investing" in keeping the beautiful fields and farm lands that surround our city safe from development...at least for now...