I'll admit that this concept of "storing food for the winter" is one that has been somewhat foreign to me.
I still get the picture in my mind of the little Aesop's fable ant, who works and works all day long to get enough food in his nest for the cold days of winter, all while the other more hip animals laugh and poke fun at the poor little guy's efforts.
I also think of Ma Ingalls, busily working over her fireplace hearth trying to make use of the daylight hours. (What couldn't she do, by the way?!)
But me? Here in the belly of suburbia, with my mini-van in the driveway and only about two miles between us and the nearest supermarket chain?
Why would I take the time to store food for the winter?
My growing love for it began last year when, with my friend's help, I canned my first batch of tomatoes. There really was nothing like adding a quart to a big pot of vegetable soup, chili, pot roast, or whatever else....everything seems more cozy with tomatoes that I canned myself! Each time I added those tomatoes, I tried to remember the exact process we used in canning them. I remembered buying the tomatoes from the farmer's market across the street, and hearing about what teachers the owner's kids had in school that year. I thought about how some of the tomatoes were grown here in our very own grow-bag garden, and how the girls loved to pick the ripe ones off the vine. But most of all, I remember the afternoon spent in the kitchen of my dear friend laughing and learning all while we lovingly prepared food for our families.
No matter how easy and convenient it may be to go to a grocery store and buy a can of the same tomatoes, it doesn't bring me a fraction of the joy that I received from this experience of canning them myself.
So here, we are starting the family tradition of storing our own food for the winter. Our membership to a local CSA has helped to bring more produce into our home on a weekly basis than we could ever eat, so what more perfect time to start researching and learning different methods of how to preserve the various types of produce we've received?
It is an amazing feeling to be carefully planning and storing this food in hopes to prevent even an ounce of it from going to waste. Through this, I am learning to prepare meals based on what we already have already inside our cupboards and freezer instead of meals that require a separate trip to the grocery store for that one ingredient.
In addition to eating healthier, fresher food by jumping on the "locally grown" trend, we are also learning and experiencing the small but yummy joys of storing our very own food for the winter!
Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer...Proverbs 30:25
