On eating locally

This week I decided not to do a big shop, which means that I have been hitting my pantry, freezer, "root cellar" (rapidly dwindling basket of butternut squash and pumpkins) pretty hard. I will be quite pleased if my frozen food makes it to winter, let alone through the winter... And, while it is only October 20th, I guess I may as well use it now than go to the store.  And we do have stuff growing still, although my fall garden is somewhat pathetic, mostly because my summer garden stayed around for so long.  I still have some tomatoes, getting ripe at an alarmingly slow rate.  And then there are some pumpkins still ripening down there--and I can't bring myself to get rid of the baby pumpkins, even though I know a frost is a coming...This is the first year that the vines haven't been chewed up by bugs by the beginning of September.  I planted butternuts, winter luxury, and some kind from France that looks fantastic but take forever to get ripe and need to be planted in May..or maybe even April next year...Anyway, I do have some kale and maybe some broccoli and cauliflower if they survive whatever is eating it.  Oh, and some lettuce, which nobody but me eats.   But the point is, despite my biggest garden ever, and my most concentrated efforts, I am not going to have nearly enough to last through the winter.  Which is fine.  It's definitely my best yet.  And while, much to my darling husband's chagrin, I have big plans to expand the garden again next year, the fact remains that I am not going ot be able to grow enough for the winter.  Next year, if I want to eat locally,  and have a bunch of cans of tomato sauce and frozen green beans to use when I am in a hurry, I am going to have to suck it up and buy a bunch from Tailgate and preserve it. 

And it has been kind of fun.  We made wheat thins today, and Pea, who at five, feels she knows all there is to know about baking, made some nearly inedible cookies (which Dumpling loved, so hey.) And I busted out one of the jars of peaches that Pea and I canned this summer.   The thing is that Dumpling refused to touch the peaches, (and the roasted butternut squash, and green beans, and crispy kale...)  Basically, the boy will eat broccoli and any kind of berry.  Oh, he may eat some of the pear and apple sauce we made which did involve quite a bit of extra sugar.  Sometimes I let it go, and sometimes, in a panic lest my baby get scurvy from eating absolutely no procuce, I buy strawberries in October and Broccoli in July.  I don't quite know how to handle it...how hardcore locavore I feel compelled to be.  I suppose I could devote my whole garden to broccoli and freeze a bunch, but to be honest, I would be happy if I never had to eat another bite of broccoli again.  I have overdosed.

In other notes, my strawberries have gone completely crazy.  We planted them this spring, back when the kids weren't all done with gardening--I think I planted thirty of them in one bed.  I dutifully pinched off all the blossoms, so they would get strong and have a big harvest next year.  And now, they have spread--filling a whole other bed, and reaching for more.  There is a big mat of them, and I have kind of ignored them, so they are all weedy, and difficult to weed because I keep pulling them up.  Which really isn't so bad, considering how many I have, but I still find that excruciating.

And, I am almost finished with Pea's sweater, which I have been knitting since March.  It's very exciting except that I made the sleeves too short, and it may be a little small.  And itchy.  And Dumpling keeps insisting that it is his sweater.  Which means I have to knit another one.  Which will take me forever.  Like until next year.  Oh well.