Winter is only five weeks old but feels like it has been here forever. The ground is frozen several inches deep, and since I can’t work outside my thoughts turn to indoor activities like watering herbs on the windowsill and trying different recipes using recently harvested vegetables along with preserves from the garden.
My most recent culinary adventures involve turning dried foods into flour in my blender to enrich soups and stews. So far I’ve made pumpkin, zucchini and tomato flour. Encouraged by the results, I continued on, grinding flax seeds, buckwheat, rice and even some chia seeds that I hadn’t used up. I’ll use these latter flours in recipes to replace the wheat flour my body can’t tolerate.
The other experiment involves making a hot green beverage to replace the “green drinks” that may be recommended but are all cold and more appropriate for warmer climes. Just the thought of an icy vegetable slurpee in the morning makes me shiver, and motivates me to formulate a nice, hot alternative.
I make a broth with bones, vegetables from the garden and frozen grated zucchini, strain it and keep it in jars in the fridge. Each morning I take out one and a quarter cups of broth and heat it on the stove. I finely chop a handful of greens and when the broth is nice and hot I stir in the greens. This is a tasty and easy to make drink, warming body and soul on busy, sub-zero mornings. David bought me some spinach, and when I run out of that I shall brace myself, go into the frozen garden and cut off some kale leaves to use. Being more or less fresh, they are probably better for me anyway.
I used some of the flour I produced to make acceptable pastry tarts that I filled with applesauce from last summer’s crop that even David liked, or at least pretended to. The apple slices I dehydrated work well as substitutes for raisins when I chop them up. No, there’s not much gardening to do in the winter, but it leaves time for experimentation. Meanwhile, I can read Dan Needles’ excellent book on farming in Ontario titled Finding Larkspur and the equally excellent magazine, Canadian Farm, or stare out the window and dream of days to come.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.