Summer of Expectations

What a week it has been here in Ontario's south--heat wave before the official start of summer and I am already melting. I spent four days in the bathtub pretending I was lounging in my luxury 40 foot pool with Juan the manservant serving me Mai-tais. Sigh. Hey, you get through a heat wave your way, I'll do it mine. 

Seriously though I have been concerned, for months now, about our weather and how it will affect us in the near future such as harvest time. As everyone knows our food prices rise and fall accordingly and all farmers feel the 'heat' with maybe the exception of the industrial farms that rely on sales of greenhouse grown produce. That won't mean they will abstain from raising their prices when everyone else has to raise theirs. Since we had such a warm and dry winter, we were already off to a parched start in the spring. Grass should not crunch in March as it did here. Both the dog and I should have been muddy from belly to butt instead, we were (I was)slapping the dust off. There was no spring thaw; no river and creek system overflow; no 'lakes' in the fields slowly seeping into the thawing ground. We then had high winds for weeks on end and with the clear cutting of trees for farmland, windbreaks are few and far between. This means loss of top soil, loss of seed. The birds were plentiful due to a mild winter; deer and other crop eaters would have had large spring births and there would have been a surplus of insects and bugs for food. The birds adore freshly sown fields as a favoured buffet and seagulls, as we are close to one of the Great Lakes, are frequent guests. South of us the crows have always been a plague and the numbers this year ensure a trial for farmers there. Cats are going to be busy.

We need to be aware of this and follow the signs that will alert us as to when to tighten the food budget belt a few holes higher. There is not much we can do to change the effects of weather and the resulting infestations of pests other than irrigation, shading and insect-proofing 'tents', and of course, the ubiquitous scarecrow. However, we can protect ourselves as consumers by application of some smart shopping and canny preserving.. Pause... Okay, lame joke. 

Starting with the fruit season, strawberries right now in my area, try to purchase large amounts of the foods you eat most or would like to/should be incorporating in your food lifestyle and preserve them. Fruits can be frozen whole or in their own syrup, water-canned as a jam or jelly as well as pieces in syrup. Vegetable readiness seems to happen quickly, one harvest after the other so if you love most veg, you may have to pick and choose carefully which ones to preserve. Some veg are easy to do up, like green beans and some need more preparation so time your chores wisely. The last thing you want is a fridge full of rotting food because you misjudged how much time you actually could devote to this. Life is full of little surprises that will interfere with any plan so we want to minimize the possible waste of food and money. Myself, I learned the hard way that we do not each much fruit or use much jam. You should see my cellar shelves. Anybody want any jam?

As I have mentioned in previous posts, shopping local is the best thing to do for everyone's wallets and it is even more important during food price hikes. Buying in large amounts and developing a good relationship with the farm market owners will help you keep a smart budget and a healthy life. Butchers are also important to visit often and get to know. I need to do that myself, again, as I am not happy with the one I was purchasing from and as I am making my dog's food, I go through a lot of meat. Supermarket shopping is just getting too expensive. I do load the deep freezer whenever there is a sale, especially chicken, but in between those times I have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a minuscule amount of meat. If packaged properly, you can safely freeze meats, cooked and uncooked, for a substantial amount of time.

So, I plan on enjoying my summer embarking on yet another journey around the farm markets, munching on the freshest of vegetables, the juiciest of fruits and working like a fiend preserving as much as possible.

You may want to check out the Canning and Preserving Page for more information.
Have a good one!