The Plan:
Day 1: Grandma’s Goulash
Day 2: Cilantro lime rice bowls with black beans, corn, and salsa
Day 3: Homemade pizza
Day 4: Chicken noodle soup
Day 5: Baked cod, Asian slaw with peanut ginger dressing
Day 6: Beef pot roast, Roasted carrots, parsnips, and beets with garlic thyme dressing
Day 7: Egg salad with radish, Carrot sticks, Orange slices
Pantry Shuffle:
Out of Storage: (preserved when in season and coming out of my root cellar, freezer, canned, or dehydrated stash)
- Carrots
- Parsnips
- Chopped green peppers that I froze in the fall
- Whole chicken and beef chuck roast from Mastadon Valley Farm
- Red cabbage
- Beauty heart radish
- Beets
Into Storage:
- Chicken broth
Notes: Eating local in the dead of winter
Well, we officially entered the time here in Wisconsin where there is very little local produce available. I find myself reaching more and more into the root cellar and making use of all the hard work I did over the summer and fall to preserve food. Each week I peruse what I have left and wonder, “is this going to last until spring?” My spring CSA farm share doesn’t start until the end of April so I have to plan accordingly. Are you still able to eat local in the dead of winter?
If you didn’t save enough (or anything!) don’t despair! Now is the time to start thinking about the upcoming seasons. Try using your downtime this winter to read up on gardening, preservation techniques, and other approaches like CSA to get you on a path to local eating this year. In the meantime, to get fresh produce, you can search for greenhouses in your area that grow herbs, spinach, mushrooms, lettuces, and even tomatoes. That is one strategy I use to prevent falling back on produce that is trucked in from Mexico and California.
Freezing, canning, dehydrating, and cellar storage have become my go-to processes to plan for winter eating. I’m getting better and better at this every year, but it does take a lot of experimentation and commitment. Totally worth it in my opinion!
Here are some resources I created to help you out. There are also soooo many books available.
2022 Garden Guide – just updated!
Last notes: I have some great looking cilantro in my indoor herb garden, which will help to curb my craving for greens this week. I love this recipe for cilantro lime rice. It seriously tastes very similar to Chipotle’s rice that they use in burritos and bowls. So good! I also have some fresh thyme that I will be adding to my goulash recipe. Good eats this week!
