It looks like we’ll be getting our first real frost this week. I’ll be in my garden over the next few days to gather all I can — every last ripe and green tomato, all of the winter squash, one more bouquet of dahlias — and I’ll be grateful for every last bit. My kitchen garden has been feeding us since April with a constant stream of homegrown food. It started with lettuce, radishes, spring onions, then moved onto peas, herbs, and garlic scapes, then an abundance of tomatoes, summer squash, green beans, and now finally peppers, pumpkins, and root vegetables. We’ll still have some food growing in our cold frames even through the coldest parts of winter, but the abundant selection will narrow, and I’ve resigned myself to having to return to the grocery store.
I did our first big “Woodman’s shop” last week, the first one since May. Through the summer we buy very little food, with only a few stops, mainly for dairy products and coffee. Otherwise, we grow most of what we eat. Last week when I heard my total at the checkout I was astounded, and this was while shopping at the store with the best deals around. My heart hurt thinking of how anyone has managed these soaring prices over recent months. It doesn’t seem sustainable.
During the panic buying of the early pandemic, through supply chain issues, and recently with skyrocketing prices due to inflation, my family has generally felt insulated. Partly because of my love of growing food, partly because of my husband’s flock of laying hens, but also because we have grown to rely on local farmers for our meat and on our local food system for as much else as possible. Well before the pandemic changed all of our lives, we shifted our diet to be focused on seasonal, local, homegrown food, but I never imagined just how much security and peace that would give us in recent years.
Eating and purchasing this way is not as convenient as stopping at the store for tonight’s dinner ingredients. Instead, we work backwards, looking at what we have available and creating dinner from there. This week it meant pulling out a few pork chops from the freezer to throw on the grill, part of a whole Berkshire hog we purchased last fall from a friend of a friend. We topped them with some caramelized onions and a few sauteed apples from our newly-bearing apple trees, part of the fruit orchard we planted in 2021. We roasted some just-dug potatoes to go with, and made a salad with kale and delicata squash from the garden, which were started from seed in the depths of last winter. Everything about our meal involved planning ahead, and definitely required some hard work, but our dinner cost very little money and, more importantly, it was absolutely delicious! Changing our mindset on food — to focus on local and seasonal, rather than on quick and convenient — does take time, effort, and money to start out. But as food costs continue to rise, buying local often isn’t the most expensive option anymore.
With frost upon us, it might seem like there’s not much you can do at this point in the year. But it’s actually an excellent time to add more local food to your diet, or plan to do so. Farm stands and farmer’s markets are bursting at the seams with the fall harvest. Grab a few extra squash or long-storing apples at the pumpkin patch, they can feed you well into the winter. Connect with local farmers to purchase meat for the freezer, or a turkey for the holidays. And maybe plan a garden of your own. Fall is the best time to prepare a new garden space, so you can focus on planting in the spring.
The last few years have demonstrated just how many things are out of our control. But taking ownership of where you get your food — growing some of your own, or turning to your community — can provide a feeling of security and allow your family (and your finances!) to be a bit more resilient to hard times. Plus, it’s more delicious!
— Heather Lynch is a garden educator, with a passion for local, seasonal food. She and her husband Dylan live in Brooklyn and have been working to grow their homestead. She has her UW Extension Master Gardener certification, and enjoys volunteering at a food pantry garden, teaching youth groups how to grow food that is donated directly to local food pantries. She provides consultations for anyone who wants to start a garden or just needs some support in making their garden more healthy and productive. Heather shares her gardening adventures, seasonal meals, and unique preserves on her Instagram feed @green.haven.gardens. Soil Sisters, a program of Renewing the Countryside, connects and champions women in the Green County area committed to sustainable and organic agriculture, land stewardship, local food, family farms and healthy and economically vibrant rural communities.
