No Impact Week was halfway
over before I discovered that each day has a different emphasis. I feel bad
about having driven to town and back on Tuesday, which was supposed to emphasize walking
or biking everywhere. Maybe traveling on a foot-powered scooter would qualify, too.
I made up for Tuesday on
Wednesday – local food day. The way I figure, food you already have on hand
should qualify as local food, even if it includes dried cranberries. I made a
big batch of granola. The best thing I can claim about the granola is that all
the ingredients were purchased in bulk sections of grocery stores, so there’s
no packaging waste and there are no empty cartons from prepared cereals to
recycle.
For lunch we had potato
leek soup with fresh parsley garnish. I’m happy to say that everything in it
except a bit of half and half came from our garden.
Finally, I prepared a
basket of Roma tomatoes for freezing.
They scalded for 30 to 45
seconds in boiling water.
Then they went into a bowl
of ice water to keep them from getting mushy.
The tomato skins slipped
right off. Then I cut each fruit into smaller pieces, and simmered them to stop
their natural enzymes’ action. After they cooled I put them in old cottage
cheese cartons and froze them. I was thinking tomato bisque soup, vegetable
soup, pasta sauce, chili, and a favorite, tomatoes baked with breadcrumbs and
butter.
These three principles
guided me:
Use
what you have,
Eat
what is fresh, and
Preserve
the surplus.
Copyright
2013 by Shirley Domer
No comments:
Post a Comment