Use It Up!

On April 19th the first couple Farmers Markets in our area open for business. You can bet you'll get a full report here, in the meantime we are thinking about using up what we have preserved from the last growing season.

We still have GOBS of applesauce. There may be a few apples around that were stored over the winter but we prefer to eat our sauce slowly, hopefully running out only in late August or so, when the new crop comes in.

Last year I froze a lot of berry sauces (strawberry and raspberry). Turns out I didn't freeze nearly enough raspberry (ran out in November) and too much strawberry! The strawberry sauce (just strawberries whirred up in the food processor) is endlessly versatile. I have been using it in scones and smoothies, as a base for salad dressing over spinach and eating it with a spoon with dollops of sour cream.

We will finish out last bag of frozen corn tonight (check back tomorrow for pictures of our Mexican feast), but we will have lots of peppers (dried and frozen). We will use them up by the time the new ones are ready.

We have tomato sauce left and about a quart of dried tomatoes. The dried will be gone within he month I suspect but we will stretch the sauce until July.

In the fall I always want to preserve mountains of food to sustain us through the winter. I usually get a fair amount put away but not enough to keep us totally local. Inevitably I preserve too much of a few things and we scramble to eat it all before the new crop comes in. Smoothies for fruit, soup for veggies. The new crops are on their way--celebrate!