So, this fall I experimented with canning and freezing some of the local yummies. I canned tomato sauce and drunken fig jam, and I froze peaches (as well as excess hot peppers from the farm share).
I wanted to save these items past the fall, to meter them out so I had summer yummies through the entire winter. So I put them away and promptly forgot about them. I’m definitely behind in consuming my stored summer sunshine.
I started to haul out the peaches – I hack away a bit of the frozen mass and put it into a blender with some kefir and whatever else is around (honey, a banana) for a nice smoothie.
The drunken fig jam is a hit at dinner parties (still looking for more invitations…definitely burning a hole in my basement shelf).
And, after giving a few jars away as gifts, I have busted out the tomato sauce as well. It is very fresh and light sauce.
It has been lovely opening those freezer bags of peaches and the jars of tomato sauce and fig jam. It takes me back to the hot afternoons where I prepped them for storage, and I get a taste of summer. Luscious summer, that I know is returning, even though I’m huddled and snuggled up still in the winter cold.
Wiarton Willie says there are six more weeks of winter. I have several more cans of tomato sauce and bags of frozen peaches to get through. I think I’m going to make it back to the sunshine
I’m finishing the last of my frozen basil pesto from summer, with a few jars of roasted tomato sauce and one remaining jar of sage pesto (good with pureed garbanzos and olive oil for a dip). I long for the summer past and anticipate the summer to come.