Today, March 12, in the snow and rain, my friend and I uncovered the last of the carrots that I’d left in the garden last fall. At that time, another friend had helped me cover the row with a thick layer of leaves (which matted down to about 6″ at most) and then covered the leaf pile with a tarp, weighted down to keep it from blowing around. At this point it was a bit of a job to haul the tarp off the leaves (ice build-up, tarp frozen to the weights, etc.) But, the ground underneath was soft (and muddy) and we dug away and found lots of sweet carrots, some of them rather gigantic.

Some Observations:

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I’ve been reflecting on the local food issue and, specifically” the “Local Challenge” recently begun here in March. You may think its harder to have a late winter challenge than it is in summer, and you’re right! However, as a part of eating local foods we must address “Food Security” as an early planning initiative: namely what will we do to insure the security of our foods as well as the securing of our foods!

Here’s what’s happened at the Hoad’s house on Emma’s Family Farm. We decided, a number of years ago, that home canning was our best option. By canning during the summer we could easily accomplish three things:
1. Have good foods on hand during the most difficult situations (storms, power outages, fuel shortages, etc.
2. Keep our local food ready at all times to be eaten.
and
3. Not worry about the food quality or, in fact, even the amount we might need for a specific meal. We could accommodate guests easily by digging into the stockpile.

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