Tub 'O Turnips

What would you do with a huge tub of turnips?  Nobody can possibly like turnips that much!  After saving some for this week's CSA baskets, Ian pickled the rest.  We really like shawarma and luckily pickled turnips are a key ingredient in those.  They are also a nice addition to salads and as a substitute for cucumber pickles - a favourite in our household.

Fooled you!  These are not french fries but sliced turnip.

While Ian was on turnip duty, the boys and I peeled garlic.  We peeled and peeled until our fingernails ached.  However, this is short term pain for long term gain in the form of ready-to-use garlic for all sorts of dishes from garlic bread to spaghetti sauce to stir fries, soups and stews.

Preserving our own food is lots of work up front but then we have easily accessible, home grown food at our fingertips all winter long.  I do not have the energy to work hard to make every meal.  Knowing that I have prepared food available in our pantry or freezer motivates me to keep processed food out of our shopping cart.  Knowing that I do not have to peel garlic to make homemade garlic bread is often enough to stop me from buying store bought garlic bread, for example, or knowing that I can toss together a jar of canned tomatoes with some frozen garlic and dried basil to make a quick pasta sauce keeps the store bought stuff off my grocery list.  We know that advance preparation is key for a winter of easier, healthier eating and so here we find ourselves at the end of every summer canning, dehydrating, and freezing much of our garden produce.  It is a very cool thing to be able make meals in the middle of winter largely out of things that came out of our summer gardens.