I am not sure where Canuary is flying off to but Canuary is flying by! Canuary is half over. All 64 pints, 13 quarts, and 11 half pints are filled. My freezer is breathing a bit easier and my fridge is hosting enough leftover bits and pieces to feed me for a week. Canuary is a satisfying, parodoxical, perplexing food month.
Satisfying? Yes, satisfying. It is a month to inventory and organize the produce and meats put away last summer when the sun shone brightly and the food happily exploded out of the ground. I gardened and harvested and foraged and processed fruits and veggies. I shopped meat sales and butchered and rendered and pressure-cooked protein and fat for the winter. It is soul satisfying to pull ingredients from the pantry and freezer rather than driving to the grocery store to buy packages of goods suffering from inflation. Canuary is a satisfying month when one may rightfully say, “Good job, Self.” Satisfying. Grateful.
Paradoxical? Absolutely. The garden is blanketed in snow. The sky is bright blue. The sun is shining brightly as it warms up the outside to a solid 12 degrees! Summer 2024 seeds have arrived. It is a month that defies all efforts to reap dinner but demands garden attention. What will I plant next summer? Where do I bury my kitchen scraps to best feed next summer’s snacks and dinners and winter 2025 nutritional needs? Inventory supplies. Research best chemical free gardening practices. Plan the indoor starts. Canuary is a non-gardening month. Why do I spend so many hours on happy gardening chores? Paradoxical. Grateful.
Perplexing? Absolutely. How can one person eat this much food and still have full jars? How can such a tiny backyard garden so amply feed a woman who never met a meal she did not like? Why does God show up in my backyard? Why does He make it such a happy place? Why does He bless me so abundantly? Perplexing. Grateful.
Groceries are horribly expensive. Inflation has hit hard. More and more families are tightening their belts tighter than they know how to tighten! They are asking how to make their dollars stretch to cover rapidly inflating prices despite their take home holding steady, at best. Stay tuned. Mimi’s Kitchen had the benefit of spending hundreds of childhood hours with grandmas and great aunties who knew how to turn everything into something more. These dear women knew how to garden and can and butcher and render and use every little bit to feed their families with a smile on their faces and a little blue eyed brunette by their side. Grateful.
Canuary is flying by! It is almost Fermentruary. Time flies.