Happy Holiday Eats from the Garden

The garden is quite sparse.  Even the hardiest greens were burnt by the frigid cold we experienced in early December.  Now is the time to open the pantry and the freezer with appreciation for all that has been put away there.

When the garden was overflowing with berries and figs, tomatoes and peppers, beets and greens, peas and okra, squash and 'taters ... we were eating our fill.  But the garden was generous.  We shared the excess with family and friends.  Still there was more.  Time to take to the hot kitchen - chopping and slicing, spicing and stirring, roasting and blanching - preserving all that goodness for a later date. That later date is now!  The holidays provide ample opportunity to break out the goodies.  As we mark the shortest days in the darkest time of the year, we savor the tastes of summer.

Our holiday meals are enhanced with the many pickles and preserves that had their start in my garden.  Last night, spiced fig pickles and the last of the sweet refrigerator cucumber pickles accompanied our Christmas Eve feast.