I spent the entire day reorganizing, cleaning, and checking on all of our root cellar produce. A few onions every now and again will bolt or rot in the bins and need to be removed, inevitably jars get knocked over, garlic bulbs roll behind the shelving, and the canisters of food need to be refilled, dusted, and accounted for. It isn’t a task I would choose out of all available options, but I was eager to account for it regardless. It’s like when I’ve got dirty laundry waiting for me – I just want it done.

So I dove in and spent the better part of six hours moving, shifting, dusting, pouring, vacuum packing, and scrubbing. At the end of it all, the cellar looked wonderfully attended to and cared for. My eyes welled with tears. I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude for my little storage of food.

We still have more cabbage heads than I can count, hundreds of pounds of potatoes, six crates of onions, two crates of shallots, and shelves full of jams, jellies, tomato sauce, and relish. We certainly don’t grow all of our food and the shelves are rounded out nicely with my favorite boxed pastas, olive oils, vinegars, and spices.

A string of patio lights strung around the little scruffy room made it feel cozy and wonderful. My little slice of wonky, dirty, root cellar paradise.

There’s still a vermon of some sort in the cold room to deal with…. and I’ll forever be shuffling stuff to and frow… but at least now, it’s accounted for.

Why does work like this, especially when it comes to the kitchen, make me so happy?

Is it the feeling of resourcefulness? The joy in still eating harvests from gardens long buried under the weight of snow? The pleasure of seeing your work canned in mason jar form?

We pulled from the root cellar bounty earlier this week to make a rustic farm breakfast over fire. In this case, we make use of roasted red peppers, shallots, and freeze dried parsley. Come join us in our kitchen for a slow morning of farm breakfast…

If you'd like to make use of more rustic farm recipes in your own kitchen, make sure to join our Cooking Community here. 

Cheers,

Shaye

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