Freshly Picked

March 31st, 2011

My daughter’s Spanish homework last night included making dinner for the entire family.  Yes!  The night off from cooking dinner!  She made this fabulous spread of chicken and cheese chimichangas, a black bean salad, and churros.  Muy delicioso!

While I enjoyed having the night off (part of the homework was even cleanup!) and the yummy food, I kept coming back to that black bean salad and dreaming about the few months from now where we can just walk outside and pick the ingredients right from the garden.

Growing up, my dinners came straight from the garden.  In the winter they came straight from the root cellar where our ‘garden’ was canned.  Right before dinner, my 3 siblings and I would be told a list of items we needed to go pick (or get from the cellar).  Talk about fresh.  Everything was right there – vegetables, herbs, and we also had fruit trees.  We even had chickens that supplied the eggs and meat.

While my mom probably could have come up with 90% of the ingredients to my daughter’s dinner without visiting a store, my own reality differs greatly.  I try to feed my own family as fresh as possible, but circumstances prevent the freshness I knew as a child.  But we do what we can; I have fruits, vegetables, and herbs interspersed in my perennials, we buy from a farmer’s market or produce stand when possible, we trade with friends, family, and neighbors to get the things we don’t grow.  There won’t be a chicken coop in my backyard anytime soon, but my sister-in-law shares and I don’t have to deal with the sound or the mess!

Black Bean Salad

2 cups chopped tomatoes

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1 clove minced garlic

½ cup chopped onion

1 cup corn

3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon each cumin and chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ cup olive oil

1 cup red wine vinegar

Mix together all ingredients.  Chill at least 3 hours.

What do you grow?  How are you creative with your space?  What do you do to eat fresh?