Sharon June 16th, 2009
If I ever write a cookbook, I’m going to call it “Glut” - partly because I just love the word, and partly because I think there’s an actual need for a cookbook that helps people deal with the feast or famine realities of putting away food. Whether you have just butchered a pig or bought a side of beef, whether you are dealing with the spring rush of eggs and milk, or with the steady stream of overflowing harvests all summer long and into autumn, food preservation, and sustainable eating, are both about how to deal with wretched, glorious, wondrous excess!
And obviously, the first tool for facing the glut is food preservation. Food comes upon us in tiny dribbles, than in overflowing quantities, and then, the tap shuts off, and there will be no more cherries for a whole, long, dark year. Unless, of course, you put the cherries away for the winter - unless you can capture summer’s excess.
But even our best laid plans of preservation sometimes get overwhelmed by the truly excessive harvests. Last year for me, it was cucumbers. Now I normally try and time my cuke harvests for late in the season, when the heat of July and August is gone. So I planted my cukes mostly late - but they boomed last year, and I brought in bushels, very early and very late. I made pickles and more pickles, all of them wonderful, and I’m grateful for the jars full. But after a while, I got tired of making pickles, and wondered, well, what else can I do with cucumbers.
Of course I can slice them into salad, but how much salad can any family eat? I can make quick pickles, japanese style, and that was good too. But what else. Well, it turns out that cucumber salad freezes pretty well, if the cukes are sliced very thin. And curried cucumber yogurt soup freezes even better. It also turns out that my children will eat lemon cucumbers straight up. These are good things.
Necessity may be the mother of invention, but her grandmother is excess, and the sense that one can’t bear to let good things go to waste. How else did we get cornsilk tea, corncob jelly, watermelon rind pickles and other inventions to minimize waste and reduce drama.
And speaking of watermelon (which I just don’t get gluts of here - too high, too cool - I’m happy if I get a few) - I bet you didn’t know you could dehydrate it. And it is pretty great that way! Pureed, it makes a great juice for winter - mix it with water for the kids, or with vodka for Mom and Dad.
Even zucchini gluts can be faced - small zucchini make excellent pickles, large zucchini, grated, drained and frozen make an excellent extender for ground beef or turkey. Dried zucchini, coated with spices, make super chip substitutes. What’s not to like?
The big issue of gluts is time - ok, you picked a bushel of tomatoes, and it is 87 degrees in your house. Now, what do you do with them? The freezer is full, and the idea of chopping and cooking and canning is overwhelming. Well, how about the dehydrator - you can dry not just paste tomatoes, but the regular kind and cherries as well (sungold cherry tomatoes when dehydrated are fabulous, btw). Can you make the sauce today, and can it tomorrow? Sure, life would be more perfect if you did it all on the same day, but so what? Stick them in the freezer until you have time to deal with them?
One solution to the glut is generosity - give your food away. Bring it to the food pantry (and not just the giant zucchini, please - give people food that they would actually eat), or see if you can get a local school, scouts or church group to come gather your food. If you’ve got a glut you just can’t handle, call your friends, call your family.
Throw a party - historically, the butchering of a large animal was a day to throw a party. Even if you are putting some away, invite everyone in for a feast - feasting is important. Throw a tomato tasting, a “best zucchini recipe competition” or a pumpkin-cook off.
Take a look in old cookbooks - what did people do with all those eggs, or with the flood of milk once upon a time before refrigeration? Chocolate beet cake or Zucchini-caramel cake evolved for a reason. Experiment - the worst thing that happens is that the worms or the chickens or the compost pile get your experimental “Chile-corn-zucchini muffins” - who knows, you might invent a prize.
Enjoy the gluts - recognize that “I’m sick of strawberries” feeling is the predecessor to a longing for them - no matter how many you dried or jammed or sauced or pied, there will come a moment when you wish only for a red, ripe, dripping strawberry straight from the dirt to bite - and it is still February. The cure for the glut is action, commitment - and the recognition that too much is followed by too little, new gluts, and then the quiet of the season in which nothing overflows.
Sharon