Juice It

Freshly Squeezed Juice Oozing With Color and Flavor

Fall is in the air, freezers are nearing capacity, vegetables are still producing like crazy.  When you find yourself with an excess of leafy greens, regardless of the time of year, the solution is quite simple... juice it.

Juicing the surplus leaves you with a drink that is packed to the brim with nutrition which will leave your body feeling like a trillion dollars and your energy levels on par with someone just pounded 10 espressos, all at once.  It also makes it so the vegetables don't go to waste.

Vegetable Stock

"No rules. Don't be afraid to do whatever you want. Cooking doesn't have to have rules. I don't like it that way." - Masaharu Morimoto

Vegetable scraps ready to go!

Woah, woah, woah, did you just take your vegetable scraps and throw them straight into the compost???  What are you doing?  You could make vegetable stock with those scraps first.

Vegetable stock, or if we're being honest - any type of stock - is simple to make.  Take your vegetable scraps, throw them in a pot, fill the pot with water, bring the water to a boil, then take it down to a simmer and let simmer for at least an hour and a half.  Give it more time if you want a stronger flavor.

Let it cool down, put a strainer on a second pot, pour the liquid thru the strainer to weed out the food scraps.  Transfer the remaining liquid into freezable containers (soup containers work great), label them (you won't remember what it is, trust me), then throw them in the freezer.

Let It Be

"Whisper words of wisdom, let it be."  - The Beatles, Let It Be

Whispering words of wisdom - created with Dall·E AI

Some years the spring rains stick around for a long time causing cool weather well into the summer, stunting the growth of most plants.  Some years the tomatoes fail.  Some years the squash aren't too productive.  Some years the strawberries are awful.  Some years the cucumbers cease to grow.

You can't control any of this, you can only control how you react to it.  You can't change the weather.  You can't force the plants to do anything.  There are so many factors that are in the hands of the universe and well outside of your jurisdiction.

Some years the temperatures get hot in the early spring causing the summer plants to take off early and be extra productive.  Some years there are literal wheelbarrows full of tomatoes and squash.  Some years there are more cucumbers than you know what to do with.  Some years the berries are amazing.