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The days are getting shorter. The air is crisper. Daylight savings time is over, and it's full-on fall. With the big growing season over in most places, and winter right around the corner, it can be daunting us locavores, 100 mile dieters, and other green eating enthusiasts to stick to our green eating habits. Here are seven strategies for enjoying the best of your local foodshed as the calendar turns.
1. Plan ahead and preserve the harvest
It's getting late if you haven't started this one yet, but there are a few preservables yet to arrive by the bushel. This one applies all year 'round: Have a look at what's arriving from your community supported agriculture (CSA) co-op, farmers' market, or other source of local or otherwise sustainable food, and figure out how to preserve it so it lasts through the winter and into the spring. Autumn brings apples -- more on them in a sec -- that can be applesauce or apple butter; check out Kelly's awesome collection of Preserving the Harvest recipes for inspiration and tips to keep you in preserves during all four seasons.
2. Keep growing your own food
Just because it isn't 80 degrees and sunny every day doesn't mean that you can't keep your garden growing. Veggies like Chinese cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower lend themselves well to cut-and-come-again harvesting, which can lengthen the productive period for as long as you can fend off the frost. Harvest the crop high on the stalk, leave the stout stub behind, and your veggies will keep on truckin'; when it gets too chilly to grow, keep on transplanting to containers you can keep in a greenhouse or inside your house (or wherever they'll get some sun) to keep them growing strong. There are more good tips for getting the most out of your fall garden, depending on what your set-up is.
3. Forage in your neighborhood for food
It often goes largely unnoticed, but many neighborhoods and urban areas are ripe with fruit trees and other (often untapped) sources of food. Jaymi showed us how in her awesome urban foraging slideshow, where she cruised around San Francisco to find hidden gems of free delicious food. Use resources like Fallen Fruit to find where it might be happening in your neck of the woods, and remember to ask if you see something tempting that's living on private property.
4. Behold the power of superfoods
Superfoods are pretty hot these days, with their antioxidants and vitamin power, but rather than heading toward the pill aisle, you can update your superfood regimine each season with fresh superfoods. Pumpkin and sweet potato pack in the Vitamin A, broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, collards and turnips contain indole alkaloids that may help prevent cancer, and pomegranates are full of antioxidants, just to name a few. Check out the top 10 superfoods for fall to get started.
5. Dig the roots
Root vegetables can be a pretty common sight at farmers' market this time of year, but they are far from boring or all the same. Roasted, honey glazed, or in casseroles -- embracing root vegetables in all their glory is a great way to keep it green as the calendar turns.
6. Embrace all the different varieties of everything
Even though the overall number of different choices may be a bit smaller than the height of summer, all the different varieties of what you find can help keep things interesting. On a recent trip to her local farmers' market, Kelly found a whopping 10 different apple varieties. Some are good for baking, some are great for cider, still others do best as applesauce or apple butter. So, by stocking up on a bunch of different varieties of a few different foods, you can keep the local, sustainable food coming all winter long (go back to the top of the list to get cranking).
7. Don't forget about salad
The good folks at Beekman Farm remind us that salads are just for summertime. Ingredients like beets and their greens, (along with other young greens from veggies like turnips) make delicious salads that blend the best of summer and fall to create unusual, delicious, green foods.
