Strange. It’s mid-December, the soil’s frozen, plants toast – but counterintuitively, this time of year is one of the best times of year food-wise. The freezers are full of a variety of meats, fruits, stocks, lard, and more. The wine cellar’s full of apple wines, ciders, and dry cured pork and game, while the root cellar is an exciting world of veg – from squashes to parsnips, potatoes, beets, carrots, rutabagas, leeks, shallots, and more. It is a time of year rich in food in our home, and will continue to be for some time in fact – nearly all the way into spring when the veg starts to go sideways, the cider stash drops, and the freezers are once again navigable. All the way into the ‘spring gap’ that I’ve largely found ways to close.
Since my cellar seems to be desired stop number one for folks that visit my home, I thought it’d make a decent location to shoot video at a time of year when the food scene has moved from outdoors to underground. It’s a cold place to shoot video – about 2C at this time of year. So I grabbed some things from the cellar, put together a snack for my wife and I, and rolled some…SD card. Rolling tape sounds way cooler.
11 Comments on “Episode 25: Cellar Food”
Beautiful episode! Thanks for the tour of your cellar :)
Beautiful. Worthy of a long winters rest (ya, right) and a reason to look forward to spring greens. Well done!
That was wonderfully done. I gasped out loud when you opened your cider. It has some serious suds! And the elk heart? Definitely gonna have to try that.
There is not enough time in the day… It looks like you are enjoying the fruits of much time, work, prep and planning… Wonderful!! I wish you had opened the door into your meat and wine room…. Next time?
Would the real Jamie Oliver please stand up! Way to take control of your own media. Keep this up. I realize you can’t cook on the box in your cellar 9darn) as the set up was sweet… but, you can do it at your outdoor oven, and set up a spot over a fire to do what you do… i see a big surprise for you in 2012…
:)
V
Deb – thanks. You’re welcome. There will be more.
Deb – thanks. Yeah, we’ll be enjoying our stash for a few quick months. Start seeding flats in a few weeks!!
Marcus – glad you liked it. The cider bubbles make me happy, every time.
Adam – there will very likely be a shoot in my wine/charcuterie cellar. It’ll be tight in there though..
V – I’ve got many, many episodes lined up for 2012. Many.We’ll see how it goes. And cooking over fire, w/ the oven is totally on the agenda. Can’t wait to roll out some of the exciting stuff coming…
So great! Thanks for this Kevin. There’s something to be said about walking downstairs to get the ingredients for a meal rather than relying on a trip to the grocery store. In fact we rely so much on our stored foods, that going to the grocer is almost depressing. Something about the effort that goes into stocking up food that makes it that much more satisfying.
Absolutely, gorgeously brilliant! I’ve learned a LOT from you (through the blog) and I thank you for every word, picture and video. We, too are eating out of our “cellar” (and garage). Loving every meal – simple, hearty, flavourful, nutritious, rewarding… So satisfying to rarely set food in a grocery store. Freedom! THANK YOU, KEVIN!
Forgot to add that our favourite carrot this year was also the Chantenay! Excellent flavour and tremendous yield. For the work of seeding one carrot, we got a lot of food on the table as compared to other varieties. Efficient, I say. I figured if the new homesteaders back in the 1800’s planted that variety, then it must have been reliable – after all, they had no stores as back up.
Thought you might be interested in knowing that we picked a tremendous amount of fruit this summer all sourced through freecycle. Once I posted an “unwanted fruit” wanted ad, the offers came flooding in. MANY people then began to post “OFFER” ads. A wonderful, busy summer of fruit sharing ensued. We received apples, crabs & raspberries this way and I was able to fill the freezer and pantry shelves with enough to last us through till summer. I love freecycle, and yes, Kevin, the le creuset was really free from a generous Freecycler :)
You’re seriously one of my favorite people,take that talent/passion and run with it. You’ve already heard my half hour lecture on that subject. :)
Great video to start my Monday morning.
Wow, I don’t know how I missed this site before now. Wonderful! I am going to pickle some onions now, lol.