At this time of year, I often have the privilege of receiving a large number of food gifts, and I make it my goal to share as many as possible, forwarding the depth and breadth of the bounty that arrives on my doorstep as the season of harvest arrives. Here is what is possible.
When the chive blossoms bloomed early last summer, I stuffed a whole bunch into some lovely glass jars, and filled them to the top with white vinegar, which turned a breathtaking shade of magenta in the ensuing months. Then I gave most of them away. I gave one of the jars of chive vinegar to a beekeeper, and she shared with us a huge, sparkling jar of her household’s golden honey.
Some years ago, my friend’s husband filled in their backyard pool with dirt and planted a garden. This was no ordinary garden. You could easily feed a family of ten and all their relatives from what is coming out of this garden. My friend’s solution is to hand paper bags to everyone who comes over to visit, and encourage them to pick whatever they’d like. I brought home purple basil, tomatoes of every variety, beets and spent green beans. I turned the tomatoes and basil into a great big salad for a large group of guests. The beets went into the refrigerator, fermenting into an old-fashioned tonic called “beet kvass,” which I shared with my friend’s family when it was ready.
My friend and her husband were a little bummed about all the green beans they didn’t get to pick in time. No worries, I said, popping one open to see four perfect white beans speckled with red. They got planted the next spring. In both our gardens.
This has been a bumper year for squash. Our friends, especially my new friend Jennifer from down the street, continue to show up with huge bags of squash of every variety, and there’s a lot more where those came from. We’ve roasted squash of every color and shape already this year, including acorn, butternut, spaghetti, delicate, and yellow squash, not to mention plenty of zucchini! We also continue to be privileged to share and enjoy round loaves of almond bread made lovingly by my son-in-law.
Other years, we’ve made elderberry syrup, and shared that all around. Tart and sweet at the same time, it’s definitely not something you get to eat every day! Once my niece showed up with homemade apple sauce to which she had added a few peaches. “Apples, peaches, and cinnamon, and NO SUGAR!,” she happily proclaimed. And we shared that around, too.
None of this was scheduled or organized. None of it was intentional. It’s an informal community of sharing one’s wares. And while it’s tons of fun, it’s not just or fun, or for socializing. Sharing food markedly increases the nutritional value of your diet. There’s food all around us, whether from the crab apple tree on the tree lawn across the street from your friend’s home in suburban Cleveland (from which she and her kids made apple cobbler) or from the quince bushes that someone planted under the living room window in front of your home, when it was their home, at least 50 years ago. And I haven’t mentioned the apple cake and chocolate-covered almonds that arrived, or the applesauce that my husband made last week.
It starts, simply enough, by giving something away.