In most farm house larders you are likely to find a variety of preserves, jams, and pickled veggies, and mine is no different. However when I toyed with the idea of writing this blog I decided that I should write about something I was excited about making and hopefully can inspire some other people to try the wholesomeness of real food, rather than cramming their shopping trolleys full of pre-packaged, chemical filled foods.
Don't get me wrong here, I love a fast food fix just as much as the next person, maybe more, but there is something entirely satisfying about creating food from scratch that warms the Martha Stewart of your soul. Mysteriously there is something even more gratifying than the making and the eating of the food, and that is the sharing of the food.
I recently traded a good friend four big cauliflowers from her plot for 6 jars of my pickled cauliflowers. I made 26 jars of pickled cauliflower last weekend and of that 26 jars I have 14 left. In addition to the 6 I gave to Kelly for her Cauli's, I gave a jar to my 89 year old Nana, who loves any home made goodies, and 5 to Richard, my step-dad, who grows brilliant fruit and veggies on his inner city house block and regularly bring us his ripe fruit and excess veggies.
There is a real community spirit when it comes to farm house foods and once you start you will find other like minded individuals that will become your friends. Eventually you will find that most people are more than willing to trade some of your beets for some of their honey, or eggs, or whatever. My only hope is that I can pass on to my children, and someday to my grandchildren, the love of the larder and the joy of wholesome farm house food and that the tradition is not lost to the chemical filled, instantaneous, fast fatty foods of today.
