We have done some preservation, though, and we’re excited about it. Seeing as California strawberries taste more like cardboard than strawberries – and considering they’re trucked across the continent from a place that can’t sustain its agriculture – we only buy Ontario strawberries. Which are divine. Only problem is that some growers are planting the California variety, which makes for a fresher tasting but still bland strawberry. Anyhow, we have a good bag full still in the freezer, likely waiting to get made into another of rIAm’s signature desserts.

We also have a bunch of rhubarb, and it seems likely its fate will be to find its way into the same dessert as the strawberries. If we were smarter we’d probably have frozen smaller quantities of the berries – in known measures – but that’ll have to wait until next year. We also visited The Cutting Veg, an organic farm in Brampton, and the source of many of our summer vegetables. Daniel is a joy to talk to and he hosts volunteer workers on Sunday mornings. He also grows 10,000+ garlic plants, which means a mountain of garlic scapes. We picked all we could fit in our bag and I chopped ‘em up and put it all in the freezer so we have local, organic, delicious garlic all winter. We’ll get cured bulbs from him in the next few weeks.

Perhaps most exciting for us was the pickling we did last weekend. We love pickles. So naturally we bought a bunch of pickles, dill and pickling salt – almost on a whim – and got busy. We also did carrots, which apparently rIAm LOVES. Those are now “curing,” and we’ll see how long those jars last us (’cause if they’re half as good as I’m hoping, I’ll be happy to devour them!).

Plus, of course, we’re big fans of Michael Pollan and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, plus books like Fast Food Nation. So it should come as no surprise to readers of this blog that I think everybody should go see Food, Inc and then read the book. I’ve only been able to see the trailer, but I can already tell I’ll like what it has to say. But regardless, people need to think more about where their food is coming from and what we should be eating and this movie will go a long way to educating the dialog.

In addition to good produce we also only buy non-factory farmed meat. It’s not always organic, but it’s some form of naturally raised. I eat way less beef than ever, too. Eventually I’ll cut all factory farmed meat from my diet, but that’s a larger challenge.

In the meantime, rIAm and I are going to keep on cooking and eating and preserving, inspired not so much by a country (except maybe Mexico!) or a cuisine, but by the season, what’s fresh and what we can get locally, preferably organically and as much as possible, from local farmers at our markets.