PODCAST: Rethinking How We Eat (And Garden!) | Pantry Chat

Have you ever considered what you're growing in the garden to know if it's actually working for you or against you?

This week on the Pantry Chat we're diving deeper into this topic and sharing some of the changes in our mindset (and gardening strategies) that we've made.

We don't yet have Grandma Jeannie's spiced pear recipe, but we'll try to get that soon!

Time Stamps:

0:00 - Intro
1:15 - Question of the Day
4:14 - Azure Standard
7:50 - Chit Chat

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[gypsymiller]

I stopped canning tomatos. I core them, quarter them, and freeze in gallon bags. When thawed, the peels slide right off, and they go in the pot to make sauce when I need it. Saved SO much time and effort!

[SJ-fjjz]

Great conversation, was fun to listen to.
We all need to consider this, with the times that we are in, we won't always be able to get what we want. Seasonal eating and eating what we have in storage or in the garden, the way it was for thousands of years. Let's get back to it.

[lorieflanders]

Pumpkins and winter squash make amazing pasta sauce, add a little cream and cheese and blend! And roast them in olive oil with other root crops! Oh man! Stuff them with pork and apples and sage! Oh they are so good so many ways!

[johnandsusancranford]

Loved the conversation. I have been trying to change the mindset of "what do we want for dinner" to "what do we have for dinner". Some of out best meals have generate from what we already had. Last year I grew Soya Lunga Cucumbers (heat tolerant which is great for our Texas Summers). I had so many cucumbers that we were coming up with all kinds of ways to make them. I discovered that if you shred and drain them, you could use them as a replacement for bananas in bake goods. We had cucumber bread, cake and cookies.

[jmarhanson]

I love the tomato conversation. I live on Whidbey in the PNW and growing tomatoes is the ultimate gardening challenge here. This year, I realized how much energy I put into growing them—energy that would be better spent on crops like kale and potatoes which grow well here. It’s funny how long we will try to grow something because we think we should.

[Lu-yscw]

FYI acre homestead uses freeze dried zucchini ground into a powder. She used it as a replacement for some of the wheat flour in her bread recipe and she said it was wonderful.

[namastenurse]

I have taken a “lazy gardener” approach. I don’t want a lot of fussy seed starting indoors… I’m looking for stuff I can direct sew and get a harvest from. I’m in Ohio. I have had some tomato’s that did fantastic this year. And the fussy ones will not make it in next year. I’ve done that with them all. The exception is peppers. I can’t get them to make without some babying indoors in the beginning and they do so much better for me with a hydroponic start. I suppose if I can just have 1 fussy crop that would be better than a bunch of them.

[suemagyari]

I was impressed by my aunt's way of adding squash (winter squash) into the diet. She added it to every soup and stew, stir fry, skillet meal etc. as just another added veggie. Instead of trying to eat it as a side dish. She added it to everything else in small quantity. It worked . And winter squash does not add too much change in flavor if added in small amounts.

[beetlebug]

Hello Friends,
It has been fun watching you grow, learn and share. I always learn something. I thought I would share a bit of our journey over the years. My husband and I have shared 35 years together. When we were just getting started, we purchased a small 3/4 acre lot in town. Over the years we have tried to make the most of our little homestead. We still live on that same property today.

Since we were young and knew nothing about supplying our own food, We both decided to start our journey by becoming master gardeners and I became a master preserver. We went through about 10 years “sustenance” gardening. Meaning we ate what we grew. If we didn’t grow it, we didn’t eat it. At times we had the kids even sleep in the garden to protect it from the usual southern Oregon wildlife. Our food became very precious to us.

We had a couple big takeaways.
1. Eat seasonally. Don’t try to have the same diet in winter as summer. We no longer felt the need to grow tomatoes ( or anything else) indoors during winter
2. WE learned to grow a winter garden as abundantly as a summer garden. This is actually my favorite garden. Less work. Very little preserving or storage needed. No weeds. And, no bugs! Besides, there is nothing more fun than to go out in the middle of winter m, brush off the snow and harvest a cabbage or a stem of broccoli for dinner. Highly recommend!

Thank you for sharing and teaching. I always learn something new. Many blessings to you and your husband. Jean

[emilydebary]

I love the new format! It's good listening to you guys get cracked up about things together! Keep the good stuff coming, please!

[shelleylee]

You guys sure gave "food for thought" in this one! We live in southern Mississippi (zone 8b). Now I realize most of my garden struggles are from trying to grow things that just don't do well in an extremely hot, humid climate. We have a really long growing season here and can get two plantings in of many different things. I just need to focus on growing more of what grows well and adapt our palate. Great chat!

[lindseymerlin]

Fascinating to hear your thoughts about eating what grows well in your climate.

[blewis]

Butternut squash or pumpkin mac&cheese is awesome. Replace most of the cheese with the cubed squash. Amazing!!

[carlynsykes]

Love it! The pantry chat is about chatting. Sharing stories and knowledge so I don’t think it’s a departure at all. Keeping doing both, they’re just variations on the same theme. Hearing the thought process and seeing specific examples is SO beneficial and one of those things that you can’t buy or be taught but you can learn by seeing, sharing, and understanding.

[laurelanderson]

I definitely like this kind of conversation. As a single female working overtime to make ends meet, gardening alone is kind of making me hot my brick wall. I'm forever exhausted. Lol. I haven't even added in any chciken yet!

[wjbanks]

I've soaked bitter cucumbers in salt water and it took the bitterness out for pickling. 🤷‍♀️ I highly recommend it. Soak them for 12-24 hours.

[charlottegrams]

Hi, a few pumpkin recepie ideas. Pumpkin Risotto, hearty fall salad with roasted pumpkin, Galette with pumpkin goat cheese and nuts, pumpkin whipped Feta cheese, pumpkin bread, mac and cheese with pumpkin puree, roasted pumpkin and root vegetables, put them in soup, sub sweet potato for And the list goes on and on and on. Best wishes from Denmark where the pumpkins also thrive

[NorthRanch-we]

Love it! We are in Manitoba (similar climate) and I have struggled for years to get enough tomatoes to do anything with! This year I planted a 60 foot row of them. I am now freezing them until I get enough! Sugar Pie pumpkins and BN Squash grow great. I FD throughout the winter and use them in smoothies, as thickeners in soup/stew/gravy and pumpkin pancakes. I will not plant an entire row of tomatoes again!

[sewfityou]

I have always enjoyed your Pantry Chats as well as this new format. I gave up growing tomatoes when I lived in Western Washington. Too much work for not enough rewards. Instead, I enjoyed potatoes, beets, green beans. I now live again in Central Texas and though I can grow tomatoes again, many of the other crops don’t do well here. My go to cookbook for vegetables is “The Victory Garden Cookbook” by Marian Morash, published in 1982.

[WendyLee-wqbz]

I really enjoy hearing about your testing your blood and how you solved what needed to change to reduce the wrong chemicals in your blood. Knowing that you have struggles and your solutions if they work or don’t work over time helps me understand what I should think about for my family.