Summer Under Glass

A vegetable market near my home started out as a farm stand and over the years morphed into a large indoor store selling fruits, vegetables, prepared foods, dairy, chicken and salmon.

Originally everything was local. The broccoli appeared during its season, the cabbage during its season and the apples from August to early January. But as they grew they expanded because most of their customers still wanted blueberries when the frost covered the bushes and the snow was more than a covering.

So vegetables and fruits started to arrive from varied locations-- Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Asia. California held on for as long as it could and then gave way to Thailand.

I expect that if you put things up, froze vegetables, kept a root cellar, you could enjoy the summer harvest with the snow on the ground.

This time of year I'm sorry that I didn't go out and pick strawberries and freeze packets for the winter.

I used to have a neighbor who filled mason jars with what she referred to as summer under glass. At the time I thought of how much expenditure of time it required, but now I'd love a jar of her tomato sauce made from her own tomatoes or a cup of her blueberries.