A Conversation About The Urge to Cook

To be clear: I am not domestic. I appreciate domesticity, but I never did immerse myself in the practice. However, I am as subject to irrational urges as anybody. This is the time of year when I am lured into the kitchen, albeit briefly. It’s a combination of temperature, aromas and the nesting instinct.                                 Typical September weather consists of cool mornings in overflowing gardens, with fear of frost cranking up the adrenaline levels.  There’s an embarrassment of riches, with summer crops overlapping late fruiting veggies. We might actually be getting tired of tomatoes (gasp!) and anticipating winter squash and pumpkins. It can be overwhelming… or it can be a challenge. All that treasure out there, and the squirrel impulse kicks in. We want to store it! Herbs need to be harvested, beans have to be picked, green tomatoes must be collected and wrapped in newspaper (if you can get it). And the newly fresh air, without the weight of humidity, whets the appetite.

At my house, I indulge in cooking stuff up to freeze. I have no faith in my attention span lasting long enough for canning or drying. Been there, done that, ruined the cookware. My overabundant peach or pear crops inspired much peeling and chopping and blanching followed by mixing in apple juice for the sweetener, then filling freezer bags and stacking into the freezer. I actually got blisters once. This year was a break from that particular adventure because the peach tree died and the pear tree was the object of a joint attack by the deer, the dog, the squirrels and the birds. Never do I miss the opportunity to freeze herbs. My nose is happy at the infusion of, variously, basil, thyme, sage and parsley. I usually chop them up, freeze them into ice cubes, and dispense them into baggies for future use in soups and stews. And on particularly autumnal days, like right after a harvest fest, I strap on the apron and build chili and stews. I feel virtuous about using up all the ugly tomatoes and malformed peppers and not very pretty eggplants. I feel like I’m salvaging treasures by using up beans and onions, garlic and leeks. And the first of the broccoli and cauliflower along with the last of the summer squash blend in happily into future side dishes or soup bases.

I have the basics of chopping and freezing down pretty well, and I can be trusted to cook up a mess of mixed vegetables into a stew or chili. When I (rarely) feel the urge to expand into something more daring, I go to the podcast, “Nature Calls, Conversations from the Hudson Valley.”  My food and nutrition guru, Rebecca Polmateer, is not only a program director at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene Counties, she is a Master Food Preserver with advanced training in all types of food preserving well beyond my inept efforts. She shares her expertise in episodes 6 (Preserving), 40 (Food Insecurity), and 135 (Nutrition). And a three-part retrospective (episodes 136-138) of nothing but recipes in “Patch to Plate” is inspiring, too.

Gotta go, now. My neighbor just pulled into the driveway with a load of miscellaneous vegetable overstock. I have a particular recipe he’s in love with, and barter is a beautiful thing.