Redux: Distribution - February 28, 2010

We've just gotten the internet back after the big storm! I hope that all of you have power and water restored, and didn't lose all your beautiful trees. The storm was interesting in a lot of ways, testing how everyone would fare if the services we take for granted slowed or ceased. We were lucky to have our wood burning stove to keep us warm, and to cook biscuits on. It did make me realize we need to bust a move on our rainwater collection system.

I did get to try out some natural cooling methods I'd been thinking about not so long ago. wintergreens did not lose any produce during the four days without power—burying coolers in snowbanks kept everything intact! We were actually appreciative of our deep and tall snowbanks since we had lost produce in summer power outages.

Back to business as usual: Some of you have contacted us to ask, "What are those white things in the jar?" Here's what your last distribution contained:
- Dried red beans from Cayuga Pure Organics
- Dried white whole wheat berries from Wild Hive Farm a.k.a little white things in the jar
- Canned applesauce, made with apples from Liberty View Farm (no sugar added!)
- Root cellared potatoes from Huguenot Street Farm
- Root cellared red onions from Morgiewicz Farm
- Frozen sweet peppers from Huguenot Street Farm
- Frozen peaches from Glorie Farms
- Fresh sprouted black French lentils
- Some of you randomly scored raspberries, red currants, or concord grapes, for a sweet kick

Wheat berries can be cooked and eaten in place of grains you regularly use, but use twice the water and cook for a full hour. They can also be sprouted, or ground and included in recipes. When things are made with "whole wheat," this is what they're talking about.