For those of you following my progress on cooking through all the recipes in Simply in Season, I thought I’d let you know that I have about 70 to go, so obviously I’m not going to finish by the end of next week! I’m hoping by the end of September now. Or maybe October. Sigh. I’ve decided I’m not going to sweat it too much, to take things when they come into season and not make so much food I don’t know what to do with it.
One of the interesting side effects of this project is that I’m acutely aware of when things come into season. I am still waiting, waiting, waiting for eggplant from our CSA so I can make the eggplant recipes. I’m waiting for the cooler days of September to make some of the soups and stews. I subscribe to various orchards’ and farmer’s email lists, follow them on Twitter, and “like” them on FaceBook so I can find out when certain fruits are available. Who knew sometimes the seasons are super short? And vary from year to year.
When I was younger, lots of families in my farming community had The Farming Game. The old (1979) version is shown above; there’s a new version now, but I’m guessing it’s similar. It’s sort of like Monopoly, except you collect vinyl stickers of various acres of grain, fruit, and cows instead of plastic houses and hotels. You roll dice to go around the board and when you land on a harvest square, you get paid according to how many acres you have. Fruit had the least number of “harvest” squares, and the acres were very expensive to buy, so it was a very risky proposition to invest all your Farming Game money in fruit. This year I realized that’s how it is in real life too!
That’s so interesting about The Farming Game. I hadn’t heard of it, but love the idea! Kids’ games, books, and toys are cool, because often they’re teaching something important, just in a very subtle manner.
Best of luck on your Simply in Season project!
Hey, my mom just got my kids the Farming Game for Kids at her local tractor store! My kids love it! I’d never heard of it, we are transplants from the city/burbs, but now we are rural and my kids are ALL ABOUT farming. It is a fun game, I’d love to try the adult version sometime.
Don’t sweat the timeline, this is a project, and adventure, but most of all it is for your benefit and pleasure. We’ll all enjoy the results as they come, and if we are in a hurry for something, we can go buy the cookbook!
Thanks Dawn, that makes me feel better!
Hang in there, eggplant is coming!
And I want to get that game now, sounds so fun! And much more practical than actually buying Broadway!