With one full month of the new year now completed, and with all four seasons making their appearance here in Kentucky – I found that the efforts I put into “preserving the harvest” during 2023 have been worth it.
It is absolutely delightful to make a dish that still highlights the flavors of summer but is also “current season appropriate” when it’s cold and yucky outside and comfort food is calling. (This month I’ve cooked with Goodin’s Garden sweet corn and Modern Heritage Farm bell peppers that were put away in my freezer last summer!)
What is your favorite Cold Weather Comfort Food?
After the week of snow, coupled with below freezing temperatures, the thought of eating anything cold is frankly very unappetizing. But we still need to eat our vegetables, right?!
And honestly, cold weather comfort food in our house often means homemade soup + something warm from the oven. Although there is definitely a time and place for a can of good ol’ Campbell’s Chicken and Noodle soup, that’s not the kind of soup I’m referring to in this particular situation.
Homemade soup means something hearty, full of nutritious vegetables, and also full of love.
Enter: KALE
I’m not talking about just any old kale… this is kale purchased from our friends Donald and Lesley of Solway Farms. Solway is a year-round vegetable growing operation, and they have produce available each week during the “regular season” of the Hardin County Farmers Market as well as the Winter Series market events at the Hardin County Extension Office + Harlow the Juice Bar, and Saturday pickup availability at Hinton’s Farm Market
Currently, Solway has 300 feet of kale growing, which is roughly 600 plants!! They can harvest off of them weekly but once the temps warm up during the spring, these plants will bolt/flower – which means that the plant is finished producing for the season. In March, they will plant the kale transplants they started a few weeks ago to ensure a smooth transition from winter to spring kale for continuous harvest.
Preserving the (KALE) harvest
We love raw kale when it’s in a salad or blended in a smoothie, but I never seem to finish the whole bag. This is even more difficult when it’s cold out! (And you know the efforts I go through to prevent food waste.) It took a while to figure out my best option for kale preservation… but once I did, it was a complete game changer.
I made Kale cubes!!
With the 1 or 2 kale leaves leftover in bag: I wash the kale, put it into the blender with just a little water – and blend well. Then, I pour the liquid into an ice cube tray and freeze it. (These are the trays I have, and I love them because the silicon makes it so easy to pop the kale cubes out!)
Once they are frozen you can pop them out, and put the cubes in a different container for longer term freezer storage.
We enjoy kale in soup much more when it’s blended together!
And last week we particularly enjoyed a new recipe from American Lamb:
Spiced Lamb Chili with Butternut Squash & Kale
I took this photo when I was adding in my kale cubes:
S&B Bell Farms is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com