Damn, it’s chilly!
Around these parts, we are fending off the cold in several ways. First of all, we’re cooking hearty stuff like risotto and stew, trying to stick with the eat-local ethos even though the market and CSA season is long over. Shopping for dinner the other day at Integral Yoga, I limited myself to local produce and ended up with these ingredients: Hartland Farms chard, Sharondale shiitakes, and Local Food Hub cauliflower. We steamed the latter, made some brown rice, and accompanied the meal with a sort of greens-and-beansdish using the chard and ‘shrooms. Healthful and warm.
Number two, we’re feeding our chickens almost as well as we’re feeding ourselves. At least that’s the way it felt the other morning when I made myself a serving of oatmeal, then rinsed out the pan and made a secondbatch for our hens. Digesting whole grains helps them stay warm, and it was fun to serve them hot cereal on a frosty morning.
Number three, we’re trying to keep our cold frame crops alive. They spent a few days dusted with snow before we cleared it away, and when we did we found less-than-happy (but not dead) plants inside. They should rebound soon.
In the house, the temp is still a little lower than we’d like it to be, even after our insulation job this fall. It gets us talking about thermal curtains and weatherstripping once again.
What are your tricks for staying warm?