So next week is the big day. No, I’m not talking about the Black Friday Bonanza at the store, I’m talking about Thanksgiving. 

More specifically about the vegetables that you grew in your garden that you can now show off to your family. Preserving vegetables these days has never been easier, just wash them, dry them and in most cases, freeze them. My grandmother and aunt used to spend a whole weekend canning vegetables that would get put down in the basement to be used through the winter. Canning is still the best way to preserve fruits and vegetables for a longer period of time, but for use in a four to six month time period, freezing is much faster. I picked some blueberries back in July and I am still using them now every time I want some blueberry pancakes or muffins. They are just sitting in a ziplock bag in my freezer waiting to be used. They also make for a great late night snack when I don’t want to be bad and eat chips or pretzels. 

But I digress, let’s get back to the garden and your Thanksgiving table. Peas and carrots are both easy vegetables to grow and freeze, so they are a good choice for even the novice gardener. Freezing just after harvest helps to lock in all the flavor that sometimes can be missed when you buy vegetables from the store. Living down in Eldred now gives me the advantage of fresh produce all winter long as Monteleone Gardens is right at the red light in town. Frank and Phyllis Monteleone have a hydroponic greenhouse where they grow herbs and vegetables all winter long. Vicki is in there at least once a week for fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. Tomatoes that are left to ripen on the vine are much more flavorful than what you can find in the grocery stores during the winter. 

In summer, a lot of produce comes from the northeast that is sold in the grocery stores and it is very fresh because it doesn’t have to travel far. But in the winter, produce like tomatoes come from Florida and because they have to travel for up to a week sometimes before getting to the grocery store they are picked before they are fully ripe. This way they ripen up on the way north so they are ready when they get to the store, but they don’t have full flavor. If they let them ripen on the vine before shipping, they would be over ripe and going bad by the time they made it to the store. About forty miles east of where my mom lives in Florida is where some of the largest tomato growers are located. You can go right to the farmer’s exchange and buy crates of tomatoes just like the ones being shipped up north. 

You can buy them three ways, green, half and half, or ripe. Restaurants in Florida will pick up fresh ripe tomatoes for use in their kitchens two or three times a week. Half and half tomatoes come north and green tomatoes get sent oversees and places like Alaska and Hawaii. But once again I am off on a tangent, back to your garden. Hopefully you grew squash. There are so many different types of squash and all are great for a Thanksgiving dinner. Acorn and butternut squash are some of my favorites, easy to grow, preserve, cook and enjoy. 

Corn is another popular Thanksgiving vegetable, but I wouldn’t advise the novice gardener to grow it. Corn takes up a lot of space in the garden. If you have the room, it is a great investment as one kernel of corn will give you a plant that will produce two or three ears of corn in return, so you get a pretty good return on your investment. Root crops like beets, turnips and potatoes are also easy crops to grow and preserve. In fact all three of these can just be harvested, cleaned and stored in a cool place. My grandmother had a root cellar that was exactly for that purpose. I was going to say an old-fashion root cellar, but for houses built in the early to mid 1900’s, that was a standard feature. 

After WWII through the cold war era, these root cellars were repurposed as bomb shelters, so you never know, you may have one. Lastly a vegetable that I’m not too fond of but that is hugely popular this time of year is green beans. My family would always have green bean casserole at Thanksgiving when I was growing up and recently it has been reappearing again at my son’s house for Thanksgiving as well. 

At least now, I’m not forced to have any like when I was a kid. I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving and can spend some quality time with family. I’ll see you all the next day, for The Black Friday Bonanza and once again Ciliberto and Friends will be broadcasting live from our showroom from 6:30 to 9 in the morning.