It’s winter in Vancouver — wet wet winter. Yet after just finishing a plateful of jerusalem artichokes, harvested this afternoon from my mom’s vegetable garden, sauteed with garlic from Stephen Gallagher (the amazing farmer who’s working with the Tuv Ha’Aretz site at Har El in North Vancouver) — I realized this isn’t the first meal I’ve had this winter where the food was fresh-picked.

We went out to Stephen’s farm to help him plant garlic — 4,000 cloves will turn into 4,000 heads next summer — last week, and after the morningful of work, I asked if I could forage from the broccoli plants nearby. They were mostly frozen, and the big bunches had long been harvested, but I was able to fill my hat quite generously with broccoli shoots, which we sauteed with garlic and ate with homeade pasta and salmon that night.

And, back to my mom’s garden: we had a delightful meal of parsnips and carrots the other night, fresh dug. The ground here doesn’t freeze, so as long as they’re in the ground, these tasty little root veggies are happy to hang out — not taking up valuable fridge space, ready to dig as needed. Like Jeff, I’m enjoying spending time at my parent’s house and realizing how many good food things they’re up to (including beer-rye bread for dinner tonight – yum.)

And rounding out the winter with sourdough bread and mung bean shoots, I’m feeling pretty pleased these days…