In the past, people's diets followed the seasons: eating fresh when nature offered an abundance of harvest and preserving as much as possible for use in the colder months, when plant activity slowed to a minimum. Autumn was a time for harvest and for making conserves to last for the entire winter. Along with whole pumpkins, onions and strings of garlic, the summer’s bounty of tomatoes would be made into passata; jars of herb pesto made with the fresh herbs and new garlic using last year’s extra-virgin olive oil would line the cupboards. Some plums would have been dried in the sun, maybe some apricots, too.
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