Cart Snob

Never have I seen a store’s opening garner as much hype as the opening of a small grocery store in Cary, NC has this week. A couple of months ago, someone in the Raleigh flickr group posted an image of a “coming soon” sign on a shopping center building on Kildare Farm Road, and it’s been snowballing ever since.

Now that Trader Joe’s is open and everyone’s had a work week to check it out, opinions are flying on Raleighing, the triangle.dining Usenet group, and just about everywhere opinions are welcome (or even not welcome). As usual, the transplants in this city who have been to Trader Joe’s before in their cities of origin treat any negative opinion of the store as if it’s a personal attack on all things related to their previous city. While anticipation was building for the grand opening, every comment from these transplants was in the class of “finally,” “the one thing I miss about city X,” “you guys are gonna love it,” “you’ll never shop anywhere else,” etc. Anyone in this area who had never heard of this chain of food markets and asked what the big deal was with their offerrings was greeted with vague comments like “you’ll see” and “are you kidding!?!?”

I was so taken with the hype surrounding this place that I actually made an exploratory trip to another Trader Joe’s location while visiting relatives in the metro Atlanta area during Thanksgiving, knowing full well that “my” location would be opening in a matter of days. This is the second time that the opening of a food store in this niche has given me hope that my rather long drive to Whole Foods could be shortened (the other store was the horrendous Earth Fare, and I never miss an opportunity to spread the word that it sucked and I’ve never been back). Previous letdowns aside, I allowed myself to get excited again.

My exploratory visit to the Trader Joe’s location in Roswell, GA was actually somewhat promising. There was a great bread selection (which must have come from a Trader Joe’s bakery in the sky since there was no bakery in the store), the prices were much lower for several staple foods like hormone-free cheese and milk, eggs (semi-local Latta Farm brand was there), and there were many Trader Joe’s store-brand offerrings that I had never seen at any other store of its kind (frozen foods, kefir, wine). The quality appeared to be very high, no doubt about it. It was a little small, and I noted that several things were missing from that location which would prevent a store of the same configuration from becoming my one-stop weekly grocery destination - bulk grains, nuts, and beans, most produce items, a salad bar, meat, fish, deli (now that I read that list, it seems that there were more things I didn’t see than things I thought I would buy) - but I was hoping that “my” location back home would be larger.

Ok, so I was wrong again. I visited God’s Greatest Gift to Food Shopping the third night it was open. I won’t detail the parking, the somewhat large crowds, the completely empty shelves and freezer cases (yes, I know it was opening week), the complete lack of local products (we live in produce land, for crying out loud), or the annoying bell that they kept ringing for customer service (seriously, I’d worry about it affecting my hearing if I were a cashier or even a frequent customer), but the fact is: Trader Joe’s is not the greatest store in the world. It’s not even a grocery store at all - it’s a self-proclaimed glorified neighborhood market, something I would have realized long before my trip if I’d just read the tagline on their website. It’s actually just what some people in Cary probably want and love - a convenience grocery store for people who don’t like to cook or think about their food and feel the social pressure to join the Trader Joe’s Inner Circle in order to be prepared for any impending discussion regarding Two Buck Chuck. It’s hype. It’s a talk about shopping there more than you enjoy shopping there kind of place, but not a viable grocery store.

I’ve been thinking about what kind of cooking and eating one must do in their lives in order to be able to use Trader Joe’s as their grocery store, trying to figure out what their real market was since it obviously wasn’t me. I just can’t figure it out. I think that if you pick up prepared foods every day, shop day-to-day, or pop something in the oven most nights, you might be ok, but even then you would quickly get bored with the somewhat small selection and the fact that there was no “deli.” Granted, prepared foods done the Trader Joe’s way are definitely better for your life than fast food burgers or Wal-Mart Supercenter fried chicken, but it’s a step down in selection from a place like Whole Foods and you’d have to augment your Trader Joe’s trip with a trip to a real grocery store anyway. What’s convenient about that? I got the same sad feeling in this store that I had when I was in Earthfare and realized that the few people actually shopping there lived in the high-priced neighborhoods nearby and were only buying that night’s meal (which apparently consisted of plastic containers of prepared soup, a hunk of beef in a bag of marinade, two containers of sushi, and whatever the kids refused to let you leave the store without buying).

So I’ll still be driving to Whole Foods. There are some things that I think Trader Joe’s does better - I liked their approach to shelf signage, for example - but who wants to drive all the way to Cary to shop there? Some people have commented that they routinely drive over one hundred miles to bask in the glory that is the Trader Joe’s location nearest to them. Who are you people and why do you buy frozen cooked rice?!

This week was an interesting one in the life of the first-year CSA we joined back in January. Our farmers issued what amounted to a state-of-the-farm address in last week’s newsletter regarding some of the rumblings about the amount of produce they’d been providing to shareholders. At our house, we’d already had the discussion about how little we were actually receiving, and Week 4 was a low point, so I was glad they addressed the product at that time. They explained how the incredibly dry spring had taken its toll and that they had been dividing up absolutely everything they were producing, not selling anything at the market, and not even saving anything for themselves.

Before any formal statement was issued, we had already decided that anyone expecting 30-lb. boxes of produce in May was out of their mind and that things would pick up in the coming weeks. The family at the drop-off point where we pick up our share had asked us what we thought of the current situation, and we explained that we joined a CSA to support local small farms for better or for worse and were not depending on our share as our only food source. Besides, the only things that are ready to harvest in May are turnips, lettuce, green onions, snow peas, etc. Lighter fare, and crops we were getting plenty of. The drop-off family said that “people” had been comparing boxes and generally discussing their displeasure with the harvest. We feared the worst, and sure enough this week we had someone from our pick-up point drop out.

Our pick-up point was already existing on shaky ground, being the most distant from the farm and also the point with the least number of shareholders picking up. Our farmers contacted us, regrettably stating that they would no longer be able to maintain our pick-up point due to the drop-out and that the options were to choose another pick-up point or to accept a refund. We discussed this offer and once again affirmed our decision to not quit the CSA for any reason. We actually had the chance to voice this stance to our farmers the next day in person at the local farmers market, to which they gratefully responded with some free wild spinach.

As predicted, this week’s box was the fullest of the season.

• 1lb 8.3oz potatoes
• 4oz baby carrots
• small bunch of radishes
• big bunch of rosemary
• 3oz red spring onions
• 2 heads (4.2oz) lettuce
• 1lb 6.2oz cabbage
• 1lb 6.8oz yellow squash
• 12oz wild spinach (lamb’s quarters)

A post over at the Eat Local Challenge blog pointed out a couple of articles from the SF Chronicle and the NY Times discussing the evolving importance of the term “organic” as it relates to our food suppliers. I couldn’t let my comments go without inclusion here.

The real benficiaries of the evolution away from the organic stamp of approval will be those consumers who participate in the new relationships that food producers will be offering to them. By dropping the organic label, farmers are just begging for dialogs with their customers that will help evolve the traditional “organic” food supply chain. I hope that we as consumers will be open to this shift and realize the many benefits of being more knowledgable about the who and the how of our food.

At our State Farmers Market here in NC, there is very rarely a sign indicating that a product is organic. However, several meat producers detail their antibiotics/hormones credo on their price board. If you talk to them, they are more than happy to discuss the nature of their pastures and their feeding practices. If you take a moment to talk to the farmer you are buying your veggies from, they are usually more than happy to discuss their growing methods with you. Heck, you can even go visit the farms yourself during certain times of the year.

Knoll Farms (as described in the article) has taken a big local step in encouraging consumers to educate themselves on the growing practices that are important to them, come up with their own standards, and then decide for themselves if their food producers are up to *THEIR* standard of “organic,” not the government’s.

I’ve come to this conclusion over the past several weeks. Not only are there no organic strawberries available amongst the many sellers at the Raleigh Farmers Market (which is not surprising considering there are no sellers of organic anything there), but not a single stand set up around the greater city area will bother to sell organic strawberries. Here’s the real kicker: I found an organic you-pick strawberry farm about 20 miles away from where I work. Even better, they’ve set up convenient satellite stands at various locations where they sell pre-picked berries, and one of these happens to be within biking distance from work.

This sounds like a great find, just what I’ve been looking for, right? So I made a trip out to their local booth today at lunch. Surprise of all surprises, they don’t bring any organic strawberries to the stands. Except, that is, for one. “So just ask which one and determine if it’s closer than a trip to the farm,” I think. But the woman running the stand doesn’t know what the name of the stand is or where it is located. She finally narrowed it down to “Bedford something down there near the Restaurant X on Street Y.” Well, Restaurant X isn’t on Street Y, it’s on Street Z. I also asked how much cheaper the pre-picked organics are at the farm as opposed to the stand. She had no idea. Well how much are they pre-picked at the farm? No idea, but the “normal” strawberries are $8 a bucket if you pick them. So how much more than that are the organic you-pick? No idea, maybe the same price? Wow, thanks for all the help.

Scanning Vollmer Farm’s website revealed that the name is actually Bedford Farmer’s Market, and they even have a little newsletter telling all about the market and who will be selling there, what kind of events they’ll be having, etc. But there’s one minor omission … the location of the market. Even a web search didn’t reveal the address. The only description of the location that the woman running the stand could provide was, “Go right down the main drive into a neighborhood down there that I don’t know the name of and the stand’s just there. Oh, and it’s only open on the weekends.”

So I’ll have to waste gas and make a trip out to the farm since they seem to think that no one wants to buy organic strawberries at their stands. I’ll make it a point to ask them why.

This week’s CSA delivery has been quite tasty. We’re still looking at relatively small boxes, but it’s been fun integrating one or two ingredients into some meals during the week. No doubt we are going to really have to ramp up the cooking when summer really hits. This week we got three early turnips, two heads of speckled trout’s back lettuce, a bunch of white icicle radishes, some more spring onions, a bag of snow peas, and a bag of spinach.

Our CSA box delivery night is turning into big salad night. This week’s salad was a mock blackened chicken salad using pan-fried blackened tofu cutlets. We used up most of the trout’s back lettuce, added some carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, an avocado, and the green onions. The blackening mix was Alton Brown’s recipe from his first book. In fact, the green onions we used were left over from the previous week’s box, and we just recently used up the last of them.

That’s been another benefit of using the CSA. Of course the veggies taste best the day they are delivered straight from the farm, but because they are so fresh when we receive them, their shelf life has been amazingly long. The green onions are just one example. This week’s snow peas made it into a late-week meal and they were great, and we still have the spinach waiting to be used that still looks fresh. It’s nice to know our veggies didn’t have to travel from California and waste a bunch of energy, but it’s also nice to know we can neglect them in the fridge for several days without worry. We braised and honey-buttered our turnips with their greens and some carrots for a quick meal.

This weekend I supplemented our CSA selection with a trip to the State Farmer’s Market. There were three flower vendors there taking advantage of the day-before-Mother’s-Day crowd. Perplexing was the fact that one of the vendors had a huge line that was disrupting the flow of traffic, but the other two had nearly no business. I picked up a nice $10 bouquet and a few blooming plants to give to the Moms in my life along with some more hydroponic tomatoes, some garden peas to shell, and some Chapel Hill Creamery “feta” cheese to go with our salads this week.

The crowds at the market continue to be large, with the main parking areas jammed to a standstill with people trying to get in or out. So here’s a secret - skip all of those lots, drive all the way to the last behind the seafood restaurant, and park somewhere near the Nahunta Pork trailer. Easy in and out. Works every week.

This is an exciting time of the year for local eating, in more ways than one for our family. The first spring veggies are finally showing up at the Raleigh Farmers Market: peas, snow peas, lots of lettuces, and even some beets! The past few weekends at the market have given me a few humorous moments as well. Once the weather warms up, people start looking for warm-weather crops as if they just pop up out of the ground fully ripened as soon as the temps are high enough. I was picking out some turnips at Beth Moore’s Produce when a customer walked up and asked, “Do you have any peppers?” I looked up at her, then at the saleswoman, then back at the customer. I let a little snicker fly which went unheard (I tried to stifle it, but I couldn’t). The answer was a curteous, “No, not yet.” The real answer was, “Are you kidding me? We haven’t even planted them yet!”

The same customer went on to ask, “What are these?” while pointing at the english cucumbers, followed by, “Are they good?” Wow. Then she looked at me as if to say the farmer was crazy and we were the sane ones trying to buy some decent produce.

Anyway, strawberry season is in full swing, but there are ZERO organic sellers. I keep hoping to see some over at the Durham market, but still nothing. There are a couple of organic u-pick farms in the area, but they both sell organic along with traditional berries. That makes me leary, but I hope to get out there and put up some ripes ones before the season ends.

The other big news is that our CSA share for the season has started!

Back in January, I started looking for a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm with some open shares for the season and found an upstart, first year CSA farm in Johnston County called Wild Onion Farms. We’d been wanting to join a CSA for a year or two, and getting in on the ground floor of a new operation seemed perfect for us. We chose Wild Onion because of the diversity of their crops - they don’t just plant green leaf lettuce and Better Boy tomatoes, but actually focus on rare and threatened varieties. Secondly, their season was quite long, extending from early May all the way up to the end of the year! This was appealing to us as a lot of the CSA’s in this area end soon after the first frost of the season, even though plenty of things are available at the Farmers Market heading into the Christmas season.

I was afraid we’d be the only subscribers, but they eventually announced that they had filled up for the season. We headed out for the Spring tour on a gray and rainy day, Earth Day actually. We hit a sustainable building event at the Museum of Natural Sciences in the morning, and the kids fell asleep on the way out to the farm. We had to take turns walking out into the fields with our farmers, but it was worth the trip. It was great to see the fields and the start of what will become our primary veggie source for the year, and I literally felt several nearby lightning strikes in my hair as we discussed how people don’t know how to cook kohlrabi.

We picked up our first box last week, and of course it was kind of slim. I say that, but then realize that we still have some parsley, a little endive, and a couple of spring onions sitting in the fridge, coming into a second delivery week. The first night we went straight salad, using up all of the mesclun. I used the spinach in a stir fry with tofu and mushrooms. We gobbled up the Amish deer tongue lettuce and mizuna in another salad, and I’ve been tossing the green onions into almost everything. Frankly, I think it’s going to be a challenge to use up our full share every week. So far, it’s been an exciting challenge. Here’s the tally from the first week:

• 4.5 oz mesclun
• 1.3 oz endive
• 3.3 oz spinach
• a few radishes
• small bunch flat leaf parsley
• bunch of mizuna stems
• spring onions
• head of Amish deer tongue lettuce
• head of some other lettuce
• sunflower plant

If you’d like more information on how CSA’s work, or to locate a CSA farm near you, check out LocalHarvest.org.

Tofu666 over at What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway posted a picture of a tofu recipe where the tofu was so perfectly golden brown that I had to ask about it. One thing led to another and before I knew it I had made the dish myself. Funny how that happens.

Roasted Garlic Stuffed Tofu Cutlets

You’ll need:

• 1 package extra firm tofu
• 1 head garlic
• 1 spring onion (or three scallions, depending on size)
• 1 ts dried thyme
• oil
• salt and pepper

For the roasted garlic, separate the cloves but do no peel them. Create a pouch out of some aluminum foil, add 2T of olive oil and the garlic cloves, seal it up, and roast in a 350F oven. I used the toaster oven for this, so it took 60 minutes to get them nice and soft. After they are done, simply squeeze them out of their peels and into a bowl and set aside. Slice tofu into 2 or 3 wide cutlets. I cut it into three for the picture, but you have to be careful that it’s not too thin to stuff, so 2 might work better for some. Heat up an iron skillet until slightly smoking. Add 1 or 2T of oil (I usually use canola for this cooking method). Pan fry the tofu in the skillet for 5-7 minutes per side until nice and golden. While it’s cooking, slice up the onion extra thin.

Mash up the garlic in the bowl (or using a mortar and pestle if you have one) and toss in the onions, thyme (reserve some for an external garnish if you like), and some salt and pepper. When the tofu is done and slightly cooled, carefully slit it lengthwise to create a pouch (don’t cut it in half). Stuff the pouches with the roasted garlic mixture, arrange in the skillet, and pop everything in a 350F oven for 10-20 minutes or until you get the level of color you like. You can sprinkle the reserved thyme over the cutlets for the last 5 minutes of cooking time.

Recently, Torchbearer Sauces ran a promotion as they prepared to open up the e-commerce section of their website: 50% off everything for those willing to test the system. So I bit. I had been eyeing their line of numbered sauces with clever names and varying heat levels since I first read about them over on Hot Sauce Blog, but even though they were well-reviewed, I had never really sought them out. This deal, however, was too good to resist.

Based on my current tolerance level, I decided to pick up their three hottest sauces. I had recently been frustrated by taking chances on sauces with “XXXtra” in their name that barely registered a tingle, so the last thing I wanted was to be disappointed by the heat level from Torchbearer. From lowest number/heat to highest number/heat, I went with: #23 Fever, #37 Tarnation, #42 Slaughter, and my 50% discount. The sauces all come in 8oz. glass jars with some kind of funny, folky drawing and story on their label. One is about a guy who could pop chest hairs on demand who says “watch at this,” another is about a woman with a sawed-off shotgun, and all elicited chuckles from those that read them. Trite, but at least it’s something original.

I first noticed that the ingredient lists for these three sauces were identical except that the ingredients were in a different order, meaning they would probably have the same base taste, with a little heat traded for sweetness in the milder ones. I started with the Fever Sauce ($11.95 on their website) on a Friday night giant burrito dinner. The smell of this sauce was immediately recognizable as pure fruity habanero. I did a quick spoon test to gauge the heat level, and then proceeded to spoon a little onto my burrito before each bite. By the time the burrito was gone, so was half the jar of Fever sauce, and my mouth was pleasantly tingly. I was satisfied, though I had eaten $6 worth of sauce at one sitting. Within a few days, the Fever Sauce was gone, having been slathered on pizza and other small burritos. That was quick.

Next up was Tarnation sauce, which lasted a little longer. For two weeks, I slathered it onto turkey wraps for lunch, the occasional slice of pizza, and even a burger or two. It was definitely very hot, actually bragging that it is the second hottest (certified) natural sauce in the world at 38,202 scoville units. I loved this sauce and was sad to see it go (especially at a price of $14.95). I waited a week or so for the perfect opportunity to bust open the Slaughter sauce. Then it came: I splurged for a sausage pizza from Milton’s. Slaughter sauce weighs in at 67,582 scoville units (compared to the average jalepeno at under 5,000 units), and claims to be the hottest natural sauce in the world - quite the challenge. The picture to the right gives a good idea of the consistency of the sauce - it’s about the same as natural peanut butter or prepared horseradish. I did the obligatory spoon test with the slightest bit of sauce and was instantly burning and very afraid. I spooned it extremely lightly onto my first slice. The taste of this sauce is akin to eating raw, ground habaneros with a slight sweetness. Very fruity, very fresh. The flavors of the other ingredients do not come though, but they add great, spreadable texture to this wonderful sauce.

By the third slice, I was applying it more liberally and burning up quite nicely while riding the endorphin high. This is a great sauce. I highly recommend it. For a reference on the heat level, I use Dave’s Total Insanity as an everyday sauce for sandwiches and find it quite tolerable but pleasantly fiery. Now that the 50% off sale is over, an 8oz. bottle of Slaughter sauce will run you $19.95 (regular price $24.95 but currently on sale). This might be cost prohibitive to the most extreme chileheads, but my jar is still in the fridge and I expect it will last several more weeks, so don’t let the price scare you away. If you get a chance, read the story of how Torchbearer Sauces came to be - it’s inspiring, enough so that I plan to try my own hand at homemade fiery sauces this summer.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a pair of markets in Raleigh that I had never seen or much less visited before. The first is New Moon Market & Roastery at 4001 Hillsborough Street (see map above), which I cannot provide any type of link for since they seem to have absolutely zero web presence (though I thought I saw a mention of it by Greg Cox somewhere online). This is a relatively sparsely-stocked market that’s easy to navigate due to its small size. Their specialty seems to be their large assortment of roasted nuts and seeds. In fact, when I attempted to order what I figured would be their most exotic roasted offering - watermelon seeds - I was unexpectedly asked which variety I wanted. They have two varieties of in-house roasted watermelon seeds! What other store in the Triangle area can say that?

The other highlight is their selection of olives. Aside from the many different canned varieties, they offer eight different types on their “olive bar” at prices which don’t exceed $2.99/lb. Compared to the steep prices elsewhere, which can reach double that amount, this is the biggest bargain around. I picked up a container of a spicy green variety which had wedges of lemon in the brine, and it was as good if not better than the olives at Whole Foods. One turn-off was a small container on the olive bar which contained some olive pits, presumably from people who had sampled directly from the bins. Eeew. Also surprising was that their Lebanon-imported jars of tahini did not contain any type of safety seal - no plastic around the cap, and nothing sealing the container underneath the cap.

Other than that, the have a small produce section with reasonable prices but nothing too exotic. They also have some frozen meats and refrigerated cheeses which I did not look at too closely. I was served my seeds by the only employee in the store - a woman who was on the phone the entire time she was helping me. In fact, she was on the phone the entire time I was in the store. Of note to those who occasionally like to roast whole lamb over the pit in their suburban backyard was a sign I noticed behind the cash register on my way out advertising the fact that they can also sell you a whole lamb.

The second market I discovered for the first time is Around the World Market at 6715 Hillsborough Street (again, map just above). The front sales area of the market offers items similar to a small gas station market (snacks, beer, calling cards, MD 20/20, etc). The back of the market (kind of the longer side of a large “L”) is more like a traditional market. As the name implies, they offer products from many different foreign tastes, including Mexico and China, but their main focus seems to be Indian products. They have the expected various dals, many varieties of rice, an extensive selection of spices, every pickle and chutney you’d need, and a good selection of bagged Indian snacks.

There’s also a small area with baked goods and other fresh offerings, but there was not any activity there when I made my visit. The produce section here is much larger than New Moon, and they have some of the more exotic vegetables you’d expect to find (i.e. various eggplant, squash, etc). They have a refrigerated section which I didn’t get to because it’s oddly located beyond the cash registers. There’s also a restaurant in the same building if you get hungry while you’re there.

A Year at the Farmers Market is a series of weekly posts about the people and products at the North Carolina State Farmers Market.

This week the weather in Raleigh was once again unseasonably warm. The sky was sunny and clear, allowing the temperatures to get into the upper-50’s. I left both my jacket and my son at home - this was my first trip to the Farmers Market without him in a long time (my son, that is), and I realized that it was going to be hard to carry all of my bags without the help of his stroller. Due to the ongoing but never seen “construction activity,” all of the vendors were still in their new location at the opposite end of the open warehouse, and the warm temperatures seemed to have brought out a decent late crowd.

I noticed that the first plant vendor of the season had moved in, though I didn’t recognize what he was selling, and there was a woman selling big bunches of the daffodils that have been prematurely emerging all over the city in the last few weeks. I picked up the usual dozen eggs from Bob Hancock of Green Hill Farms, and decided to try one of his bone-in turkey breasts. In a cost-saving “eat local” measure, I’ve decided to stop buying sliced no-salt turkey breast from the Whole Foods deli and just make my own from a local source. The slicing turkey is $8.99 at Whole Foods, the whole raw turkey breasts are $5.99 at Whole Foods, but Bob’s frozen bone-in double breasts are only $3.79 (all prices per pound). My purchase clocked in at just under three pounds, and we’ll see how it comes out. I’ve also been craving Eastern North Carolina-style BBQ (the only kind), but my usual source for pork shoulder roasts is no longer acceptable to me (the grocery store). Luckily, Sally and Warren Coad of Freedom Farms also sell pork raised by their neighbor. I picked up a roast from them at a steep $6.99 per pound, so I hope it’s a good cut. Freedom Farms also had a great sale to celebrate their trip to Texas to compete in something or other - 10% off everything, and a whopping 25% off if you had $300 or more to burn on their products. They were packing up early and actually complaining that swarming customers kept stopping them from leaving. I found that odd.

Of course the Greens Guy was there, and my underground love for greens is now completely blown as his grandaughter now recognizes me immediately and refers to me as the Kale Man. I do buy something green from them every week, but it isn’t always kale. They always have turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, and spinach. All year, every day they are there. They were there when it was snowing a few weeks ago. They are there in the heat of the summer, asking you if you need some collards if you so much as glance in the direction of their produce. My preferred apple seller is down to two varieties from seven or so earlier in the apple season - thankfully, one of the remaining is everyone’s favorite (Pink Lady) and I picked up a big basket for $5. Beth Moore is churning out great-looking big spring onions, so I picked some up along with some of their remaining butternut squash.

This Winter has really been a revelation for me at the market. I recall lamenting the last weeks of the market in the fall when I was excited to find one person still selling fresh peppers, but now I’m already dreading the loss of apples and winter squash. It might be time to think about stocking the freezer with Winter goodness before it’s too late!