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Seasonal eating as a spiritual practice in winter
One of the things nature continues to provide all winter are leafy greens. Spinach, arugula, and lettuce can grow through frosts and even some hard freezes. — Ulrike Leone/Unsplash
Now that the season of Advent is over, we have the season of Christmas until Epiphany, and then it’s just winter. I like comfort foods, and I like desserts, especially when it’s cold and dark.
But December’s post is going to be about the simple mixed-greens salad. Salads are a great way to get our vitamins and minerals all-year round, but in December, eating mixed greens feels like a practice of yielding to the seasons. Yielding to seasonal food in the winter is an easy way to bring our attention to local growers, have a season to consider more simplicity in food and bring our attention to the way the natural world rests.
Few fruits are in season during the winter. One of the things nature continues to provide all winter are leafy greens. Spinach, arugula, and lettuce can grow through frosts and even some hard freezes. I love the diversity and vibrancy of foods that grow in summer, but there is a satisfying delight in focusing on what is in season.
I see seasonal eating as a spiritual practice. There is the contrast of modern grocery shopping, where we can ship anything from anywhere but we can’t know the conditions of the earth or the workers, even less the amount of carbon used to get it to us. It’s hard to consider where that kind of grocery shopping begins to work against our responsibility as stewards. I don’t think we’ll see a final correct answer to the balance of these concepts.
The Bible has many messages about working hard, as well as many messages about resting. The Bible has messages about feasts, as well as messages about fasting. I think the best way to experience what each concept has to offer our lives and diets is in keeping a time for each. It is easier to feast during a season of abundance and it’s easier to keep simplicity when all that’s growing is cabbage.
A practice of keeping the sabbath is a way of encouraging hard work and protecting time to rest. The Bible tells us this rest is for the land, too. That wisdom shows up in modern farming practices of letting the ground go fallow every so often. Yielding to the seasons and cycles is a tool for living our faith, exploring what to put on the plate and balancing simplicity with celebration.
Here are two activities to partner with the winter season as we fill our plates. Learn to know your local growers. Check with them about their selection of winter greens. — Zoe Richardson/ Unsplash
1. Get to know your local growers. Your local growers will have mixed greens at this time of year, and those greens will be seasonal and local.
2. Build a cold frame. A cold frame is a simple tool to keep snow off and light on plants during winter. You’ll need some a frame with clearance and something translucent. To make the clearance, you can build a wooden frame with lumber. I’ve also seen people create clearance by growing a raised bed in a tire. For something translucent, you can use old windows or a plastic sheet. Cover your greens with the cold frame.
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