the kitchen learns to put things up for winter

@@ -660,6 +660,17 @@ def _section_kitchen(season, data, rng):                'label': 'tonight',                'items': [render_md(tonight)],            })    parsed = _read_md(f"preserving/{season['name']}.md", files)    if parsed:        items = parse_list_items(parsed['body'])        if items['bullets']:            picks = pick_items(items['bullets'], min(2, len(items['bullets'])), rng)            groups.append({                'label': 'putting up',                'items': [render_md(p) for p in picks],            })    return {'key': 'kitchen', 'title': 'kitchen', 'intro': '', 'groups': groups, 'lore': []}

@@ -14,6 +14,13 @@  { "path": "kitchen/early-fall.md", "season": "early-fall" },  { "path": "kitchen/late-fall.md", "season": "late-fall" },  { "path": "kitchen/winter.md", "season": "winter" },  { "path": "preserving/early-spring.md", "season": "early-spring" },  { "path": "preserving/late-spring.md", "season": "late-spring" },  { "path": "preserving/early-summer.md", "season": "early-summer" },  { "path": "preserving/midsummer.md", "season": "midsummer" },  { "path": "preserving/early-fall.md", "season": "early-fall" },  { "path": "preserving/late-fall.md", "season": "late-fall" },  { "path": "preserving/winter.md", "season": "winter" },  { "path": "bugs/early-spring.md", "season": "early-spring" },  { "path": "bugs/late-spring.md", "season": "late-spring" },  { "path": "bugs/early-summer.md", "season": "early-summer" },

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@---season: early-fallsection: putting up---- apples come in waves now. sauce, butter, dried rings, cider, vinegar. early apples for sauce, late ones for keeping.- pears can in light syrup. or cook to butter. or slice and dry on screens.- muscadines arrive in late august and run ten weeks. jelly, juice, and the hulls go in the freezer for winter pies.- pawpaws drop from late august through september. scoop the pulp, freeze it, eat within a year. they do not keep on the counter.- sweet potatoes need curing. four to seven days at eighty-five degrees and ninety percent humidity sets the skin and turns starch to sugar. then store at fifty-five to sixty. below fifty-four they get cold-stung and never come back.- winter squash cures five to ten days at eighty to eighty-five degrees, then keeps at fifty to fifty-five in dry air. wipe each one with diluted vinegar before storing to slow rot.- cabbage to kraut. two percent salt by weight, packed under its own brine, fermented three to six weeks at sixty to seventy degrees.- the second fig crop comes in. jam the rest before frost.- green tomatoes at first frost. chow-chow, chutney, fried.- black walnuts and pecans start dropping in late september. hull within two weeks or the husks stain everything they touch.

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@---season: early-springsection: putting up---- the shelves are at their thinnest. finish the last stored apples and sweet potatoes before they soften.- wild greens are returning. dock, dandelion, and chickweed will blanch and freeze, or pack in vinegar with garlic and salt.- the first chives, mint, and sorrel come back early. chop and freeze them in oil cubes for soups deeper in the year.- if ramps grow nearby, pickle them in salt and vinegar. the brine that's left over is gold.- check the seals on last year's jars. soft lids and dimpled tops go to the front of the shelf to be eaten soon.- start a new cider vinegar from apple scraps and a splash of last year's mother. by midsummer it will be sharp enough to pickle with.

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@---season: early-summersection: putting up---- blueberries begin mid-june and run through july. freeze on sheet pans, then bag. they keep a year and a half without softening.- sour cherries for pie filling, sweet cherries for brandy. pit the first, leave the second whole.- snap peas and snow peas blanch and freeze fast. four minutes in boiling water, then ice, then bag.- the first cucumbers are pickling cucumbers. dill spears go in vinegar; half-sours go in salt brine in a crock at sixty-five to seventy degrees.- garlic comes out of the ground at the end of june. cure it two weeks in airy shade, then braid or trim.- summer squash makes a fine pickle, sweet or sour, when there is more than the kitchen can use.- mulberries and black raspberries: jam, syrup, or freeze on sheet pans before they sour.- dilly beans go up with the first beans. one pound per pint, dill head, garlic clove, hot pepper, vinegar brine.

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@---season: late-fallsection: putting up---- persimmons sweeten only after the first hard frost. pulp them through a sieve, freeze in pint bags. winter pudding starts here.- cabbage at its peak for kraut. the cold tightens the heads and the leaves crack when you cut them.- root crops want damp cold. carrots, beets, and turnips pack in moist sand at thirty-two to forty degrees. cabbage keeps slightly drier.- onions and garlic want dry cold. fifty to sixty percent humidity, hung in nets or braided.- hog killing weather comes with the first hard cold snap before christmas. country ham takes seven days of salt for every inch of thickness, then six to eight weeks in the salt box, then six months hung in the meat house.- render the lard from the butchering. strain hot, jar warm, store cool. it keeps a year.- pecans drying on screens. when the kernels snap clean, shell what you'll use this year and freeze the rest.- the last apples go to butter. cook them down with cider until a spoon stands up in the pot.- cider that didn't get drunk turns to vinegar by spring if you leave it open under a cloth.

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@---season: late-springsection: putting up---- strawberries are at their peak from mid-april to the end of may. jam them, syrup them, or freeze whole on a sheet pan before bagging.- asparagus pickles well in a salt-vinegar brine. blanch and freeze whatever doesn't get pickled.- rhubarb keeps every way you ask of it. jam, chutney, sliced and frozen for winter pie.- garlic scapes from last fall's planting curl up now. pickle them, or pesto them with parsley and walnut.- spring peas blanch two minutes, then ice down, then freeze flat. they hold a year.- pesto starts now. basil isn't here yet, but parsley, mint, and sorrel make a green sauce that freezes well in cubes.- strawberry-rhubarb jam is the old reason both crops happen at once.

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@---season: midsummersection: putting up---- tomatoes are the work of july and august. add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to every jar. some tomatoes sit above the safe acid line and the lemon makes them water-bath safe.- peaches in july. can in light syrup, peel and freeze, brandy a few jars for winter.- corn off the cob, blanched four minutes, then frozen. corn cannot be water-bath canned safely. it must go in a pressure canner or stay in the freezer.- green beans the same way. low-acid foods need a pressure canner. otherwise pickle them as dilly beans.- cucumbers in the crock now. salt, water, dill, garlic, a grape leaf for crispness. ferment three to ten days.- hot peppers go three ways: strung on thread to dry, fermented for hot sauce, or whole into freezer bags.- watermelon rind makes a sweet pickle. the south figured this out a long time ago. nothing wasted.- basil into pesto, frozen in oil cubes. herbs in oil at room temperature are not safe; the freezer is what makes them safe.- the first figs come in. jam them, dry them, or bake them into the lid of a tart.- blackberry syrup for winter biscuits.

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@---season: wintersection: putting up---- this is a watching-over season more than a putting-up one. tend what was set aside in fall.- check the krauts. skim what's floated, weight what's risen, taste once a week.- cold weeks are smoking weather. country hams hang in the meat house. bacon comes out of the cure and goes over the fire. cold smoke holds best below forty degrees.- holiday fats render down. lard and tallow into crocks for the year ahead.- citrus comes up from down south now. marmalade is a january project, all afternoon at the stove.- bottle the cider vinegar started in spring. taste it. the mother goes back into a fresh batch.- inventory the shelves. what didn't get eaten tells you what to make less of next year.- the sourdough starter, kept on the counter or back of the fridge, gets new flour and a fresh jar.