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Permaculture and Winter Fruit

Posted at 3:21 PM on January 30, 2008 by Margaret Hochla (2 Comments)

I would like to alert the Oklahoma sustainability community to this new resource. The author is Bill Smith, who is an Oklahoma County Master Gardener with many years of organic gardening experience right here in central Oklahoma. Garden planners are a dime a dozen in the marketplace, but I am not aware of any other organic garden planner that is specifically written for the central Oklahoma gardener, by someone with actual productive experience growing organic vegetables. The planner is available through the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, but non-members can order the planner by contacting him directly at:
Bill Smith
408 Remington Ave.
Midwest City, OK 73130
midwestsmitty@cs.com
shop.oklahomafood.org
And when you think about growing food, broaden your horizons a bit to include what is known as "permaculture," which is using perennial food producing plants as part of your home's landscaping. Gardening does not have to be confined to a corner of your back yard, your entire yard is potentially a beautiful, food producing garden.

This information is courtesy of Bob Waldrop, president and chairman of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative.

I got started on this track through musing about what dried fruits were healthy and which ones might have fat or sugars added in the processing. I had mostly solved the fruit in winter in Oklahoma problem through considering that that would just be our 20% of non-local food eaten. Now, I've decided to "make a fight" for having some fruit actually come from here, right now. Wish me luck.

We still have the options of the delicious figs, cherries, apricots, blackberries and small peaches that I put in the freezer whole or pitted this summer from local growers and my own trees. We love to snack on the smaller fruits: figs, cherries, berries and apricots straight from the freezer. It has a real Popsicle feel and a fresher taste than if we cook with the frozen fruit. Of course, sorbets are a snap!

The skin on the larger fruits usually slips right off mid-way through the thawing process. The skin from the organic peaches we got from Stratford, Oklahoma this year made an excellent syrup for our pancakes and ice cream.

Comments (2)

Hi, Margaret - My blog bio lists me as from St. Louis, but I'm temporarily living in Edmond, OK -- have had a hard time buying locally, even before making a public commitment! I tried emailing Bill; that email address is no longer active. I do use the co-op, with mixed results. A recent call out on its listserv for possible between-delivery resources got 0 response. Any ideas for local buying in OKC and north would be very welcome. Used to run around in the countryside outside El Reno - I love the area and your blog.

Thanks,
Cher

Posted by Cher | January 31, 2008 7:41 AM

Hi Margaret ... if you happen to be in Norman, you might drop in to Native Roots, a new grocery store in downtown that has lots of local organic foods including locally produced eggs.

Forward Foods in Norman also stocks organic foods, among many of their other wonderful goodies.

Carol

Posted by Carol | February 3, 2008 8:59 PM