Harvest time is awesome. Here's how to bring all the local to the table

The fall harvest takes forever to get here and it only lasts a few short weeks. The rest of the year, we in Newfoundland and Labrador have to make do with whatever gets across on boats.

Sadly, this often means dusty grapes and limp greens by way of California.

There are ways around this, but many of us don't have the opportunity to garden, nor the space to freeze the produce. We end up buying the bleak, depressing February vegetables because our options are limited.

I went to the market this Saturday past and the tables nearly bent with flushed tomatoes, rainbow beets, and dark purple carrots.

In a few short weeks this startling, gorgeous colour palette is going to change and it'll be the damp green of kale until June at the earliest.

Here are my tips, tricks, and recipes for making the most of our short harvest season.

Preserving garlic is way easier than you think

That three-pack of under-ripe garlic bulbs, imported from China, is a waste of money.

Garlic actually grows beautifully in Newfoundland, so my recommendation is to buy 15 or 20 bulbs now, and hang them to cure in your house. If you cure the garlic properly, you won't need to buy any more for the entire winter, and your money will stay in your community!

If you've grown garlic, you'll want to dig it up while the soil is dry. Avoid watering for several days before picking. Try not to beat up the bulbs as bruising will shorten the lifespan.

Farmers already know this, so your garlic is ready to be cured if you've fit from the market.

Next, leave the stems attached and do not wash your garlic! Brush the dirt off with a pastry brush, but be careful not to get it wet as it can lead to mould.

Hang your garlic by its stem in a cool dry place. The nutrients from the stem will feed into the bulbs, so be sure the bulb is at the bottom.

Don't overthink this, I just hang mine in the kitchen, far from the stove and farther still from the window. Air circulation is a good thing, but you don't want too much moisture! After a month or two, the stalks should be shriveled and dry. At this point the garlic is cured.

You can leave it hanging, or chop off the stalks and store your garlic. The ideal temperature for long-term storage is 13-14C.

Tomatoes: Get to work

At best, two weeks of tomato season remain, so take advantage!

There are lots of ways to preserve tomatoes, but sun-dried are my favourite. Lots of folks believe they require a dehydrator, but this is a myth. Look for recipes to make your own oil-packed, sun-dried tomatoes; there are plenty to discover. Once you've made these, you can throw them into pastas or quiches.

They also sit well on a cheese board.

Cranberries, b'y!

Look, I have no time for a can-o'-cran at the Thanksgiving table.

Why buy a jellied cylinder of mystery goop when Newfoundland is home to barrens full of wild cranberries?

You can easily harvest your own, but in St. John's, where I live Shawn Dawson of the Barking Kettle sells them at the St. John's Farmer's Market. If you're based in western or central Newfoundland, you can grab local cranberries from Campbelton Berry Farm.

You want to know something about cranberry sauce? Most people use too much sugar. You want some sourness to come through.

I've attached a recipe for a bright cranberry orange sauce at the bottom.

Crabapples are good for you

The crabapple gets a bad rap.

As a kid, my siblings and I would raid my nanny's orchard and spend whole afternoons whipping them at each other. I didn't realize crabapples were even considered a food until I was in my late twenties and working in professional kitchens.

When raw, they're best thrown at your friends.

But when simmered or sauted, they cook down to a remarkable, pungent flavour best used in jams, jellies, or pickles.

My personal favourite is apple butter. There's often painful amount of work involved, but I have a slow cooker version that cuts the effort in half.

Why not set yourself up for winter? Take a Saturday and Sunday at your local markets loading up, put on your favourite podcast, maybe get a bottle of wine. Commit to the project of making food all weekend, and you'll be the squirrel with the nuts by the time the first blizzard hits.

Recipe: Homemade cranberry sauce

This thanksgiving staple can be whipped up in just a few minutes. I like the sour cranberry flavour to come bursting through, but you can cup more sugar if you want it sweeter.

Takes only a few minutes!

Servings: 2-1/4 cups

Total Time: 15 Minutes

Ingredients

Juice from a large orange

cup water (filtered will taste better!)

sugar plus 2 tablespoons

12 oz of cranberries

Zest of a single orange

Pinch salt

Pinch of freshly cracked black pepper

Instructions

Bring orange juice, water and sugar to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add cranberries, orange zest and salt and bring back to a boil. Adjust temperature to medium and let it all boil for about ten minutes. You want the berries to burst open.

Remove sauce from heat, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

Recipe: Apple butter

Apple butter is a bit of a misnomer. It's not butter at all. Really, it's just an intensely concentrated applesauce, but its flavour is drastically different. I like apple butter on toast, in yoghurt, in desserts. There's a million ways to use it. I once worked at a restaurant that put an apple butter, gnocchi, mac and cheese on the menu. I still dream about that dish.

Here's my short-cute apple butter recipe.

Using soft apples like McIntosh will speed up this process because they break down faster, but I like using crab apples because a) you can get them for free or buy them from a local forager and b)their tartness concentrates the flavour.

I tossed in some Honeycrisp apples because I love their flavour and had them on hand. Don't be afraid to play here! Remember my recipe is just the spine.

Ingredients

12 cups of apples. Make sure you peel them! Try your best to get an even dice, so the apple breaks down at roughly the same speed.

2 cups of sugar (you can play here. I used a mix of white and brown). If your apples are too tart and sour, you can add sugar to taste.

2 medium oranges. We want the zest and juice.

2 tsp. cinnamon

3/8 tsp. nutmeg

3/8 tsp. allspice

Dash of vanilla

Sprinkle of cardamom

• Read more from contributor Andie Bulman

Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients in a slow cooker and turn to high.

Cook with the lid off and stirring every hour or so for 8-10 hours (or until the mixture thickens and cooks down by half).

Next, puree the butter with an immersion blender or a blender. It should be perfectly smooth!

Your butter will keep for three weeks in the fridge, or you can use a hot water canning process to preserve the butter for longer.

Have you seen Gas & Grub?

Andie Bulman has teamed up with videographer Mark Cumby for a series of pieces we called Gas & Grub. The idea? Get out and see what's good to eat at the gas station or, rather, the seriously good eats to be found at roadside places that also just happen to sell gas!

Andie and Mark are working on more instalments that you'll see on Here & Now. You can check out this playlist on our YouTube channel.

In the video below, check out a sample item, as Andie visits Upper Island Cove, the "cold plate capital" of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador