I've mentioned this before, but I thought it was worth saying again—I have some pretty great neighbors. For many reasons, but why I bring it up now is because of our little "food trade system" we've fallen into over the years. For the most part, they share raw produce and I share prepared food. This would be because they tend to their garden and even forage for mushrooms once a year, while I seem to spend all of my time in the kitchen developing and testing recipes.
They hand over large bags (seriously) of produce, and I come back at them with jars, boxes, and plates of jams, preserves, breads, and other baked goods. It's a fairly great system. I like to offer up goods from my "wild garden" like grapes, mint, chamomile, compost squash, and wild garlic, but lately that's all I seem to have since time is something I'm always chasing and rarely catching up with. I've never been fond of running.
