Putting up the bench: our preserving calendar

The preserves board on the winter menu is really an August diary. Everything the bench produces past what the room can eat fresh goes into crocks and jars in a two-week sprint, and then the restaurant eats its own summer until the snow melts. Here is the calendar as June runs it.

The calendar

July: the first sour cherries are pickled whole, stems on, the single most fought-over jar in the building. August: tomatoes from Ostler Creek are split and dried over the dying fire, beans are salted, and the crocks of kraut and charred pepper paste start their long sulk in the cellar. September: pears in honey syrup, apple butter cooked in the falling oven overnight. October: whatever the waxwings leave becomes the last chutney, and the cellar door closes.

Why bother, in the age of trucks

A February tomato from a truck tastes like the truck, and a February jar of August tomatoes tastes like a promise kept. Preserving is also the only way a seasonal menu stays interesting in the dark months without flying the menu south for the winter. The board in January is honestly the board from August, translated.

If you want to try it at home, start with pickled cherries: one jar, one afternoon, and by Christmas you will understand the fights.