We’ve never been the most diligent at preserving foods for winter.  We do it, but not on a scale that allows us to eat locally every night through the winter.  We have a new weapon in our arsenal this year, though.  Enos Farms frozen dinners.  Here’s how it works: on Tuesday they send out a menu to their email list.  If you want to buy something, you email them back by the following Sunday and it’s ready for you on Tuesday.  Right now there are fourteen items available, and the list continues to grow as they add options.  The offerings include pork stir fry, two kinds of lasagna, cauliflower curry, and cabbage borscht.  So far we’ve tried a veggie lasagna and the borscht.

Enos Farms Cabbage Borscht

The first time we had the borscht, we simply defrosted it and ate it.  And it doesn’t need any modification, there’s plenty of flavor from the pork stock, root veggies, fennel and other spices.  The second time we decided to see how far we could modify it, so we added sour cream, malt vinegar, kielbasa, crispy hash browns and fresh parsley.  The borscht served as a great base and everything worked well together; the potatoes added a really nice crunch but I’ll say the sour cream and kielbasa were probably unnecessary.  The vinegar helps to cut the earthiness of the beets, if that’s a flavor you have trouble with.  Oddly, I struggle with beets myself, even though my favorite smell in the world is petrichor (the smell of rain on dry soil), and the main chemical in petrichor is the same compound that gives beets their earthiness: geosmin.

If you’d like to sign up to receive the weekly menu (there’s no commitment to buy), go to enosfarms.com and fill out the contact form (or contact us and we’ll get you in touch with them).  You can pick up you order from them in Spring Green, or depending on where you live, there might be other delivery options.

If you don’t know Jeremy and Erin of Enos Farms, but you recognize their names, that might be because Enos Farms is also the official Driftless Appetite cake supplier.  Starting November 1st, they are also going to be serving Sunday brunch from 8-12 at their kitchen in Spring Green.

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