4 Local Items Available In Winter
Here is a list of four local items still available during the winter, despite it being cold enough outside to freeze your nose hairs in under a minute. Seriously, holy heck it’s cold out. One of the beautiful things about Essex County though is that while limited, you can still find lots of great local produce on our shelves. Here’s a run down of some of the best.
1. Greenhouse Tomatoes
Yes, we know these tomatoes aren’t as great as the field ones in the summer that are plucked fresh off the vines in the warm summer sun. However, these tomatoes are still surprisingly good in flavour and are grown under the plastic of a Leamington greenhouse, so you know they’re top quality. They are smaller in size than summer tomatoes, but they still have a great taste and make fantastic toasted tomato sandwiches. Here are a few other ways to enjoy these small but tasty beauties.
- Greenhouse Tomato and Pepper Pasta
- Greenhouse Tomato Chick Pea Salad
- Tomato-Cheddar Cornbread
2. Fall Squash
Squash may have been harvested a few months ago, but it keeps extremely well over the winter. Our squash is straight from our field and we still have a wide assortment of varieties, including butternut and kabocha, two of the most popular. Squash is a great way to beat the fat heavy winter diets, but still find some great ways to warm up. Squash is also a fantastic source of fibre, which can come in handy during some of those fad diets.
- Classic Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
- Sweet & Spicy Kabocha Squash
- Oven-Roasted Squash with Garlic & Parsley
3. Mushrooms
The cold winter temperatures don’t make any difference to mushrooms. Highline Mushrooms in Kingsville continues growing right through the winter, picking varieties from button, brown, portobello, and mini-bellas. We always have white in stock, as long as we haven’t sold out, and we can order any of the others you are looking for. Who doesn’t enjoy some friend mushrooms with their middle of the winter steak.
The crunchiness might not quite be the same as it is when they are fresh off the tree, but winter apples are still just as sweet, if not sweeter. All of that juice inside the skins has been able to ferment slightly and turn those apples into little sugar bombs. We still carry quite a few varieties in the market for your enjoyment, all from orchards across Kingsville.