This summer had to be one of the strangest on record. Travel was almost non-existent, restaurants were nowhere near capacity, and the one sector of the economy that did and continues to do well is groceries, as more people have rediscovered the joy of home cooking.

Supporting local independent stores is more important than ever. For one thing, it’s easy to zip in and out of a small store. The selection isn’t as wide as what’s on offer in a supermarket, and the prices may be higher, but I haven’t been buying clothes or books, or even going to the hairdresser, so it all works out.

I have an organic grocery store nearby that carries a lot of locally grown produce. This summer the strawberries were just stellar. They were still good in mid-October, but they were fantastic at the height of summer. I saw the farm truck one day, and the driver was carefully stacking boxes of strawberries on a dolly. They only traveled about an hour by highway. (I’ve reused the plastic baskets to organize the spice cupboard.)

Nothing says summer quite like watermelon, and it was delightful to find mini watermelons, a perfect size for a small household. Even the seeds were tiny.

The new “touch it, buy it” rule led me to buy a kilo bag of popping corn, though I couldn’t see myself using it up. Little did I know. Fresh popcorn sprinkled with sea salt has become a wee obsession. Using just two tablespoons of kernels per batch, I steadily worked my way through an entire kilo, and then bought more at a farmer’s market.

I had a pot of basil on the deck, and it did very well in the bright sun with a daily soaking. It produced fresh, fragrant basil for months, and yielded a bountiful harvest. To preserve it, I pulsed the leaves in the food processor with a bit of olive oil and then froze that in ice cube trays. When a recipe calls for fresh basil, I just toss in a cube. Fresh is still unbeatable for flavour and aroma, but frozen is a close second. It reminds me of the little pockets of joy that were to be found, even in a very weird summer.