Soil Temperatures & Sunlight Hours

Have spent much time & energy researching how to do this year-round gardening thing on the West Coast. Despite the fact that we live in an area that is pretty easy for plants to grow in, I'm having trouble locating information on the subject.

So far, I've learned the minimum germination temperatures for the various things I want to grow, the first and last frost dates for my area, and am beginning to amass a general understanding of what plants generally do well in cooler weather. I plan to keep a journal of what we planted & how it did, which will help us refine our plant choices & timing in the future.

My goal, in all of this, is to gain more control over our food supply -- the quality, the variety and the cost. Read more!

Bowlful of Spring in December

Park's Master Chef Lettuce Blend 12/20/09

Pak Choi, Violetta, 12/20/09



We're reaping the rewards of efforts we made last Fall -- lovely, dark green leaves to add to our salad. I planted several kinds of lettuce, spinach, carrots, cabbage, broccoli and green onions. Must have been the wrong time for the kale, though, because it never poked its red head above the soil.

But, how nicely the rich, dark greens of violetta pak choi (a mild-flavored, purple leaf-style cabbage), deer tongue and other interesting lettuces, as well as mild cabbages brighten up our winter salad!! And having done a little research, we're also including dandelion and a few of its lookalikes.

It was an act of faith when I nestled those little seeds into the ground months ago. Even though I live in a Zone 9 region (very hospitable to plants most all year), and despite the fact that I've always been interested in year-round gardening, I'd never really believed it was possible. Then I stumbled upon Eliot Coleman's book, "Four Season Harvest", (www.fourseasonfarm.com). As it turns out, he and his family live in Zone 5 -- few daily sunlight hours and deep snowdrifts every winter -- yet they enjoy fresh produce from their backyard all year. After reading his discussion about hours of sunlight (we had 9-1/2 today) and plant choices, I realized we stood a pretty good chance of being able to grow something to eat in Winter.

In fact, I really got excited when I realized that, by choosing the right plants and putting them in the ground at the right time, we would not even need a greenhouse!! So I spent a late September afternoon putting in what I hoped would be our Winter garden. Things took quite a while to come up, and at times I worried that I'd either put them in too early or too late (too early, as it turns out). In fact, the Mesclun mix just came up a couple of weeks ago! I'm eager for it to get big enough that we can add it to our salads.

But as the photo above shows, we now have a nice variety of greens to brighten up our salad bowl. Unfortunately, as we're pretty big salad eaters, I'm afraid I haven't planted enough that we can live on it exclusively. But we do get enough to supplement the high quality lettuce I still have to buy from the store. And next year...

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Canning Ham

Been canning ham. Got it for under $1 a pound, so I bought 4. Anything over nine pounds will make a full pressure canner load (8 wide-mouth pints), plus a nice meaty bone to put in the freezer for soup or beans later. Am just about to take the third out of the canner, and am looking forward to getting the last one done.

Takes a little time to cut them up (they need to be in fairly evenly-sized chunks), but with a good sharp boning knife, it's no problem. Ham is my favorite meat to can -- the flavor is excellent, and it's very nice to have on hand for a quick meal. We often eat it as it is, with some instant mashed potatoes (with a little garlic salt for pizzazz), a green salad (we keep a big bowl made up in the fridge) & a steamed veggie (one of the few things I'll buy already prepped -- that nice bagged broccoli is an excellent time saver!!!) Of course, it'll also add something nice to soup, beans, scalloped potatoes or any number of other things.

I find it really makes a difference, keeping these kinds of "shortcut" foods on hand. Not only do we save money by buying things on sale to begin with, but we also save what we might have spent on fast food, if we didn't have something tasty available, & ready at a moment's notice!

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Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Who'da thunk -- it's almost December & I'm still canning!! Been meaning to put up some cranberry sauce -- had a couple of bags in the fridge leftover from a cranberry mustard adventure (from the Ball book -- great recipe!!). Made a couple dozen pints of it to give as gifts recently, and bought extra berries with an eye to putting up some sauce.

Never made it before, but found it pretty easy. Used the Ball book recipe, substituting 3 cups honey for the 4 cups sugar. Lovely red color, and with a depth of flavor that's missing from the commercial stuff. (Didn't mind getting away from all that corn sweetener, either!!) Am thoroughly enjoying being familiar enough with canning to be able to improvise safely -- after cooking for a little longer than the required amount of time it still wasn't thick enough, so I blended in a little Thik'n'Quik. Didn't add much -- just enough to thicken it a bit. Ended up with 8 half-pints of sauce for my hour-and-a-half's worth of work. (Tasted it later, and found that it had a very slightly grainy texture, though it dissolves quickly -- next time I'll add the thickener up front.)

I thoroughly enjoy canning -- in the same amount of time it would take to put together a meal, I can end up with 6 or 8 (or more) jars of cranberry sauce, chile verde sauce or even sloppy joes that will stay, safely, on the shelves until we need them. (Although, I have to admit, the sloppy joes take a little more time & effort, because of the pressure canning required...)

Have also dried some cranberries. I can't have the commercial ones (because of the sugar), but I'd like to have them around for the occasional recipe that calls for them. Turned out ok -- nothing to write home about, but good to have when you need them. Don't know what the texture of commercial dried cranberries is like, but the homemade ones (with fructose and a tiny bit of Splenda) ended up being pretty hard. Storing them in the freezer, because some of them didn't quite dry completely & I don't want to end up with a moldy mess months down the road...

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Hot Packing Chicken

Summer canning season has finally trickled to a halt, and, after using our stores of canned meat without replenishing any for the last several months, I'm ready to get back into the meat canning business! There hasn't really been much in the dollar-and-under range for awhile, which is probably just as well -- I've had my hands pretty full!

But one of the stores had chicken leg quarters for $.39 a pound, so I headed out for it after work. Unfortunately, I made this stop after making a Costco run, and by habit, accidentally went to another store that often has great deals on meat instead. They did have chicken leg quarters, for $.69 a pound, and I decided that I was too tired, and for the gas it would take, it wasn't worth the trek over to the other one. So I grabbed a 10# bag and headed home.

I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to "put up" high quality meat for my family! After baking the chicken (sprinkled with a little herbes de provence & extra thyme) until it was almost done, I pulled the meat & skin off the bones and put it in the fridge overnight. Ended up with 3 separate containers -- meat, skin & bones and stock. This a.m., skimmed the solid layer of fat off the stock & threw it, a little more water, the skin & bones, an onion and some more herbs & salt into a stockpot. When the last bits of meat had fallen off the bone, I tossed out the skin & bones and put the stock back on to boil. Warmed the meat in the microwave, put it into the boiling stock and brought it back to a boil. It made 7-1/2 pints of chicken, plus stock, to fill 8 pints. It's now in the pressure canner, chattering away. Very good to know it'll be ready to use, sometime soon when I really need it -- and for less than $1 a pint! THIS is the whole reason I bought the pressure canner!! Read more!

Canning Tomatoes, Round 2

Just started on my second 50 pounds of canning tomatoes. When I brought home the first one, I got out the Ball book and picked out quite a few recipes to try. Several different sauces, both red and green, are now stacked neatly on the pantry shelves, waiting to be turned into a quick meal.

We've already used one of them, in fact -- the Mexican-style one. Found I had to add a bit more of the spice mixture when I used it (which I happened to have, leftover) to get the flavor I wanted. So I'm considering adding a bit more of it before I can it, next time. But it was very nice to have something I could grab off the shelf & use to throw together a very quick dinner! In addition to expanding my food storage, it's been a goal to create my own "convenience foods", for a lot less money and with much better quality.

Canned some red salsa tonight. I've never made salsa that I actually enjoyed enough to want to eat, until I modified the Ball book recipe -- ended up sweetening it a bit. It's cooling on the counter now. And one of the great side benefits of canning is the leftovers -- there's a quart of salsa in the fridge, waiting to be turned into Spanish rice or something similar. Read more!

Winter Gardening

We finally put in our Winter garden today. I've been reading "Four Season Harvest" by Eliot Coleman, and what a revelation it's been!!

We've always talked about having a year-round garden. In fact, that was one of our goals when we moved. But I've never been able to figure out how to do it -- until I read this book. As it turns out, quite a few things (salad greens, spinach, and, of course, the brassicas) can be planted in the Fall and consumed during the Winter. As Mr. Coleman explains it, the critical things are crop selection and timing of planting. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, we haven't been able to get our garden started until today -- about a month after we probably should have put it in. But, according to the book, if we'd planted at the right time, we shouldn't need to do anything special -- not even a cold frame! Mr. Coleman has 30+ years of gardening experience, and says he & his family enjoy fresh produce from their Zone 5 garden in Maine all year.

So if they're planted at the right time, the plants, which should be at the right size for eating by the time it gets cold, go dormant and can be harvested all
Winter. It's usually cold here by Halloween, so the little guys only have about a month to get going. That's probably not quite enough time, so we may end up having to throw a sheet of plastic over the garden to create a temporary greenhouse. That's ok too -- thanks to my brilliant husband, we've set it up so we could do that if we needed to.

I'm not really sure which factor is the biggest in my interest in Winter gardening -- the high expense and low quality of the produce available that time of year, the limited selection available, the wish to work more closely with the land in providing for our sustenance, the urge to be more independent... In any case, it's pretty exciting to think that we might actually be able to enjoy fresh, homegrown food from our garden all year!!
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Autumn Canning Blues

I think I can understand why our forebears lived such short lives. Over the course of the summer, and while working full-time, I've made it a point to preserve things as they've come into season. As I write this I'm exhausted, but still waiting for the pressure to fall in the pressure canner. There's a load of pumpkin in it, which we grew in our garden, and which we'll be glad to have on hand at some point in the future. Cut into chunks, flavored with honey, cinnamon, cloves and with a bit of lemon juice added for extra insurance, it'll make nice pie (or cookies, or bread) at the holidays -- or even later.

There are also 50 or 60 pounds of tomatoes (mostly red, but some green, too) in the garage, waiting to be turned into sauces of many descriptions: sweet & sour, chile verde, barbecue, creole, pizza... Fortunately, they're canning tomatoes, and so are pretty tough -- they can sit in the garage for a little while. A couple of years ago, I found myself canning the last of them in November.

And then there are the apples I have coming at the end of the week. They have absolutely incredible flavor!! Everyone sort of thinks, "ho hum, apples" -- until they taste these. There are two varieties: Sommerfield (like eating apple cider) and Gala (a little sweeter). It's more than I can manage right now, but luckily, they'll store fine in the fridge, until I'm ready to deal with them -- and we can eat them just as they are, too.

So even though we're heading into Fall, and even though I'm "all in", there's yet a bit of work to do. So I'll do as my forebears did: Imagine all those beautiful jars of summer treasure, lined up & waiting on the shelves -- and keep smilin'!

10/16/10

Just realized I have been saving drafts, and not actually publishing anything, for quite a while. Interesting -- here we are, at the end of another canning season, and I obviously didn't learn my lesson -- I've just spent a couple of weeks canning about 250 pounds of tomatoes -- and there are still the cherries, apricots and berries from last summer, waiting in the freezer until I can turn them into jam or sauce for us to pour over our homemade yogurt...

Ah, well, the more things change... Read more!

Canning Chili Verde, Pumpkin for Pie Filling

Visited a local farm to pick a bunch of tomatoes, both red and green, this a.m. Made a batch of chili verde sauce with some of the green ones, using a recipe I found online. Used the green tomatoes in place of tomatillos -- flavor's pretty much the same, but they're 'way cheaper). Turned out pretty good, but next time I think I'll tweak the recipe just a bit -- this batch was a little warm for us, and I'm not quite satisfied with the balance of flavors. It's close, though, and as long as I'm careful about acidity, it should adjust fine.

I've also picked out a bunch of recipes from the Ball book to try with the red ones. Once they're made up & on the shelf, they'll make it easy to throw dinner together in a hurry some night down the road. Funny thing, though -- I'm running out of places to put my canned goods!! Actually, I still have a bit of space -- I just need to "shore up" the shelves to put them on. I've been thinking in the back of my mind about the best way to do that, and I think I'll just get a closet pole from the hardware store & cut it to fit between the shelves, all the way up. Might have to do it in a couple of places, but it'll solve the problem.

Finally got around to canning the pumpkins we grew this summer. (Sugar Babies -- small pumpkins, compact plants, supposed to be good for pie.) Been putting it off because I knew how much work it'd be, but I finally felt ready to tackle it today. The best way to remove the skin, it turns out, is with a vegetable peeler. Once the pumpkin is halved and the seeds removed, quarter it, then use the peeler laterally -- it's easier than top-to-bottom. Although there's no getting around the fact that the job is labor intensive, this method seems to work pretty well!! I wanted pumpkin that would be more or less ready for pie, so I canned it (hot pack, cut in chunks -- see the Ball book) in a syrup with a little cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Pressure canned it, of course, adding a half-cup of lemon juice, and processing it for 10 minutes longer than the Ball book says, for extra insurance. Our whole harvest fit into 16 pint jars, plus a bit leftover that I tossed into the freezer. It'll be nice in pie, muffins, or even homemade ice cream!!
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Locally Grown Apples

Have been too preoccupied with chairing my adopted hometown's Centennial Celebration Committee to write much lately (which was totally out of character for me -- I'm normally much more comfortable in the background, but I guess it's good to stretch a bit, once in a while). The final event of the Celebration took place last weekend, and, to no credit I can claim, it was a rousing success!! So, now that that's behind me, I can turn my focus back to what I love to do -- "preserving the harvest".

THANK GOODNESS for the local farmers market, which was started just this year!!! Every Friday afternoon, I wander through with a few dollars in my pocket, visiting with the farmers and learning about varieties, harvest order and duration... Soon, I'm loading up my car with fresh, colorful, honest-to-goodness, naturally ripened things for us to enjoy during the coming week. I've also made it a point to try to preserve some of each thing (fruits, particularly, but corn and other things, too) for us to enjoy (and maybe even share) during the winter when the only things worth buying at the grocery store are imported bananas and, maybe, apples.

Apples -- one of the farmers has the loveliest, most delicious little apples I've ever enjoyed!! They were selling two varieties today, and I've ordered a 40# box of each to pick up next week. They're cute little things, most of them about half the size of a store-bought apple. And the flavor is unbelievable!! If you've only experienced apples from the grocery store, please do yourself a favor and seek out some really fresh, locally grown apples. I figure I'll give away some, make some into applesauce... One of the varieties was gala, and I don't recall the name of one of the two varieties, but eating it was like eating fresh apple cider -- the complexity of the flavor was astounding!! I think it'll make lovely applesauce -- can't wait to try it out!!

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Rice Cooker Discoveries

Wahoo -- what a cool discovery!! I've had an Aroma rice cooker (about $30 at Costco) for awhile now, and have had the feeling I wasn't getting the most out of it. Finally had the sense to get my hands on some cookbooks, and wow -- you can do SO MUCH MORE with these babies than I ever imagined!!

Turns out you can even cook pasta in them!! As a "trial run", I cooked some pasta (happened to be orzo), some cubed pork, a little garlic & salt. Used a 2 - 1 ratio (2 cups water to 1 cup pasta), set the machine for 25 minutes, and let 'er rip. Twenty minutes into it, threw some veggies in the steamer tray & put them in to steam as it finished cooking. It browned a bit on the bottom, though, so next time I think I'll try 20 minutes. What a great option for a busy weeknight -- whether anything's thawed or not!! And cleanup couldn't be easier -- especially if you spray the pot with Pam first. What's even better -- it takes a lot less water and energy to cook in, and clean up, a rice cooker than a couple of pans on the stove!! I happened to have some frozen cubed pork on hand (knew that $.99/lb tri-tip would come in handy one of these days!!), which I thawed in the microwave, cut into smaller pieces; I think 1/2- to 3/4-inch cubes, or maybe even a little bigger would work ok.

Soooo, I think you could really cook just about any one-dish meal in a rice cooker, so long as there's enough liquid in it. I've seen several different mac-n-cheese versions, as well as various ethnic dishes (rice and otherwise)... So, now I'm keeping my eye out for casserole recipes to try.

The other thing, and I can't believe this didn't occur to me before, is fried rice. What a great way to use up leftovers, and throw together a very quick one-dish meal, to boot!!! You want to use cold rice, and break up any clumps. Saute it with a little soy sauce & oil, then add diced ham, sliced green onion, chopped cooked veggies, scrambled egg, or whatever other bits of this and that you might have hiding in the fridge... I think next time I cook rice, I'll cook extra so I'll have it on hand -- either in the fridge or the freezer.

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Corn Harvest

10:28 on a Wednesday night in the middle of August. Was the happy recipient of a whole fridge-full of sweet corn after work tonight, and with DH's help, have managed to get the first couple dozen ears into my stalwart Nesco dehydrator. Made 4 trays, which should fill a quart jar, maybe 2. It's a messy proposition, no getting around that. But the effort required offers its own rewards, and drying it's a lot easier & faster than canning, to say nothing of the much lovelier flavor of the end product. It'll brighten up many a cold winter evening...

The experience reminded me of my childhood -- growing up in an area where a lot of food is grown, I had opportunity to go with my family and pick various things. I remember picking pomegranates, later helping my mother peel and seed them for her famous pomegranate jelly. We picked pecans, my father knocking them with a long pole. Once I ate so many of them, I couldn't look at a pecan for quite awhile. One of my dad's friends had a pasture, and one especially wet year we brought home enough field mushrooms to add depth and flavor to spaghetti sauce, among other things, for quite a while. My mother treated them as the rare treasures they were, saving them for special occasions -- or when she'd grown tired of hearing us ask. I can still, over 40 years later, recall the long walk through the muddy grass to get to them, and their wonderful, earthy flavor. And I remember asking, long after they were gone, if we couldn't go back and get some more.

And so, abundance translating to generosity, a friend invited me to come and pick. Despite the fact that we drove to the cornfield in a vehicle powered by fossil fuel, wearing clothes loomed by machine and shoes manufactured, at least in part, of plastic, the experience was wonderfully primal. Corn -- ancient, simple, basic, delicious. The act of picking, a connection with generations uncountable, cultures aboriginal to sophisticated, time out of mind. Countless feet, yellow, red, brown, black and white, finding cool respite on ground shaded by skinny stalks stretching high overhead; many hands pushing long, slender, slightly scratchy leaves aside to grasp long, slender ears, gift-wrapped and ready for cooking, crowned with the brown tassels that indicate perfect ripeness. The original "fast food". All that was required of our ancient forebears was to throw them into the coals of the cooking fire, and then summon the patience to wait until they were ready to be plucked, smoldering, from the fire, and devoured.

And something about being involved in harvesting, whether or not one has grown the produce, adds a whole dimension to the enjoyment of food. It is empowering, in an undefinable way. A feast for all of the senses, from the moment one arrives at the field, lush green of the plants setting one's retinal cones abuzz, the sun warming one's face, the heavy scent of earth, perhaps a breeze to ruffle one's hair, arms brushing sandpapery leaves, the warmth of the ear in its grasscloth cloak. The snap-rip as the ear is broken away from the stalk, then twisted free, and, finally, the first tangible reward in the process -- the weight of the ears in one's arms.

Or perhaps we enjoy it more because we are accustomed to the utterly uniform offerings at the supermarket, and our brains (and psyches) appreciate the opportunity to choose something a little smaller, or bigger, or riper.

Or that what you pick yourself is, invariably, fresher.

And there is the satisfaction that comes from the rows of jars safely stored in a dark pantry, waiting to bring a bit of summer sun to a cold winter day. A few hours spent shucking, blanching, cutting kernels from cobs and spreading them onto trays yields the second reward -- half-gallon mason jars of dried corn to be tucked away, and brought out to savor long after the last of the bright green stalks, ground into silage, has fermented into cattle feed. The jars, a gift from my mother-in-law, no doubt indispensable in feeding her three boys and two girls, a treasured connection to my husband's childhood.

The third reward is the comfort of knowing that each jar of dried corn (or canned peaches or strawberry jam) puts the possibility of suffering if food ever, for whatever reason, becomes scarce, that much further away.

And the ultimate incentive: Pleasant crunch and bright corn flavor, enjoyed out of hand or sprinkled on a salad, singing out sweetly in a chowder, adding a high note to cornbread, all throughout the winter.

So I found myself threading my way between stalks and in and out of rows, gathering up armloads of bright, sweet corn. Dropping it into my Costco totebag (you can use them for groceries, too!!), heading back into the corn forest for a few more ears... Knowing full well the amount of work I was getting myself into.

And certain, as our ancient forebears knew, that it would be worth it.
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Dehydrating Cantaloupe

Found myself with an abundance of cantaloupe, and decided to dry it. Turned out to be one of the few things that seems to retain its true flavor when dried!! I just cut it into about 1/2-inch slices, put it on the trays & let'er rip. Next morning, we had nice, dehydrated melon. Retains its lovely peach color, too. This is one of the things I'll definitely put the effort into drying, if I can get my hands on some more!!

Funny -- I'm actually starting to look forward to winter, which is not usually my favorite time of year. But as I've put so much time and energy into food preservation this summer, I find I'm actually enthused about having a little more free time (DH doesn't mind this idea, either)!! Although, no matter what time of year it is, there always seems to be plenty to do... I figure if I'm not canning or drying something, I'll probably be canning meat. Of course, I've been doing that all along, buying only what's on sale for less than $1 a pound...

I was reading a bit about the pioneer women, and what they went through trying to feed the folks they were responsible for, and in the various cirumstances in which they found themselves. It gave me a better appreciation for the challenges they faced and overcame, and reinforced my determination to make sure we have something "put by", and in a form that can be stored at room temperature.

Lucked into a bit of corn recently, and enjoyed being able to give a little of it back, in a form my benefactor can enjoy long past corn season. She was pleased to get it, but we were both a little surprised to realize that it takes about 18 fresh ears to fill a quart jar with dried corn! But it doesn't seem to take as long as one would think to prepare it (you just shuck it, blanch it for about 3 minutes & cut it off the cob, scraping with a spoon or the dull side of the knife to get all the good stuff, then dehydrate), and it's certainly worth the effort --it's quite sweet -- and shelf-stable!!0 Read more!

Drying Sweet Corn

I put this in my tips, but liked the end product so much, I decided to do a post about it. As always, my goal is to provide us with a variety of good things to eat all year. But I was very disappointed when I tried the creamed corn recipe in the Ball book -- first time it's ever let me down. Decided to dry the next batch -- 'way better!! It takes 3 - 4 ears per tray, and about 12 - 16 ears will fill a quart jar.

It tastes almost exactly like fresh corn -- except sweeter, because all the sugar gets concentrated as it dries. It's nice just to eat on its own, or you could toss it into soup, sprinkle it over salad, even rehydrate & mix it into cornbread. Someone even suggested mixing it with toasted nuts & raisins, on the order of trail mix...

Corn is very easy to dry -- just husk, then blanch the ears for 3 - 4 minutes. Cut the kernels off the cob, then scrape the cobs with the dull side of a knife or a spoon, to get all the good stuff. Spread the corn onto drying trays. Depending on your dehydrator, it should be done in a few hours, or overnight. (You could also spread it onto cookie sheets & dry it at very low heat in the oven.) We both love corn, and I'm very pleased by the prospect of brightening up a winter dinner with this little bit of summer!! Read more!

Quest for the Perfect Loaf of Bread

Off on a new adventure -- the quest for the perfect loaf of bread!! I picked up Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads" book a while back, but was daunted by the seeming complexity of his method. Guess it needed to perk for awhile. Bored with my old standby recipes, I recently picked it up again looking for inspiration. And in looking at it again, I realized the methods and recipes really aren't that difficult. (In fact, they're actually easier, and less time-consuming, than traditional methods.) Made a loaf of multigrain bread yesterday, and was pleased -- I used some corn and oats, as well as the wheat, and the result was a nice, just-sweet-enough bread.

This was a good thing, because, after obtaining some whole corn recently, I milled enough for a batch of cornbread (which was an adventure in itself!!). We were both quite excited to try it -- and were sorely disappointed. Not nearly sweet enough. Ah, well -- how boring would life be, if everything was easy!! Just means I get to do a little experimenting... Read more!

"Homemade" Cantaloupes, Sugar Baby Pumpkins

Although I've been pickling cucumbers from it for a little while, we finally enjoyed our first real garden treat tonight -- a small, but very meaty, cantaloupe. Lovely!! I chose a small variety to save space. The flavor is wonderful!! When we transplanted them, we thought they were okra -- which would have worked perfectly in the space alloted. So they're a bit crowded, but are producing nicely nonetheless. Unfortunately, one of the plants is next to the cucumbers, and I could detect a little cucumber flavor, but not enough to put me off (I do not enjoy cucumbers, honeydew, watermelon, etc.).

We have some Sugar Baby pumpkins that look just about ripe, too. The Ball book tells how to pressure can it, and has what looks like a nicely spiced pickle recipe, too. Looks like we'll probably have them coming our our ears, so I'm planning to try both.

How nice to finally (literally) be enjoying the fruits of our labors!! Read more!

Much To Do, & Glad of It!!

It's probably a good thing the chicken I bought on sale ($.59 a pound!!) was still partly frozen. Otherwise, I would have felt compelled to can it tonight -- several hours' work, and I didn't arrive home until after 6:00. And there are still several pounds of apricots in the fridge, waiting to be canned (as jam or otherwise) or frozen (a good option, if you need to postpone the work for a little while). I did manage to make a batch each of nectarine jam and dill pickles last night, and a batch of peach jam this a.m.

And, in the garden, there are just about enough pickles for another batch of sweet relish, a couple dozen pint jars of which I need to make this year. It's astonishing how much work there is this time of year, for those of us who are determined feed ourselves and our families as cost effectively as possible. (Not to mention the quality...) I can appreciate how those ladies not that long ago must have felt, the first time they opened a can of peaches that hadn't cost them hours on their feet in the kitchen, arms itchy with peach fuzz (and, very likely, itching also from bug bites obtained while picking the fruit), sweat pouring down their faces, children underfoot.

I'm very grateful to have the ability, physically and mentally, to have learned the various arts (canning, dehydrating) necessary for storing food. There is a huge amount of work to be done at the moment, and I'm doing my best to do it -- even if it occasionally means dashing home at lunchtime to start a batch of pickles, as I did earlier this week. Much work, but very satisfying, too! Read more!

Asian Plum Sauce

Been meaning to try the Asian-style plum sauce recipe in the Ball book. Looks like a good one -- plums, sugar (honey, in our case), vinegar, a little ginger, garlic & chilies... Bought what I thought was enough plums to make it at a fruit stand awhile back, but when I got them home, realized I was a little short. So I halved them & put them in the freezer until I could come by a few more.

Funny, how these things sometimes work out -- when we met some relatives for lunch at a restaurant in the Bay Area recently, I was telling them about my canning adventures, and happened to mention the plum recipe & that I needed a few more plums. As we were preparing to leave, my husband walked out first. But he immediately came back, an odd expression on his face. He gestured for us to follow him, and we were astonished to find a large basket of lovely little Santa Rosa plums, free for the taking! Feeling a little funny, but giggling all the while, each of us put a few in our pockets.

I finally had a chance to try the recipe this a.m., and it turned out lovely. The recipe says it'll make 4 pints, but DH does not enjoy sweet sauces, so put it into the little 4-oz jars. Seems I always end up with more jam, sauce or whatever than canning recipes say (presumably because of the extra liquid contributed by the honey) -- I just took three half-pints and a dozen 4-oz jars out of the canner. Those will really make a nice contribution to a stir fry, or be lovely to dip chicken into, one of these days.

The Ball book has quite a number of other sauce and condiment recipes, which I intend to make as the summer progresses. As the storebought versions of them typically are expensive, and contain sugar (which I cannot have), I'm very pleased to be able to make and store a selection of them. I'm not sure which I'm looking forward to more -- the satisfaction of having made them affordably, and in such a way that I can actually eat them myself (and having adjusted the seasoning to our tastes), or the variety they will contribute to our food storage. Either way, it will be a lovely thing to see them on the shelf, and enjoy them throughout the coming year! Read more!

The Next Link in the Chain

My niece and I made dill pickles today, and, for the first time, all of the cucumbers came from our garden. We've now had several opportunities to can things together, and she really seems to be enjoying learning this new skill. I suppose this isn't necessarily all that surprising, as she loves to cook. But teaching her this art is important to me for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it will give her the option, one day, of saving a lot of money while feeding herself and the people she loves as well as possible. I find canning to be, among other things, very empowering.

Using my homemade pickle relish to make salad dressing, for example, dramatically demonstrated this for me. I decided to make my own pickles because I've noticed a flavor and odor in storebought pickles (both sweet relish and dill) lately. Planted pickling cucumbers, and in due course, made a batch of pickle relish. Used it to make salad dressing, and was astonished -- haven't had pickle relish this good since I was a kid!! All of the flavor "notes" are there, and in the right balance. I will definitely make that again -- I'll have to, as we seem to go through a couple of pints a month. At this rate, I'll need at least a couple dozen to get us through to next canning season. Hope my cucumber supply holds out!!

Got a kick out of teaching her to crack walnuts, too. Found them awhile back, while driving down a country road off the route I normally take. Harvest was last fall, but they still had their sign out. As I'd rather deal directly with the farmer any day, and assuming they were trying to get rid of the last of their crop (if they hadn't just forgotten to take their sign down), I stopped. Picked up 20 lbs, in shell, for $.40 a pound. This works out to about $.80 a pound, as it's about a 2:1 ratio -- which is still quite a bit better than the $4.95 a pound you pay for them already shelled! When she found out I had nuts to crack, she couldn't wait to try her hand. I showed her how to crack them, and DH showed her how to take the little part with the acid out. She had a ball, and ended up helping me shell 5 lbs -- taking home a quart of halves in the process. (She'll get 3 of the 6 quarts of pickles we made, too, but they weren't ready to be moved by the time I had to take her home.)

It's so cool, sending her home with things she's made herself!! And there is great comfort and satisfaction in knowing that she will remember these times, and, hopefully, be inspired to create these kinds of things herself for the people she loves, one day. These skills are too important to be lost, and the absolute best way to avoid that is to take a direct role in handing them down from one generation to the next.
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Homemade Pickle Relish

Made some sweet pickle relish recently, and tasted it last night. I'll never buy relish in the store again!!! This was a lengthy process, involving soaking the cucumbers, peppers and onions in salted ice water, then fresh ice water, and, finally, a vinegar-and-spice solution, before canning them. I was originally motivated by what I perceive as the deteriorating quality of the store-bought product, but when all was said & done, I realized there’s a nice side benefit – I’ve saved some money, too!

Over half of the cucumbers were home-grown (a little later in the season, they all will be). The rest were bought at the farmers market for less than $2. I used maybe $1.50 worth of red peppers, along with a couple of onions ($.50), 6 cups of vinegar (another $.50) and 2 cups of honey ($2). The canning jars were purchased on sale ($4.50). So, for a total investment of about $11, I have 9 jars of relish, which works out to about $1.22 each, including the jar. However, as I reuse them constantly, I prefer not to include the cost of the jars in the equation. Sooo, excluding the jars, the cost drops to $6.50 total, or $.72 per jar. Either way, a significant savings over the $2.25 I usually pay at the market – and, though it's thinner (store-bought relish is thickened slightly), the quality of the relish is definitely superior!

I’ll need to do another batch or two over the course of the summer (need a couple dozen or so, to get us through until the next cucumber crop). I make it a habit to taste things as I go along, and I thought I'd need to tinker with the recipe, as I didn't quite like the balance of flavors, even after it was heated in the vinegar solution. However, once it's canned, it comes out perfect!! It has all the complexity of flavor that commercial pickle relish used to have.

And the best thing about this recipe, unlike some pickle recipes, is that it doesn’t need to “cure” – once the jars come out of the canner, the relish is ready to use.

Also on my radar screen is dill relish, though I probably only need about a dozen half-pint jars for the year. Although I usually use it only for tuna and potato salad, I might make it a couple dozen, just for good measure. The recipe in the Ball book looks like a good one.

Another thing I’m looking forward to doing: A few jars of dainty little baby dills, if I can accumulate enough that size at the same time. Or maybe baby dills & baby carrots. Or baby dills, baby carrots & baby onions. We do have some okra coming in; that will be nice pickled, as well… Read more!

Hosting Honeybees, Yeasty Banana Bread

Our garden is playing host to bees. And, considering what we know about the plight of the honeybee, I find this very reassuring. When I was a child, the mere sight of a bee anywhere near me was enough to send me flying toward the next county, screaming all the way. I knew that, beyond being painful, a sting would probably send me to the family doctor, or at least to the couch, very swollen appendage slathered in baking soda paste and wrapped in an ice pack.

But I'm grown now, and haven't been stung in years. And I understand that those winged ladies are just doing their job, and really not interested in bothering anyone so long as they aren't disturbed. In fact, I can't help but notice how many of them our flowering cucumber, cantaloupe and tomato vines attract, and sincerely
hope that the renewed national interest in vegetable gardening will help encourage them. I understand there is some mysterious ailment they are suffering, and that whole hives sometimes have to be wiped out because of it. But I still hope that, as more of us reclaim responsibility for the production of our own food, the bee population will grow. I feel comforted to know that, at our house at least, we're doing our part.

Been kind of bored with my favorite wheat-oatmeal bread, and the usual raisin- (or date-) nut variation. Reread the appropriate section of the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book (excellent book!!) for inspiration. Ended up adding a half-cup of chopped (scissored, actually -- how did I ever cook before I discovered kitchen shears?!) dried bananas & some walnuts. We both love banana bread, but I don't make it very often because it's a quick bread, and yeasted breads offer so much more -- both nutritionally and flavor-wise.

So I decided to adapt the wheat-oatmeal bread, using dried bananas which were still somewhat leathery. (I make it a habit to slice & dehydrate bananas when they're getting very ripe and in danger of going to waste. DH thought it was kind of silly -- 'what're you ever gonna use those for?!' -- but he may change his tune, if this experiment works out.) The recipe, designed for use in a bread machine, calls for 7-1/2 ounces water. An odd amount, and, as the bananas will absorb some of the liquid in the dough, I decided to add another half-ounce. (I mentally compared the bananas to raisins, which don't require extra liquid, but the bananas were a bit drier. The half-ounce (1 tbsp), should be enough to make up the difference, but not so much as to throw the moisture content off.) I'm planning to bake these in pint jars, which are already prepped and waiting on the counter. (If you make jar bread, remember to wipe the rims with vinegar to remove the shortening or other lubricant, which could prevent the lids from sealing.) Without the bananas & nuts, the recipe usually makes a generous 4 pints, so I prepped 5. I'm very interested to see how this will turn out!!

Ok. Bread out of the oven. Has a mild banana flavor. Not quite sweet enough, though. Next time, I'll try adding the bananas to a sweet bread recipe...
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Blackberry Jam; Homemade Sweet Pickle Relish

I've been thinking in the back of my mind lately that I'd really like to make some blackberry jam. I have jars and jars of strawberry, apricot, even somewhat off-the-path things like cherry and kiwi. But I've been thinking it'd be really nice to make something special, and blackberry jam would definitely qualify. Funny how these things work -- as I was in town for my haircut today, my hairdresser mentioned that her mother recently bought some blackberries at a stand nearby. I resolved to hit that particular fruit stand (a new one for me) on my way out of town, and was delighted to find that they still had a few of the purplish-black berries. Scooped them up, along with some plums for a sauce I spotted in the Ball book, and headed home with my loot.

A couple of hours later, 7 half-pint jars of the rich, speckly purple jam are cooling on the counter. And, with the lovely ripe cherries I also bought at the stand, I'll be able to scrape together one more batch -- cherry-berry, this time. I'm very glad to have a good selection of candy flavoring oils on hand -- they can really round out the flavor nicely if the jam doesn't quite sparkle on its own. (And why would I bother with jam that doesn't?!)

Finally beginning to harvest a few pickling cucumbers from our garden. I've been inspired to try this because the pickles I've bought lately (only brand I can find at the "big box" grocery store) seem to have a distinctly chemical scent and flavor to them. We use a good bit of sweet pickle relish in salad dressing, so I need to make a couple dozen pints over the course of the summer. Don't quite have enough cucumbers ready on our own yet, so I bought some at the farmers market to round out the first batch. Found several promising looking recipes online; will share that experience in a future post. Read more!

Ashley Kate's First Batch of Jam

This is how it's supposed to work -- each generation hands down knowledge and life skills to the one coming behind. I introduced my niece to the art of making jam today. I remember, when I was a little younger than she is now, helping to pick the fruit (pomegranates, in particular), then, wearing old clothes, helping to peel it. My mother extracted the juice, and spent hours in the hot kitchen, making jelly. I remember the steam rising out of the big pan, the purple-stained tea towels on the counter and in the sink, and my mother's absolute focus as she turned that sweet, purple liquid into jelly. Later, that jelly would find its way into sandwiches for our lunchboxes. And now it's come full circle.

Ashley and I made apricot-pineapple jam (her choice). It came out beautiful, and she was thrilled to be allowed to take all but one of the jars home (I wasn't about to let all of her first effort go out the door!!). Walked up and proudly handed it to her dad and stepmom, receiving appropriate praise in the process. Seeing the pride on her face, I'm grateful -- the next generation tucks another skill under its belt, and this is, indeed, how it's supposed to work. Read more!

Pressure Canning Chicken Soup, Saving $$$

Been meaning to can some chicken soup, and picking up chicken for less than $.80 a pound finally gave me opportunity / inspiration to do it. I intend to make some chicken stock, too, one of these days, but I'm glad I started with the soup. I wasn't sure how much chicken it would take, so I made sure we had several on hand.

As it turns out, one 3 - 4 pound chicken will yield more than enough for soup, plus a good bit of skin and scraps for the dogs -- not to mention the innards! Those were quite popular, cooked & chopped up. Very nice topping for kibble.

So it took a chicken, an onion, a couple of carrots, a couple of stalks of celery, and some chicken boullion. Some herbs & a little salt to round out the flavor... Less than $4 worth of ingredients, plus a few cents' worth of gas to cook it, and, viola -- eight pints of real, homemade chicken soup. It will need starch of some kind (rice, potatoes, pasta) when it's served, but for about $.50 a jar, I'll be able to put a nice lunch or dinner on the table (in a hurry!) one of these days. And I haven't bought canned chicken soup lately, but I know it costs more than $.50 a pint!!

The sloppy joe recipe I found online (seems every site I looked at had exactly the same one) is excellent. I bought the meat (pork cushion steak -- neither of us is a big beef fan) for less than $1 a pound, put it through the grinder, added the onions, garlic (already prepped -- see tips), ketchup, chili sauce & a few other assorted things, and for about $1 each, we'll have a nice dinner one of these days.

So, although I felt a little guilty when I spent the money on it (about $200) earlier this year, we have more than recouped the investment I made in the pressure canner. And not only are we saving money and building our food storage very quickly, what we're storing is the highest quality possible! Read more!

Homemade Cup-a-Soup

Finally got an impromptu chance to try my hand at homemade cup-a-soups!! Our dinner plans changed unexpectedly, and I found myself with an extra chicken and a good bit of leftover rice. I've done enough reading to know that (health conscious or thrifty, or both) backpackers often dehydrate their own trail food, and now that I'm set up for it, this sudden overabundance of cooked food seemed the ideal excuse to try it myself. The chicken was cooked in the crock pot, and was so well done that I didn't want to can it. So what better solution than to dry it, toss it into pint jars with the rice (also dried), drop in a few dried veggies (onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms...) and vacuum pack it! Should make an ideal lunch, or even dinner, one of these days. I'll post about it again, once I've had a chance to put it together & try it out.

7/5/09

Sampled the cup-a-soup the other day. Hadn't gotten around to packing it into individual pint jars (although now that I've tried it, I will take the time to do that) so I just tossed a bit of the chicken and some of the rice, along with some dehydrated garlic, mushrooms and carrots, into a bowl with some hot water & soy sauce. Takes about twice as long as you wait for commercial cup-a-soups, but the quality is 'way better. So I'll be making it a point to dehydrate leftovers to use in this way from here on. Read more!

Much Ripe Fruit & One Freezer Down

There is something inspirational about the perfume of very ripe strawberries. The kitchen is full of this lovely smell, and I'm frantically trying to get them into the freezer, until I can devise some new ways to use them. The problem is that we've just lost one of our fridges, and I couldn't pass up the overripe peaches, either. Ah, the joys of summer produce!! My niece is coming for the weekend, and I can't see an overripe peach without recalling the first time I offered her peaches and cream. She wasn't any more than 7 or 8, but she managed to put away several kid-sized bowls. What a wonderful, old-fashioned, summer ritual. Of course, telling her, as I set it in front of her, that my grandmother used to make it for me, didn't do much to dampen her enthusiasm!

But now I'm facing a counter full of extremely ripe strawberries, a batch of jam's worth of overripe peaches, plus the frozen meat that survived the freezer meltdown. (The latter is now distributed among the two remaining freezers, one of which I'd been meaning to clean out anyway, but my ultimate goal for the meat all along has been to can it, and I want to get it done asap. Found a terrific recipe for sloppy joes online...) There is also some meat that thawed, that needs to be cooked & dehydrated for the dogs.

The Ball book has some good recipes for the fruit, a few of which I've already tried. I think I'll try strawberry pie filling next. Seems a quick & easy way to put up a fair few of them at once. In fact, I'm ready now to branch out from jam to canning fruit in syrup or as pie filling. And I'm not even opposed to adding a bit of food coloring (gasp!!), or even candy flavoring, if it'll make the end product more appealing. My time (and shelf space!) is far too valuable to me to invest, if all I'll end up with is a mediocre end product.

The death of the fridge/freezer underscores another reason I'm glad I'm a canner. My ultimate goal is to arrange our food storage so that it can all be stored at room temperature, because we just don't know what might "come down the pike" for us. It could be as simple as an appliance on the fritz (as so clearly illustrated by my current situation), or as major as a local or regional disaster. In any case, I want to be able to feed the people I love, even if it's just cold meat, jar bread and canned fruit from the pantry. So I'm working very hard to obtain things (fruits & veggies, at this time of year, with the odd bit of meat thrown in, along with some wheat & other grain) in quantity, at the best possible price, then break them into smaller portions and can or dry them.
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Keeping Up

Canning season is suddenly in full swing, and I find myself facing boxes of strawberries, cherries and apricots. (I always think, at this time of year, about balance -- the cold months that allow us a welcome break from the frenetic pace of the planting, weeding, harvesting, canning, freezing and drying that I'm eager to get to, while waiting for the weather to warm up...) I've replaced what we used to call my "Walkman", and have checked out some of my favorite books on CD from the library. So now it's time to get busy. The Ball book has some excellent recipes, and I'm looking forward to trying some of them. As always, my goal where our food storage is concerned is variety...

Ended up with the better part of a case of strawberries, and as I already have about 3 cases of strawberry jam (including a little pepper jam and a little balsamic, both from the Ball book), wanted to make something different. The Ball book does have some interesting options, but I ended up making a regular batch and adding a bit of the flavoring oil I use for making candy at Christmas time. Very nice!! In fact, though in my younger, "purist" days I would have considered it cheating, I've lately decided it's ok to salvage a less-than-perfect batch of jam by adding a tiny bit of flavoring, to supply the "notes" that are missing. Not enough to overpower, just enough to round out the flavor and turn a mediocre jam into an excellent one.

A case in point: A colander full of apricots, on their way to becomng jam and ranging from a-good-bit-greener-than-I-like-to-use to overripe, needed a little help after it was blended with the pectin and lemon juice. Once it boiled, I added the honey & waited until it was at the can't-be-stirred-down stage. Then I threw in some blueberries (stirring carefully from here on, so as to avoid crushing them). But it was still lacklustre. So I added a tiny bit of apricot flavor oil, but tasted it & thought that might have been a mistake. After considering a few flavors, I settled on the tiniest drop of raspberry. Success! Bottled it, processed it for 10 minutes in the water bath, and it's now cooling on the counter. The recipe called for 4 pounds of apricots & said I'd get 3 pints of jam, but I added about 2 cups of blueberries, and had to add a good bit more honey (because of the unripe fruit) -- ended up with 13 half-pints of jam. (DH is always quick to point out that I can never seem to follow a recipe "to the letter" -- but where's the fun in that?!)
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Storing Meat for our Animal Friends

As I've been preparing things for our food storage, I've tried to take our animal friends into account. After experimenting with canning, as well as cooking-chopping-dehydrating (a messy proposition!!), I've finally settled on what I think is best.

It happened partly because I realized the freezer door had inadvertently been left open, and some of the meat had partially thawed, then re-frozen. Our loss is the dogs' gain!! I cleaned out the freezer, and thawed out the meat. The best way to deal with it, I've discovered, is to grind it, fry it, then dehydrate it. It'll keep fine for quite a while this way, even longer in the fridge or freezer. I happened to have chicken, pork and beef from the freezer, all of which I ground up and fried together. The dogs wouldn't leave the kitchen until the last of it had been put away -- they've learned it can be quite rewarding to "help" me when I'm working...

The meat is much easier and faster to deal with once it's ground, and it's cleaner and neater, too. As a bonus, you can pour off the liquid and put it in the fridge until the fat solidifies. Skim it off, and what's left is a nice broth to warm up & pour over their kibble!

If you don't have a grinder, you can chop it, either raw or cooked, in the food processor. It'll be easier if you put it in the freezer until it's partially frozen first. Or you can chop it by hand. If you're chopping by hand, again you'll want to either partially freeze or cook it. And if you don't have a dehydrator, you can use the oven, on the lowest possible setting. Either way, once it's dried and put into jars, it'll stay good at room temperature for quite a while. This is a great use for recycled jars -- I use the ones mayonnaise comes in, but any clean jar with a lid will do. If the meat has a relatively high fat content, like pork, you might want to store it in the fridge or freezer for a longer shelf life.

When you're ready to use it, you can either rehydrate it (equal parts meat & warm water) or use it as is -- but don't forget it's concentrated! You can also do as my husband did, and add some dried carrots or other veggies, for a little extra nutrition -- dogs are omnivores & a well-rounded diet is as good for them as it is for us -- but there are a number of things they shouldn't have, onions and garlic among others, so please check with your vet or other reliable source first. Either way, your animal friends will love it!! Read more!

Canning Raw-Packed vs Cooked Meat

Though no matter what method you choose you should always follow approved recipes and guidelines (and it goes without saying that meat must always be pressure-canned), after experimenting with both, I have come to the conclusion that I actually prefer to can cooked meat. Raw-packing is quicker and easier, but the end product has a flavor and odor to it that I don't care for (I've noticed this in tuna and other commercially canned meats, as well). And unless you are willing to take the time to re-cook it with seasonings of some sort, you'll end up eating a lot of plain meat. So from here on, I'll reserve that method for ham, and use the hot pack method for everything else.

Hot-packing actually allows for greater flexibility, because you cook the meat, then add hot liquid, and so can put up everything from plain meat to soup to stock. (Again, you should use recipes that have been approved. There are quite a number of recipes available online, which may or may not have been tested -- you'll want to use your best judgement on these.) The Ball "Complete Book of Home Preserving" has some good recipes to try. I picked up a load of pork cushion steak at a bargain, and so am looking forward to trying out a couple of the recipes. So my goal now is to put up things like chili and spaghetti sauce, that I can use to build a meal around later. The Ball chili recipe says you can alter the spices, so I might modify it slightly to make sloppy joes, as well.

Either way, raw packing or hot, it is very satisfying to be able to put together a supply of food, at a very reasonable cost, that will sustain us now and in the future -- and canned meat, in whatever guise, is definitely a part of that! Read more!

Continuous Links in the "Food Chain"

There is something bone-deep, soul-satisfying about "putting up" one's own food. (And this is especially true when that food is locally grown, by folks one has actually had the opportunity to meet.) At the counter stemming strawberries, out on the back porch cracking walnuts, at the stove stirring jam, I feel a deep connection with my unseen female forebears, who spent a good bit of their time in this way. Although I never canned with her, I can almost hear my grandmother's voice talking about the quality of the peach crop this year. Tasting a batch of apricot jam (though jelly was her specialty), I'm sure it's my mother's voice gently suggesting that it could maybe be a little sweeter... In my grandmother's day, putting up food was a matter of survival. Less so in my mother's. Ironically, things may be swinging back -- I put my time and energy into this because, among other things, I want to make sure the people I love will have something to eat in case of unforeseen disaster. I insist that it be the best quality possible. And I need to do it as economically as feasible.

So I scout around for the freshest produce, the best deals on meat... I spend quiet, contemplative hours peeling, blanching, slicing, stirring, canning... And I open up my pantry and see, with no small sense of satisfaction, jars and jars of meat, pickles, jam, fruit, soup... Other cupboards hold dried fruits, veggies, nuts, cheese. I've even learned to bake bread in quantity in jars, putting sterilized lids on when I take them out of the oven, so they can be stored long-term on the pantry shelf. I am buying things in bulk and packing them into smaller quantities, so, though I've always tried to be pretty careful, we are wasting even less than we ever did before. And what we are eating is of even higher quality, and at a significantly lower cost, than ever before. Extremely satisfying!

And I am enjoying the continuity -- no doubt my great-grandmother canned, as my grandmother did, and so, to a lesser degree, did my mother. So taking direct responsibility for the food that will sustain my family is just the next link in the chain.

So I am at the point now where I am looking to "fill in the holes". The sense of urgency to accumulate food for our survival is waning, giving way to a determination to "round out" our food storage with whatever we luck into. So I'm cultivating relationships with farmers and produce vendors. And, this being the beginning of the season, I'm looking forward to lots of new adventures!! Read more!

Cherries, Walnuts and a Different Breed of Cat

10:45 pm on Friday night. Twenty-five pounds of cherries in the fridge, awaiting their final fate -- jam, pie filling, or simply canned in a light syrup, ready for whatever inspiration might strike. In whatever form, we will be able to enjoy them some cold, foggy day in the not-too-distant future. I called the cherry farmer yesterday, and picked them up from him after work last night. Not quite as ripe as last year, but still very nice. Gave him a jar of strawberry jam, and was asked, for the second time in a week, if I make it to sell. I don't of course, but it is an intriguing thought... Of course, there are rules, and regulations, and requirements... Have encouraged the cherry farmer to participate in our local farmers market; he may, when his apples come in. We plan to stay in touch -- so I can buy some very fresh, locally grown apples to put up, and he can decide if the farmers market will make sense for him.

Fifteen pounds of unshelled walnuts in the freezer. That was an unscheduled event -- took a different route and saw a sign in front of a farmhouse. Walnut harvest was months ago, but I stopped anyway. Maybe driven by a weakness for buying things directly from the farmers who raise them, maybe because buying that directly (and in quantity) often leads to deals one would never find anywhere else, maybe just because knowing where and from whom things come adds another dimension to the enjoyment of things "at table". In any case, I stopped to inquire.

Knocked on the door, rang the bell, knocked again. Could hear a tv loud & clear, so knew someone must be about. A tiny little old lady finally answered, shouting through the door, "Who is it?". I inquired about the walnuts. She opened the door, and ran through the shelled, per-pound prices ($5 per pound for halves, $4.50 for quarters, $4 for pieces). Having just come from the cherry farmer, and having left a good part of my grocery money with him, I hesitated. Whereupon she offered me nuts in the shell, at 45 cents a pound. I didn't know what the yield would be, but even with all the waste in the shell, it seemed to me it still had to be a whole lot cheaper than the shelled nuts. And DH has been asking me to get some nuts for awhile, so I figured I might be able to sweet talk him into helping shell them. So the little lady & I bagged up twenty pounds, for which I paid all of $9.00, and I went on my way.

(As it turns out, you get about half a pound of nuts for every pound in the shell. I know this because I started with 5# unshelled, and ended up with about 2-1/2# of nut meats, which are now vacuum packed in quart mason jars in my pantry. So I'll end up with 10 pounds of walnut meats, for which I paid $9.00. Excellent deal, and I don't think it'll take me as long as I was afraid it would to shell them. In fact, I found it almost meditative...)

It may be the latest culinary trend, but buying directly from farmers, on the same plot of land where the food was raised, is not a new experience for me. When I was a little girl, my mother would find someone who had pomegranates, for example, and pack the three of us kids into the car. We would help pick them, and later, wearing old clothes, would help her prepare them for a batch of jelly. I remember carefully picking blackberries from their prickly vines, as well as raking up nuts as my father knocked them down with a long pole. The pecans were my favorite -- once I ate so many of them, it was years before I could even look at them again.

So now, forty years later, I am again cultivating relationships with the folks who grow things. That is, after all, part of the beauty of living in an area where a lot of food is grown. I am gradually learning about the different varieties of the various fruits, vegetables and nuts that we enjoy, and their harvest times, and how they are affected by various growing conditions.

And I am learning about the folks who make their living so directly from the land. They are an interesting breed, and there is a kernel of jealousy in me -- these are people whose lives are, quite literally, rooted in the land, usually possessed of a pragmatism that extends from the earth through their interactions with the folks who buy what they raise. Some of them farm because it's their heritage. Others are drawn to it, whether by temperament or default. But either way, I think it gets into their blood, and the hours, days, months, and on into the endless flow of the seasons, spent alone with the land (well, maybe with a dog or two), whether on a tractor or with an implement in hand, leave a permanent mark on the soul. Or maybe it's a soul already so marked who is drawn to working with the land. (I'm speaking here of the small-plot folks, although you sometimes find these guys running big operations, too.) In either case, these folks who make their living off the land are a different breed, and one I'm enjoying getting to know. Read more!

The Joys of Jar Bread

This jar bread business is a great discovery!! It's very easy to do, but you might want to consider substituting unflavored gelatin for eggs, if your recipe calls for them. (see "everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com for more information.) You just make your recipe, divide it into an appropriate number of clean, greased, straight-sided canning jars (pints, usually, but half-pints and quarts can also be used), and bake as usual. Take the jars out of the oven and put the sterilized lids and rings on one at a time. (I had to cut the tops off two of my loaves, but that's probably because I added dried fruit & so increased the volume.) As they cool, the lids will form a vacuum seal and "plink" down. The beauty is that these baked goods can be stored on the shelf -- no refrigeration needed! From the research I've done, it could be as little as a few days or weeks, and up to a year. (Google "jar bread" for more information.) If you're planning to store your baked goods long-term, I would definitely consider substituting gelatin for the eggs.

This method has several benefits to be enjoyed now: I can bake a good bit of bread whenever I have time & am inclined, and store it until I need it; it will stay fresher because it's stored in something besides a loose ziplock bag (you can never get all the air out), I can re-seal it each time I use it (using the cannister setting on my FoodSaver); it doesn't have to take up a lot of room in the fridge or freezer; and finally, there are only 2 of us, so the smaller loaves mean the bread will be much fresher whenever we're inclined to open it up & use it.

And, as Sister DeWitt points out in her excellent video, in more challenging times, things can be baked in a solar oven on clear, sunny days, and stored until they're needed -- even without refrigeration. Come to think of it, that's a good idea whether we have electricity or not -- nice alternative to heating up the kitchen (and using all that energy) in the middle of summer!!

So whether times are challenging or not, with a little advance preparation, we will always have fresh, homemade bread, as well as pre-cooked meat, on hand, and ready to put together a quick meal at a moment's notice! Read more!

Building our Food Storage, Making Jar Bread

I've been working very hard on our food storage, making it a point to build in variety and work with whatever comes my way. I watch the Wednesday ads for inexpensive meat ($.49/lb for chicken leg quarters has been the best deal so far), and am cultivating relationships with small, local produce farmers and/or vendors. I have a source for grains at reasonable rates, and have been dehydrating dairy products since I started working on this. (And I've managed to can & dehydrate a supply of meat & cottage cheese for our animal friends, as part of this adventure.) My goal is to accumulate a well-balanced food supply that we can rotate naturally (except maybe the freeze-dried fruits & veggies) because it consists of things we enjoy.

What I didn't expect was the positive effect all of this has had on the way I feed us now. I've always been pretty careful with both the quality and cost of what we eat. But the impact of having jars of healthy, homemade food ready to pop open at a moment's notice has been amazing. And not only that, but I'm actually enjoying more treats, because I have canned fruit ready to enjoy either out of the jar or as part of something fun. It is so satisfying to be learning to be more self-reliant!! I wish everyone was willing and able to "take charge" of their food. We'd all be happier and healthier!

I tried making "jar bread" tonight. You make the bread dough (or muffins, or brownies, or whatever) and let it rise for the final time in greased (shortening only), straight-sided pint jars. Pop on a sterilized lid as soon as it comes out of the oven and wait for the "plink". Baked goods prepared this way can be stored for several weeks at room temperature. A one-loaf bread recipe (3 cups of flour) made 4 pint jars. I did have to cut off the tops of 3 of them, and I only heard one lid snap down, so we'll see... I also tend to be a lot more sensitive to food that's a little "tired" than most people, so we'll see how this works for me. I guess I'm gearing up for trying one of my solar ovens, because cooking in mason jars is ideal in a solar oven. I do still need to finish assembling them, but once I do, they should be fun to learn to use!! Read more!

Taking Charge of our Food Storage

When I decided to invest in a pressure canner, I knew it would save us money while improving the quality of our food storage. (My goal is to build up a certain amount of food in case of some unforeseen emergency.) But I had no idea how smart an investment it would be for now. Not only is it allowing us to build up a supply of meat, soup and other things that would be expensive to buy already canned (and quickly!!), but I am able to buy things and can them in such quantity that I'm very comfortable using them now.

In fact, that's actually even better -- rotation is an important part of a good food storage plan, and because the foods I'm storing are both easy to use and appealing, that rotation is occurring naturally. (I should also note here that, as I'm new to all of this, I was a little hesitant to use what I've canned, at first. But as I've done research and asked questions, and made sure I followed the correct procedures, I've become a lot more comfortable, and am no longer concerned. As long as we check each jar to be sure it was well sealed, and that there's no visible sign of spoilage, I'm comfortable.)

And it has been very satisfying to accumulate things based on what's on sale and/or in season. Not only are we getting the freshest, best quality meat & produce, we are naturally building up a variety of things. For example, while I was waiting for produce season to begin, I watched the weekly ads for deals on meat (which must be pressure canned, of course -- always follow approved recipes and guidelines). We don't eat a lot of meat, but it's usually pork or chicken, when we do. So whenever either of these was advertised at less than $1 a pound, I scooped up a good bit & canned it. I was raw-packing at first, but have since decided that I prefer to cook it first, for two reasons: 1) Raw-packed meat seems to have a flavor and odor that I don't care for, and 2) Meat that's cooked before canning can be canned in many more guises (sloppy joes, chili, chicken soup, etc.), allowing for more convenience, as well as variety.

We're lucky enough to have access to strawberries much of the year, and I've been sharing and storing strawberry jam for several months. When the local produce season finally began, I bought cherries and canned them in various ways (pie filling, jam, etc.). Next came apricots, and the pickling cucumbers have begun to bear in earnest. Peaches should be next, as well as apples...

I've been trying to figure out just how much money we're saving, but it's difficult. But I do know this: We're spending about 30% less on groceries, but those dollars we're spending are feeding us now as well as allowing us to accumulate food for the future. Very satisfying, indeed! Read more!

The Joys of Early Summer Produce

12:20 pm on a beautiful early summer day. As I was rinsing off cherry tomatoes (from the farmers market -- ours have not yet begun to bear), it occurred to me how fortunate I am to live in the Central Valley of California, where spring -- and the fresh produce that comes with it -- comes early. There is a small colander of freshly rinsed early cherries, along with a large bunch of grapes, draining in the sink. The grapes are imported, and the cherries are by no means as nice as the bings that will come later in the season, but still, they are to be enjoyed for the sake of variety, and as harbingers of even lovelier things to come. Fortunate to live in the Central Valley, indeed.

The pressure canner is chattering away, full of pints of pork (tri-tip, purchased for $.99 / pound at a local market). Unlike the tomatoes, cherries and grapes which we will enjoy fresh over the next few days, these are destined for our food storage. Some of the ladies at church think I'm crazy (or maybe overachieving) to actually can meat. But these are uncertain times indeed, and I find great peace of mind in the sight of those bottles of pure protein, put into a stasis of sorts, against a time of need.

We have also been accumulating a variety of other things -- homemade jams (very easy to make), home-canned tomato sauce and pickles, and various other staples, either home-canned or purchased already preserved, or dehydrated (just replaced my old, blocky Excalibur with a sleek new Nesco) . It is very satisfying to see things adding up so quickly. It has been a lot of work, but definitely worth it.

And there are other benefits to all of this. We're eating even better now, and will continue to in the future, than we did before. Because of food sensitivities, I've always prepared most of what we eat myself. But lately I've begun preserving a wider variety of things, which, of course, expands what we're eating (and storing). The icing on the cake is the dramatic impact on our grocery bill -- we're spending at least 30% less than we did before, even while making significant (and rapid) progress on accumulating items for our food storage. Part of this is because I've learned better places to shop (from the food vendors' stalls to discount grocery outlets). But buying in bulk, then preserving a good portion (either by drying or canning) packs the double punch of saving money now and adding to our stock for the future.

Another benefit, the significance of which cannot be overstated, is that we always have something high quality and interesting on hand to eat, at a moment's notice. So we almost never resort to fast food. It's hard to put a dollar value on that, but it's certainly a plus, and is in turn leaving us even more able to accumulate things for our food storage.

Equally positive is the impact on my ability to be creative in the kitchen. The benefits of this are evident from what I store and how I store it (Carrot Cake Jam, anyone?!) through how I put a meal -- or snack -- together. Having a wider variety of things around has freed me up to experiment a little more, combining things I probably wouldn't have otherwise, or making things (like cherry ice cream) for which I might not otherwise have ingredients on hand.

Finally, it's lovely to be able to hand someone a jar of homemade jam or pickles. It's a little thing, but it can count for a lot in the currency of human relationships.

But I realized today I that been guilty of an inadvertent slight, involving a jar of the aforementioned jam. I have lately been frequenting the stall of a local fruit and vegetable seller. (I try to split my produce patronage between his stand, the local strawberry farmer and the farmers market, supplemented with a few things from Costco.) I recently left a jar of "jalea de fresas" (strawberry jam -- frequenting this stand gives me a good chance to improve my Spanish) with the man who works for the owner of the stand, requesting that he pass it along. But I have not shared anything with the man himself, with whom I bargain for produce every week. So, next time I go, I will take a jar of "jalea" for him. That should help repay the debt a bit.

5/11/09

I was able to set this right today. I bought some overripe strawberries from the fruit vendor, and gave him a bottle of jam for him to pass along to his hired hand. I feel better about that -- especially when I learned that the fruit vendor sold me the berries at a loss. But he'd probably end up tossing them otherwise, and I can usually help him find homes for at least a couple of cases -- four, today. (A lot of strawberry jam will be brought into the world in the next couple of days!!) Still, I'll make it a point to pass something along whenever it feels right. Read more!

Things are Coming Together

I've worked very hard for the past couple of months, and now we're really enjoying the benefits!! In addition to being able to throw together dinner in a flash after work, one of my goals was to be able to pick up a few fresh (preferably locally grown) things and put together a nice meal. Today, I picked up a couple of bunches of Swiss chard at the farmer's market, as well as some overripe strawberries (for jam) from a local fruit vendor. I had in mind steaming the greens, and serving them tossed with some bacon. Then I remembered that I had a couple of jars of ham in the fridge, which I put there because they didn't bubble enthusiastically like the others did when I took them out of the canner. Put them into cold storage, just to be on the safe side, and want to use them sooner than later... So, instead of having to thaw bacon, and fry it crisp, and crumble it, I can just steam the greens and add the ham. Add to that the salad that I made last night, along with the leftover garlic mashed potatoes, and dinner's ready. Lovely!!

(We've just put in a garden, and one day, I'll be bringing things in from my own backyard, as well as bringing things home from the local produce vendors and the farmer's market. We're both really looking forward to that!!)

The ladies at the Cooperative Extension today weren't too sure about my raw-packed meat. But they finally agreed that, if I followed correct procedures, any "bad bugs" should pretty much be done in. However, in their opinion, shelf life could be an issue. This is because raw-packed meat doesn't make much juice, so you end up with a lot of headspace (and "naked" meat sticking up into it). I'm planning to continually be using and replacing (as well as adding to) my supply of canned meat (and beans), so I'm not terribly worried about this. I prefer raw-packing because the meat doesn't get cooked into mush. The idea of cooking meat, then cooking it again under pressure, just seems to me a waste of time and energy -- and food value. So, except for what I'm canning for my dogs (if it's anything with bones), I think I'll continue to raw pack. (A lot more meat fits in a jar, if it's cooked & pulled off the bone, and they won't care if it's been cooked twice.) From all the research I've done, raw packing is safe if done correctly. And why did I go to all the trouble to invest in a pressure canner, and learn how to use it, if not to be able to can whatever I want to, in the way I believe will best preserve the quality of the food?! With something like this, you have to learn all you can, go through the process with appropriate care, and then know that you've done your best, so the chances of something untoward happening are pretty small. Not impossible, maybe, but pretty small. (Come to think of it, that applies to pretty much everything in life!)

Still, it would really have been nice to have my grandmother (who pressure canned salmon, among other things) at my elbow while I've been learning to do this, but that wasn't possible. So I did the next best thing -- read everything I could get my hands on, then jumped in, with appropriate caution. You can't let fear hold you back, or you get stuck. (There's another life principle, and one I'm grateful to my husband for helping me learn!!)

And the upshot of all of this is that I now have a pantry full of all kinds of interesting things, which I've created and assembled while trimming our grocery bill by 30%. And we never run out to grab something quick because there's "nothing in the house" -- I can bring home a few things (or grab something out of the fridge), open a jar or two, and have a meal on the table in minutes flat! Read more!

Canning Cherries & Stuff

Finally figured out how to can the cherries that have been languishing in the freezer since last year. They were some of the best we've ever had -- I made sure to get the farmer's name & cell number. Young guy, but he sure seems to know what he's doing! We almost missed out -- flew over to meet him in the next town after work one afternoon, and bought all that he had left. And they were so good, I've been "saving them" for something special. Did use some for homemade ice cream a while back, which they really made sing! But they've been in there long enough that I knew I'd better do something with them, or I'd end up having to toss them -- which would be a real shame! It's been in the back of my mind for a while, and when I was looking through the Ball book tonight, I came across a recipe. Didn't end up using it, exactly, because I didn't have almond extract, but it freed me up. So I made a syrup of honey & water, added a tiny bit of raspberry flavoring (to "goose" the cherry flavor a little, just for fun), and a couple teaspoons of natural cherry flavoring. Came out pretty good, though I think I'll leave the raspberry out next time, just for fun. Ended up with 5 pints of cherries & juice, and 2 half-pints of just juice. (Couldn't bring myself to pour it down the drain -- I'll find a use for it, eventually.) Thickened up a little, they'll make a nice topping for cheesecake, or filling for anything baked. It's lovely to finally start getting the full benefit from the time I've spent learning to can!! I still can't decide if I'm more pleased with the variety of things I'm able to put into our food storage, or the quality of the food we're now able to store, or how little is going to waste around here these days, or the money we're saving on groceries (and eating out, when it's not convenient to cook), or the convenience of having really good stuff ready to throw together in a few minutes' time... In any case, I know this is something I'll be doing for the rest of my life!! Read more!

Canning Creatively

I'm finally able to get creative with canning!! When I first learned this art, I knew there was a whole world of cool things waiting for me to explore. But I got as far as pickles, tomatoes and salsa, and got stuck. When I started using my new pressure canner, I realized that it was time to add a good canning book to my reference library. Boy, am I glad I did!!! The "Ball Complete Guide to Home Preserving", has opened up LOTS of new possibilities. That, and the food acidity list I found online (don't remember exactly where I found it, but it's from the FDA, Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition). It's a 6-page list called the "Bad Bug Book: Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook".

Having "the Ball Book" handy has already helped me a lot -- the recipes are amazing!! It has a jam recipe that calls for both high- and low-acid ingredients ("Carrot Cake Jam", page 39). But I don't especially care for pineapple, at least not in carrot cake, and wanted to leave it out. So I looked on the acidity list, and selected another high-acid fruit -- raisins. Lovely recipe -- the house smells like Christmas!! I also had to adapt it -- like almost all of the jam / jelly recipes, it calls for sugar -- which I can't tolerate at all. So I converted it to honey, but ended up using 'way less than the converted recipe called for. Good thing the jars are sealed -- or I'd probably have a hard time keeping my husband out of it!!

I'm planning to try some of the sauces and other condiments in the book, as I come across the ingredients for them. That's the approach I'm using -- buy whatever's on sale (or, reasonably priced and interesting or unusual), and find a way to fit it into my food storage. For example, one of the local stores has chicken leg quarters on sale right now for $.49 a pound. Over the past three days, I've bought & canned 40 pounds. Our dogs will appreciate it -- and it's cheaper, and better for them, than the canned dog food we often mix with their dry. Another local store had ham for $.88 a pound, so I have a load of pints in the pressure canner now. (I just did 21 pints last weekend, but I'm making it a point to take advantage of sales -- anything under $1.00/pound is fair game.) Last night we had some of the ham I canned last weekend, and it was excellent. Very nice, after a long day, to throw together some instant garlic mashed potatoes, steam some veggies & warm up a jar of ham. Put it right into the microwave, and we ate it right out of the jar -- no extra dish to wash! And, if & when we ever do have to live on our food storage, I'll be able to pop a jar of it into the solar oven (assuming it's a sunny day) to warm it up.

I'm trying to go about this canning (and food storage) business in an organized way, and so recently spent a little time putting the ingredients & quantities for the things I want to try into my Palm. That way, if I come across a good deal on plums, for example, I can get them, along with the other ingredients I need for Plum Sauce.

It is incredible, and extremely satisfying, to have the ability to accomplish whatever I want to, in the kitchen. And I can finally try new & unusual things, which is expanding our food storage options -- both for now and the future. In fact, a wonderful side benefit of all the food storage work I've been doing is that we're eating even better now! And not only do I always have more (and more interesting) things available, we almost never end up running out to buy a meal because there isn't anything in the house that's quick & easy to throw together -- so we're saving money all the way around!!

Now, if I could just figure out how to add about a half-dozen hours to the day... Read more!

Saving Lots of $$$ & Making Real Progress!!!

Spending Less, Saving More (Food)

I've always considered myself to be a pretty frugal shopper, and thought I was getting the biggest "bang" for our food "buck". But over the past several months, I've learned some new tricks. Tonight I took a minute to do some quick math, and realized that I'm spending at least 30% less than I used to on groceries. Not only that, but I'm actually building up our food storage much faster than I ever have before.

A lot of this has to do with learning even better places to find food bargains. The other factor, and it's huge, is having the equipment necessary to prepare what I'm buying for long-term storage. In fact, I'm sort of amazed at the impact that having, and learning to use, the various food storage equipment I've accumulated has made on the cost, and quality, of what I feed my family.

A great example: Today, I bought 10# of chicken leg quarters at $.49 per pound (with bones & skin). Brought it home, raw-packed it into quart jars, and will use it to "jazz up" the dry food my two dogs (and cat) get, at some point in the future. Each jar has two leg quarters (drumsticks & thighs), so I figure they're good for at least a meal, if not two, each. That works out to $.70 per jar ($.35 per meal, if we get two from them), plus a few cents for the gas to run the pressure canner, although I would have had to use some gas to cook it, whether I canned it or not. Compared to the $1.00 per can you pay in the store for dog food (if you buy it on sale), and keeping in mind all the preservatives, fillers & other junk in that can, this ends up being a real bargain -- even with the skin & bones. And although they don't get the bones, they certainly don't mind the skin, or anything else that comes along with it!

The Ball Book

Bought the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving recently, and sat down with it & immediately marked a bunch of recipes. I wish I'd bought this book years ago!!! Not only does it give some excellent basic canning info, it has terrific recipes!!! Anyone who's working on their food storage, and does any canning at all, will be interested in this information. I am especially intrigued by the various sauce and condiment recipes -- a selection of these would certainly be an excellent way to enhance and add variety to the items folks normally store! I've also been looking for a way around buying those expensive little yogurt cups (although they're awfully convenient), and the fruit sauces & syrups look like they'll be just the thing! I'll have to adjust the recipes a little, though -- I can't tolerate white or brown sugar (or molasses) at all, and most of the recipes call for it. Fortunately, this is something I've done a bit of, and so am confident that I'll be able to obtain acceptable results.

I am extremely pleased with the progress I'm making, and the things I'm learning. I'm looking forward to continuing to learn new things, saving money, and expanding my food storage horizons, for some time to come! Read more!

Ok, so I've learned to pressure can, and now have a stock of various kinds of meat in pint jars. I've expanded my food storage options in a lot of other ways, as well. Which is all wonderful -- except that it means I need to re-think my whole approach to our food storage. Because I originally designed it with things already available in mind, many of the things on the list have changed. That's actually a good thing, because it means we're saving A LOT of money -- and getting better quality food in the process. I had several cases of Spam on the list, for example, which sells for about $17 for a case of 8 (12-ounce cans) at Costco. I just canned 21 pints of shank-cut ham for a little over $1 each -- a savings of about $1.80 per pound. So I'm loving the cost savings, as well as the increased VARIETY, but it's causing me to reorganize my whole approach.

So now I need to redo my spreadsheet. That'll take some time, but it will certainly be worth it, because the quality of my food storage is so much better -- much more variety, and far less cost. And instead of basing it on what I can find already prepared and ready to store, I'm starting with whatever's on sale. My rule: Any meat on sale for $1.00 a pound or less is a candidate. So, instead of deciding what to buy & budgeting out when to purchase it, I'm picking up main dish items (meat, pasta, legumes) and building around them. Which means that I'll be adjusting my spreadsheet pretty frequently -- but I'll trade that for the variety, quality and cost savings, any day!

So far, I've been working pretty steadily (and, as my husband has patiently pointed out, single-mindedly) toward my food storage goal. At this point, I've accumulated a good number of pints of meat, as well as some grain, veggies and other stuff, so I feel I can relax a bit. So now my goal is to do one thing each week toward getting our food storage in order. My plan, then, is to watch the sales (whether on meat, fruit, veggies, paper goods...), and pick things up accordingly. This should allow me to move forward, picking up a reasonably balanced selection of things, and still have time to do the rest of life! Read more!

Marinated Mushrooms

Lucked into some mushrooms at a great price yesterday. Found a good recipe (on Recipezaar, I believe -- "Laurel's Marinated Mushrooms (Easy Canning)" for marinating & canning them in a water bath, like pickles -- which they basically are. It was good to use the water-bath canner, for a change. I've done so much pressure canning lately (just finished canning 21 pints of ham) that it's a good refresher. The recipe indicates it makes 12 - 15 half-pints, but I ended up with way too many mushrooms prepped. So I'll have to can the rest of them tomorrow. I'll probably end up with close to a couple dozen, which is fine with me -- they'll make great gifts!

I have to admit that I did modify the recipe a little, though. It calls for miniature mushrooms, no larger than 1-1/4 inches, with the stems trimmed even with the bottom. Well, I didn't have tiny mushrooms, and I just can't bring myself to toss out perfectly good food -- and I knew I'd never find a use for just the stems -- so I quartered what I had. As it turned out, 1 pound will fill 3 half-pint jars.

I'm a little surprised at how little I'm spending on groceries, these days. Guess buying in bulk (and at the super-duper discount places) really does make a difference. I have had to invest in quite a few canning jars, and will need to buy more, but that's ok -- as long as we don't drop them, they can be used over & over.

Had a magnificent flop tonight. I realized this a.m. that I still had the last 7 or so pounds of a 25# bag of carrots languishing in the bottom of the fridge (already dehydrated the rest). Went online, looking for a candied carrot recipe for canning. (Found one -- carrots, a little fresh or frozen fruit juice -- it also called for butter, although that's controversial.) In the process, I ran across a glazed carrot recipe that called for vanilla. That caused me to "shift gears", and think about something to dehydrate. I tried to make a carrot-applesauce-yogurt "chew" (like fruit leather), but inadvertently used an ingredient that had gone rancid. Just about curl your hair! So I tossed that, and ended up making fruit leather with applesauce and yogurt (1:1 ratio). Put some coconut extract & a little honey in, just for fun. Sure smells better than the mushrooms I dehydrated earlier (my husband asked if I was dehydrating liver for the dogs again...). If that works out, I may try it again later, adding some carrots, just for fun. Read more!

Canning Ham, Dehydrating Sour Cream, Freezing Garlic

Bought some ham on super-duper special; the second batch is in the pressure canner now. It's true that it doesn't make much liquid, but I'm going to take Wendy DeWitt's advice & not worry about it. I'm very pleased to be able to add it to our food storage -- it'll be a nice way to break things up a bit, if & when we ever need to rely on it.

I've been dehydrating cottage cheese for some time now (see earlier post), and have recently started to dry sour cream, as well. You can buy it already powdered, but I'd rather do it myself. Saves the shipping charges, and I prefer not to pay for preservatives or other junk. (I prefer the regular, but you can dry low-fat, as well.) It's not hard to do, but there's an extra step, once the sour cream is dried. Like cottage cheese, it's easiest to deal with if you put it by the spoonful onto the mesh drying trays. (You can oil the trays, or use PAM, to make it come off easier, but it's not absolutely necessary). I don't use the leather trays under the mesh (except the bottom one) because it slows the drying down, but you can if you want to. Try to make each "lump" about the same size, and spread them out as evenly as you can, so that they'll dry evenly. Like cottage cheese, about 3/8" thick seems to work pretty well. Once it's dry, take it off the trays & put it into the freezer. When it's frozen, break it up and put it into a regular-mouth, half-pint canning jar (if your blender accepts them), and blend until powdered, or use the regular blender jar, or a food processor. Of course, you can use this freezing technique with other things that don't powder readily. (I suspect you could also get a finer grind on things like carrots and celery this way, but I haven't tried it.)

This doesn't happen to me often, but I actually ran out of fresh garlic recently. So I bought the industrial-sized container of peeled garlic yesterday at Costco. I'm going to mince it in the food processor (with a little oil mixed in to make it easier to work with later, but you can skip that if you prefer). I learned recently that you can freeze it in little "logs", and break off little clove-sized pieces when you need it. Shouldn't run out of garlic again for quite a while!!

Everything I'm doing has or will ultimately save us money, and I'm extremely grateful for that. I'm saving money now on meat and other perishables because I can stock up when they're on sale, I'm saving money by making sure fewer things go to waste, and I'm saving money (and making my life easier) by pretty much always having what I need on hand for whatever I'm in the mood to cook. I'm also finding that I'm not cooking the same old things out of habit, because I have a greater variety of things on hand & ready to use, and we're both enjoying that!!

I'm very grateful for the opportunity to build up our food storage. And I can't decide which I like better -- the adventure of learning all these new things, the satisfaction of seeing the results of my efforts adding up so quickly, or the money we're saving!! Any way I look at it, I really do feel blessed!!

Note: I added the word "pressure" in front of "canner" above. Even though the banner at the top of the blog reminds the reader that meat must always be pressure canned, I wanted to emphasize that fact and so added this clarification. Read more!