I can't work on my art when you look over my shoulder, Mom!
Charlie achieved his goal of getting more chalk on his hands than he did on the brick!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Sustainable Entertainment
The other day I had to stop what I was doing - and it probably involved making some sort of food - to take some photos of the kids. I love how creative they get out here. Sustainable entertainment!
I can't work on my art when you look over my shoulder, Mom!
Charlie achieved his goal of getting more chalk on his hands than he did on the brick!
I can't work on my art when you look over my shoulder, Mom!
Charlie achieved his goal of getting more chalk on his hands than he did on the brick!
Yes, I CAN!
Say it with me: "Canning is fun. Canning is easy. Yes, I CAN!" For those of you who are new to canning or have never canned before, I wanted to share some canning tips I've found by trial and sometimes, error. I'm not going to run through the whole process, because the Pick Your Own website already does that, and I don't want to reinvent the wheel. So here we go...
1. Heat your jars gradually when you sterilize them and keep them hot until you're ready to pack them. This will avoid breakage. You can sterilize jars either by boiling them for 10 minutes or running them through the sterilize cycle in the dishwasher. With the dishwasher, you'll need to time it so you're ready to pack the food while it's on heated dry.
2. Wipe the rims before you place the lids on the jars in order to ensure a proper seal.
3. When packing tomatoes, use a spatula to gently push them down toward the bottom of the jar. You'll be able to pack more in that way.
4. When making jams and jellies, Pomona's Universal Pectin is more economical and requires less sugar than the Surejell, etc. It can be ordered online through Amazon or sometimes found in country stores. No, I don't mean Cracker Barrel. Most of that stuff was probably made in China.
5. I boil the rims, too, when I sterilize the jars, but the lids should not be boiled. I wash them and then place them in the hot water I've boiled the jars in. Leave the lids in the hot water for a few minutes; this will soften the sealant a bit.
6. I have packed fruit with the skins on (though I don't recommend that for peaches because of the texture) and without ascorbic acid. The fruit gets a bit discolored, but this doesn't bother me and I was in a hurry the first time I tried it and got tired of searching for ascorbic acid.
7. You know those packs they sell for around $8 that include a funnel, tongs, magnet, etc? Buy it. It's worth its weight in gold and you'll eventually recoup the cost because you won't be using as many bandaids to covers the burns you get from trying to fish lids out of hot water.
8. Be sure to check the altitude chart before you time how long the packed jars will be in the canner. Processing time increases with altitude.
9. Boiling water canning versus pressure canning: Pressure canning is a newer process that brings the temp of the food up to 220 degrees, I believe. The USDA claims it lessens the problem of botulism. Well, the USDA says a lot of things and is more paranoid than Howard Hughes. Boiling water canning is fine, and ironically, some things - such as jams, jellies, applebutter - cannot be pressure canned because the "food quality would be unacceptable." Huh. Go figure. I pressure can my quart jars because my canner is too small to use that size jar with the boiling water method, as there needs to be 1" of water above the top of the can. Seriously, either way is most likely going to be fine. The chances of getting sick from restaurant food are probably greater than getting sick from home cooked food. And I don't know about you, but I don't have an industrial kitchen. We've never gotten sick from anything I've made.
10. Plan out your canning session, and get some help the first time if possible. Like good theatre, it's all in the timing.
Be encouraged! Here are some photos of canning amidst the chaos...
My friend Jen scored some awesome tomatoes at a farmer's market and hooked me up with some. These are just a few of them because I forgot to take photos before I started canning!
Army of cans. The tomatoes on the front line are homeless at the moment. Behind are pears, pear butter, and pear jam. I'm not a pear fanatic, though I do like them. We just happen to have a couple prolific trees.
More pears and pear sauce. We're going to be peared out this winter.
Pear stuff, strawberry jam, and wild cherry jam. And that little jar front and center on the bottom shelf that looks like it's filled with liquid gold? Maple syrup we made last winter. More on that later.
1. Heat your jars gradually when you sterilize them and keep them hot until you're ready to pack them. This will avoid breakage. You can sterilize jars either by boiling them for 10 minutes or running them through the sterilize cycle in the dishwasher. With the dishwasher, you'll need to time it so you're ready to pack the food while it's on heated dry.
2. Wipe the rims before you place the lids on the jars in order to ensure a proper seal.
3. When packing tomatoes, use a spatula to gently push them down toward the bottom of the jar. You'll be able to pack more in that way.
4. When making jams and jellies, Pomona's Universal Pectin is more economical and requires less sugar than the Surejell, etc. It can be ordered online through Amazon or sometimes found in country stores. No, I don't mean Cracker Barrel. Most of that stuff was probably made in China.
5. I boil the rims, too, when I sterilize the jars, but the lids should not be boiled. I wash them and then place them in the hot water I've boiled the jars in. Leave the lids in the hot water for a few minutes; this will soften the sealant a bit.
6. I have packed fruit with the skins on (though I don't recommend that for peaches because of the texture) and without ascorbic acid. The fruit gets a bit discolored, but this doesn't bother me and I was in a hurry the first time I tried it and got tired of searching for ascorbic acid.
7. You know those packs they sell for around $8 that include a funnel, tongs, magnet, etc? Buy it. It's worth its weight in gold and you'll eventually recoup the cost because you won't be using as many bandaids to covers the burns you get from trying to fish lids out of hot water.
8. Be sure to check the altitude chart before you time how long the packed jars will be in the canner. Processing time increases with altitude.
9. Boiling water canning versus pressure canning: Pressure canning is a newer process that brings the temp of the food up to 220 degrees, I believe. The USDA claims it lessens the problem of botulism. Well, the USDA says a lot of things and is more paranoid than Howard Hughes. Boiling water canning is fine, and ironically, some things - such as jams, jellies, applebutter - cannot be pressure canned because the "food quality would be unacceptable." Huh. Go figure. I pressure can my quart jars because my canner is too small to use that size jar with the boiling water method, as there needs to be 1" of water above the top of the can. Seriously, either way is most likely going to be fine. The chances of getting sick from restaurant food are probably greater than getting sick from home cooked food. And I don't know about you, but I don't have an industrial kitchen. We've never gotten sick from anything I've made.
10. Plan out your canning session, and get some help the first time if possible. Like good theatre, it's all in the timing.
Be encouraged! Here are some photos of canning amidst the chaos...
My friend Jen scored some awesome tomatoes at a farmer's market and hooked me up with some. These are just a few of them because I forgot to take photos before I started canning!
Army of cans. The tomatoes on the front line are homeless at the moment. Behind are pears, pear butter, and pear jam. I'm not a pear fanatic, though I do like them. We just happen to have a couple prolific trees.
More pears and pear sauce. We're going to be peared out this winter.
Pear stuff, strawberry jam, and wild cherry jam. And that little jar front and center on the bottom shelf that looks like it's filled with liquid gold? Maple syrup we made last winter. More on that later.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Whole Wheat FAQs
I'm going to attempt a series of posts on baking bread from scratch, because I've gotten lots of questions lately about said topic. This first post will give some general answers to questions I've received, and I will expand on many of these issues later. Please post any other questions you may have, and I will be sure to address them!
Why did you get into baking bread?
I've always liked to bake bread. My health teacher, Mrs. Walsh, taught my fourth-grade class to bake during health class. Brave lady, to be sure, but I was hooked. Of course, back then I used white flour, but I eventually switched to whole wheat (from the store). Besides, how much is a loaf of "healthy" bread? $3.00, at least, right? Bread is expensive, and my family is on a budget.
What is a grain mill, anyway?
I'll get into specifics later, but it's really just a kitchen appliance that can turn wheat berries (it's not really a berry - it's more like a kernel) into flour you bake with. There are several electric and manual mills on the market. Byron and I researched grain mills several years ago, but I didn't start seriously looking into buying a grain mill until Katherine, a lady in my ceramics class, (more notably a smart, energetic mother of eight who was tragically killed in a car accident almost a year ago) warned me that the whole wheat flour I was buying from the store was rancid. She also brought me a bag of freshly milled flour to try out. Read on...
Why is freshly milled flour better for you?
The whole wheat berry contains almost all the nutrients your body needs. The insoluble fiber found in the bran (outside of the kernel) provides food for the good bacteria in your system, and helps scrub out your colon. Gross, but it makes you wonder if eating this way could prevent things like colon cancer. And speaking of good bacteria, did you know we are probably the only society that does not have a fermented product as a normal part of our diet? Food such as yogurt (PLAIN! - more on that later too) and kefir contain good bacteria, which essentially build up your body's immune system. And that bacteria needs something to keep it thriving and fighting off anything bad that enters your system...which is where freshly milled flour comes into play.
Have you ever read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder? The Ingalls family was snowed in for the winter, and as their supplies dwindled, they survived by eating "brown" bread from flour they laboriously milled in a coffee grinder. To be sure, they all looked a little lean by spring, but the point is that they were able to survive.
Doesn't 100% whole wheat bread taste like cardboard?
Yes, if it's store-bought. But if you have a loaf of whole wheat bread lying around, go look at the ingredients. Are one of the first few listed "wheat gluten?" That's white flour. They put that in there because it helps the bread get its light-and-puffy feel and probably balances out the cardboardy taste of whole wheat. Whole wheat flour that you buy, and consequently what was used in your loaf of bread, is rancid. When the kernel of a wheat berry is broken down, the bran and the germ (which hold all the nutrients) break down very quickly, and the oils in them spoil as a result. Though I've read some conflicting information as to how long whole wheat flour can keep, I've heard that the nutritional value of whole wheat flour can diminish by almost half twenty-four hours after being ground. So not only is freshly milled flour much, much better for you, it also has a wonderful complexity to its flavor.
But I LIKE white flour!
So did I. Nutritionally, it's seriously defunct. It's been stripped of the bran and germ, which contain the nutrients, leaving the endosperm, which is the starch. No wonder diets such as the Atkins Diet were so popular a while back; eating bread like that really is putting a bunch of empty calories into your body. The prevalence of white flour in our society is really a result of the food industry's attempt to create products that will have a long shelf life, as well as the misguided belief from long ago that white flour was a food product for the elite. For a long time it certainly was, until the Industrial Revolution unfortunately made it more available to the masses.
Doesn't it take a lot of time to bake from scratch?
It's really a lifestyle choice. At this point, I'm used to working it into my schedule. I'd rather be baking than fighting my way through a crowded bread aisle at the store. And it takes more attention than time, really. You have to be careful not to let bread over-rise, especially when it's in the pans, right before you put it in the oven.
Where do you get the wheat berries?
Not at Walmart. This can be the tricky part for many people, but the good news is that if you find a place that sells wheat berries (more on the different types later), you can stock up because they keep for a long time if stored in a cool, dry place. More on storage later, too. Anyway, Bread Beckers has a co-op that delivers to many areas; you can research delivery locations on their website. Besides that, you can probably order larger quantities of wheat berries from a local health food store, and it will cost less per pound than what you pay straight from one of those little bulk food bins...though those can be nice in a pinch. There are also MANY Internet sources for wheat berries if worse comes to worse, though you may end up paying more. Another option is to try to find a bulk food store near you, such as a Yoder's or other Mennonite-run sort of place. We have one an hour away, and I think it's totally worth making a trip out there two or three times a year to stock up on wheat berries and other bulk foods. This is the least expensive source I've found, and I end up paying about 50 cents per pound for hard white wheat.
Isn't it more expensive?
There is an initial investment, and when I was trying to find a good price on a grain mill, even the used ones on EBay would go for almost as much as a new one...especially when you factored in shipping. So I sold my saddle in order to buy one, since I haven't ridden since high school. At first, I kneaded by hand (gasp!), but I actually recommend starting out that way so you can get a feel for what the bread should feel like when the gluten (the stuff that makes it rise) has developed. With a machine, you can over-kneed and your bread will fall in the oven. I then graduated to a bread machine, and used just the knead cycle. A few months ago, I received a Kitchen Aid Pro as a gift, and it's been great. If you have a big family, however, this machine probably won't be able to handle larger amounts of whole wheat flour. Springing for an Electrolux, Bosch mixer, or teaching one of your kids to be a champion kneader are other options.
Update: My Kitchenaid Pro handled 12 cups of whole wheat flour this week...that's four loaves of bread! Click here and scroll down a bit to see the photo!
At this point, our bread making equipment has more than paid for itself. I believe I calculated the cost of the grain mill a couple years ago, and figured it would pay for itself in less than a year.
But I work full-time and don't have time to bake my own bread!
I've been there, and unfortunately, it was not when I was into baking bread consistently. So I can't relate, exactly. I can relate, however, to being very busy. I think for people who work outside the home, a bread machine can be invaluable. Yes, it uses electricity and so forth, but so do my mixer and stove. And thinking about it more globally, it uses a heck of a lot less resources than an eighteen-wheeler full of bread, trucking all the way across the country to your local grocery store. Another option is to bake ahead of time on the weekends and freeze it. Heck, sometimes I do stuff like that!
Are you crazy?
You tell me!
Why did you get into baking bread?
I've always liked to bake bread. My health teacher, Mrs. Walsh, taught my fourth-grade class to bake during health class. Brave lady, to be sure, but I was hooked. Of course, back then I used white flour, but I eventually switched to whole wheat (from the store). Besides, how much is a loaf of "healthy" bread? $3.00, at least, right? Bread is expensive, and my family is on a budget.
What is a grain mill, anyway?
I'll get into specifics later, but it's really just a kitchen appliance that can turn wheat berries (it's not really a berry - it's more like a kernel) into flour you bake with. There are several electric and manual mills on the market. Byron and I researched grain mills several years ago, but I didn't start seriously looking into buying a grain mill until Katherine, a lady in my ceramics class, (more notably a smart, energetic mother of eight who was tragically killed in a car accident almost a year ago) warned me that the whole wheat flour I was buying from the store was rancid. She also brought me a bag of freshly milled flour to try out. Read on...
Why is freshly milled flour better for you?
The whole wheat berry contains almost all the nutrients your body needs. The insoluble fiber found in the bran (outside of the kernel) provides food for the good bacteria in your system, and helps scrub out your colon. Gross, but it makes you wonder if eating this way could prevent things like colon cancer. And speaking of good bacteria, did you know we are probably the only society that does not have a fermented product as a normal part of our diet? Food such as yogurt (PLAIN! - more on that later too) and kefir contain good bacteria, which essentially build up your body's immune system. And that bacteria needs something to keep it thriving and fighting off anything bad that enters your system...which is where freshly milled flour comes into play.
Have you ever read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder? The Ingalls family was snowed in for the winter, and as their supplies dwindled, they survived by eating "brown" bread from flour they laboriously milled in a coffee grinder. To be sure, they all looked a little lean by spring, but the point is that they were able to survive.
Doesn't 100% whole wheat bread taste like cardboard?
Yes, if it's store-bought. But if you have a loaf of whole wheat bread lying around, go look at the ingredients. Are one of the first few listed "wheat gluten?" That's white flour. They put that in there because it helps the bread get its light-and-puffy feel and probably balances out the cardboardy taste of whole wheat. Whole wheat flour that you buy, and consequently what was used in your loaf of bread, is rancid. When the kernel of a wheat berry is broken down, the bran and the germ (which hold all the nutrients) break down very quickly, and the oils in them spoil as a result. Though I've read some conflicting information as to how long whole wheat flour can keep, I've heard that the nutritional value of whole wheat flour can diminish by almost half twenty-four hours after being ground. So not only is freshly milled flour much, much better for you, it also has a wonderful complexity to its flavor.
But I LIKE white flour!
So did I. Nutritionally, it's seriously defunct. It's been stripped of the bran and germ, which contain the nutrients, leaving the endosperm, which is the starch. No wonder diets such as the Atkins Diet were so popular a while back; eating bread like that really is putting a bunch of empty calories into your body. The prevalence of white flour in our society is really a result of the food industry's attempt to create products that will have a long shelf life, as well as the misguided belief from long ago that white flour was a food product for the elite. For a long time it certainly was, until the Industrial Revolution unfortunately made it more available to the masses.
Doesn't it take a lot of time to bake from scratch?
It's really a lifestyle choice. At this point, I'm used to working it into my schedule. I'd rather be baking than fighting my way through a crowded bread aisle at the store. And it takes more attention than time, really. You have to be careful not to let bread over-rise, especially when it's in the pans, right before you put it in the oven.
Where do you get the wheat berries?
Not at Walmart. This can be the tricky part for many people, but the good news is that if you find a place that sells wheat berries (more on the different types later), you can stock up because they keep for a long time if stored in a cool, dry place. More on storage later, too. Anyway, Bread Beckers has a co-op that delivers to many areas; you can research delivery locations on their website. Besides that, you can probably order larger quantities of wheat berries from a local health food store, and it will cost less per pound than what you pay straight from one of those little bulk food bins...though those can be nice in a pinch. There are also MANY Internet sources for wheat berries if worse comes to worse, though you may end up paying more. Another option is to try to find a bulk food store near you, such as a Yoder's or other Mennonite-run sort of place. We have one an hour away, and I think it's totally worth making a trip out there two or three times a year to stock up on wheat berries and other bulk foods. This is the least expensive source I've found, and I end up paying about 50 cents per pound for hard white wheat.
Isn't it more expensive?
There is an initial investment, and when I was trying to find a good price on a grain mill, even the used ones on EBay would go for almost as much as a new one...especially when you factored in shipping. So I sold my saddle in order to buy one, since I haven't ridden since high school. At first, I kneaded by hand (gasp!), but I actually recommend starting out that way so you can get a feel for what the bread should feel like when the gluten (the stuff that makes it rise) has developed. With a machine, you can over-kneed and your bread will fall in the oven. I then graduated to a bread machine, and used just the knead cycle. A few months ago, I received a Kitchen Aid Pro as a gift, and it's been great. If you have a big family, however, this machine probably won't be able to handle larger amounts of whole wheat flour. Springing for an Electrolux, Bosch mixer, or teaching one of your kids to be a champion kneader are other options.
Update: My Kitchenaid Pro handled 12 cups of whole wheat flour this week...that's four loaves of bread! Click here and scroll down a bit to see the photo!
At this point, our bread making equipment has more than paid for itself. I believe I calculated the cost of the grain mill a couple years ago, and figured it would pay for itself in less than a year.
But I work full-time and don't have time to bake my own bread!
I've been there, and unfortunately, it was not when I was into baking bread consistently. So I can't relate, exactly. I can relate, however, to being very busy. I think for people who work outside the home, a bread machine can be invaluable. Yes, it uses electricity and so forth, but so do my mixer and stove. And thinking about it more globally, it uses a heck of a lot less resources than an eighteen-wheeler full of bread, trucking all the way across the country to your local grocery store. Another option is to bake ahead of time on the weekends and freeze it. Heck, sometimes I do stuff like that!
Are you crazy?
You tell me!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Reconstruction, Day...I Lost Track of the Days
We're finding that renovating the farmhouse is a bit of one step forward, two steps back. The contractor is finally done. We have a new roof, gutters, three new windows, new structural members, and a Civil War bullet. Byron hung the drywall, and since the project came in at budget, they're not going to "throw the mudding in." But that's what YouTube and the weekend are for, right? So here's our step forward and some photos to prove it:
The sills of the three new windows upstairs have been moved up 8" to allow for flashing between the porch roof and siding. So far, water isn't leaking down onto the porch anymore!
The sills of the three new windows upstairs have been moved up 8" to allow for flashing between the porch roof and siding. So far, water isn't leaking down onto the porch anymore!
Hall with new entry door, patched drywall, and plywood floors. We're sophisticated around here.
New patio door. The gutter above seems to be keeping the area around the door dry, but I'm still wary of the brick-on-concrete patio built right against the house. We'll have to keep an eye on this since the band board has rotted in this area.
Parlor with new drywall:
Bedroom above, with new window and drywall:
New patio door. The gutter above seems to be keeping the area around the door dry, but I'm still wary of the brick-on-concrete patio built right against the house. We'll have to keep an eye on this since the band board has rotted in this area.
Parlor with new drywall:
Bedroom above, with new window and drywall:
We've moved our sleeping and showering quarters to the rooms upstairs. Byron and I had been sleeping on the sofa bed in the sunroom, so it's nice to actually have a place to sit now, even if the big cooler is serving as our coffee table at the moment. For now, Byron and I will be sleeping in what will be Akea's room, and we just noticed that the door to that room no longer needs to be propped open. Could it be due to the levelling that occurred during the installation of the brand new beam? It's lovely that one of the load-bearing walls in that room is no longer being supported by the old clapboard siding. As for the kids, they are sharing what will be Charlie's room. Did I mention yet that Byron's Aunt Dottie was born in that room? How cool is that!
And now for the two steps back. Apparently, the termites weren't done with us yet. We pulled up the carpet in the master bedroom, which was a relief at first. Here's why I hate carpet:
And here's why I hate termites:
Anyway, since I'm still trying to be thankful in the midst of chaos, working in the master bedroom has had us thinking about re-designing that space. Right now the master bath (you know, the one with the blue toilet) and the half-bath for guests are right next to each other. So I'm again harnessing my latent architecture skills and have come up with several ideas that would leave us with one full bathroom, a bigger bedroom, and new closet. I'm attempting to utilize existing walls and systems as to minimize cost. This re-design would mean that guests would use the master bath, but that's how it was at our previous house (still on the market with a reduced, all-time-low price!) and I hate dirty bathrooms so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to keep it clean. And it's one less bathroom to clean at all, which is always nice.
This is probably how things will look for a while. School began today for Byron, and I started homeschooling again. We're going to wait until it freezes to attempt pulling up the barn floor because every time Byron goes up to the loft, he gets dive-bombed by wasps...and that's two cans of wasp spray later. In the meantime, I'll attempt some mudding and try to make a decision on what color to paint the kitchen cabinets. And when our house sells, maybe we'll try to work on the master bedroom/bathroom. With the help of YouTube, of course.
And now for the two steps back. Apparently, the termites weren't done with us yet. We pulled up the carpet in the master bedroom, which was a relief at first. Here's why I hate carpet:
And here's why I hate termites:
It's not much damage, thankfully. But we will have to replace a few sheets of plywood and scab a joist (that means we'll have to get a 2x12 and bolt it to the damaged joist, extending it several feet on either side of the damage). This also means the master bedroom is out of commission for a while. This is primarily why we are all upstairs for the moment. There is still more parquet flooring to pull up, and we need to figure out if it's necessary to remove the glue (which will take us like, ten years) in order to install hardwood someday. Hardwood flooring needs a very level surface, otherwise it can buckle. We may possibly install very thin sheathing over the repaired plywood, and leave the rest of the parquet flooring - which extends out of the master bedroom and throughout the approximately 1,000 square foot 1980s addition - in place, though that's also not an ideal surface on which to install hardwood because the nails won't catch as well. I'm beginning to think parquet flooring is the essence of evil.
Anyway, since I'm still trying to be thankful in the midst of chaos, working in the master bedroom has had us thinking about re-designing that space. Right now the master bath (you know, the one with the blue toilet) and the half-bath for guests are right next to each other. So I'm again harnessing my latent architecture skills and have come up with several ideas that would leave us with one full bathroom, a bigger bedroom, and new closet. I'm attempting to utilize existing walls and systems as to minimize cost. This re-design would mean that guests would use the master bath, but that's how it was at our previous house (still on the market with a reduced, all-time-low price!) and I hate dirty bathrooms so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to keep it clean. And it's one less bathroom to clean at all, which is always nice.
This is probably how things will look for a while. School began today for Byron, and I started homeschooling again. We're going to wait until it freezes to attempt pulling up the barn floor because every time Byron goes up to the loft, he gets dive-bombed by wasps...and that's two cans of wasp spray later. In the meantime, I'll attempt some mudding and try to make a decision on what color to paint the kitchen cabinets. And when our house sells, maybe we'll try to work on the master bedroom/bathroom. With the help of YouTube, of course.
Monday, August 23, 2010
These are a few of my favorite sites...
Raindrops on fruit trees and crisp apple pancakes...I'll stop while I'm ahead, but since I sound better when I sing in print, I couldn't resist the opportunity for the lame joke. Anyway, I've had several people ask me recently about canning, local food, and baking bread, so I thought I'd create a post addressing these issues.
Canning and Local Fruit Farms:
I could sit here and type out directions for canning, but pickyourown.org has already done it. True, it's helpful to have someone with canning experience help you the first time, and Byron's aunt was gracious enough to help me get started, but if you can't track down someone who was born prior to 1940 or someone like me, CLICK HERE for their direct link to everything canning. Scroll down for links to directions, recipes, etc. On their main page, you can navigate to find local orchards and so forth. Plan a family outing, seriously! Some of my best childhood memories are from going fruit picking with my parents and brother. And it's usually cheaper than paying for whatever was shipped from California or Guatemala "fresh" to your local grocery store.
Local Meats:
Recently, I heard Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm speak at a homeschool convention. He rightly likened the local food movement to where the homeschool movement was twenty or thirty years ago. Not totally popular yet and not necessarily accessible to everyone...be it financially or otherwise. Local meats that are not riddled with hormones and antibiotics are going to cost you more than the meats at the grocery store. But I believe there's a hidden cost, as a lot of the industrial food is subsidized by your tax dollars (so you are paying more for it already) and it has led to widespread outbreaks of food-borne illness. When you feed a cow grain instead of grass, it's going to get sick. Likewise, if I ate grass for a week, I'd probably get sick, too.
I digress. For local meats, eggs, etc., try eatwild.com or localharvest. org. If we, as consumers, start demanding that our food is produced humanely and without artificial and unnatural feeds, fertilizers, etc. the big guys will eventually have to follow suit or go out of business.
Bread:
A couple years ago I began researching grain mills and the benefits of eating bread made from freshly milled flour. Besides the fact that the whole kernel of the wheat berry contains almost all the nutrients your body needs, the insoluble fiber becomes food for the good bacteria in your intestines, which promotes the growth of your body's own immune system. And if you happen to have constipation problems, I can almost guarantee that they will go away in no time!
The most popular grain mills are the Nutrimill, which I have, and the Wonder Mill. You can google these and find the vendors with the best prices. I used to ride horses in high school and sold my saddle so I could buy mine. A bittersweet day it was.
To get started in milling your own grains, Bread Beckers is a good place to start. Their cookbook is pretty foolproof and they also have co-ops and may deliver grains, oils, honey, etc. to an area close to you. I also use The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, which is trickier but offers a great variety of whole wheat baking advice and recipes. Baking with freshly milled whole wheat is a bit of an art; don't be discouraged if you have loaves that don't turn out light and fluffy at first. I've made plenty of bricks myself.
Other options for local food are food co-ops (you pay a flat fee and go to a pick-up station every week for your share of what's in season) and farmer's markets.
CLICK HERE for some whole wheat FAQs...
Additional Info:
Food Inc. is a documentary on the food industry and something every American should watch. Seriously. Put it on your Netflix cue, like, now. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a must-read which addresses some of the same issues in greater detail. I'm more of a fiction reader, but I motored through this book in no time. Pollan is a gifted writer and it's worth finding the time to read this book. If you're thrifty like me, you could probably pick it up at the library.
Canning and Local Fruit Farms:
I could sit here and type out directions for canning, but pickyourown.org has already done it. True, it's helpful to have someone with canning experience help you the first time, and Byron's aunt was gracious enough to help me get started, but if you can't track down someone who was born prior to 1940 or someone like me, CLICK HERE for their direct link to everything canning. Scroll down for links to directions, recipes, etc. On their main page, you can navigate to find local orchards and so forth. Plan a family outing, seriously! Some of my best childhood memories are from going fruit picking with my parents and brother. And it's usually cheaper than paying for whatever was shipped from California or Guatemala "fresh" to your local grocery store.
Local Meats:
Recently, I heard Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm speak at a homeschool convention. He rightly likened the local food movement to where the homeschool movement was twenty or thirty years ago. Not totally popular yet and not necessarily accessible to everyone...be it financially or otherwise. Local meats that are not riddled with hormones and antibiotics are going to cost you more than the meats at the grocery store. But I believe there's a hidden cost, as a lot of the industrial food is subsidized by your tax dollars (so you are paying more for it already) and it has led to widespread outbreaks of food-borne illness. When you feed a cow grain instead of grass, it's going to get sick. Likewise, if I ate grass for a week, I'd probably get sick, too.
I digress. For local meats, eggs, etc., try eatwild.com or localharvest. org. If we, as consumers, start demanding that our food is produced humanely and without artificial and unnatural feeds, fertilizers, etc. the big guys will eventually have to follow suit or go out of business.
Bread:
A couple years ago I began researching grain mills and the benefits of eating bread made from freshly milled flour. Besides the fact that the whole kernel of the wheat berry contains almost all the nutrients your body needs, the insoluble fiber becomes food for the good bacteria in your intestines, which promotes the growth of your body's own immune system. And if you happen to have constipation problems, I can almost guarantee that they will go away in no time!
The most popular grain mills are the Nutrimill, which I have, and the Wonder Mill. You can google these and find the vendors with the best prices. I used to ride horses in high school and sold my saddle so I could buy mine. A bittersweet day it was.
To get started in milling your own grains, Bread Beckers is a good place to start. Their cookbook is pretty foolproof and they also have co-ops and may deliver grains, oils, honey, etc. to an area close to you. I also use The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, which is trickier but offers a great variety of whole wheat baking advice and recipes. Baking with freshly milled whole wheat is a bit of an art; don't be discouraged if you have loaves that don't turn out light and fluffy at first. I've made plenty of bricks myself.
Other options for local food are food co-ops (you pay a flat fee and go to a pick-up station every week for your share of what's in season) and farmer's markets.
CLICK HERE for some whole wheat FAQs...
Additional Info:
Food Inc. is a documentary on the food industry and something every American should watch. Seriously. Put it on your Netflix cue, like, now. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a must-read which addresses some of the same issues in greater detail. I'm more of a fiction reader, but I motored through this book in no time. Pollan is a gifted writer and it's worth finding the time to read this book. If you're thrifty like me, you could probably pick it up at the library.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Farewell Organic Fare
A few weeks ago, some of my friends from my Bible study got together to give me a farewell dinner. I'd been warned that they had a whole menu planned out, which made me beyond curious until I finally arrived at my friend Christy's house that Monday evening. Now, I'm not exactly the type of person who cries at movies; in fact, I've been known to laugh at inappropriate cinematic moments. The only exceptions have been Romeo and Juliet (both versions - that Shakespearean language gets me every time) and P.S. I Love You, which was full of rip-your-heart-out scenes that only an Irish writer could pen. Anyway, I actually got a bit verklempt as I walked into Christy's house. The girls had prepared an amazing meal of local and organic food! I always tell people that I really don't care what kind of food they serve me, and I mean it. We're a bit picky about what we eat at home, but when I eat at someone's house I just sit back and appreciate their cooking skills and company.In their honor, I wanted to post the recipes they used for these amazing dishes. There are more to come (Janelle, I'll post the bread recipe...you play with the baby!), but here's what they've sent me so far. I miss you, my friends!
April's Beer Can Chicken
1 whole “happy” chicken (naturally raised at a local farm)
1 can of beer at room temp, half poured out and a large hole cut in the top (April sought high and low for ORGANIC beer!)
1 stick of butter melted
Variety of spices such as: salt, garlic, basil, paprika, oregano etc.. any combo you pick will do.
Rinse chicken and pat dry. Rub spices all over bird inside and out. Pour half of melted butter in the beer can along with 1 tsp. of spice rub mix. Drizzle left over butter on the bird as well. Place chicken top side up with the cavity placed over the beer can. It should sit upright and balanced in a large pan. You can cook this in the oven at 350° for about 1 hour- 1 ½ hours. Or you can cook this on the grill with one side heated up. Place the chicken on the unheated side, cover and cook about an hour.
Christy's Veggie Saute
Green squash from the garden
One organic onion
Organic mushrooms
Chop and toss with olive oil and sea salt. Cook over med/high heat in a skillet until it's nice and tender and parts start to brown and caramelize.
Mandy's Cous Cous
2 c. organic Chicken Broth
1.5 c. whole wheat organic cous cous
2 carrots chopped
1 onion chopped
1 zucchini chopped
mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
Bring broth to a boil, pour in cous cous, remove from heat, and cover. Let stand for 15 mins then fluff with a fork. Meanwhile, saute carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, onions season to taste. Mix with cous cous!
Janelle's Homemade Bread
Janelle used the Bread Becker's receipe for Slightly Sweet but Very Simple Whole Wheat Bread, found here, using freshly milled flour. Check out my baking posts for a series of posts with step-by-step instructions for bread making.
Natasha's Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Chocolate frosting (recipe follows)
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
10 to 12 servings.
VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.
CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.
Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.
CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.
Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
Monday, August 16, 2010
A Berry, a Cherry, and The Great Pear Mystery
One of the best things about moving to Green Acres has been taking advantage of the fruit already growing on the property. It's not like we have an orchard (yet), but I think I spent about $8 on fruit this whole summer on half a bushel of peach seconds at an orchard (did you know you could ask for seconds???). Other than that, we've taken advantage of the blackberries, wild cherries, and pears growing around us. The blackberries lasted from mid-June until the end of July, and I spent many an hour dodging thorns and buzzing insects in order to pick these little gems. Wild blackberries are a bit on the sour side, but word on the street is that when you cultivate them, they tend to be a bit sweeter. So guess what we'll be transplanting this fall? We ate most of them, but also managed to freeze several bags full.When the blackberries died out at the end of July, Byron discovered the wild black cherry tree. These cherries are rather sour and very small, so they're not great for snacks. Besides, you have to be careful not to eat the pits (or stems...or leaves...or bark...) because they're actually poisonous. My kids only get to eat cherries that I've already pitted, which isn't a whole lot of fun for them. So thinking about what we could use these for, I checked the chart that came with my box of pectin and found a recipe for cherry jam. And oh, my goodness - add a bit of sugar to these babies and you can make one of the best jams you've ever tasted! Forget that it took me hours to pit these. I haven't counted, but I probably have about four quarts worth of jam that can be used on sandwiches, with pancakes, or mixed with plain yogurt. If you happen to find a wild cherry tree, they must be picked when they're rather black and as with many fruits, can be easily removed from the tree. Here's a photo of pitting in action:
By the way, I use Pomona's Universal Pectin, which can be ordered online or found in one of those cool Mennonite sort of stores...if you're lucky enough to live close to one. The advantage here is that you can use honey or other sweeteners instead of sugar. If you want to use sugar, you can get away with using a lot less. Pomona's is all natural, too, and stretches further than other pectins out there. Thanks to my friend Delia for turning me on to the stuff.
Now I'm in the midst of mystery pear season. We have two Asian pear trees in the backyard, and the previous owner told us they fruit every other year, hence the mystery. I've never heard of a pear tree that only produces every other year, especially since pear trees are supposed to be the easiest of the popular fruits to grow. So I've been on a quest to solve this quandary because pears every other year is unacceptable to the sustainable-minded. My first guess was that the pears were of the same variety and needed a different one to cross-pollinate. However, as they've matured, I've found this is clearly not the case. These are definitely two different pear types:
Next, I contacted Edible Landscaping. The folks there end up being the unfortunate recipients of any fruity questions I have that can't be solved by a simple Google search, but since I've spent money there in the past, I don't feel too badly about bugging them. They suggested that I need to thin the fruits out to 3" apart after petal fall, which should give me more consistency. Too late for that this year, but it makes sense. A tree that produces heavily one year may not have the energy to produce as well the year after. And this, readers, is a heavy pear year. Our compost currently smells like pear alcohol.
Happily, there are lots of ways to preserve pears. So far I've made pear jam, pear sauce (you know, instead of applesauce), pear syrup, and canned pears. I must warn you that canned pears are a pain, because it's recommended that you peel the pears. I think I was getting a nice cramp in my hand right about when this photo was taken:
Anyway, I gave up on that after about 12 jars or so, canned some with the skins on, and have decided that the family will be eating lots of pear sauce this winter. By the way, canning is easy. I'll have to post about canning basics sometime soon.
Here are our two pear trees. Pear trees last 25-75 years, and I think tree #2 is on year 74. I recently found an Orient pear tree (which is not an Asian pear tree, apparently) and a Keiffer pear tree dirt cheap, so they will replace these when it's time for them to become firewood.
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Before I go, a word about Asian versus European pears. You can tell the difference because Asian pears are round and European pears have that traditional, bulbous bottom. I've never been a fan of Asian pears, and I think it's because they ripen on the tree and really need to be eaten or preserved right away. Oftentimes, by the time they get to the store, they're mushy. The pears in my backyard are crisp and delicious. Conversely, European pears need to be picked before they're ripe because they will begin to rot inside if they're left on the tree to ripen. Like peaches, they'll continue to ripen once you pick them.
Anyway, I was beginning to think that the only living creatures to live sustainably in the recent past at our place were the deceased termites, but I think we inadvertently have been doing some sustainable living despite being waylaid by house projects.
.JPG)
Before I go, a word about Asian versus European pears. You can tell the difference because Asian pears are round and European pears have that traditional, bulbous bottom. I've never been a fan of Asian pears, and I think it's because they ripen on the tree and really need to be eaten or preserved right away. Oftentimes, by the time they get to the store, they're mushy. The pears in my backyard are crisp and delicious. Conversely, European pears need to be picked before they're ripe because they will begin to rot inside if they're left on the tree to ripen. Like peaches, they'll continue to ripen once you pick them.
Anyway, I was beginning to think that the only living creatures to live sustainably in the recent past at our place were the deceased termites, but I think we inadvertently have been doing some sustainable living despite being waylaid by house projects.
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