Farmer's Market as Training

I use the Farmer's market as training. All this fresh, local food. I don't even have to grow it. But, how on earth do you cook some of these things? Eggplant? - well, purple is a cool color, but, um, ya - weird food. Zucchini? No idea.

So, I buy a couple here and there of the different things. An eggplant in the fridge until I'm no longer afraid to cook the weird thing. Squash, over and over, till I'm forced to learn new things it can do. Keep the tomato drippings - if they came off tomatoes that yummy, they should be good for something! - Ah, yes, broth for winter's soups.

After doing this for two years, I know not to plant eggplant in our sunny garden, since we don't eat it yet. Summer squash will get planted, and I'll learn more ways to cook and store it. Sungold tomatoes? German Striped slicers? Yum! Cabbage, too, so that I can put up homemade sauerkraut - it's the only kind I can eat. Green beans get a double row, because they'll end up dried or canned in the pantry.

Right now? It's Egg Season (spring). I have 5 dozen eggs in the fridge - yes, five! - so I'm training on how to serve them all! And quiche would be good but isn't on the menu (because of the dairy in it). Hmm... Perhaps I ought to start baking...

Late-season canning

We canned up the last of the late tomatoes yesterday. I say 'last,' because this time I totaled three jars of diced tomatoes. She's had a bit less every week, highs now are in the low 60's, and she is north of me. Tomatoes like heat; this isn't it. Total, we did two batches of whole tomatoes and just over a batch of diced tomatoes. Two pints of something strongly resembling tomato sauce are put up and there are extra diced tomatoes in the fridge and freezer. I'm thinking about pureeing the bunch of them and seeing if I can get soup out of it.

I'm still not done canning for the winter. I want to can up our own pinto beans, chickpeas, and blackeye peas. We need more homemade convenience foods (we ate them all!). I want to put up canned carrots, plain and sugared, and sweet potatoes the same way. All of this, thank heavens, can be done when I'm ready; all but the potatoes will come fresh or dried from the grocer. The pumpkins I want to put up are sitting on the floor behind me.

The winds are blustering outside, the air is crisp and wonderful. I love this weather, and the comfort of having food and fiber put up to care for my family over the winter.

Fiber, here, being blankets, sweaters, socks, yarn...

going BPA-free

I've set myself a challenge of removing, gradually, all the plastic from our kitchen. Trash bags are ok, but I'm looking to replace all the plastic storage containers and utensils. We don't really use plastic cups, so as those die they just won't be replaced. The utensils are being gradually switched out, as opportunity arises.

BPA is a consideration for this as well. It's found in plastic bottles, thermal receipts, and as a liner in cans - including soda cans. Yuck. I checked, and it seems that the only vegetables locally available in glass are sauerkraut and pickled beets, not quite what I had in mind... For this, and to avoid the embedded energy of frozen foods (embedded in freezing it, keeping it frozen, transporting it, and making the plastic bags), I turn to canning our food or purchasing it fresh.

So far, I've gotten each of us two metal water bottles, have picked up glass storage containers with glass lids, and have started using canning jars for storage as well. World Market has some larger clamp-top containers available, as well. We have two already, and will be going back for more. One 3-liter container is much easier for bulk dried-food storage than several 1-quarts!


Related Links:

BPA - Wikipedia article

How to Avoid BPA Exposure in Receipts

No Silver Lining - An Investigation into Bisphenol A in Canned Foods. Includes link to a 29-page report (pdf). Cost and brand of the food had no relation to the BPA levels.

Book: Make your own Root Beer and Soda Pop at Lehman's

BPA in the Headlines - blog post at Easy Being Greener.

BPA in Cans - has a list of companies without BPA, and those who do use it. The information is a year or so old, but it's also the best list I have been able to find.

BPA Danger may be greater from tin cans than water bottles- at Treehugger.

Late Tomatoes

One of my farmers planted a late crop of tomatoes, and I'm canning some for the winter. All of my help comes from books and the internet, so it can get interesting.

I bought 55lbs on Wednesday. I have lost about 10 lbs of tomatoes from waiting too long, and nearly had a ginormous mess on my hands.

The weekend's goal was some whole tomatoes, and the remainder in diced tomatoes. I let the food tell me the amounts; it just depends on the condition of the food. I have learned to core the tomatoes before skinning them - they maintain their shape better. Also, if one or two have split skins the rest should be about ready. It's better to think "loosen the skin" rather than "split the skin." The learning process means I have tomato juice to freeze - I've heard that freezing it means the water will rise to the top, making it so there is less to boil down later. If I could remember the rest of that piece of information, I'd be doing even better!

I canned whole tomatoes on Saturday, diced ones on Sunday. One day's experience cut my time spent in half.

Final Totals:

• 10 lbs of waste
• 11 pints of whole tomatoes from roughly 18lbs of small tomatoes
• 9 pints of diced tomatoes plus one in the freezer (it wasn't quite full)
• a pot of tomato - soup? sauce? - in the freezer. I already reduced it by half, and will see if I can make it into tomato soup for one night's dinner.
  
• enough tomatoes to make tomato & macaroni for lunch today =)
  

An Apple a Day.....

I've just finished working my way through all the apples we picked. We got 20 pints unsweetened applesauce from the Fujis - they didn't need anything added to make delicious sauce! The Granny Smiths were used for dried apples slices and canned apple pie filling, plus apple crisp for desert a few nights. Dehydrating apples make the house smell wonderful.

And even after all this time, I have 6 apples to keep for eating fresh. Yum.

Trying to peel the apple in one curl sounds like taking things to a small extreme. After peeling 30lbs of apples, I've noticed it actually makes a lot of sense - I'm less likely to cut myself, I loose less apple flesh with the peel, and the apple looks better when I'm done. Plus it's just fun to try!

Final results:

3 apple pies

dozen fresh apple snacks

18 pints Fuji applesauce, unsweetened

8 liters dried apple slices (estimate, might be 9)

13 Qts. Apple Pie Filling

4 Pts. Apple Pie Filling

4 Qts. Apple Slices in medium syrup

Independance Day - Nov. 23

1. Plant something – nothing.

2. Harvest something – Nothing.

3. Preserve something – Canned 60lbs of apples, in sauce, canned apple pie filling, and 4 qts apples in medium syrup to play with. Have 20lbs left that I plan on dehydrating this week.

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers. Still playing heater-chicken.

5. Preparation and Storage –I found a "mini" glass oil lamp at the thrift store, brand new. Bought 3-liter sealing glass jars for storage of dry items - I needed more.

6. Build Community Food Systems – Farmer's market.

7. Eat the Food – Apple pie, roast chicken.

8. Crafting – Finished niece's purse. Dropped off some sewing at sempstress, which is a general help. Started a new cross-stitch pattern.

A Good Day's Work

A Learning Year

This is my first year storing local food for the winter. We should be OK on strawberry jams & jellies -there are about 2 dozen in the pantry, plus the raspberry jam. I've canned 12 pints applesauce, and have the same to do again, plus 40lbs of granny smith apples to dry & can. We have home-canned chicken & beef broth, beef stew, Hobbit Stew, and bread & butter pickles.

A lot of food has been dried: tomatoes, potatoes, turnips, turnip greens, bananas, watermelon, peppers, celery - if I can dry it I'm trying it! We have a box of winter squash stored as well.

I plan on learning to make sourdough bread, and keep the starter going.

I'm still putting up, for as long as the local market is open. I'm not sure how long our stores will last, but it's a learning year.

for a full pantry list, scroll all the way down the page

Independance Day - Nov. 8

1. Plant something – nothing.

2. Harvest something – Nothing.

3. Preserve something – Dried turnip roots, turnip greens, tomatoes, and broccoli flowers & stems. Canned 12 pints of local, homemade applesauce :)

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers. Still playing heater-chicken. Discovered 'waste heat' from canning can heat our living room.

5. Preparation and Storage – bought 2 more trays for the dehydrator.

6. Build Community Food Systems – went to local apple orchard with DD, picked & bought 115lbs of apples for canning & drying. Also went to farmers market.

7. Eat the Food – Regular eating from pantry. Using the farmer market as primary store.

8. Crafting – Nothing; I've been in the kitchen!

More Jam!

Nice sale at the grocers - buy 2 pints strawberries, get 3 free. My DD has been eating a half-pint a week of the strawberry jams, even without my help, so I'm thinking more would be good. I have never seen her eat jam so much, and so eagerly.

So - I bought 6 pints of berries. About 1 pint was lost taking off tops and such. I've just now finished processing it all, and from those 5 pints I have about a cup of jam foam to put in yogurt (if I get to it fast enough, like tonight), 8 half-pints low-sugar jam, two half-trays of fruit leathers, and a bit of jam in the fridge for the morning.

My dehydrator book has recipes for fruit leather. I made strawberries with a bit of sugar, and cornstarch for thickener; strawberries with sugar-free organic applesauce for thickener; and straight applesauce. I use the sugar-free organic because I simply like the taste the best. When these are dry we'll taste-test them and see what we think. I'll let you know the results then; and if we like them I will make more.

A Local Dinner

Local beef stew I canned, with the Italian flatbread from the farmer's market.
Delicious!

But I don’t ~want~ to cook tonight!

So what do you do, if you also don’t want to buy processed foods? I know you can cook ahead and freeze, say, casseroles and the like, and I do use this for some meals. Thing is, my freezer is small – all I have is the one above the fridge. With ice, breads, frozen fruits and meats, the freezer stays full. Also, I don’t like depending on the freezer – we live in hurricane country, and a Category 1 or 2 storm can leave us without power for a week or two. Cooking will be hard; freezing, impossible.

Dehydrating and Canning

I can dehydrate mashed potatoes, and freeze homemade gravy – they can be ready in about 10 minutes. Soups can be assembled from dried ingredients in advance (everything except the meats!) and cooked in the slowcooker or on the stove for until hot & juicy. Broths and meatier soups can be canned, as well as meatballs and unseasoned chicken or beef chunks. That meat can be used as the basis for other items – BBQ, chicken salad, to add to soups, etc. – just heat well before eating!

Dump & Heat Dinner ideas:
Soups: chicken, beef, mushroom, lentils, etc.
Meatball sandwiches
BBQ sandwiches

Anyone have more ideas? I do tend to cook a lot of soups...

Independance Day Update

1. Plant something – nothing.

2. Harvest something – Nothing ready yet.

3. Preserve something – Dried basil and hashbrowns. Canned mushroom-venison stew. (aka Hobbit stew?)

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers. Trying to have more planned-overs than left-overs.

5. Preparation and Storage – Went over pantry storage again- I'm determined to be able to fit more groceries in here!

6. Build Community Food Systems – Farmers market. Picked up items for one co-worker. Tempted all of them with samples of the breads sold there.

7. Eat the Food – Tried a new type of squash.

8. Crafting – Finished the Twisted Scarf. Storage baskets are the slow project.

I blinked and the week was gone. I thought we did more than this....

Silly Me

I keep forgetting I can just post about what we're doing, even the 'normal' stuff. That was a bit of the idea, right? So, here we go.

One of the local stores had a Big sale on Strawberries, so I made more jam. I've now learned not to make jam from pureed strawberries - you can't tell where the foam stops and the jam starts. I now have foam above the jam, in all the jars. *sigh* Ah well. Lesson learned!

Nearly all the fabric is washed and ironed. I've got one shirt almost ready to sew, just need to cut out the sleeves. Most of my sewing right now is actually repairs - beads coming off a skirt, fixing small holes before they get bigger. Hopefully I will get to some of that this weekend.

There are piles of watermelon rind in the fridge. I've also got another watermelon on the table, and the market is tomorrow. I doubt I will process anything tonight, as the fridge is full and I'm tired. So, tomorrow perhaps.

I did get my stashes a bit better organized. Once we get that last bolt for the treadle the Sphinx is in, I'll be able to shut the table again. The Spinx has been on non-stop display for months, and while she is beautiful, I do also enjoy the 'smoothness' of everything being put away.

We did try a new recipe tonight - zucchini and yellow squash, half a red sweet bell pepper, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Italian seasoning, then steamed. Good, if perhaps a bit bland; I'll spice it up more next time (more seasoning may be all it needed; those were big squash!). Very colorful, and lovely on the plate.

Independance Day Week 10

1. Plant something – nothing yet.

2. Harvest something – Nothing.

3. Preserve something – Dried watermelon chunks, saving rinds. Bought strawberries on sale; made strawberry jam. Dried fresh basil from farmers market.

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers.

5. Preparation and Storage – nothing.

6. Build Community Food Systems – Farmers market.

7. Eat the Food – Steamed squash for dinner, sliced cucumbers are now a staple snack. Watermelon. Lots of sliced tomatoes. Ate some of the stew I had canned - delicious! Note to self, 1 qt stew feeds two people.

8. Crafting – Crocheting socks. Lots of crochet. Starting to work through sewing pile. Doing bit-at-a-time restorations of the treadle base the Sphinx is in.

Independance Day: Week 8

1. Plant something – nothing; too hot. I think everything hits survival mode when it hits 100' and humid.

2. Harvest something – Nothing (see above).

3. Preserve something – Dried watermelon chunks - tastes like Watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Saving the rinds to make more Candied Watermelon Rinds (very popular!). Dried the last of the green peppers - I think this should last the winter. Canned 7 pints chicken.

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers.

5. Preparation and Storage – Replaced old dehydrator with a new one that is larger and has all the desired features (clear top, temp selection, on/off switch, easy access to accessories & good reputation)

6. Build Community Food Systems – Farmers market. Working on dried foods from local foodshed for Yule gifts.

7. Eat the Food – Steamed squash for dinner, sliced cucumbers are now a staple snack. Watermelon. Lots of sliced tomatoes.

8. Crafting – Made a linen tank top. Another is cut, needs sewn; realized I need more fabric for the others. Planning a quilt for us.

Pantry Planning

I tend to cook from the pantry. As part of eating locally, and eating homemade food, I'm attempting to plan for several months worth of food stored - aiming to be able to store what we need between harvests. Jellies, preserves, soups and other convenience meals, meat stock; lots of tomatoes, veggies, and meats. I looked at how we eat, and wrote up a basic plan for canning.

Then I looked at the available storage. I set aside the previous plan as ‘goals for another year’ and started over – we simply don’t have the space. I am glad I did all that planning, as it gives me a basis for the scaled-back plans. The new focus will be homemade convenience foods – instant-ready or dried ingredients (canned chicken is ready much faster than frozen!), pre-made dinners (the beef stew, for example), and a couple small items I like to have and can’t always find. For example, I really like my mushroom stew but I’m the only one who eats it. By canning some in 8-oz jars, I’ll have single-size servings when I want some. Items like the canned chicken can be refreshed when our stocks are low, and the store has a sale. That will save us space as well as money.

Even this may stretch our small pantry space, but I can handle the new plans better (35 quarts, a dozen pints, & the jellies) than the old ones (49 quarts and 150 or so pints, plus jellies).

For veggies, I will be using my knowledge of what’s in season (or could be kept in a root cellar), along with what’s available to purchase. The goal is to cook seasonally as much as possible, rather than using store-canned or shipped-in (out of season) food all the time.

For both plans, the number of jars is determined by what we'll eat, compared with what fits in the canner. If we're going to use a 28-oz can of diced tomatoes every week (not unusual during the winter), then we'll need 1 quart (about 24oz) per week. For eight months x 4 weeks = 32 quarts. The canner will hold 7 quarts, so 32 divided by 7= 4 (28) to 5 (35) canner loads. I'd rather make more that I expect to need, and if the canner is running anyway it may as well be full. So I'd plan for 35 quarts.

I'll discuss drying foods in another post.

New canning plan:
canned chicken, 7 quarts, refresh as needed
jellies, 8oz jars, aiming for 24 or so of mixed varieties
beef soup, 7 quarts, can be varied with additions when served
broths, chicken/beef/bison, about 8 pints each
mushroom soup – 1 batch of 8 oz jars
spaghetti sauce, 6ea. 8oz jars
seasoned diced tomatoes, 6ea. 8oz jars
7 quarts meatballs in sauce
Canned kidney beans, 7 quarts, refresh as needed
Canned blackeye peas, 7 quarts, refresh as needed
Preserves, pints, about 4 each strawberry, raspberry, blackberry

Canning Stew

I made beef stew over the weekend. The recipe, while very good, stated it would make about 7 quarts. I got 7 quarts plus 8 pints plus Sunday dinner plus another night's dinner. It looks wonderful, and I'm looking forward to having some for dinner on a night I don't want to cook. On the other hand I wasn't planning on canning two days straight - the pressure canner takes a bit. For the pints, they are processed for 75 minutes. At 2.15 the lid went on the canner. At 4.50 I took the canner off the heat to lose pressure, and at 5.30 I put the cans out to cool overnight. One batch, not counting what I did before the lid went on, has taken just over 3 hours. Now that I've timed it, I can add 2 hours + prep to the processing time, and use that to plan the day better.

Moral: Prep everything, and start early.

ETA: While making the pickles, I was forcibly reminded to fully read the directions & double check I have all the ingredients & enough jars before starting. Guess who ran out at the last second for jars, spices, & pickling salt?

Market Day

Today was a local Farmer's Market. Peppers for drying and for dinner; bison meat; onions and cucumbers for Bread & Butter Pickles. The yellow squash are already steaming for dinner. The peanuts are yummy snacks, grown locally & processed on her farm.

Independance Day Update: Week3

1. Plant something – nothing. Need to look at what I can grow next.

2. Harvest something – Nothing.

3. Preserve something – Made local-farm beef broth. Made Beef Stew.

4. Reduce waste – Used fabric scraps for small project. Regular recycling.

5. Preparation and Storage – Made local-farm beef broth for canning. Planning what we need for winter, so I can get it at the farm market and preserve it.

6. Build Community Food Systems – Visited farmers market, bought meat & veggies. I'm planning menus around what I find there. Beef Stew: about half of the ingredients were locally grown/ raised.

7. Eat the Food – Canned beef stew & beef broth for winter. Trying a new coleslaw recipe with honey and maple syrup instead of sugar. Ate our way through the full fridge.

8. Crafting – Planned out two new skirts and several tops. Picked up the fabric and notions. It's in the 90's already; I need cooler clothing to wear.