Independence Days Challenge - Week 5

1. Plant Something.

I started three herbs from seed bought from Richters this year: basil, leaf celery and common comfrey. I also bought borage and calendula, but those will be direct sown.

2. Harvest Something.

YES!  I got tired of saying no to this category, and so in desperation, went into the garden and harvested a few tops from the perennial onions. I realize this is not a "real" harvest, but, hey, we northerners gotta take what we can!

3. Preserve Something.

Marmalade! Three recipes, four batches, resulting in 26 half pints and 8 quarter pints.

4. Waste Not.

I finally got around to making both beef and veggie stock this week, from the freezer scraps and some cheap-ish beef bones from the grocery store. And... wait for it... I pressure canned it!!!

Vegetable (left) and beef (right) stock

5. Want Not.

15 pints of marmalade, 2 quarts of vegetable stock, 2 quarts of beef stock added to the stash.

6. Eat the Food.

In addition to eating a lot of marmalade, I made a Mexican "lasagna" with ground beef from the freezer, canned beans (store bought, but from the stash), canned salsa (made from garden veggies), canned tomato sauce and home-made corn tortillas, topped with cheddar cheese and the chopped onion tops from the garden.

7. Build Community Food Systems.

Nothing this week.

8. Skill Up.

First attempt at jam making with the marmalade, first beef stock, first use of the pressure canner, and...

I made corn tortillas!  Amazingly enough, I found the masa harina in my local grocery store and decided to finally use it. And wow - EASY! Just corn flour and water, mix, rest, roll out and cook. I've since read some people add salt and/or lime juice, and both of those would be good additions. And yes, I have to work on my "roll out into a circle" technique :)

One last thing, even though this doesn't really fit here:  I hung sheets out to dry this week. In March. In Canada*. Do you have any idea how happy this made me?

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*Yes, I do know some people hang laundry out year round, and that is how I grew up. I have some "great" memories of my hands freezing as I took frozen laundry off the line, and so I tend not to use the line during the winter. Bad me.

Days of limes and oranges

Sunday was my one day "off" this week (renos are back in full swing!). So, of course, I decided to make marmalade. This was my first attempt at any jam/jelly type thing, so doing it on a day where nothing else was happening was a good thing. And if I hadn't had forgotten to take my brain with me when I went shopping, it would have gone soooo much better.

I had decided to make three different recipes, and thought I had all the ingredients on my list. And since all the recipes list the amount of sugar by volume, but it's sold by weight, I had to figure out how many cups in a package. I wondered a bit when every site I saw said there were only 4 cups in a 2 pound package, but since each site said the same thing...

(Notice my mistake yet?)

One recipe was for blood orange marmalade, since they were on sale for $2.00 a pound. So, I very nicely weighed out 3 pounds of them, wondering a bit when they completely filled a produce bag...

(See it now?)

I got the rest of the ingredients, a couple of other items, all fours packages of sugar, and headed to the checkout.

Where I almost fell over when the blood oranges rang up at over $14.

(Now?)

Yeah. That's it. I live in Canada, and have for my entire life. And we use the metric system, and have been for almost my entire life.

I apparently forgot this, and thus bought twice as much sugar and twice as many blood oranges as I needed.



At least when I'm wrong, I'm consistent...

I started with the easiest recipe Sunday morning, a four-fruit marmalade with naval oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit.

Four-fruit marmalade

After that was done, I started on the first of the two batches of the blood orange marmalade.  It was a bit more labour intensive, but not too bad.

Blood orange marmalade

Needless to say, I was a bit tired after both those batches were done, and I wasn't in the mood to go back to the store when I realized I also didn't write down everything I needed for the third recipe. And by that point, I was re-thinking the effort required for that recipe, so I simply modified the first recipe by replacing the lime with another lemon, and two oranges with my last blood orange and one more grapefruit.

I also forgot to take a picture of it, so look back at the first one, and imagine it a bit more pink :)

Clockwise from top left: Blood Orange, Mixed-Fruit, Four-Fruit

The verdict? They are all tasty, but not perfect. Not bad, mind you, for my first attempt! But the lime peels in the first batch are still too hard and I find that recipe too sweet, the blood orange version didn't set completely, and the last batch is a bit too tart. In the future, I'll make both the four-fruit and blood orange versions again, reducing the sugar a bit for the first, and cooking longer for the second.

But, of course, since I ended up with 15 pints of marmalade, I won't be making any more for quite a while....

It's a good thing I like marmalade!!

Wordless Wednesday - March 7, 2012

2012 Seed Choices, Part 7

The main list is here, Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here.  

Carrots and beets and greens, oh my! And thus, finally, we get to the end of the never ending seed justification :)

One bed this year will get planted with beets and carrots - the so-called root bed. And once again, I have multiple varieties, for multiple reasons. For beets, I want some to can, some to eat fresh, and some to store.

I still have old seeds, as well as the seeds from the great beet challenge of 2011. But my stock of those is low, so I bought some more - of course. And once again, a seed mix has saved me some money: I get to compare three different varieties, as well the three that I already have. And Linda from Tree & Twig was selling a VERY interesting beet this year: 3 root grex. I could try to explain it here, but Margaret, from "A Way to Garden", does such a good job, so go there to read about it. I'll wait ;) Final total: 6 varieties of beets.

For carrots, as well, I want some for both fresh eating and storage. Both Scarlet Nantes and Chantenay Red Cored are said to be good storage carrots, and a mix of different coloured carrots will give me some variety for fresh eating. And a total of 6 varieties.

I'm starting to think I'm addicted to seed mixes....

The last bed will be a mixture of greens and the oddballs.  Lettuce, of course - a leaf mix and a romaine mix (really, it's cheaper to buy mixes vs. all the individual varieties!  Really!!), as well as a butterhead lettuce variety (I love sweet, tender butterheads!), and Cracoviensis, which is said to be a cold-tolerant variety. As lettuce seed doesn't store well, I have no old seed to use up (which is probably a good thing!). I also plant Swiss chard and spinach in this bed - one variety of spinach, and two of chard, for a total of 14 varieties.

I need professional help.

 But wait, there's more!

I'm trying celeriac again - I planted it two years ago by direct seeding, and it didn't do much. So this year, I'm starting the seeds inside, and will try again. And, since I use a LOT of celery in my cooking, I decided to try and grow it. Adding two more varieties to the grand total.

This last one, I'm blaming solely on my friends from Texas. I tried fried okra there for the first time this past fall, and loved it. So it too is going in the garden, and of course, I can't plant just one type. So let's add both red and green okra to the heap.

30 more varieties to add to the total. So what's the final tally? I have no idea, and I refuse to add them all up.

I can justify (almost) every variety I'm planting this year. It's a combination of planting to compare varieties, to fulfill different roles, for hardiness in different seasons, as well as a few just for interests sake. It all sounds so reasonable... right up until it comes time to plant everything!

HELP!

Monday Morning Music - March 5, 2012

A weekly post, featuring a song that has had some influence on me in the past week.

Yesterday, I made four batches of marmalade. And, as I normally do, I had music playing while I was working.

How fitting is it that this song came up? Yes, I do like old fold music - in fact, I actually went to see this group play in Buffalo when I was still in high school. In the 80s. I think I was the youngest person in the theater!



"Lemon Tree", by Peter, Paul and Mary.

2012 Seed Choices, Part 6

The main list is here, Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here.  

And now onto another big group, the legumes. Legumes are one of the best sources of non-animal protein, and while I'm an unapologetic omnivore, I still like the idea of being able to grow protein in my garden. Last year, I planted a small trial of dry beans, along with green beans, peas and peanuts (yes, peanuts grow in Ontario). The peanuts did nothing (wrong soil type, I think), but the dry beans did great. 

So, of course, that means I have to plant every variety possible, right. Yeah.

Do you have any idea how MANY dry bean varieties there are? If you are basing your choice on what's available in your local grocery store, you will be very wrong.

I have 12 varieties to plant - and that's the tip of the iceberg. And I might end up with even more - I still have to put in one seed order, and there are a few from that supplier I'd like to try...

I can see me turning into a dry bean hoarder.

Which is ironic, since the one and only time my Mom tried to get me to eat pork & beans as a child, I threw up at the table.

Too much information? Sorry :)

But yes, I'm new to the dry bean world and apparently, my tastes have changed in the last mumblemumble years - and like many a new convert, I'm prone to ramble on and on about my conversion. But yeah - dry beans: easy to grow, easy to store, easy to cook, great source of protein. What's not to like?

I addition to the dry beans, I'm trying lentils as well, but I actually don't expect them to do well - they, like chickpeas, can be very susceptible to disease, and grow better in a more arid climate, like the Canadian prairies. Did you know Canada is one of the largest growers (and exporters) of lentils and chickpeas? But hey - I saw the seeds for sale at Seedy Saturday, and decided to try them. Won't work if I don't try, right?

And of course, I'm also growing peas, both snow (1 variety) and regular (2 varieties), and pole beans (3 varieties). And roma beans as well. Which is Switzerland's fault. Really.

Of course there is a story behind that! I was lucky enough to go to Switzerland for work a few years ago, and one meal I had was a very nice soup with these amazing, tender, HUGE flat podded beans. They were at least an inch wide, and I've been scouring seed catalogs for the past few years, trying to find out what they were. The closest I can come up with are roma-type green beans, but they aren't exactly the same. However, I still have some old seed, so they'll be planted this year, and I'll continue my search. Any ideas?

And the last oddball of the group is the winged pea, aka asparagus pea. 

 A definite novelty, but worth the space in the garden, just to see (and taste) it.

So, the legumes. 21 varieties and counting...

                     

2012 Seed Choices, Part 5

The main list is here, Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here.  

And now we move on to the solanums, which include peppers, potatoes and, of course, tomatoes. I'm actually surprised I don't have more varieties here, as this is generally the one group that inspires even the most restrained gardener to plant more than they have room for!

I'm planning on one whole bed of potatoes this year: the small trial planting did really well last year, and so this year, I'll increase the amount planted. I don't have the varieties listed here, as I'll buy the seed potatoes in bulk from one of the local feed stores. That tends to be the most economical way to buy, as they sell them by the pound. Buying through mail order means buying a larger amount of each variety, plus paying for shipping. And potatoes are heavy! Of course, buying locally means the available varieties are limited, but I'm willing to accept that trade-off.

For tomatoes, I try to plant three different types: a plum tomato for canning (whole and sauce, plus salsa and chili sauce), a "beefstake" type for fresh eating (and the excess also gets canned, of course), and a cherry tomato, since there is no better reward for gardening than walking outside and popping a perfectly ripe, sun-warmed cherry tomato into your mouth.

I've been planting different varieties each year, and I've yet to find a "perfect" variety. Like other crops, I still have some two-year old seed, but I also splurged on new varieties this year, like Stupice for an early producer, and Jaune Coure de Pigeon, a yellow cherry. So, 11 varieties in all, but the 3 old ones may not make the cut, depending on how much space I want to allocate. As tomatoes tend to be gold in terms of neighbourhood currency*, there is no such thing as too many plants ;)

I still have some of my original sweet pepper seed as well, and added two new varieties this year: King of the North (a green to red bell) and Marconi Sweet Red, a red shepherd-type, for a total of five varieties.

Hot peppers, for some reason, is where I go insane. I want to plant each and every variety I find, which, considering I don't eat a lot of them, boggles the mind! Jalapeno (for salsa) and cayenne (for drying) are mainstays, and I added four other varieties this year. A couple are traditional pickling varieties, and I'm also planting some Ancho peppers, just to see if I can smoke them, dry them and grind them up as chili powder. So, six varieties in total.


Not counting the potatoes, 22 varieties.

I am insane. I really am.
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*No, really. I share every year with family, of course, as well as the neighbours on both sides, but I've heard a rumor of someone living down the street who is willing to trade composted horse manure for tomatoes. Sweet!

Independence Days Challenge - Week 4

1. Plant Something.

I started all the brassica seeds, except the Brussel sprouts. With so much going into the garden this year, and the fact that I can take them or leave them, well, they just didn't make the cut. I also started the celeriac, which I apparently missed last week :)

2. Harvest Something.

Nada. It's still February March! But I noticed the other day there are green things starting to show in the garden....

3. Preserve Something.

Nothing this week. But I did make another batch of my homemade hot chocolate mix.

4. Waste Not.

I made pulled pork again last week (at the request of family members who were helping with drywall - I guess they liked it?), and really didn't want to throw away the bone, which still had a good amount of meat still on it. So, I chucked it in a pot, added water to just cover and some diced onions, carrots and celery, and simmered it until the meat fell off the bones. I added some rice, canned beans, diced jalapenos and some spices - my first ever bean soup! I wasn't too keen on it when it first came off the stove, but the next day, re-heated for lunch?  YUM!! And so cheap!

5. Want Not.

I bought some cheddar cheese that was on sale, to add to the stash. I grate it before I freeze it, and can use it for making cheddar-jalapeno biscuits, topping meals like chili, and even to make grilled cheese sandwiches.

6. Eat the Food.

Leftover veggie soup from last week, leftover pulled pork, leftover chili from the family meal... I love leftovers. And they were all so much better accompanied by the buns from the canning swap - I REALLY have to learn to make bread!

And since I was cleaning and chopping veggies anyway for the bean soup, I made a pot of pasta sauce with homemade sausage, the tomatoes from the canning swap, and, of course, diced onions, celery and carrots.

7. Build Community Food Systems.

Attended "Niagara in Jars", the first local canning swap meet.

8. Skill Up.

I really have to stop using this challenge as justification for buying books :) But, after hearing about this book from two different sources in the same week, and then seeing it at the bookstore I went to after the canning swap, I figured it was fate!

Two of Twelve

The second Christmas gift installment* took place last Sunday. Everyone came over for lunch, which was two different types of chili - my family's traditional meat and bean chili and a vegetarian chili. And bread, of course.

And are you surprised I don't follow a recipe for either chili?

The meat and bean chili starts with browning ground beef and pork (I like the flavour the pork adds, but Mom always made it with just beef, which is also good). Then I toss in diced onions, carrots and celery and let them cook down for a bit (good cooks would remove the meat first. I'm not a good cook). Then add some tomatoes, either whole or sauce - I tend to use both, but use what ever you have. And let it simmer for a good long time - the longer, the better. About 30-60 minutes before serving, or whenever, add some kidney beans (either canned or pre-cooked dry beans). As the beans are already cooked, they really only have to heat through, but I often add them at the same time I add the tomatoes - it's easier that way! Season with chili sauce, salt and pepper, thyme to taste. Since this is a long cooking dish, I go light with the seasoning at the start, and taste and adjust just before serving. If you like some spice, a few dashes of hot sauce will do the trick - but again, add at the end!

The vegetarian chili is based on a recipe from Looney Spoons, but now I just make it without the recipe (of course). I start with diced onion, carrots and celery. Then, once those are cooked down a bit, I toss in some mushrooms and diced sweet peppers. Add some canned whole tomatoes (or diced, but not sauce), black beans and corn. Season with salt and pepper, thyme and a good amount of cumin and chili powder. For this version, I like ancho chili powder - it adds a smokiness that goes really well with the cumin. This is a quick chili, and doesn't need to be simmered for any length of time.

Both versions are endlessly adaptable, and can be stretched by serving them over rice, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, or any other starchy food. I honestly can't say which version is my favourite: if I have the time to let it cook, the meat version is fantastic, but I also like the smokey flavour and quick-cooking of the veggie version. I also love the fact that both versions can be made with local ingredients.

For bread, I tried this recipe for cheesy pull-bread. And this is a great example of when my not following recipes jumps up and bites me in the... behind. I decided both cheese and butter was overkill, and so omitted the butter. Next time, I'll use the butter. The bread was still good (I made one with diced jalapenos, one without), but it would have been better if I had followed the recipe. My bad!

I also had a loaf of plain Italian bread and butter, and was going to make cornbread as well (I love chili and cornbread), but realized it is possible to have too much bread, even when feeding a crowd :)

No wine was served (hey, peeps, it was lunch!), and there won't be wine next month either. Because next month? Breakfast! Yum!!

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*Instead of Christmas gifts for the adults in the family this year, I'm having everyone (including the kids) over for one meal every month. Yes, I am crazy.

Wordless Wednesday - February 29, 2012

I can haz belly rubs please?