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?

Swap meet, canning style!

Yes, you read that correctly - I went to my first ever canning swap Sunday afternoon. It was organized by Tiffany, the writer behind "Eating Niagara", a great blog for anyone interested in our local food resources.

It was held at a local restaurant (who stayed open at a time they are normally closed, just for the event - thanks, Rise Above Bakery!), and set up so that you got one ticket for every item you brought, and could exchange the tickets for items you wanted. I think that's a good set up, since items that are normally canned in small lots (like jellies) can be a lot more expensive to make, as compared to things like tomato sauce or other items traditionally canned in quarts. For me, I'm quite happy with what I ended up with!

I traded 2 jars each of my bread & butter pickles, chili sauce and hot salsa for tomato and basil pasta sauce, mulberry jelly, cranberry ketchup, red eye hot sauce, Rosewood's Wildflower honey, and four rolls, still warm from the oven. One roll didn't make it past supper, and oooh, was it good!

I was really surprised at the variety of canned goods there, in addition to other items: home made soap, the fresh baked bread (in addition to the rolls, there were 4-5 other loaves), herbs and perennial plants (Egyptian onions and Jerusalem artichokes), knitted washcloths, and I'm sure some things I'm forgetting.

I was also surprised at the variety of people. Attended by around 30 people, there was a range of ages, from the very young to, well, older than me, and a surprising number of men - and some of whom came on their own, and weren't dragged along by their wives. I know it sounds sexist, but so often things like this tend to attract mainly women, so it's a nice change to see the other side actively involved!

I am so glad I went - and thanks again to Tiffany, for having the initiative to organize this event! Now, to start thinking about what to make for next year...

Monday Morning Music - February 27, 2012

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

All this talk about onions has, of course, reminded me of this song.

Which is also happens to be my favourite instrumental ever.



"Green onions", by Booker T & the MGs.

2012 Seed Choices, Part 4

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

And now, the cucurbits: cucumbers, melons and squash. Oh, squash - my favourite thing to grow (other than tomatoes, of course!). And yet, it remains my number one crop failure: a handful of zuchinni zucchinni zucchini each for the last two year, and a few spaghetti squash the first year.

That's it.

But, I am determined to try, try again. This year, I'll resort to row covers, even though that means excluding the pollinators along with the pests. Which means hand pollinating - oh, joy! Of course, that also means I can attempt to save seeds...

Squash is one of those crops which makes me long for a larger yard. I really do get carried away with the number of varieties I plant, considering the limited space I have. Of course, trellising helps, and this year, I might try some summer squash and cucumbers in planters, leaving more room for the larger winter squash in the actual garden.

I have a few seeds left from two years ago, but I didn't get great germination last year, so I bought a few new varieties this year. And I actually limited myself to one zuchinni zucchinni zucchini. As much as I like zuchinni zucchinni zucchini, I really don't eat enough of it to justify more than one plant, and it's one of the rare vegetables I do NOT like preserved in any manner - like asparagus. Eat it fresh, or don't eat it.

So, one variety of zuchinni zucchinni zucchini, two of cucumbers (one pickling, one eating), one spaghetti squash, and three winter squash.

But I still have those old seeds, and can't bring myself to just throw them out. So, I'll see if they germinate, and if so, I'll find room for them somewhere!

The final cucurbit tally:  7 new varieties, 7 old, which may or may not grow, for a total of 14. Yikes! But not too bad, considering how much squash I'd grow if I had more room....

    

2012 Seed Choices, Part 3

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

Brassicas! I don't think any other family can match the cabbage family for it's diverse selection of edible plants.

And it's that diversity that makes it hard to narrow down one's seed selections to just a few. At least that's what I tell myself ;)

Some brassicas I'm growing this year are new to me - like collards and cauliflower. I've never actually eaten collards before, but I tend to like all others members of this family, and I like eating greens, so odds are I'll like collards as well. And it's worth the $3.00 for seeds and a few square feet of the garden to try collards this year, and see how they grow.

As some, like the rutabaga and turnips, are from seeds I've had for two years, but have yet to plant. Yeah, I suck ;)

Of course, they, along with the one variety of Brussel sprouts, don't make up the majority of varieties in this group. So, what's with all the kale, cabbage, broccoli and radishes?

Well...

Let's start with the broccoli. ANY geek worth the title grows romanesco, of course, since it is so freakin' cool in such a fractally, Fibonacci sorta way. As for the true broccoli: Captain is from my seed stash, and is a hybrid, and I want to compare it to an open-pollinated variety, hence the Green Goliath. And Spigiarello provides a main head, then a good number of shoots after the main head is harvested, prolonging the harvest. So I'll compare those three varieties directly to see which performs the best for me.

And kale. I never knew, before I started looking at seed porn catalogs, just how many types of kale there were! But which will grow best in my garden? Which will be the best for overwintering? Which will tolerate the summer heat the best? I have no idea. But I do have choices: buying packs of individual varieties, or opting for the small gardener's best friend: the seed mix. Which is, of course, what I did. For the price of one pack of seeds, I get to compare three varieties of kale, plus the Winterbor from my seed stash. Seed mixes are cheaper that buying the individual varieties, and I won't waste as much seed if I decide not to grow one or more varieties again.

The radishes are a similar story: I wanted to try a few different ones this year, so I bought two different seed mixes, plus the ones from my stash. And radishes are such a small, quick crop, planting that many varieties doesn't actually take up too much space.

 
The cabbage selections are a bit different though. Here, I'm selecting varieties for different harvest times: a quick-growing early cabbage as well as storage cabbages for fall harvest. Two of the varieties come from the seed stash, and three, including the early variety (Early Jersey Wakefield) are new this year. And of course, the napa cabbage. I might possibly add some other Asian greens, like bok choi, that also belong in this family. We'll wait and see what's available locally (I have one local garden center that sources seeds from one of my favourite of the "big" guys, the Ontario Seed Company, so I don't mind buying some seeds off the rack vs. ordering them from a catalog).

So, what do you get when you add a very diverse family, a couple variety trials and selecting for different harvest times?

28 different varieties, that's what!

Independence Days Challenge - Week 3

1. Plant Something.

Yes - four varieties of onions, leeks and celery!

2. Harvest Something.

Nada. It's still February!

3. Preserve Something.

Nothing this week.

4. Waste Not.

Just adding more scraps to the stock pot (ha!).

5. Want Not.

Nothing. The sales haven't been good enough for me to buy anything, and I don't really need much of anything (other than perishables, of course).

6. Eat the Food.

I made a big batch of vegetable soup, mostly from pantry or freezer items, this week. I ate more than that, of course, but for the life of me, I can't remember what. I think maybe I need to start tracking my meals, so I can assess how well I am at eating local foods?

7. Build Community Food Systems.

Nothing this week.

8. Skill Up.

Again with the books!

My local used book store is a treasure trove of old books. The "Putting Food By" is the 1975 edition, and I know I'll have to double check processing times, but the recipes and instructions were worth the $10 price tag, at least to me. And the sausage book - written in 1969, by an apparent comedian (quote: "When wurst comes to wurst"), it is a fantastic glimpse into the past as far as sausages go. It has both recipes for making different types of sausage and for cooking with sausage. The sausage making recipes are a bit vague, but the others are great, and at $3.50, it's the cheapest cookbook I've ever bought!

I've added a page with a list of other blogs participating in the challenge, so please, go check them out as well, and if I've missed any, please let me know!

2012 Seed Choices, Part 2

Part one is here. 

I realize that growing over 100 different varieties of annual garden plants is a bit... odd. Most (sane) people get by with one or two different varieties of each plant they grow, so why do I have so many?

Because you can take the woman out of the science lab, but you can't take the science lab out of the woman :)

In other words, I'm still trying to pick the varieties that do well here. This is the time to grow as many different things as I can, since I do not have to rely 100% on the garden to feed me. If I have a failure, as disappointing as it is (and yes, I am looking at you, squash crop that failed for the second year running!), it's not the end of the world. So I want to experiment now, in order to eventually narrow it down to the varieties that are suited to my garden and my tastes.

I also grow different varieties to fill different roles  - and onions are a great example of this.

I'm growing seven different types of onions this year, plus leeks and three varieties of garlic. Yeah, I know, most people only grow one or two, but...

I need (want!) storage onions (both red and yellow), onions for canning (both small ones for pickling and large ones for use in things like salsa) and onions for fresh eating. I've only grown large onions from sets before, and while they are a good choice, the varieties available are limited, and cost can start creeping up, especially if you are ordering them from a catalog and have to pay for shipping. 

So this year I decided to try seeds. I picked Ailsa Craig for a large, white fresh eating onion, Rossa di Milano for a red storage onion, Australian Brown for a yellow storage onion, and White Pickling for a pickling onion (obviously!). I'm also going to compare the other varieties against the White Pickling, to see if I can't simply use one of them, at a smaller size, for pickling. And you can't forget green onions scallions (most people call them green onions, but they're really scallions). I still have seed from two years ago, which quite possibly won't grow (onion seeds don't last long) so I bought more this year, forgetting that I had also bought some last year. Oh well! So, I have Hardy White Bunching (old seed), Evergreen Bunching and Southport White Globe for green onions scallions. 

And that's how you very quickly get to seven varieties for one crop ;)

The first year I grew garlic, I simply grabbed a head from the grocery store, pulled apart the cloves and planted them in early spring. And it worked okay. I got a few heads - not enough to last the entire winter, but not bad. Last year, I did the same thing, but planted them at the traditional time, in fall. And every last one of them rotted in the ground. Sigh. This year, I grabbed three different heirloom varieties from a local farm stand, and I'm waiting until spring to plant them. Of course, it would have been nice if I had labelled the *$&@% things, but as it stands, I know one of the varieties but can't remember what the other two are. Kids, don't be like me: write things down!

Leeks are a new crop for me this year, and so just I have one variety (Blue Solaise), for a quick look-see to assess how they grow, how they keep, and whether or not it's worth growing them at all. If I decide to continue growing them, next year I'll add more varieties to see which is the best for me. And that's the general plan for new crops: a small trial the first year, with a large planting with different varieties in the following years, eventually leading to picking one (or more) to grow from then on.

So that sums up this year's allium crops, all 11 varieties. Yikes!

Katy says to get the dratted seeds packs off of her cushion, so she can have a nap. Lazy dog!

Wordless Wednesday - February 22, 2012

Mine