Hi friends~
It all started when I married a man with allergies. Over time, I learned to cook sugar-free, wheat-free, and even dairy-free. Try to stick to those restrictions and make lunch for a carpenter with a warp-drive metabolism! But, we did it. Now, fortunately, he can eat all those formerly forbidden things, but that experience—more than two decades ago--triggered a desire to live as healthily as possible. Bit-by-bit I left behind artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives, and moved on to whole grains and organics. With last year’s garden, I began treading into the realm of homegrown organics. I’ve also uncovered local sources of organic raw cow’s milk and goat milk, organically raised and pasture-fed beef, pork, and poultry, and delicious eggs from happy, beautiful hens running free (well, they are fenced.) Then, I learned how to preserve it all. Now, my next food goal is to eat more fermented and cultured foods. I’m becoming one of the “counter culture” people. Yep, I’m going to be culturing yogurt, kefir water, and sourdough on my kitchen counter!
Last week, when I attended my monthly chapter meeting of the Weston A. Price Foundation, our lovely leader Nancy, of Rising Health Wellness Center, had brought in a guest speaker: Julie, of Cultures for Health. Julie told us about the health benefits of live foods, teeming with friendly bacteria of all sorts and virtually popping with dynamic enzymes. The food, not Julie. Well, actually, Julie, too, I guess. The best part? Culturing foods is easy to do. Buy a culture starter and make your own sourdough breads, replace soda pop with kefir water, and savor the flavor of your homemade yogurt. Fill your body with lots of good bacteria and stay healthy with home cultured foods! Check out Cultures for Health; they’re newbie-friendly. Gotta run, the mail lady just delivered my cultures!
Environmentally,
~Deb What will you do for your planet?
Did you know you don’t need a water bath canner to can? Any saucepan or stockpot with a lid that is tall enough to allow a rack, your canning jars, 1 to 2 inches of boiling water, and 1 to 2 inches of space above the boiling water, works as a canner. Small batch canning is easy: can 4 or 5 half-pints after dinner, let cool over night (don’t touch lids for 12 hours after processing so as not to break the seal), and put in your pantry in the morning. How easy is that?
First, buy the current Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (ISBN 0-9727537-0-2) or borrow it from your library. It has detailed instructions, common sense suggestions, tested recipes and, best of all, pictures! Find a recipe you’d like to try, purchase a few supplies (jars, lids, and rings, and a stockpot), pick up some fresh, ripe fruit or veggies from your farmers market or garden, and make yourself a little fun. By the way, canning jars can be used over and over for about 13 years, and rings last forever. The only thing to replace each time is the lid, only used once.
A half-pint canning jar is approximately 4-1/4 inches tall including the lid. A lidded stockpot 8 to 9 inches in height works perfectly. To prevent thermal shock, you need a small metal rack (¼ to ½ inches high) to place in the bottom of the pan for jars to sit on. Sterilize your jars if processing time is less than 10 minutes—it’s in the Blue Book. Prepare your food product, fill your jars, top with lids and rings, and process according to directions. After 12-24 hours, remove the rings, wipe down the jars, and store up to 3 years. It’s easy!
What can you can in a half-pint jar and a stockpot? Jellies, jams, fruit, fruit syrups (like blueberry pancake syrup-yum!), pie fillings, apple and peach butter, pickles and pickle relishes, chutneys and salsas, tomatoes in all its forms (whole, diced, sauce: tomato, pizza, BBQ, pasta sauce), and--for all you gourmets--flavored vinegars. All of this can be done in a stockpot!
So, what can’t you can? No meat, fish, poultry, shellfish, legumes, or vegetables (pickled veggies the only exception), or combinations that include these things. These are low-acid foods and must be processed in a pressure canner (to 240 degrees) to prevent botulism and other heat-resistant nasty things. Still, there are lots of goodies you can can in your stockpot, so get going!
~Deb
Well, just as I’d hoped, we had a beautiful weekend: sunshine, no rain, and no wind. Perfect for some of the calming grunt labor of gardening as well as the easy poke-seeds-in-dirt fun. As a plus, I look a teeny bit less “Washington White.”
I scrubbed pots inside and out with soapy water (Bi-O-Kleen soap, manufactured right here in my hometown) as a preventive measure—and to wash the moss off the outside. Moss is pretty on the side of a tree, but not so much on the outside of planter pots. (For my friends in Arizona: I know you don’t understand the moss thing, but I think you can Wiki it.)
Yes, my hubby built another raised bed for me and my long-suffering teenager wheelbarrowed the planting mix to fill it. *sigh* Such good kids, those two.
I’ve planted a few garden starts and some seeds directly into the raised beds over the past three weekends. So far I’ve started pumpkin, melon, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, okra, both bush and pole beans, zucchini, three types of tomatoes, three types of peppers, pickling cucumbers, green onion, radishes, carrots, cilantro, basil, parsley, dill, Greek oregano, and cabbage. And, of course, there are those that returned on their own that are growing like crazy: raspberries, peppermint, lavender, Greek and sweet oregano, sage, rosemary, curry, and my rhubarb. I’m still looking for some poblano pepper seeds. We’re considering putting in a potato patch as well. Just a little one. No raised bed required. Besides all this, there are my flower starts! I won’t list all of those today.
I never quite know whether to call sunflower seeds food or flowers. I’ve started at least a dozen (they grow to 10 feet tall), and I plan on harvesting some of the seeds to dry for eating. The rest, though, are for the birds so they’ll visit my garden often to eat pests—like fly larvae aka leaf miner. Those beautiful, tall flowers will also shade my house and my garden when the heat of August arrives.
So, what fun gardening stuff are you doing?
This is my second year of organic gardening. Hoping to avoid problems that plagued me last year, I’ve devoted more time to planning. However, that doesn’t rule out experimentation.
No artichokes or eggplant this year, but I am going to try melons and pumpkin—both heirloom varieties known for rich flavor. This will require an additional raised bed, which my carpenter-husband is still futilely resisting. He’ll come around.
Remember my Godzilla cherry tomato plant? Not repeating that. This year, pushy cherry tomato gets his own pot—and will be pruned regularly. My Brandywine and Amish paste tomato plants will have plenty of elbow room this year, and my cukes get a trellis of their own. Have you ever eaten Nantes carrots? OMG, they’re so sweet, like dessert. This year, I’m growing some. I’ve devoted a whole 4x8 foot bed to strawberries, too!
Determined to conquer the leaf miner this year, I’ve purchased Swiss chard, spinach, and Black Simpson lettuce seeds. Still looking for kale. But! This year, I’m shading my greens with a cheesecloth-covered arch (a la Prairie Schooner) to keep them cooler, and putting flycatchers in that bed. Leaf miners, are you listening?!! I WILL HAVE homegrown greens in my salad this summer!
I’m excited about the garden, and feeling a teeny bit more confident than last year. I’m sure I’ll make brand new mistakes this year. That’s okay. It’s making the same ones over and over that drives me crazy. What about you? Any triumphant gardening stories to tell?
Truly, you should attempt at least some organic gardening if at all possible. Did you know many food plants can be grown in pots? All sorts of herbs and onions and garlic, for instance. A tomato plant grows well in a large pot; strawberries and cherry tomatoes flourish in hanging planters. And you know those 6-inch deep rectangular planters? Perfect for radishes (ready-to-eat in three weeks) and leaf lettuce. Really. Give it a try. Ask friends if they have seeds to share. They all do. But! If you’re not inclined to try this, what then?
Community Supported Agriculture, otherwise known as CSA’s. I’ve blogged about them before, but here’s a quick explanation. Farmers using sustainable or organic farming techniques offer shares of the harvest to community members for a modest investment. This entitles the shareholder to a weekly box of a variety of veggies, fruit, herbs, eggs…whatever the farmer raises over the harvest season. If the share costs too much for you alone, ask a friend to go in with you. Some CSA farmers offer half-shares for singles or small families. To find a CSA near you, go to LocalHarvest.org. But! If this is not for you, what then?
Some communities have city-owned plots of land of varying sizes you can lease over the harvest season. Call your city offices for information. Okay, not interested in getting dirt under your nails?
Support your local farmers markets. We want to encourage our local farmers to continue to provide nutritious, pesticide-light, sustainably raised food for us, don’t we? So, buy their stuff! The perks? We get produce that was likely picked that very morning, ripe and nutritious, and costing less than supermarket price. The farmer, on the other hand, gets to remain viable doing what he loves. And we make new friends.
Another suggestion? Subscribe to Organic Gardening magazine or Mother Earth News. You’ll be chomping at the bit to turn up some dirt next year!