Preview

Know what time it is??

Its time to start canning! It's true!

So in the next two weeks or so you'll be seeing plenty of recipes, old and new, and a lot of information regarding the preservation of the summer harvest.

I'll be starting with peaches, strawberry jam and cherry pie filling. After that, whole tomatoes, and then tomato sauce. Green beans and corn will come soon too, and of course, this year's newest addition to my food storage - sweet pickles!

So join me in the 2011 canning marathon! Head to your neighborhood Rural King or other Middle American general store and stock up on quart and pint jars, get your stock pots and pressure cookers out and cleaned up and don't forget the lids! It's time to PRESERVE the HARVEST!

Zucchini Pickles - Now With Pictures

Did you know that those green summer squashes that half of your family, children and friends refuse to eat are good for more than just zucchini bread? It's true! And just to prove it, I'll be posting a few of the recipes I have found over my last 5 years of intensive gardening.

This recipe is from my Grandma Betty, whom, as I've mentioned before, has given me pretty much all of my personality traits and character flaws. It's a spin on the classic cucumber and onion pickles recipe.

Needed:
2 fresh, firm zucchini
2 small onions
1/4 cup of pickling salt
2 cups white granulated sugar
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp mustard seed
3 cups cider vinegar (4-6% acidity)

Wash zucchini and slice into thin slices or strips. Peel and cut onions into quarters, then slice thinly. Add to zucchini. Cover zucchini and onions with water. Add salt and soak for about 2 hours. Drain.

Bring remaining ingredients to a boil and heat thoroughly, about 5 minutes. Combine vinegar and zucchini/onion mixture and put into a large clean container. Keep refrigerated and serve chilled.

This recipe can also be processed for canning! Seal in jars after combining hot vinegar and zucchini/onion mix and refrigerate after opening.

The Trash Pile

There is a little section of my garden that I refer to as the trash pile. It is the area under a bradford pear tree (I hate this tree - it shades prime real estate, has stinky flowers in the spring and drops nasty little fruits all over the patio every fall) where I let the weeds grow rampant and where I pile up all the 'trash' at the end of the growing season.

It's not really a compost pile because I have a compost pile on the other side of the yard. This is just the place where I dump stuff. And I usually find treasures here when the new growing season starts. This year is no different than any other year.

The Trash Pile is currently home to 7 chamomile plants, mountains of catnip, and a few stray tomatoes. Truth be told, I have tomato plants popping up in such large quantities that I am giving them away to friends and family members. They have been showing up in such random places that I wonder why I bothered saving seeds from them at all.

I stepped on a thorn tonight and also ran another thorn into my thumb. Yes I know that there are things called shoes and gloves, but honestly, I just love to feel the dirt under my feet and in my hands. Even as I am typing this, I am still pretty well covered in mud.

I've been thinking about renting the church kitchen and having a 'canning' party later this season. Lord knows I'm going to have more tomatoes than I will know what to do with! As we get further into the year, I feel more strongly about preparing and helping others prepare for times to come. Maybe it's the fact that I cannot buy groceries for $50 a week anymore. ($87 this week - and I tried to get only sale items.) Maybe it's the dire economic predictions, the political scene and the state of our country in general. I don't know. But it's on my heart to prepapre and help others know how to prepare. Plus - canning in a group could be a LOT of fun.

Pickled Beets and Purple Eggs

I have a wonderful memory of my Grandpa Orlin, who was my greatest inspiration and hero. It's not my favorite memory, but it's a beautiful one to me just the same. We always had certain foods when I went to Grandma and Granpa's house in the country. We always had tapioca pudding, applesauce over white bread and butter, oatmeal with milk for breakfast, green beans from the garden and sweet corn from my Uncle Dwayne's farm down the road. And pickled red beets with hard boiled eggs.

I just planted 5 rows of red beets in the garden and it made me remember sitting on the patio at the glass-topped table and Grandpa came out of the garage with a big plastic bucket full of purple juice that would permanently stain anything it came in contact with and said "Who wants purple eggs?!"

And my sister and I would say "Eggs aren't purple! Eggs are white!" And he would chuckle and dish out pickled red beets and hard boiled eggs that had been stained purple with beet juice. Carrie would never touch the beets, but it was one of our 'special' foods that we only got at Grandma and Grandpa's.

So in about 9 weeks, I'm going to say "Who wants purple eggs?!" And even if there are no takers, I'll be sitting on the patio, staining my teeth and tongue with beet juice, thoroughly enjoying my pickled beets and purple eggs. :)

Heat Wave

It's almost 40 degrees Farenheit here in Northern Indiana right now, and I actually just ran outside in short sleeves with no coat! Just for a moment though, it isn't THAT warm yet. But I think it's funny what our bodies do to adjust to fluctuating temperatures. In September, 40 degrees is downright frigid, but in February, after 2 full weeks of single digits and negative temps, 40 degrees is practically a heat wave!

I talk a lot about the Territorial Seed Company, which was brought to my attention when I started reading a book by Steve Solomon, founder of Territorial Seed, titled Gardening When It Counts. I requested a catalogue from them last year, but I wasn't prepared to purchase anything yet. This year I am. And with the recent success of my etsy shop, all those sold baby shoes are going to help finance this year's garden, which I am expecting to be a showstopper.
To begin with, I heard on the news yesterday that there is a drought in China's wheat belt, and a cold snap in Mexico that is ruining imported produce. Corn prices are at an all time high, and food prices are expected to triple all across the USA. It will be easier for those of us in the Midwest because we're very close to our food sources, but for those in the city, things could get downright tough. By the way, you can thank good ol' President Nixon for our corn woes. It was at his behest that things like corn-based preservatives, and high fructose corn syrup were put into almost every single food item in the grocery store shelves! It helped people be able to keep their food longer, but it also introduced a dependency on corn that is unsustainable, and has been a chronic suspect in the creation of things like learning disabilities, food allergies and immune system disorders! BUT, you can also thank other presidents for pushing E-85 ethanol fuel production - because that's going to cause an even greater strain on the production of corn products in our country. But I digress...

Anyway, I can see the earliest of golden light coming through the glass in the back door, and the depth of the snow is down to left than 12 inches. We've even got grass poking up here and there! And in between trips to the post office, episodes of 'An Idiot Abroad' and cups of tea, I am going to place the first seed order from Territorial Seed Co. I am quite anxious for fresh produce after the winter's menu of hearty stews and protein-laden dishes. I'm ready for fresh greens, fruit pies, and grilled veggies.

So if you're plotting out your garden in Zones 4-6 right now, remember that March is the time to plant cabbages, peas, lettuces, brussels sprouts, beets, broccoli, onions and potatoes! Some are quick to grow (lettuces) and some take a looooooooong time (cabbages and onions), but they will be so worth it when they are smiling out from their beds at you in April, ready to be picked and prepared!

This year, I'm going to be very adventurous with the preserving and canning, so I'm warning you ahead of time - there will probably be sauerkraut, every manner of frozen and canned oddity and jellies and jams made from the strangest of fruit combinations. Be ready!

The New American Dream

It's December!

My gardening books and journals are being opened and studied for the coming year. By February there will be cabbage and broccoli seedlings in the greenhouse to put out in the garden as soon as the ground thaws enough. I've been researching tomatoes and peppers, because 2011 is going to be my magic year!

2010's garden was good. I grew a lot of new things that I was really very pleased with. I grew some new herbs that made it all the way through November. I grew cayenne peppers and lots of squash - that I didn't get much fruit from, BUT I learned a lot about how to grow and care for different varieties of squash. And I had 4 large pumpkins! I am definitely making the list of things to try in the coming year.

I am researching a gardening method called Grow Biointensive, also known as "Mini-farming". Since I live in the city on a 40 foot lot that both of my next door neighbors have encroached on from both sides (making my lot more like 36 feet) I don't have a lot of room. And our house faces the west, so we really don't have a lot of sun, except on the side that faces the south. I am going to try to remedy that this year. I do, fortunately, have two long strips of dirt, about 3 feet wide and 25 feet long that are a good size for the intensive gardening method. One of those strips is full of white quartz landscaping rocks - which are hideous! - but I am planning on moving those rocks to the north side of the garage, when there is no sun.

I have been hearing the whispers of the "Old Way" for about a year. Every Autumn I feel this little voice inside of me begin to nudge "Provide....hold back.....preserve....provide! Winter is coming!" Sometimes I wonder if there are mutant squirrels sending ESP messages to my brain, but then again, there IS a little farmgirl deep down inside of me. Grandpa and Grandma taught me the importance of food preservation. Yes, on occasion, I do turn on the political talk shows, and I was shocked to hear 3 out of 5 political pundits talking about the costs of food rising and how we should be teaching ourselves food storage and preservation because a time may be coming that food in the grocery store isn't affordable. And that is just good advice in general! Everyone should keep at least an extra week's food in storage, but I have challenged myself to find a way to store 6 months worth of food for us.

Hooray for the Midwest!! Do you know how much I love living in the Midwest? I can ride my bike to a Farmer's Market. I can drive 15 minutes in any direction and find a berry farm. There are 4 apple orchards within a 45 minute drive from our house. And I have learned the locations of 3 small local butchers. Put that in your pipe and smoke it all you Big City Folks. When you can't afford your food, we 'yokels' in the farmlands will be just fine.

Okay, sorry, that might have been uncalled for. My best friend is visiting from Los Angeles, and when the two of us get on a rant about the spoiled lives of those on the West Coast, the feelings sometimes last for days afterwards. Either way, we still get a chuckle out of mocking the 'big city folks'. :)

Anyway, this week we're going to make and can pasta sauce and applesauce. Alex told me last week that he's tired of canned Italian. Particularly, one night I had boiled the spaghetti noodles and unceremoniously dumped half a jar of store brand marinara over them and stirred. His actual words were "That's not made with Love". This seems to be a new kick my husband is on. He can apparently tell when the food I make doesn't have my Love in it. And of course, being the picky little turd that he is, he doesn't like it, eats half of it and the pushes it back across the table at me. So I am on a quest to create my own recipe of pasta sauce that has the special, and obviously necessary, ingredient of Love in it, that Alex will eat. 

I gave our household an ultimatum this year - reduce the grocery costs to $50 per week. I am proud to say that we have done it! For my 2011 New Year's resolution, I would like to reduce it even more! I would really like to get it down to $35 per week and stop buying store bought canned goods altogether and try to stick to fresh produce and ingredients entirely.

To the kitchen! It's time to bake Christmas cookies!