The Garden is Humming, Now What?

Time in the kitchen is an important part of our daily lives, both B and I enjoy cooking and the kids have also shown interest in making their own recipes.  Never is our time in the kitchen so intense as come August.  Until now we have one crop at a time coming in that we eat and preserve; rhubarb, raspberries, peas, each coming in their own window.  Right now begins the onslaught.  Every spare moment will involve cutting, blanching, roasting, baking, and the hiss, hiss, hiss sound as the pressure caner works overtime.  

It can be easy to get lost in getting everything put up, so we also make an added effort to cook out of the garden daily.  This can be to the kids chagrin as they have decided that we do not grow the good vegetables.  Ha!  I challenge you to name a vegetable we do not grow, or like corn can get so easily grown locally.  Kids! :)  A favorite they do agree on is zucchini bread.  I baked six loaves yesterday, a great start on my freezer stock.  It is a go to weekend breakfast treat during the winter.

We were about 50/50 kid approval wise of what we made this week.   They liked the jalapeno poppers and the Indian Spiced Corn Soup that I made last night.  I got a neutral on the Late Summer Minestrone soup that I got from this months Living Magazine, which was great by the way.  They were less than thrilled with the Borscht.  They both love beets, but I guess they just want them roasted, not in the form of a pink soup.

Zucchini Bread

3 C Flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
3 tsp. Cinnamon
3 Eggs
2 C Sugar
3 tsp. Vanilla
1 C Vegetable Oil
3 C Shredded Zucchini

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl combine dry ingredients, mix together, and set aside.  In a stand mixer beat eggs, add sugar, vanilla, and vegetable oil and mix until well combined.  Add shredded zucchini (you can use any summer squash, I suggest squeezing the surplus liquid from it before adding to the batter).  Mix until well combined, then add dry ingredients and mix.  Split batter between two loaf pans and bake for 1 hour or until a tooth pick comes out clean.  You can also add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts to the batter before splitting into pans, but I tend to leave them out in case I want to take a loaf to a party or give as a gift, I do not have to worry about nut allergies.  Enjoy.

In the Garden :: July 15

As promised here is a garden update, hard to believe that it has only been just over ten days since my initial summer garden update.

We are eating fresh from the garden many nights, and though full yields have not come in yet, with our recent bout of warm weather, things are coming on increasingly every day.

The squash and cucumber plants have tripled in size and giant blossoms are open in the early morning.

The berries will be ready for picking within the next couple of days, I am already dreaming of those wonderful raspberry scones.

With the garden beginning to produce, so too comes the time to start preserving surplus for future months.  The last several years I have done lots of red currant jelly, which the kids love.  Last years harvest was so abundant, I still have some stores remaining.

So this year to mix things up a bit, and in anticipation of the home grown proteins that are heading toward the freezer, I branched out into a red currant chutney.  The initial batch is really quite delicious, I think that it will be perfect to use as a marinade.  My initial currant harvest yielded just over five cups of fruit, so I calculated 2 1/2 times the recipe and it made two cups of chutney, plenty to portion out into 1/2 cup servings and freeze.  Do you have any tried and true currant recipes?  If so, please share!

#100HappyDays :: Day 59

I have been contemplating tying a scape pesto, and since yesterday I saw a recipe for it and had all of the necessary ingredients at home I decided there was no time like the present.

As I worked through the recipe I tweaked things a bit to get the consistency that I was looking for.  It made a lot and I will have plenty to freeze portions of for a fresh taste come fall and early winter.  We have perennial arugula growing in the garden, meaning some arugula that we let go to seed blew all over and now is coming up like a lush bed of greens.  B suggested that we take a portion of the pesto and blend in a good handful of the greens to add even more to it.  I think that may be on the holiday weekend to do list.  Being able to process home grown items into food that lasts us all year long is always a happy spot in the day.

Garlic Scape Pesto

20 garlic scapes

2/3 C raw almonds

1 1/4 C Parmesan cheese, grated

1 1/4 C olive oil

1 C heavy cream

1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

several good grinds of pepper

Briefly grind together scapes, almonds, cheese, salt and pepper until just combined in a food processor.  Then begin to incorporate the olive oil and heavy cream and process until desired consistency.  A little goes a long way, and is delicious.  For a pound of pasta, we mixed in about 2 heaping tablespoons of the pesto with some pasta water and tossed until the pasta was well coated.

#100HappyDays :: Day 25

We finished our first canning of the season, and tried a new rhubarb bread recipe yesterday.   I always make and freeze several loves of zucchini bread to pull out at various times after the garden season ends.  I believe that the rhubarb bread was a winner and a couple of batches will also be heading to the deep freeze.  We doubled our rhubarb chutney recipe from last year, which I am thrilled with, we will see what other tasks need to be done for next weeks gardening, we may just have to re-visit this recipe again as not to risk running out!  It is a wonderful feeling to begin to enjoy the produce from the garden and preserve it so that we can taste the flavors of early spring in the darker and colder days of winter.

Tedious But Well Worth It

So many farm related tasks can be exercises in monotony and tedium.  With hints of Spring in the air and a thaw underway we are driven with energy again that tends to wane somewhat in the winter months.  We have also noticed that as the new growing season approaches after a long winter, the things that require a lot of time and energy to accomplish and that we swear we will not do again, we are jumping eagerly into.

After a refreshing hike through the snow this morning to check our sap buckets, we decided it was time to finally get the bulk of our garlic from last season preserved.  Peeling hundreds of cloves can make you question your sanity motivation for doing such a task.

But then in a matter of a few hours the beautifully preserved cloves will be done, ready to be added to any number of dishes, or simply spread on a baguette, maybe with a little slice of goat cheese.  Its all about home grown and depth of flavor. so as we sit down to our spaghetti with garlic bread this evening, I know that though the work was tedious, it was well worth it!

Ducks Crossing Roads & Cooking With Hay

Why did the ducks cross the road?  I have no bloody idea!  That was how we began our Sunday.  A kind lady driving up our drive early in the morning to let us know that she just shooed some ducks of the highway.  Sheesh.....these three have gotten curious since the bushes in the tree-row have shed their leaves!  Thus began our final push to winter preparations.  The ducks have now taken up residence in the barn with the egg layers, and no one seems the worse for wear.

The garlic is tucked in under layers of straw to overwinter as it prepares to push shoots up when the ground warms again.  The final leaf collection is complete and we cut town a veritable forest of golden asparagus fronds.  Finally, we harvested and preserved better than 75 leeks.  Whew!

After catching Tom Kerridge's cooking show last weekend we tried his Chicken Baked in Hay and Cider.  Cooking with hay filled the air with an earthy aroma, that smelled amazing.  The flavor was light, but penetrated the meat thoroughly and almost tasted like it had been steamed in tea leaves.  Though somewhat unconventional, we will surly do it again.  I think I may just research other unique cooking methods from days gone by.  Ducks crossing roads and cooking with hay....just a typical Fall weekend!

Charcuterie

For some people creating something brings a great sense of peace and fulfillment.  Slowly expanding the farm over time is that way for us, especially when B can create something in its entirety that we have grown or raised on our own.

Last year was our first foray into charcuterie.  Charcuterie, originally a form of meat preservation

prior to refrigeration, is the process of preserving meats (primarily pork) to develop rich flavors. We got ourselves a pork belly and made our first pancetta.  We loved it and B has spent endless hours researching and learning how to expand this into more and more.

Doing things the natural way, letting the curing and fermenting processes evolve as they were meant to has become a focus for us.  Last week, using a slightly different recipe, we began another pancetta using a Berkshire Pork belly (This pork is the bomb, and the breed that we are looking to raise).  

As each year we expand, this year we are also curing three duck breast pancettas, homestead raised. The meat was absolutely beautiful after its initial sodium curing and after seasoning and rolling in cheese cloth it is now hanging in a temperature controlled area, soon to be incorporated into our holiday meals and beyond.

I would not be surprised if our natural food preservation techniques become an important expansion of our little smallholding as time goes on.

First Canning of the Season

Many times as the summer progresses, Sunday's become our main day for canning.  Yesterday among all of the farm tasks that had to get done, especially those important things at the beginning stages of garden growth, we added our first canning of the season to the mix.  The question is always what to do with the rhubarb.  We have a couple of smaller plants and this mammoth one that is so good to us.  I love to make cakes and crumbles with it fresh, but I tend not to be in the mood for the flavor later on when I crave the stone fruits of summer or heavier winter confections.  Our favorite jellies are the red currents and berries, so I really do not use the rhubarb there.  Last year we pressure canned a lot of rhubarb, and it is still waiting to be used, so it will be added to our next batch of wine.

As I brain-stormed ways to utilize it I began looking for savory recipes.  When I came across the Rhubarb Chutney I began to see the perfect way to use it year round and store volumes of it.  Needless to say the savory spice with the tart rhubarb leads to a perfect chutney to serve as an accompaniment for chicken or pork, puree into a BBQ sauce, or simple pour over a block of soften cream cheese and serve with sesame crackers (must try that this week)!  I think that this recipe will be utilized at least once more this season, maybe twice.  I want to hold onto this tasty stuff for as long as I can this year!

Spicy Rhubarb Chutney

based on a recipe from Accidental locavore

4 lbs rhubarb, chopped 1/2" dice

3 C red onion, diced

8  cloves garlic, minced

5 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced

3 C golden raisins

3 C brown sugar

2 Tbsp kosher salt

2 tsp allspice

2 tsp coriander

4 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

2 C cider vinegar

Place all of the ingredients except the cider vinegar into a large stock pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until onions and rhubarb very soft.  Add cider vinegar and cook for another 30 minutes until the chutney is very thick and will mound on a spoon.  Place into hot jars with 2 part lids and water bath 15 minutes for pints.  Yield 9 pints.

Sugar Sugar

As I mentioned here, we are attempting to collect sap and make our own maple syrup this year.  Yesterday after a week of intermittent temperatures and two good sap flow days that yielded 15 gallons of sap, we decided to cook down what we had collected so far.

Our method of choice was a large propane operated camp stove, which seemed to do the trick quite nicely.  Next time if the snow cover has subsided we may try doing this over a wood burning fire.

Would you expect anything less of a small animal veterinarian, than to have access to the perfect bulk sugaring device?  An unused stainless steel kennel from work was the perfect tool for the job.

As we collected sap during the week, we stored it in a couple of large buckets that we packed in snow.  I suspect by the time we get to cooking next weekend, our snow cover will be sparse, but the nighttime temperatures should continue to work in our favor.

So basically, you do nothing to the sap but cook it, and cook it, and cook it.  The sap is comprised of a great deal of water so your aim is to evaporate all of it off.

Once our volume had reduced from fifteen gallons to about three gallons, in this case seven hours, we poured it into a couple of large stock pots to finish in the house.

The indoor finishing process took an additional three and a half hours.  The sap begins to turn amber, reduce more dramatically, and most importantly taste like maple syrup.  What you are looking for is your syrup temperature to reach seven degrees above where water will boil in your location on that day.  So for us, the temperature we needed was 217 degrees.  You have to be very careful not to cook it over that temperature or you can scorch it.  Trust me, after this time investment, no one wants that to happen.

So at 1:30 am this morning after ten and a half hours of cooking our syrup was jarred and us put to bed.  We learned a few great things, this is truly an easy task, just time consuming and we need to start much earlier next time.  We yielded 4 pints from 15 gallons.  Based on what we ended up with our sugar concentration was  3%  which is what we would expect from sugar maples and so fantastic for the silver maples we are using.  With the weather appearing to be ideal this coming week, we are looking forward to how much we can collect for next weekend.

Random 5 Friday

1.  Grey & Gold::  After months and months of very little rain to speak of, every storm coming through seeming just to skirt around our community, we had two days of grey drizzly weather.  No real volumes to speak of, but a steady drizzle that left wet heavy leaves dripping and falling.  Last night, the sun broke through the clouds just prior to sunset to give us the most dramatic light.  Perfect for taking our evening walk and planning the next steps to our fall finishing in the garden.

2.  Dehydrating::  Maybe it was all of the rain this week, but I have been on a huge dehydrating kick, as I mentioned here.  This morning I put the last of  ripe hillbilly tomatoes in.

3.  Tastebuds::  One of my nearest and dearest friends and member of our close knit tastebuds dinner club had her baby yesterday.  We are all so excited!  Maybe it is because my babies are tweens/ almost teens now, or because this group of people is our family here with ours being so far away, but it has been especially exciting waiting for this baby to come into the fold.    Welcome Charlotte Quinn and a heartfelt congratulations Daniela and Scott!! xo

4.  Sickies::  It has been one of those weeks.  Charles came home from school Monday not feeling well, a cold, no biggie, but the bigger concern the sharp right side abdominal pain and low grade fever.  The kid never complains about anything and this was a big deal for him.  By Wednesday things were subsiding, though we are still watching him closely as he had the low grade fever again last night.  This morning Sidney seems to be falling with the cold.  It has been a horrible allergy season here, yet I am afraid that what I had hoped were continued allergies for myself may be something else.  Between that and the fact that I am care-giving sickies, I am afraid that I won't be able to visit dearest Charlotte in the hospital as not to expose her to anything...this makes me very sad  :(

5.   Farm Chores::  Last Sunday after soccer we brought out the cover for the cold frame, reinforced it and reinstalled it over our budding greens.  Just in time it seems as we had our first light frost in the forecast for that night.  We are hoping for a break in the drizzly weather so things can dry out some and we can get outside and do some more winter prep this weekend.

Happy Friday!

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A Garlicy Kind of Day

a little of the preserved garlic spread made an appearance at B's birthday dinner last night :)

Since it was going to be close to 90 degrees yesterday, we decided to give the tomatoes that are oh so close one more day on the vine.  So what should we do?  Working on getting our masses of garlic preserved seemed to be a good place to start.  A week or so ago we ordered an egg incubator so that we could try a batch of black garlic.  B filled it last night and by bed time we were confident that the temperature was regulating appropriately and we put it out on the porch.  Today the porch has the subtle smell of garlic wafting in the breeze.

I was messaged by the local grocery looking for more garlic (that was 60 heads that they sold in just shy of 3 weeks!)  I had another 35 heads that we dropped off today.

We peeled about 4 lbs worth of cloves and canned 6 half pints of preserved garlic.  Oh my goodness, this is the most decadent, spreadable, tasty stuff in the whole world, and I am tempted to use every last bit of our garlic to just make this!  We got the recipe from Hunter, Angler, Gardner, Cook site.  B does a lot of research on different things around the farm and time and time again, regardless of what he is looking for, this site pops up, and the advise thus far has been great!  As you can see the theme of the day was garlic, today....tomatoes!

Random Five Friday

1.  We are officially in the midst of soccer season.  What could be better than to watch his dedication coupled with pure enjoyment.

2.  These brown sugar oatmeal cookies of PW Woman, are fantastic!!

3.   Remember our bumper garlic harvest??  Well, I sold 60 heads of garlic to a local organic grocery store this week!  So exciting!

4.  Our larder is filling nicely with beautiful canned goods.  My hope is that we can keep our energy high through mid-fall to increase this exponentially. 

5.  One of the first things that we did when we moved to the farm was have a big party and to give it a twist, we made it a chili cook-off.  Over the years it has taken on a life of its own and tomorrow is our 6th installment.  We are running around finishing last minute preparations for around 80 people (almost half of who are children)!   This year we have 7 chili entries and 5 pie entries for their respective competitions.  Who will get to keep the chili pig and the golden rolling pin this year??  What better way to spend the final weekend of summer!?

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A Well Processed Apple

With the fall schedules beginning to take shape, I know what will happen. It will soon be October and we will have not made it apple picking yet. So, we took the opportunity between soccer games at the tournament on Saturday to pick some early season apples....just in case time flies as I suspect.

The apples were small but flavorful, a perfect combination to pack in school lunches and to make a first batch of applesauce.  I can see that I will need to get many more apples processed into sauce, if Charles polishing off an entire pint for breakfast yesterday morning is any indicator of its popularity.

I always love processing garden and fresh picked goodness.  Any waste immediately becomes chicken treats so not really waste at all.  At B's suggestion, we took the apples one step further.  We cooked down all of the cores and skins until they were complete mush.  Then strained the mush through a jelly bag.  We were left with right at 4 cups of the most amazing smelling apple juice, which we immediately added (equal amounts of ) sugar to and cooked to the magic 220 degrees and now also have 6 jars of beautiful pink apple jelly.  To top it off...the chickens loved the remaining mush!  So win, win...a well processed apple!

Raspberrypolooza & Globe Envy

The last few days have been the start of berry harvest.  Our 50 foot row of raspberries is broadening its reach far beyond the bed and beginning to ripen at an overwhelming rate.  We picked 7--7 oz containers worth today and have hardly made a dent in what is there. The future ripening looks to be staggering!

A few things that I have learned about fresh picked raspberries.  They are not as delicate as you think, that is unless you kneed them into a dough.  I posted here about the perfect way to freeze raspberries, I urge you to do it!  The last batch I thawed was a month ago, and they defrost beautifully. Not at all the mush that I expected, perfectly whole specimens that held their firmness.  Today I froze much of our harvest to brighten a dark winter evening.  No worries, I used a cup and a half of them in some baking as well.  

I must say that I have been both jealous and inspired by watching photos of my sister-in-law's trip overseas this last week.  She is now spending some quality time in England and her pictures from the Globe last night made me literally swoon.  Sigh..  So what was I craving this morning? Scones....raspberry ones.  I found a recipe of Martha's, that was perfect.  They are a hit with the whole family, and are feeding my soul.  As an aside, I finished reading The Bookman's Tale last night and it was lovely.  I also was transported to the Globe in the days of Shakespeare, so the timing was perfect. Ayne, read this one :)

So what next for raspberries?? Oh and the blackberries and boysenberries to follow?

Jam

Infused vodkas

Infused balsamic vinegars

And lots and lots of snacking

Martha's Fast Raspberry Scones. (Oh my, wouldn't these be good with some cardamom!?)

2 1/2 C flour

1/4 C sugar

1Tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 C butter (unsalted, cold & cut in pieces)

3/4 C buttermilk

1 lg egg yolk

1 1/2 C fresh raspberries

Pre-heat oven to 400.   Combine dry ingredients in food processor and pulse.  Add cold butter and pulse until crumbly.  Beat buttermilk and egg yolk together and slowly add pulsing into try mixture.  Once mixture combines into a dough our out onto a floured surface.  Sprinkle raspberries on top and knead three times (I found this a messy task).  Shape into a rectangle about 1 inch thick and then cut into wedges.  Place wedges on a cookie sheet lined in parchment paper, sprinkle the wedges with granulated sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes.  Then transfer to a cookie sheet and cool completely.  Enjoy!

Worth The Tears

After tearing down the garden delicates on Friday, our kitchen was overflowing with produce that had to be dealt with this weekend.  Yesterday was salsa day, and oh my the house smelled like roasted goodness.  Our tomatillo salsa has very few ingredients and with the exception of olive oil, salt and pepper, everything we produced.  We did a combination of ancho chilies and some little spicy red peppers that have quite a kick.  As I finished slicing tomatillos, B seeded and chopped the red peppers.  I could feel the capsaicin hit my nostrils and my throat catch; we both began to intermittently cough.  Then came peeling onions, because our onions were relatively small, yet abundant, we peeled and quartered lots and lots of them.  Both of the kids had friends over and B and I were coughing and crying, it was quite a sight!  What we ended up with for our trouble was 10 quarts of amazing tomatillo salsa.   Well worth the tears!!

Tomatillo Salsa 

A big bunch of tomatillos (we had 20 lbs)
Lots of Onions, Garlic, and Chilies (to your taste)

We did 4 rimmed cookie sheets full of halved tomatillos, One cookie sheet full of quartered onions and 2 heads of crushed garlic, and one cookie sheet full of ancho chilies with a handful of spicier chilies added to the mix.  Everything was tossed in olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper, then roasted at 400 degrees until soft and browning on top (about an hour).  We through everything in to a large bowl and pulverized with an immersion blender.  Placed in hot jars with a two part lid and canned in a water bath caner.