Market Monday

I was so blissfully tired when I got home from market yesterday. It was a long day. I woke up way too early, and hadn't slept well the night before.... so I started off behind. I ended up getting a coke halfway through the day just so I could stop staring off into space. My sweet market partner was great through it all. She also, was not really prepared for the work of the day. 5 hours, over $2,000. Crazy busy. Food flying off the table, and us trying to juggle it all... with sleep deprived brains. We forgave each other a lot, teased each other a lot, and laughed a lot. Thank god for good friends.

My list for this week: Three pints of tomatoes (two sun golds, and one plum tomato), green onions, three bunches red beets (for this recipe), three bunches carrots, , three fresh Walla Walla Onions, Italian kale, romaine lettuce, salad bowl lettuce, 3 crookneck squash, a bunch of dill and 5 heads of wonderful Carpathian garlic. From market trades I got one dozen eggs, a full pizza for lunch, 4 large peaches, and 3 lbs doughnut peaches. Along with all that I got 10lbs of shelling peas that the kids and I are going to shell and freeze today, and 20 bunches of golden beets to preserve (like this).

Our garden is starting to produce tomatoes. *glee* We have gotten a few really ripe ones, but most of them are the orangy red of 'just before ready'. I gave Logan one of the cherry tomatoes because he asked for it... and what I knew would happen, happened:

My picky boy. He will get older, and he will love tomatoes. Just like his mama. Or he will hate them, just like his dad. Only time will tell.

Preserving Food ~ Drying Fruit

I had some serious nostalgia of the little farm I grew up on while my daughter and I cut and dried fruit the other day. My mom and I would spend hours making dried bananas, apples, and cherries for our winter oatmeal. I really loved doing it with Cyan.

The cherries were first. Thank goodness for the Pampered Chef cherry pitter. Seriously, I am not a gadget person, but over the last two years, this little thing has really wormed it's way into my heart. (Pitting three pounds of cherries would have taken hours without it.)

Here is Cyan cutting the strawberries.


They dried for 10 hours and then I pulled all the ones that were done off the racks and left the others for another 5 hours.

I do need a bit of advice for drying though. How do you keep them sweet? I got them at the peek of season, I made them large pieces, and didn't over dry. And yet, every now and again, you get a REALLY bitter one. I know none of this fruit was bitter. Any ideas?

Preserving Food ~ Freexing Zucchini for bread

I learned this trick a couple years ago from my best friend Sarah.

First you wash and dry the zucchini. Then grate it into a huge bowl like the one above.

Then you open your cookbook to your favorite zucchini bread recipe and put the exact amount into little baggies that go into a big baggie in the freezer. For me, that is a cup and a half for this recipe.

Then, in Feb, when warm zucchini bread sounds delicious, you grab bag, defrost and add it to your recipe. It's brilliant actually.

And while you are still overrun with zucchini, try Ratatouille!

Ratatouille

(inspired by Nessa at Family Soup)

¼ cup olive oil
1 lg onion
4 cloves garlic
2 med crookneck squash
2 med zucchini (this equals more than the crookneck)
Coarse salt and pepper
2 red bell peppers
5 small diced tomatoes
1 heaping Tbs fresh thyme, minced
½ cup (or more) chopped basil

Put olive oil in a pan and get it hot.
Add onion and garlic until starts to clear.
Stir in squash and peppers and season liberally with coarse salt and fresh ground pepper.
Add some water to it and let cook for about 5 minutes with lid off.
Add tomatoes and thyme.
Cook until squash and peppers are crisp tender, stirring occasionally.
Add the chopped basil JUST before serving.
Toss and serve.

Serves 4

Tom Vilsack as USDA head... WTH???

I don't have tv... I say this because there is SO much crap out there that I want to keep clear of. But when I see things that I didn't know be used against me... like this. It makes me angry. Seriously? The president I voted for appointed a money grubbing poison toter as my head of Federal Food Regulations???? I am a bit taken aback right now. No, wait. A lot taken aback. I have a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach that very soon they are going to start attacking the things I hold most dear. My friend Patti put it best here:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the not-so-distant-future, there is a knock on my front door.
"Hello. May I help you?"

"Uh, Yes 'ma'am. We're here on behalf of the zoning commission. It's in regards to your garden."

"What about my garden?"

"We understand that it is an organic garden, is that correct?"

"Why, Yes it is."

"And you plan on feeding your family and perhaps a few friends and neighbors with this organic food; is that correct?"

"Yes, of course. Is that a problem? What is the meaning of this?"

"Ma'am, you are in direct violation of zoning code HR5467-33.463 and 1/2 which clearly states on page 345, paragraph 7, sentence 4 that 'no private citizen will produce, preserve, distribute or consume food without direct and decisive permission, authorization and regulation from thus mentioned board as well as the USDA, CIA, FBI, GMO Seeds, Inc. and, of course, da' man'. It's all right here, ma'am, in black and white.

"This is ridiculous! It's a garden, for Christ's sake!"

"Ma'am, you will have to come with us, ma'am..."

"Please! I'm sorry! I was just trying to grow cheap, healthy, real food for my family! There are only a few chickens! We just needed the eggs..."

"Chickens? Did you say you have chickens on these premises? Agent Terry, you had better call and get us back up..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Frankly, I have a rock in my stomach... and I really really hope this doesn't go the way it seems to be. I don't know what else to say.

Frittata ~ It's whats for dinner

We have had a thunder storm over us for the past two hours and so I figured that comfort food was on the agenda.

There is something truly divine about making something that turns out this perfectly. It speaks to a housewives soul. This one gives me a special thrill because the broccoli and onion were grown by the farm and the eggs I got from the vendor next door at the farmers market. So it is all local, except for the mushrooms. Makes my heart sing to give my children food like this.

A frittata is a crustless quiche. I enjoy it because it is quick and easy, and it has endless varieties... although we tend to come back to this one over and over again. Enjoy!!

Frittata

2 Tbs butter

6 extra large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/2 red onion

1/2 c broccoli cut into tiny florets

5 mushrooms

salt and pepper

Put butter into oven safe frying pan. Saute onion, and broccoli, adding in mushrooms a bit later as they take a shorter amount of time to cook. Once all are tender, salt and pepper generously and turn off heat. Mix milk and eggs, and pour strait into the still hot frying pan over the veggies. Add cheese and mix gently. Put in a 400* oven for 20 minutes.

Delicious!

Preserving Food ~ Freezing Golden Beets

I don't like 'red' beets. I think they taste too metallic for me. But a couple years ago at the farm they gave me some white beets... and I fell in love. Since then I have branched out to many kinds of beets... just not the red ones. These golden beets are sweet and yummy, but not overly sugary like the Chioggia or the Sugar Beets can be. They have a perfect level of sweetness for things like stir fry and fried rice. This is what we use them for all winter.

The process for beets is very similar to the process for beans. You cut off the tops and bottoms, and then cut into 1/2 inch chunks.

Then blanch them... actually, you almost cook them with how long you have to blanch beets. You want them almost tender when you freeze them so when you put them in a stir fry or drop them into veggies for fried rice they cook evenly with everything else. This takes almost 10 minutes.

When I am freezing them in a roasted root veggie mix I boil them much less.

These beets are SO beautiful!

After blanching, drop into very cold water or an ice bath to stop the cooking quickly. Then use a colander (or a salad spinner) and get as much of the water off as possible.

Put them into bags in one layer so they freeze evenly. This means that not much goes into a gallon Ziploc, so sometimes I combine bags after they are completely frozen. That is a good way to save bags.

Update on me: Getting a cold. I knew this would happen. But at least the food that had been waiting for me is now done. None will rot if I take it easy today. :) That's what I was waiting for.

Preserving Food ~ Big Batch Blueberry Freezing

Awe blueberries. The season for blueberries feels so short to me. I love them so much. My kids and I wait and wait for local blueberries to be ripe and then it seems like our entire world revolves around them. This year I got 30 lbs and will be getting another 10lbs next week. Yes, we really eat that many. I had to look back on my pictures to see if I actually got that many last year, and I did. They have been gone for about a month now.

Blueberry freezing is really easy. The main thing you need is space and a really clean sink:

Fill the sink with cold water, and dump about 10lbs of blueberries in it. With the wonderful nature of blueberries, most of them will sink to the bottom. And on the top, you have all the stuff you wouldn't want in your blueberry bags:

With running water in the other sink, I just take my hands and carefully sift out all of those little flower heads, the few rotten berries (if you get them from close by you and in season, you will have way less of the rotting berries.), and the few leaves.

I am slow and meticulous at it. We mostly eat them strait out of the bags, so I feel the need to be really careful with what I let into the bags.

Then I put the blueberries, handful by handful into a large zip lock baggie. Once again, I keep my eye out for any dried flowers, or mushy berries that may have gotten past me when I was elbow deep in the water.

After I have half filled a bag, I pick it up and close it 90% of the way. Keeping that last little bit open, I pour the excess water back into the sink. I shuffle the berries around and pour again. As soon as no water comes out of the bag, I lay it flat, push all the air gently out of the bag (without squishing the berries) and close it the rest of the way.

Small batch preserving can be even easier than that!

If you have 10 lbs or less, drop a bunch of them into your salad spinner. Add water and follow the steps above, but in the spinner. Then use it as a colander and dump the water out of the spinner bowl. Spin for a few seconds to get off the rest of the water, and pour into bags. It's that simple!

And look what we got from our tomato experiment yesterday. Our very first ripe (not cherry) tomato!

In the land of purple fingers......

About half a mile from my house there is a little patch of blackberries. I have been watching and waiting for them to ripen, but I think someone picks them (other than me, gasp!) and so I have missed the sweet ones every time. But then, two days ago, I saw another patch a little further up the road. It takes a two block walk up the street and there is no close parking. I figured today, after my foraging in the bald patch, that I would walk up there and see what I could find.

Oh I wish I had brought a camera!! There were only about 6 ft of berries... but they were COVERED! I was dropping berries on the ground for the ants to eat (so very not on purpose, although I was glad to see that ants were eating them) just trying to get into the berry goodness that was around me. I got honked at a couple times, and gaped at more (people really don't know that berries grow on bushes around here... it is amazing) but I got about 10 cups of blackberries from that one small patch.

My dad is getting married in two weeks, and his favorite berry is blackberries. I really wanted to make something for the potluck reception they are having with blackberries but I wasn't sure if I would get enough. But enough was certainly provided today. *glee*

I got home and Logan couldn't wait to taste one. :)

This basket below is about 1 1/2 ft across. And it is full to the brim. It was such a great forage!

And joy of all joys, look what I have going on in my own garden:

Very happy local foodie today. :)

Preserving Food ~ Blanching Beans, step by step

Ever seen Anne of Green Gables? Where Marilla is sitting on the front porch topping beans, or shelling peas. One by one, they go into the bowl for canning. Only half of her mind was on her task, but she still sat there, topping beans... for hours at a time. Topping beans is like that... a meditation that you just get into rhythm and keep going until you are done. I spent about 4 hours doing this yesterday.

Preserving food for the winter, esp good, in season, local food... well it's like putting money in the bank and buying health care all at the same time. Food is what your body runs on. We use it every day and it should be the best and freshest we can possibly get.

I brought home 2 1/2 boxes of beans from the market the other day to put away. And this is how I do it. I tried at one point, to top them one by one... but this method works much better for me.

Gather the beans into a bunch with all of the stems on one side:

Hold firm and chop all at once. Haha! A handful done in 1/4 the time. I leave the other end on the bean. These beans are so tender and fresh that I don't have to cut it off. It isn't tough at all!

After this I drop them into a HUGE metal bowl that sits next to me... and once the bowl is full, I blanch them in large bunches in my pasta pot. I have to admit it works MUCH better for beans than for pasta. (Not enough water for pasta.)

I drop the beans into the boiling water, and wait 4-5 minutes or until they all turn bright green.

I strain them and then flash cool them in a sink of ice water (this did have ice in it, before I put the beans in.)

Then I put them in large Ziploc bags handfuls at a time. When the bag is full to my liking, I close it most of the way, and then tip the bag into the sink to get the last bits of water out of the bag. Then close up tight and put into a pile for a trip to the freezer.

This is about 2/3 of that box of beans done and ready for freezing. :)

This is all the garbage I ended up getting out of an entire 20lb box of Roma Beans. Fresh is the way to go! Not a moldy bean in sight all day.

And because copying is the most sincere form of flattery; here is Logan, topping beans and putting them into his tea pot (I used a teapot to put more boiling water on top of the beans, and so he thought I was making 'bean tea'. It was quite cute to watch him.)

Market Days

My list for this week:

Green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, kale, celery, red cabbage, green cabbage, cucumbers, chives, parsley (curly and flat), cilantro, green beans, Roma beans, broccoli, paipan squash, baby Italian zucchini, carrots, the most delicious baby artichokes, cherries, nectarines, and a dozen fresh eggs.

Yesterday was hot. Really hot. Luckily we had the tent and were in the shade, but it still doesn't stop 93* from getting to you when you stand in it all day long. I was so tired by the time I got home that I fell asleep while my kids were still up. Then, being hungry, they woke me up and I made popcorn and sliced peaches for dinner, let them watch a movie, and then put everyone to bed early. Including me. I slept for 12 hours and am still a little worn out. It was a long day.

BUT... what beautiful produce comes out of this horridly hot weather!

Our stand... isn't it beautiful??

It's is harvest time again. Beans are ready for putting away, and therefore I have three boxes of them in my kitchen, awaiting topping, blanching and freezing. The cooler at the farm was so full that they can't fit anymore in... and that means more for me! ;)