30 Minutes Or Less Food Preservation

For some reason typing this title made me imagine myself having my own cooking show, which instantly brought on this next image of what it would probably look like-

Sooooo, while my mind is in full disclosure mode let me add that I feel somewhat silly writing this post.  You see, though I encourage people 100% to try and grow and preserve their own food, this year I did very little of it.  We did grow a garden this year and reaped some rewarding food, but crab grass was our main speciality.  So if anyone has any good crab grass recipes please share it (or don't).

So here is my quick list of EASY THINGS TO GROW and then PRESERVE in LESS THAN or around 30 MINUTES.  

(Please note that I do not live in a vacuum by any means, I try to do this stuff when kids are taking quiet time, watching a show or in bed.  Otherwise add 4 hours to the processing time.)

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1.  Tomatoes

Tomatoes are pretty easy and can be grown in a container on a back porch if needed.  Remember that if in a pot that it will usually need more water.  As you know there are many varieties to choose from, we like to grow sweet, meaty varieties because you get more 'meat' and less water.  We have had good success with Amish Paste, San Marzano (both 'plum' varieties) and Brandywines.  There are SO MANY other meaty varieties though so ask around what grows well in you area or just buy them from a road side stand.

Preserving
I am NOT a huge fan of eating fresh tomatoes, I AM a fan of having them around in the winter for soups or stews.  Making sauce and pressure canning them takes more time than 30 minutes BUT they freeze beautifully.  Just wash and dry them, make sure no rotten spots, pull off stem and put them in a freezer bag.  That is all.  No blanching, skinning required.  I'M SERIOUS.  Here's the cool thing, when you want to use 1 or 10, pull them from the freezer and let thaw only a little.  I actually just run them under warm water to thaw a little.  Once slightly thawed the skin will slip easily off.  So easy.  I will cut the whitish, firm stem area out and then maybe quarter before I add to a soup or stew recipe.  They will break down and mash up just like canned tomatoes.  If they are still slightly frozen they are easy to cut and won't squish.  So why buy canned, stewed tomatoes again?  I make our own tomato soup with frozen whole tomatoes, better than Campbells and VERY quick.  Recipe Here.  Also note that once fully thawed they are very squishy so don't expect them to be very good on a sandwich.


2.  Pickles

Cucumbers are easy to grow and can be grown in small spaces up trellises (they love to climb and look lovely too).  For pickles you need to grow a pickling cucumber variety, but let me say that I think pickling cucumbers taste better than regular cucumbers freshly sliced.... but that is just me.  They are popular with my neighbors for sure.  They are also very abundant so you get a lot.  Cucumbers are one of my favorite vegetables for many reasons.

Preserving
Pickling can be quick depending on the recipe.  In short, most dill or sour pickles (which is what we usually do) involves making a brine, cooling it and adding brine/spices/cucs to the jar.  Done.  Give it time to actually pickle in the jar but you don't do anything in that regard.  We keep these in the frig since I do not seal them through a canning process.  Plus, cold pickles are tastier in our opinion.  Another pickle post Here.

3. Fresh Herbs

http://moorefarmsbg.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/herbs.jpg

Some herbs are so easy to grow they are a nuisance, meaning they will take over the area they are in. Talk about a huge difference fresh herbs make in recipes, HUGE.  Comparing dried herbs to fresh herbs in taste is like comparing sleeping on wet concrete to sleeping on an amazing mattress.  Maybe a slight exaggeration.... slight.

Preserving
I put the fresh herb leaves whole in my food processor.  I turn the processor on and start adding oil slowly.  Just enough to chop them and stick to the sides of the processor.  A little more oil is ok too.  I then put the 'paste' in an ice cube tray and cover with plastic wrap (I fill basil to the top of each cube, stronger herbs tasting herbs maybe only half cube).  Let freeze solid them put the cubes in a freezer bag.  Label the bag because they all look like green squares.  I use them in soups and even pasta dishes.  I just throw the frozen cube right into the hot soup at the end or hot pasta.  I make and freeze basil pesto this way too and love having summery pesto dishes in the middle of winter.
Note: I have not experimented with freezing all fresh herbs, I assume most leafy herbs do well but if you know otherwise please share the knowledge.

4.  Edamame (Or Soybeans)

http://www.withamymac.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/edamame.jpg

We grew Edamame a few years ago and loved how easy it was and how great it turned out.  We had eaten edamame at some Japanese or other Asian inspired restaurants and alway like it.  The kids like it ALOT too.  We think they like the saltiness of them (we add sea salt).  And it's good for you!
This is the kind we grew linked HERE, we love Botanical Interests seeds.

Preserving
Just blanche, ice bath and freeze in a freezer bag.  I freeze them on a cookie sheet so they don't stick together then put them in a bag once frozen.  That way you can take out a little at a time as you want a snack.  Just defrost or warm them up, don't cook them again.  Did I mention these were really good, just add sea salt.


5.  Potatoes

This is a picture of my parents potatoes and onions, happily stored in their garage.  Potatoes are pretty easy to grow.  You just need well worked up soil and seed potatoes.  They don't take up anymore space than a bush bean plant.  Some people have grown them in straw towers (aka potato towers) or bags of soil (aka dirt bags, aka the media and their.... I will stop there).

Preserving
You just put them in a paper bag in a cool, dry place.  We put ours in our basement.  You don't even have to clean the dirt off.  Done.  Just wash off before you cook.

Sweet potatoes and a dirty boy from a few years ago.  Sweet potatoes are vines and take up more space but easy to grow.

Other things that are a quick blanche and freeze worthy:  green beans, asparagus and corn.  Also easy to freeze and come out great:  BERRIES!!  We love having our picked blueberries in yogurt most of the year.  Berry cobbler in the middle of the winter anyone. :)

Please share if you have any food preserving tips!!!

Canning is NOT hard

Let me start out by sharing a concern of mine.  I have mentioned to some of my mom friends that I worry Jonathan is going to come home one day and find me like this-

Sitting in the kitchen with a bonnet on churning butter so something.

The joke here is I am spending most of my time doing lots of domestic stuff.  Not necessarily a bad thing, it messes with my mind at times though.

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Back to canning-
Tomato plants are pumping out some major fruit these days.  It's a bitter sweet thing....
Sweet because, YAY!, we have lots of 'free' and tasty produce.  Bitter because, yay, now I have to find something to do with it before it goes bad.

This lovely basket was hand made by Dad Trexler

Thankfully, canning and preserving fresh tomatoes IS NOT THAT HARD.

On a side note, raw whole tomatoes freeze great for later use in soups, stews and sauce.  You don't even have to peel them.  Once they thaw the skin slips right off.

Back to canning-

If you are canning fresh tomatoes alone, you DO NOT need a pressure canner.  Only a pot big enough to hold enough water to cover your jars.  Last year I used a lobster pot (it was one of my New England welcome presents when I moved here).  This year I actually have a pressure canner thanks to a birthday present.  I recommend looking at the below websites for expert tips.  This post is just to show you how easy it is if you are thinking about trying it.
Also those that already can, feel free to share your tips!

USDA tomato canning guidelines - http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
Pick Your Own website - http://pickyourown.org/canning_tomatoes.htm

First set up your 'processing line', which should include:

• A boiling pot of water to blanche the tomatoes (big is good)
• A bowl of ice water to quickly cool the tomatoes
• A large pot for heating and crushing the tomatoes (if crushing)
• A large boiling pot for the water bath with enough water to cover the tops of your jars by an inch
• Cutting board
• Hot jar handling tools (I got a simple canning kit that included jar tongs and a hot lid picker upper, that has to be its name) but maybe you could improvise here if you don't have the tools.
• Ladle, strainer spoon, jar funnel and potato masher
• Lemon juice

Also get your jars HOT and clean.  I do this just by putting them in the dishwasher through a washing cycle.  They come out, like I said, hot and clean.

You will also need new canning lids for the jars.  They are easy to find at the grocery stores or Walmart.  I re-use my rings and jars each year but they recommend you use new lids for sealing reasons.

1.  Blanche your tomatoes just until the skin cracks.

2.  Cool the tomatoes, slide the skins off and cut out the hard tops.

See so far not so bad-

The next steps are for canning crushed tomatoes.  See the previously listed websites if wanting to can whole or cut up tomatoes.

3.  Put some of the peeled whole tomatoes in an empty pot.  Heat pot quickly and crush when hot.  You want to crush when hot because the tomatoes (the pectin) start breaking down once they are cut or crushed.  Heat deters the breaking down process.  This breaking down causes separation (solids from the liquids) once in the jars.  This doesn't affect anything, just give them a shake before use.
4.  Cook crushed tomatoes for about 5 minutes.
5.  Add proper amount of lemon juice into hot jars (see websites for amounts and reason why).  I add 2 Tbsp for my quart jars.
6.  Ladle into hot jars.  Make a strange face (optional).

7.  Place a warm lid (I warm them in hot, but not boiling, water) and tighten the ring onto the jar.  Make sure lid seal and jar lip are CLEAN so to get a good seal.
8.  Place in the boiling water bath.

9.  Process/boil per recommended time.  For quart jars its 45 minutes.

DONE!

See I had quite a bit of separation (for a known reason but not interesting enough to share).  Like I said though, this doesn't affect taste or anything when using for cooking.  It all gets remixed back together.

I used about 45 Amish Paste tomatoes (similar to Romas or Plums) and 5 large Brandywine tomatoes to  get these 4 quarts.

I use our canned tomatoes for making sauce, soups and stews.  Last year we discovered how amazing (and ridiculously quick and easy) making homemade tomato soup is.  My favorite recipe here- http://www.marthastewart.com/343299/creamy-tomato-soup
Just a note, Campbell's tomato soup second ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Not that I am against eating HFCS but prefer to limit it as much as I can.

OK, hope this was helpful.

Beets Are Beautiful

Some of you have already heard this story but I would like to share again for those possible beet haters.
First some beet photos to warm you up to them-

Lovely-

Beets modeling in a row-

How about if I add a little girl-

Does a pouty face help?

How about with a cat?

Yeah, the last one isn't so appealing.

Back to my story-
Beets used to taste like dirt to me.... literally.... they tasted exactly.like.dirt.  I had only tried home canned pickled beets and boiled/steamed beets.  Some people love these and that is great.  I did not.
That is until my husband, who was a beet lover before we met, insisted that we grow them and eat them regularly.  He liked them steamed and I just could not eat them (and I am NOT a picky eater, I will eat most anything).  So to save our marriage (*exaggeration) I tried roasting them instead since I knew roasting usually makes all vegetables sweeter.  It worked!  And our marriage was saved.... then this happened:

Yes, we became known as a beet loving family (notice the shirt, what did you think I meant?).

I was willing to continue to give beets a try because of their nutritional value.  More on that here.  Also, since it is a cool weather vegetable, you can plants them early in the spring for an early summer harvest.  Then plant something new in their place for the summer.  We also plant some beets late summer for a fall harvest.

So what do we do with the beets.  Like I said I roast them, like this-
Wash, crop tops to steam the greens (don't peel):

Drizzle them with some oil, seal them in a pouch and roast for around an hour at 375F (depends on size and amount):

Pierce with fork to ensure soft, let cool to touch and skins should slip right off:

Our favorite way of eating them is quartered with roasted almonds and feta or goat cheese.  Really good.  The kids even love these.  They are sweeter than roasted carrots, almost as sweet as roasted sweet potatoes.  Jonathan LOVES the beet greens steamed (yes, I used to think this was weird too).

The excitement of eating beets might cause problems with eye hand coordination.

There we go.

I have also substituted beets for carrots in shepherds pie.  We will also roast them with carrots.  Roasted beets and carrots are a classic combination.
Recently, I skinned and grated raw beets to make a slaw with aioli dressing.  I would assume there are other dressings that will work.  It was very good, kids were not as fond of this one though.
(Used red and golden beets)

I am sure there are many things you can do with them, like beet chips, but as insinuated before I am new to this beet cooking.  If you have a beet favorites please share.

New Hens and First Big Planting

Say hello to the newest additions of our farm family....  Red 1, 2 and 3-

Post of what happened to our previous hens HERE.

Three young Rhode Island Reds given to us by a friend.  No names yet because they look so similar.

Somewhat sociable, as much as our last hens I guess.

I did love our heirloom hens that laid colored eggs, but they were not the best layers.  These ladies are very hardy and should lay everyday throughout most of the year.  Not as glamourous but very efficient.
Happy to have fresh eggs in the frig again.

You know what soft eggs and/or over easy eggs go well with.....  Asparagus!
We add some cream sauce too (sometimes with a bit of dijon mustard).  Plenty recipes on the web and I encourage you to give it a try if you have not.

Photo courtesy of Poorgirleatswell.com

Please share your favorite asparagus recipes.  This is another new vegetable for me to use regularly.  I made chicken, asparagus and bell pepper stir fry just tonight.  Kids ate it up.

We are getting lots of strong shoots.  I have made about 3 side dishes worth.

Along with our asparagus shooting up daily (though we are reframing from picking too many since they are young plants building strength) we worked up a section of our garden this past weekend.  We had the garden covered with a clear plastic sheet/tarp (from Lowes) for about a month to help heat the soil and keep it dry.  It worked.  Soil under the plastic was ready to work unlike the soil that was not covered.  Also, our cover crop of winter rye was thicker and taller on the side that was covered, because the soil was warmer (yes, it grew just fine under the plastic laying directly on top of it).  Why a cover crop post HERE.

As you probably know, DO NOT TURN OVER WET SOIL.  Reason why HERE.
Ideally you should turn it over, let it set about a week to allow weeds to rot, add organic matter/fertilizer, then turn it over again before you plant.  We planted immediately after turning it over which will result in us having to pull more weeds in the near future.

The strong man behind the tiller said the soil was much looser and easier to turn over than previous years.

This is what we got planted (still just cool weather plants):

• More leaf lettuce
• Radishes (not a fan but giving home grown ones a chance)
• Carrots

• Red potatoes
• Sugar snap peas
• Beets
• Garlic (yeah, behind again this year by missing out on planting them in the fall.  hopefully it will still work)

Planting sugar snap peas.  He planted an entire 20' row himself with the help of a 'spacing stick'.

Hope to see some plants popping up anytime now.

Don't Be An Eggplant Hater

Don't be a hater, they are pretty nice, versatile little vegetables.
Yes I put googly eyes on vegetables....

Who needs Mr. Potato Head...

The above eggplant is obviously a mutant, eggplants are quite lovely looking vegetables-

Though they are a part of the shady nightshade vegetable family (but so are tomatoes and potatoes),  their health benefits are abundant, most notably the antioxidant content in the skin and dietary fiber content.

I admit, I did not eat eggplant myself before I was married.  My husband influenced me to cook with it because he loved eggplant parmesan.  His love for this dish led to us growing it ourselves and then I had no choice but learn to do other things with it.  True and gripping story, I know.

This year has been a good year for eggplant to say the least.  So far we have harvested around 63 eggplants.  I have kept up with the poundage as well so we can compare what that would equal if we would have bought that amount.  (Spoiler alert: I have kept the poundage amounts of everything we have harvested to see how much money growing your own food can save you, blog post about that sometime this fall).

Here is what I have done with the eggplants-

• Roasted with pasta
• Sliced thin, rolled and stuffed with ricotta (good substitution for pasta)
• Grilled with herbs, as a side dish
• Baba ghanoush (roasted eggplant dip, froze many small containers for wraps and such)
• Moussaka (like a greek lasagna, I was surprised that I liked this.  everyone else did as well)
• Eggplant Parmesan
• Roasted with other veggies in balsamic vinegar for wraps (good with hummus)
• Stacks (including tomato, portobello mushroom caps, mozzarella cheese and herb oil)
• Vegetable Lasagna (like regular lasagna with some extra veggies layered in.  my friend Stephanie generously made us one using our eggplant, it was REALLY good)
• Ratatouille (not just a movie, an amazingly delicious French Provencal vegetable stew)

Still planning to try (because there are a ton left in the garden):

• Other varieties of Vegetable Lasagna (freezes well)
• Chop and freeze (as a filler for vegetable soups, stews and chilli.  heard this works well)
• Eggplant pizza

Any other suggestions?

Photo compliments from The Phoenix

Back to Ratatouille.... we watched it one night as a family.  Such a cute movie-

My hope was it would make the kids more excited to try and eat this new dish (it was everyone's first time eating it).  And it worked!  They liked it!  We all loved it!

Notice the empty bowl-

It was a lovely looking dish when assembling.  I used The Harvest Eating cookbook's recipe-

So thats my current mommy rant.  As Daniel Tiger sings to a catchy jingle, "you should try new foods 'cause they might taste go-od."  Sigh, I might need to get out more.