Wigs, Pea Shoots, and Soup

Tags

micro greens, Soup, theatre, urban farming, wheat salad, Wig

Busy week on the urban homestead. I made a couple new dishes this week. I’m trying to add variety to my diet, so that I don’t get bored with food. Earlier this year, we bought some lentils and red fife wheat from a local farmer, and he included some recipes when he dropped the order off (good thing, too. I had no idea what to do with wheat).

This week, I made a Prairie Lentil and Wheat Soup, and a Sweet Wheat Berry Salad with Prairie Apples. The soup was delicious. I used those frozen cherry tomatoes I had lazily tossed in the deep freeze at the end of summer, and they were awesome. I had no idea frozen tomatoes could work so well.

The Sweet Wheat Berry Salad didn’t turn out as well. Too much olive oil and lemon juice, and not enough sweet. I’ve made some adjustments to the recipe for next time. And by adjustments, I mean added a ton of honey.

We opened The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon on Friday. I’m playing Marie Antoinette, and I’m curling for the Devil. It’s a lot of fun, and my wig is fantastic.

And the best news, our little urban farm is up and running, and yes, in the middle of winter! We have started a small micro green operation in our basement, and we harvested and sold the first batch this week. We’ve grown sunflower and pea shoots, and we’ve got broccoli and radish on the grow for next week.

I like to sautée the greens with butter and garlic and eat them as a side dish, but they’re also really delicious fresh.

If you’re in the Saskatoon area, and would like to buy micro greens from us, let me know. The price is $3 for one bag, or $5 for two.

Have a great week, everyone!

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Lazy Urban Homesteader am I

Tags

Cherry tomatoes, food preservation, freezing

Instead of canning the three pounds of cherry tomatoes I had harvested, I took the easy way out and just froze them. It seemed like so much work to can them. Freezing was simple. Put them in one layer on a cookie sheet, and when they turn into little tomato marbles, transfer them to a freezer bag. Then use them for soups and stews over the winter. It took about five minutes of work on my part instead of an hour. So lazy.

It Worked!

Tags

cabbage, Chili powder, fermented food, Food, Kimchi

Kimchi success!

It totally worked, and it’s awesome.

Except it’s really, really spicy.  I couldn’t find Korean Chili Powder, so I used regular chili powder and a bit of paprika.  I guess I should’ve cut the amount of chili powder in half.  It’s not so spicy that’s it’s unbearable, but I can’t eat too much at a time, or my mouth burns.

On second thought, maybe that’s a good thing.  I tend to eat waaaaaay too much, and then I pay for it later.  It’s just so darn tasty!

Happy weekend, everyone!

 

Basil Cubes

Tags

Basil, Condiments, Food, Olive oil

The last of the basil came in this week, yet I refuse to admit that summer may be over.

If you haven’t tried preserving basil in olive oil cubes yet, you are missing out.  Do it.  You’ll thank me in the middle of winter when it’s dark by 4:30 p.m., and you’re freezing your ass off.  That little taste of summer just might get you through January.  You’re welcome.

Related articles

• Freezing Fresh Basil and Other Herbs (thebittenword.com)

 

Jamie Attempts Kimchi

Tags

cabbage, Fermentation, Kimchi, Korean cuisine

I had Korean BBQ for the first time last week, and my favourite part was the kimchi. That stuff is delicious.

Since I’ve got four heads of good-looking cabbage in the garden, I decided to give it a go. It’s been sitting in the pantry for four days and is bubbling like crazy, so I guess that means it’s fermenting. It doesn’t smell all that great at the moment, so I hope it works.

Anyone tried to make this before? Any tips or hints? I know fermented foods are supposed to be very healthy for you, but it seems a bit scary to eat something that’s been sitting on the counter at room temperature for a week.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Related articles

• kimchi, kimchee (itstwoes.wordpress.com)
• Pride, Prejudice and Kimchi (thekoreanfoodwatch.wordpress.com)

 

It Just Keeps Coming

Tags

cucumbers, gardening, harvest, preserving food, tomatoes, Zucchini

Picked more tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini today. We’re having an unusually warm August, and everything just keeps growing in the garden. I’m not complaining but it’s hard to keep up with it!
Unfortunately, the majority of the dill in the garden was attacked by aphids. I managed to find one tiny plant that was still healthy, so I made a big batch of refrigerator pickles to use up the cucumbers. I think I’ll use the zucchini for supper tomorrow, and the cherry tomatoes I’ll save for another batch of spaghetti sauce. I even have one pumpkin and one spaghetti squash that are already ripe. I’m loving this late summer heat. Bring it on!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tomatoes and Grapes

Tags

Concord, Cook, Fruit preserves, Grape, Herb, Home, Jams Jellies and Preserves, Sugar

And the food just keeps on coming.  We are so lucky to have such a wonderful harvest this year!

First off, the tomatoes.  I made our first batch of spaghetti sauce.  We use this recipe with a few tweaks:

• Use fresh herbs from the garden instead of dried herbs.  Use double the quantity of fresh herbs;
• Add any hot peppers we have been growing just to give it an extra kick;
• Cook it on the stove top instead of the slow cooker so that the liquid reduces more; otherwise, it’s too runny.

We have a crazy amount of cherry tomatoes this year.  They’re so lovely – sweet and delicious.  Almost like candy.

Second, grapes!  Our grape vines suddenly decided to produce for the first time.  We’re not sure if they’re Concord or Valiant (we got a vine cutting from a friend a few years ago), but I do know they make delicious grape juice and grape jelly.  If you ever make homemade grape jelly, do yourself a favour and use it in a PB & J sandwich.  Yum.

This was my first attempt at making jelly, and it worked!  I always make jams because it really doesn’t matter if a jam doesn’t set – you just end up with a fruity spread or preserve.  But if jelly doesn’t set, you’re kinda screwed, right?  But it worked!  Hurrah!  I’ve been using a no-sugar pectin this year so that I don’t have to overload everything with white sugar, but I’m not so sure about the final result.  It seems to add a flavour.  I think I can taste the pectin.  Has anyone else ever experienced this?  Or am I just crazy?

Anyway, the food keeps on coming, and I keep on preserving.  Back to the canning pot!

Peaches and Onions

Tags

Cook, Farmers' Market, Fruit preserves, Home, Onion, Peach, Peaches, Pinterest

Not together.  That would be gross.  But peaches and onions were the two things I preserved this weekend.

The onions I accidentally dug up as I was trying to weed the poor, neglected onion patch.  The onion patch is neglected because it is right beside the beehive.  Melanie didn’t want to weed there, so when we got back, the onions were indistinguishable from the weeds.  I pulled a few by accident while I tore away at the gigantic weeds.

Found this idea on Pinterest.  Tie them up in nylons and hang them in the cold storage.  I’ll let you know if it works.

I’ve put off buying peaches at the Farmers’ Market for the past two weekends, waiting for the case price to come down.  It hasn’t.  I finally caved and bought a ten pound case for $17.

They claimed to be Freestone Peaches.  Alas, that claim was FALSE.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it until after I had peeled the peaches and tried to cut them in half to pit them.  That’s when I discovered they are actually Clingstone Peaches.  So my plan to make peach preserves turned into a plan to make peach jam, and I ended up with something in between.  I diced the peach slices, but couldn’t bring myself to crush that beautiful, tasty fruit, so instead I made diced peach preserves in vanilla syrup.

In other news, Liesl has made an excellent recovery from being egg bound last week.  She has laid two eggs since with no problems at all.  Ginger has started to molt, so she has stopped laying and is shedding feathers EVERYWHERE.  Scruffy continues to produce like crazy.

Happy Monday!

 

Busy Weekend

Tags

canning, raspberry jam, sourdough, tomato sandwiches

Everything is coming ripe all at once, and we’re still dealing with apples. We discovered a new way to preserve them though – fruit leather. Just squeeze them through the food mill, add a bit of sugar and spice,and spread it out on the dehydrator trays for about five hours. They’ll keep in the freezer for up to a year.

Now is the time of year to eat tomato sandwiches everyday.

The sandwiches are especially good on the homemade sourdough bread that Will made this weekend. We had an awesome loaf of sourdough on our trip, and Will decided to give it a go when we got home. It was delicious.

And now I have to go finish canning the raspberry jam I just finished making at 10 p.m. Why I thought it was a good idea to thaw the raspberries and make jam this weekend, I’ll never know. Hope you have a fun and busy week!

Friday Roundup

Tags

Apple, Apple butter, Applesauce, swiss chard

One week back from van life, and things are busy around here.  It’s that time of the year when everything starts to ripen at once, and all you do is process and preserve for a few weeks.  Every time I step into the garden, something else is ready to harvest.

This week we’ve been dealing with apples.  I had decided I was only going to do one batch of apple butter and leave it at that.  But last night, at 11 p.m., I just couldn’t help myself.  I processed the rest of the mushy apples that Will had juiced for cider into two more large bowls of apple puree.  I have a problem.  I hate seeing good food go to waste.  Everyone gets a jar of apple butter for Christmas this year!  Hurrah!

Big shout out to my awesome food mill. Couldn’t have done it without you.

More and more tomatoes are turning red on the vine everyday.  I need another bowlful yet to do a batch of spaghetti sauce, which is fine because I kinda have my hands full with apple sauce at the moment. 

Strangely enough, we still have Swiss Chard that’s good to eat.  The very first garden we planted at our house was in June of 2005.  We had bought the house but didn’t take possession until mid-July, so we got permission to go over and plant the garden.  My mom’s friend gave us her left over seeds, and one of the seed packets was Swiss Chard.  I had never eaten this stuff before, but it look pretty on the package so away we planted.  Now it’s my fave.  I steam it until it’s slightly wilted, then tossed with olive oil and vinegar.  So delicious.  You can eat it fresh too, but it’s so much tastier when steamed. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

Related articles

• Simple Swiss Chard Recipe (thehomeschoolingdoctor.com)
• In Praise of Swiss Chard (jklauck.org)
• Homemade Apple Sauce (clearlysimple.wordpress.com)