I picked all of the beets that were big enough to can, and it sure seemed like I had a lot. But after I got them all packed into jars, I realized that I only had 2 quarts. There are still more to pick, but they're still small yet. I think I posted directions for pickling beets before (1 part sugar to 1 part vinegar with cinnamon to taste), but I actually canned this batch. Leave a 1/2" of headspace to allow for expansion and process in a water bath canner for 30 minutes. I kept mine whole (just like my grandparents used to), except for the few that were just too big to can whole.
I also trimmed up my rosemary plant today. It was a Christmas gift, and it's been growing nicely in a pot in my windowsill. I'm hoping the trimming will encourage new growth, but the pot might simply be restricting the roots too much (it will obviously never get as big as it could outside in the ground as long as it stays in the pot). I might have to transplant it soon.
Artichokes were getting out of hand at the farm, and nobody was eating them. I decided to make an artichoke pesto. I had over 20 artichokes, but most of them were small. They were starting to open up, and once they bloom they're not much good for eating. I boiled the artichokes for 40 minutes in two batches and then put the artichoke hearts in a blender with the rosemary I'd trimmed off, about 10 cloves of garlic, some lemon juice, a bit of sea salt, a good helping of of olive oil, and almonds (the only nuts I had on hand). It smells and tastes great (the bit I sampled at least). I had a great artichoke pesto with sun-dried tomatoes at Veganopolis, in Portland... and I really wish I had sun-dried tomatoes for mine. It's still good though, and I'm looking forward to having some on pasta or a sandwhich/wrap. Tonight's dinner was artichoke petals, and more than I knew what to do with.
I think I mentioned that I was going to be doing (or, at least see about doing) some gardening out at my grandfather's house. I used Google Earth to estimate that the gardening area is between 7 and 8,000 sq. ft. The sprinkler I'm planning on getting
As best as I can tell, the 4,000 sq. ft. that this sprinkler will cover is already larger than the area that my grandfather used to plant in, so it sounds like a good start to me. And, I won't be out at my grandfather's house daily, so I need something that will cover a large area without needing to be moved around (or without the need to purchase more than one). With an automatic timer
This is all theoretical of course, especially since I don't really have a way to get to my grandfather's without catching a ride. He's way out in the country, I don't drive, and I'm currently bike-less. But these are only minor obstacles. I should have a clover crop sown in August, and I'll till it in in the spring and get started on planting a real garden.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Monday, July 07, 2008
After a short hiatus, I'm back! It seems one of my firefox extensions was messing with the Blogger layout, and it was making it difficult to blog. I finally weeded it out this morning though (and that was far from the last thing I weeded).
But first thing's first: the maraschino cherries are done! I provided a link to the recipe at the end of the last post. It's a 3-day process, but most of that is just waiting. After the initial soak, you boil them once each day, and on the final day you can them in a water bath canner. Mine turned out great! I've got six pints with a few left over that wouldn't fit in my jars. Those are sitting in my fridge, slowly being devoured.
The cantaloupe row is doing awesome. That garden claw really did the trick. There were weeds coming up, but they came out easily. It only took about 5 minutes to weed the entire 100 ft. row. I started working on the cucumber row with the garden claw. Hopefully we'll have mulch soon.
Today I ended up with raspberries. It's still a little early, but I should have enough to freeze a quart-sized bag full. They'll make awesome breakfast smoothies when I'm running out the door to class.
I'll write more when I have the energy... which definitely isn't today.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
So, it's that time of year again, time for snow peas and clichés like "it's that time of year again."And I don't just mean a few snow peas. I'm talking about 2 hundred-foot rows of snow peas. I picked nearly a full 5 gallon bucket of the little suckers last week and then was informed that the second row was getting tilled up. The peas had shared the bed with radishes and 2 foot tall thistles, and they just weren't doing as well as the other row. So, I had the pleasure of pulling up the entire row and picking all of the peas off. Luckily for me this row wasn't doing as well, otherwise I would have had more peas than I knew what to do with.
It took me several hours to get these bad boys cleaned up and packed away in the freezer all by myself, but it'll be worth it when the school year rolls around and I have lots of yummy organic peas to eat.
The first thing you have to do is get them nice and clean. I dumped them all in my sink and ran the sink full of cold water. On my counter I set out my cutting board and a small paring knife with some large bowls to the left of the cutting board. I gave the peas a little scrub and placed them on the counter on the opposite side of the cutting board from where I'd be sitting. You might want to lay down some towels, otherwise you'll get a good puddle going (I just mopped it up after I was done). Once I got a good pile I sat at my cutting board and started trimming the ends off and tossing the pea pods in the bowls. After you master this fine art, you'll find that you can cut the ends off of two or three peas at a time. And remember, this is for sugar snap or snow peas only! The pods on other peas aren't edible, so you'll have to shell them.
When you've got all of your peas trimmed up get a big pot of water boiling on the stove. You'll need to blanch the pea pods for 2-3 minutes. A blanching basket would be nice, but I'm poor so I just removed the peas from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and plunged them into a sink full of ice cold water. This stops the cooking process.
would be nice, but I'm poor so I just removed the peas from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and plunged them into a sink full of ice cold water. This stops the cooking process.After they're good and cool, just let them drain. I usually put a colander inside a large bowl and let the peas sit inside there for a while. From there, pack them into gallon freezer bags and load them into the freezer. I have five bags full and they're taking up most of my freezer and a portion of the community freezer in the res hall. Oh well, it's summer so nobody else is here.
If you find any good recipes, send them my way. I usually make soups or stir-fry with mine. This mint and pea soup is looking really good, but I'd have to substitute for the dairy.
(Have you noticed that I've been using a bunch of Flickr photos? My camera finally died after surviving several years of my abuse, including all of those backpacking trips. R.I.P.)
Monday, June 30, 2008
I was checking out reviews for pressure canners earlier today, and one thing that people kept saying was to get the pressure gauges checked by the county extension office. I'd never heard of such a thing, so I decided to look into it.
The USDA website provides you with a nifty little map for finding your local extension office. Here's what the USDA has to say about extension services:
The Cooperative Extension System is a nationwide, non-credit educational network. Each U.S. state and territory has a state office at its land-grant university and a network of local or regional offices. These offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical, and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers, and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes.
The website for my local office is loaded with information on preparing and preserving local fruits and vegetable, etc. And guess what I found there? Oregon grape jelly. I always thought our good ol' state flower was useless for anything more than looking at, but apparently with enough sugar these little berries make an awesome jelly. All kinds of places use these things in landscaping including, you guessed it, my very own university. On top of that, they're getting ripe. One of these nights I'll go out and pick the bushes clean and then I'll make me some jelly.
It really is simple. You just boil the berries in water and then let them drip through a jelly bag. After that you add 3 parts sugar to 4 parts juice and boil again. Put this concoction in jars and then can it and voila, Oregon grape jelly. I'll let you know how my experiment goes.
. After that you add 3 parts sugar to 4 parts juice and boil again. Put this concoction in jars and then can it and voila, Oregon grape jelly. I'll let you know how my experiment goes.I've been working out at the university's farm for over a month now, and things are starting to come along. Since I'm getting back into the swing of things, I thought I'd share what I've been up to.
The window garden has taken on a new look this season. The new apartment isn't as Topsy Turvy friendly as the old dorm room, so I'm sticking with just the window boxes this time. I have loose-leaf lettuce growing in one of my four boxes and I pick it off as I need it for tacos, sandwiches, wraps, and burgers. I've had one basil plant going for a few months now, and it's been producing more basil than I can use. Ignoring that fact--and anticipating a good tomato harvest--I planted my remaining window boxes with basil. I hope to make lots of pasta sauce this year since pasta is probably the number one staple of this college student.
That means I'll be canning! Since I get all of the free produce I can stand from the farm where I work (and since so much of it went to waste last year because no one used it), I've been getting really excited about preserving the stuff that I harvest.
First, the research. Even though we helped our grandparents can vegetables every summer, I hadn't paid much attention to the details. We canned lots of pickles (both beet and cucumber), but it turns out that canning and pickling are two separate things. Who knew? Pickling typically uses salt and vinegar to preserve food. Canning heats the food in question and seals the jar that contains it. The things that I've read say that pickling will preserve your food for "several weeks" (and that's the best estimate I've seen so far). I go to CanningUSA.com for canning recipes and instructions, and they suggest using your canned food within a year to keep it from losing its nutritional value.
Additionally, I've found more than one way to pickle. You can drench your cucumbers in vinegar and various spices as I grew up doing, or you can pickle them in a more traditional sense by leaving them to ferment in a jar. People refer to these as "live" or "living" pickles. I stocked up on cucumbers at the cafeteria's salad bar and used Lynn's Favorite Fermented Pickles recipe as the basis for my own concoction. I didn't have the pepper flakes or the green onion so I just omitted them. I also guessed on the number of cucumbers I had since they were already sliced. I love garlic, so I added way more than the recipe called for. End result: I overestimated the amount of cucumber I had so these turned out a little saltier than I would have preferred. And did I mention that I went overboard on the garlic? It was a bit much, even for a garlic-lover like me. After just one slice you could have cleared a room of an army of vampires. They were still edible though, so I finished them off one-by-one. The next time I try these I'll make sure I'm using the proper proportions of ingredients.
Since then I've pickled beets, for which I found no recipe for living pickles. I roasted the beets at 400 degrees in the oven in about a 1/2 " of water for an hour or so (trim off all but an inch of the greens, but leave the ends otherwise intact). After you pull them out and they have a chance to cool, cut off the ends and peel off the skins. I actually sliced the beets 1/8-1/4" thick and then peeled the skins off and found that this was much easier. This is very messy and beet juice will stain like mad. Wear clothes you're willing to sacrifice! Pickle recipes I've seen haven't been as anal about sterilizing jars as canning recipes, so I grabbed an old pickle jar (the big ones you buy whole pickles in at the store) and packed the beet slices in. In a sauce pan I heated three cups of sugar and three cups of vinegar until the sugar melted and then stirred in cinamon to taste. Add this to the jar of beets until they're covered. The directions say to let them sit a few days, but that didn't keep me from getting into them the next day. Try to limit yourself to about 4 or 5 slices a day otherwise your bodily wastes will be dyed a purplish-red. This isn't any cause for alarm as far as I know, I just find it unnerving to have strangely colored fluids coming out of me.
That's it for now. I've done a little other preserving, but I haven't canned anything yet. I did, however, pick up jars, a water bath canner, and all of the necessary accessories when I picked up vinegar for the beets. The next batch of beets I pick will probably be canned whole or in quarters, and I'm looking forward to all of those tomatoes.
More next time.
, a 
, and 
when I picked up vinegar for the beets. The next batch of beets I pick will probably be canned whole or in quarters, and I'm looking forward to all of those tomatoes.