Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Garden Chores Before Frost

Here in MA we're awaiting the first frost, and I've turned on our heat. I'm so glad that I finished a few important garden chores in the last few days. I harvested the tomatillos that have been growing slowly since the spring. There were a few big ripe ones and dozens of smaller ones.

Tomatillos on the plant. They are a relative of the ground cherry not the tomato.
My harvest with the husks removed.

I was very excited to can a Salsa Verde (from Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff) for green enchiladas. In the past I've purchased ingredients for the dish. Now not only will I have my own canned version, but this is one of the rare canning projects where I used my own produce rather than produce purchased from other farmers. The only other one I can think of is raspberry jelly.

Anyway, I was so excited I forgot to take photos through most of the process. But here's a description. After removing the husks, I put about 3 lbs tomatillos along with 4 jalapenos, a chunked onion, and peeled cloves of a head of garlic into a 500 degree F oven for 30 minutes. Everything came out collapsed, blackened in parts and a bit juicy. After the vegetables cooled, I put them in a pot along with 2/3 cup lime juice, one cup fresh cilantro and 1 tbsp salt. I mixed all that with my immersion blender, brought it back to a boil, put it in jars, and processed it in a hot water bath.

The result: 4 1/2 cups Salsa Verde.

The finished salsa has a very rich flavor from the roasting. It's also tangy from the lime juice and a little spicy. It should be perfect in the green enchilladas. It was great as a condiment on a spinach and broccoli frittata we had the other night too. That was a yummy way to use up the amount that didn't fit in the jars.

The other last garden chore before frost was to create a little window sill herb garden. I potted some thyme, parsley and sage from the garden in fresh soil. The pots will sit in a fish poaching pot I inherited from my grandmother's kitchen. In more than 20 years, I have NEVER used it to poach a fish. I'm glad I finally found a use for it.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Processing Pears

One day of pear processing produced 6 quarts of pears in light syrup and 3 1/2 cups of tawny port pear butter. I'm finally feeling really comfortable with the canning process. You can find the recipes here.


 

 I used about 18 pounds of pears for the pears in syrup and about 8 for the butter. I still have nearly a full box stored in the basement and fridge for eating as they ripen.


I wouldn't have thought peeling pears would be so easy. Just a quick slice off the top and bottom, peel, cut in quarters and slice out the core. Maybe it's all the peeling practice I've had lately, and my great OXO peeler. It's an older model with replaceable blades, and sadly I can't find a place to buy the replacement blades anymore.

The pieces were deposited in a gallon of water mixed with 2 Tbsp. lemon juice to prevent discoloration. When I had enough pieces, I simmered them in a light syrup and filled the heated jars.


Above are the ingredients for the Tawny Port Pear butter. Yum!  pears, Tawny Port, lemon and honey from a local friend's hives.


I'm getting better at packing the jars tightly. There are lots of air bubbles in the butter, however. I should have let it sit longer after blending. A friend assured me that the air doesn't affect the quality, only the appearance.

At any age, it's fun learning a new skill. I started canning at age 45 never having seen it done before. About a year after I began, every effort results in new lessons learned.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Apples and Gifts

It's October, harvest season. And the harvest has been bountiful. The "tribe" of women I hang with has been purchasing and processing local foods. We buy in bulk to get better prices. We work together to make teaching and learning about canning, drying and planting more fun. We share our tools, knowledge, products, and our spirits.

Some of our "tribe" posing in our community garden plot.
Back in August we made a wonderful purchase of about 160 lbs of peaches. You can read about how we turned them into canned peaches, peach pickles, peach butter, peach jelly and peach salsa here. We set aside one of each item to return as a gift to the farmers at Nicewicz Family Farm who were so generous with us. Last Thursday two of us returned to bring farmer Tommy our gift and to purchase apples for our next round of food preparation and storage.

Tommy (one of 4 brothers who run the farm) and I with our gift.
Not only did we purchase their honey crisp apple seconds (which they otherwise don't sell) for a very good price, but they offered their beautiful bosc pear seconds too. We bought 4 boxes and they threw in an additional box of smaller pears that are more work to process. We came home with 16 20-pound boxes to be divided among 5 or 6 women. 

The work of dividing, sharing and processing began. Below is my car filled with fruit and my friend's dehydrator which I was borrowing for a couple days. The paper bags contain garlic heads that we bought in bulk. I'll deliver them before the first frost so we can plant them in our gardens. Behind that are some bales of salt hay for my fall garden prep.



Once home, the first job was to sort out the best apples to store in the basement for school lunches and out-of-hand eating around the house.  I hope they will last a month or two. My family will have devoured them by then.


Then the processing began. Washing, peeling, slicing, arranging on trays and drying. On my own, it took between 1 1/2 to 2 hours to fill the machine. Then six hours to process about 18 apples into about 12 cups of dried apples. When I set up our own family assembly line with Doug peeling, me slicing and the kids arranging the pieces on the dehydrator trays, a whole batch took about half an hour.

Filling the dehydrator with thinly sliced apples.
After 5-6 hours, the apples and dried and shrunken.

Now don't think that during the downtime I was just relaxing. Certainly not! The apples were waiting. While hanging out in the warm, fragrant kitchen, I got another batch of apple butter into the crock pot. You can read about that process here. And I baked a couple of French Apple Cakes from a great recipe on David Lebovitz's blog.

Both the dehydrator and crock fit on this out-of-the-way table.
Beautiful dried apples and their source.

Two French Apple Cakes. One went with me to a pot luck, the other stayed home.
 It's been a busy couple days, but all the apples are processed or stored. On to the pears....

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Wendell Berry: Gratitude, Disappointment and Action

I am a member of the Trustees of Reservations, an organization that preserves and cares for conservation areas. The slogan on their signs reads, "Together, we can preserve the Massachusetts landscape. For everyone. Forever." They currently administer about 100 properties across the state. When I joined a few years ago, I decided that eventually I'd like to visit every one of them.



Yesterday I checked number 10 off my list at their Norris Reservation property. No less than a quarter mile into the area, I was transported out of the everyday suburban world. There were no cars and very few people. The sounds and scents were now those of the forest: the rush of wind through the trees, the pum of acorns falling on a soft trail, the caw of the crow.  The air was full of moisture and pine.



The trail I initially took followed a river's edge. The high water table must make for shallow roots and unstable trees. I saw at least five tree falls where thin rounded shelves of roots were lifted skyward holding their soil exposing the stones and ground below.





A "boat house" (it contained no boats) sat along the trail as a perfect picnic or viewing spot. From it, I watched the swirling river water and waving fall-tinted grasses. Across the river private homes sat high on the hills. Small speed and party boats bobbed at the ends of docks jutting into the river. One of the homes at the edge of an inlet could have been my dream home with its charming decks, greenhouse and canoe by the water. It may have been the boat house of the larger house behind it. The view of these homes turned me a bit "green with envy" here in the woods.







But as I turned back to the trail my gratitude returned for this public space, its beauty available for all people and creatures. Not far ahead I saw a sign, figuratively and literally. About 9 to 10 feet up , an old sign was being consumed by the tree it had been posted on so long ago. On closer inspection I could discern the word "private" below the paint and rust. It was nearly obliterated.



Farther along, a side trail led to a pond with boardwalk paths that traversed its swampy edges. These environments with their thick low bushes and trees on tiny hills with their roots arching out of mud and pooled water are some of my favorites. They are thick with moss and ferns, shady, cool and damp.
Somehow in these places I can sit for long periods of time looking for birds and frogs. I can study the fractal patterns of lichen and consider the number of lobes of leaves or needles of pine clusters. The list of daily chores, calendar of important deadlines, and frustration with worldly events fade away.








Then I came upon the scattering of Bud Lite cans and Gatorade bottles. Frustration returned. Not only have kids come here to drink and likely drive off endangering others, but they left the ugly evidence of their crime. Why is it so hard for them to just carry the cans away? They could even use the 5 cent return deposit to buy more beer. I began to walk away dejected.

Then I turned back. It drives me crazy that the people who are willing to clean natural areas are never the ones who despoil them. But then again, if conscientious people don't do it, who will? I found a long stick, lay down perpendicular to the boardwalk hooking my feet on the far end for safety, and reached out with the stick as far as I could to bring within reach as many cans as possible. After a few minutes, I pulled about half the collection out of the tangled swamp plants. I hope someone with wading boots or long tools will come soon to retrieve the rest.  I felt empowered if still disappointed continued on.





Along the trail on the way to my car, I see what looks like a natural temple. Large granite erratic stones left by the glaciers embedded so deep that the farmers who once tilled this land could not remove them. They sit near a clearing beckoning me to sit and be grateful for the beauty of our world and the gift of being healthy and able to take time to walk among the trees.

When I get home I watched an online interview with the poet and prophet, Wendell Berry. He spoke with Bill Moyers in front of a crowd of environmentalists and activists who clearly would never toss a can out their car window. They'd be the ones picking up the trash. But more than that, they'd be donating land or making laws to protect our remaining natural treasures. They'd be warning of the hazards of factory farming, going back to the land and creating small, sustainable farms. They'd be fighting against the Keystone Pipeline and using alternative energy. They'd say the true things that our compromised "leaders" in Washington would never say: that ""No amount of fiddling with capitalism to regulate and humanize it can, for long, disguise its failure to conserve the wealth and health of nature."

"It may be that the danger we've now inflicted upon every precious thing reveals the preciousness of it and shows us our duty."  My duty today was to remove those cans from the swamp. It was... oh so small, but it was something. And by writing and speaking and blogging, perhaps we can convince more people to start caring and doing.

Please take a look at the Wendell Berry show from Moyers & Company.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Apple Butter


Apples from local unsprayed trees have blemishes on the outside but wholesome sweetness on the inside.
Peeled and chopped, they cook down in a mix of water and cider.
About 40 minutes later, it's chunky apple sauce, but not nearly done.
Blended smooth with cinnamon, clove, allspice and a little sugar, the sauce is ready for a long, low simmer.

Four pints of spiced apple butter canned for safe storage thanks to Liana Krissoff's Canning for a New Generation.

My delicious oatmeal breakfast.