from the garden, from the market, to the shelf

My days over the past few weeks (when not traveling, that is) have been filled with food preservation.  The shelves are slowly, but steadily filling with jars of tomatoes, corn, pickles, and soup.  And the freezer has been filling with green beans and cherry tomatoes.  It feels so great to make so much progress in putting up the food that will nourish us throughout the coming year.  It's so very satisfying.  A lot of what I preserve I buy at the farmer's market.  While our garden produces quite a bit of food for fresh eating, as of now it doesn't produce quite enough for much preserving.  The few things that I do preserve from our own plot of land are tomato sauce from my six sauce tomato plants, cherry tomatoes when we can't keep up eating them (I roast them in the oven with herbs and olive oil for a bit and then freeze them), green beans (which I freeze as they come in to the kitchen), fermented jalapeños, and a couple jars of pickled mixed veggies to be used in Bloody Mary's (yum!).  Everything else is from the farmer's market such as the quartered tomatoes, the dill pickles (both vinegar-based and fermented), the corn, and the tomato soup (recipe to follow soon!).  I am hoping to make carrot tomato soup in the next few weeks with ingredients from my garden, but we'll see if the warm temps hold out long enough to get me a good amount of tomatoes in a relatively short amount of time...we'll see...fall has definitely been in the air off and on over the past couple weeks in these parts.  

With all of the farmer's market buying that I've been doing, I've learned a few tips.  First, get to know the people who run the different stands.  I've found some who will happily throw in extra of this and that if you buy a bunch of something from them, and I've found others who won't.  Second, it's a lot easier to barter if you are buying more than one item, if you are down to your last couple dollars, or if you are buying a large quantity of something.  Don't be afraid to ask!  I'm amazed at how often I can buy something for less just because I ask!  Third, there are certain vegetables that don't have to look perfect for preserving.  For example, cucumbers should all be firm and freshly picked if you are going to pickle them.  However, tomatoes can have many imperfections and still make great soups, sauces, and even diced/quartered tomatoes.  Just cut off the bad parts and keep the good!  

I do so love the task of preserving and all that goes into it.  Even though it makes for very long days in a warm kitchen, I find the gathering of produce and the filling of shelves so very satisfying in the end.  

How about you??  What delicious things from summer have you been tucking away for winter??

fermented cucumbers and jalapeños

You know that team building game that people sometimes play where you have to choose what two foods you would want to live on for the rest of your life if you were stranded on a deserted island??  Well...one of my two foods has always been pickles.  I mean, really, if you're stranded on an island what better food to have with you!  They are shelf stable, they are a vegetable, and they are always delicious.  Yum.  My mouth waters every time I think about those sour crispy delectables.   

For the past few summers I've made a couple batches of traditional vinegar dill pickles--and I love them and wouldn't go without them.  But last year I also tried my hand at fermented dill pickles.  It was an experiment--as I've found all fermenting to be.  It's not an exact science the way that hot water or pressure canning is.  With canning you have to have just the right amount of food in the jars, the jars have to be closed just right, the temperature and/or pressure has to be just right, and you have to do it for just the right amount of time, but with fermenting it's totally different.  Your jar of cucumbers can be half full, you can have several different sizes of jars with different types of lids, you can ferment something for a week, two, five, twelve.  Every ferment is different and each one is a bit of an experiment with far too many variables to make it scientific---it's awesome!  Those are my favorite kinds of experiments.  It's like when you make a really delicious meal and your husband says, "Wow! This is amazing!  Can you make this more often?"  And you respond with, "Um...this exact thing?? Probably not.  I made it up."  That's kind of how fermenting works, at least for me.  

Another thing about fermented pickles is that they taste a bit different from their vinegary counterparts.  They are more sour and they are kind of bubbly.  They can make your face pucker and they can be incredibly addicting...but I do think they are a bit of an acquired taste.  If you've never made or really eaten homemade vinegar pickles, then tasting your first fermented pickle may be quite a shocker.  They are very different from the jars of pickles that line the grocery store isles.  However, if you are a homemade pickle lover, then I encourage you to try fermenting a batch.  The best part is that you can start with a little pint jar and if they don't turn out or you hate them, you can compost those babies without it being a big deal at all.  

The basics of fermenting cucumbers include packing pickling cucumbers (I get my mine at the farmers market) into a jar with pickling spices, garlic, and fresh dill, and then filling the jar with a brine of salt water.  You then tightly cover them and leave them in a warm place for a bit.  If your kitchen is warm (mine was in the 70's and 80's this week), then it may take just 5-7 days for the pickles to be ready.  If it's on the cooler side (consistently below 75) then it may take a few weeks for them to finish.  Once they have changed from bright cucumber green to dull pickle green and the liquid is bubbly and cloudy, then they are ready to taste.  When you bite into them, they should look pickled all the way through.  If they are still bright green in the middle--they are not done, or if they taste really salty they are not done.  When they get to the sour level of your liking and they are pickled all the way through---they are done!!  Hooray!  Then you can wipe down the jars (in case they've dripped a bit in the fermenting process) and move them into the refrigerator where they'll keep for 6 months to a year.  So easy and so good!

Also, adding traditional fermented foods to your diet can be so good for you!  Unfiltered and unpasteurized fermented foods are full probiotics that help to build a healthy gut flora.  Stop buying those expensive probiotic supplements and start eating fermented pickles and you'll be set!! I wrote a bit more about this in a post last summer, if you're wanting to find out more.  

If you are looking for a recipe to get you started with fermenting cucumbers, this Nourished Kitchen recipe looks like a good one.  The one I used this time around is from The New Midwestern Table by Amy Thielen.  It's a fabulous cookbook that includes so many great updated traditional midwestern recipes, which is great if you want to cook using local and season ingredients.  I fall more in love with that cookbook each time I use it.  

For my fermented jalapeños, I just added some garlic and used the same salt water brine that I used for the cucumbers.  They take a bit longer to ferment (you can see the changing green colors in the picture above; once they are all the duller green color, I'll start checking them), but I find that fermenting them is a great way to preserve the handfuls of jalapeños that come in from our garden as I can ferment them as soon as I have a pint jar full.  

How about you??  Have you tried your hand at fermenting??  If so, what are some of your favorite things to ferment?  

blueberries!!!

One of my favorite parts about summer is preserving all of the wonderful bounty that grows around here in our short summer months.  And fresh, local berries are top on the preserving list!  My summer berry picking usually starts off with strawberries, and then moves on to raspberries and blueberries.  With all of the berry picking that I usually do, we typically don't buy any berries throughout the remainder of the year (expect for special occasions).  This year has been a bit of disappointment in the berry picking department, though.  Due to our traveling this summer, I completely missed the strawberry season!  It was a bit shorter than normal due to heavy rains, which abruptly ended the season on the same day we got back into town.  And then this week I was all ready to go blueberry and raspberry picking when I found out that the farm I usually go to for both types of berries had a worm infestation in their raspberries and they closed them for the season.  So sad (both for the farmers and for me)!!  I did, however, get a bumper crop of blueberries and I found a pint or so of worm-free raspberries.  I've decided that blueberries are one of my favorite berries to freeze!  They are so easy to incorporate into muffins, pancakes, deserts, and more in their frozen form, unlike raspberries and strawberries, which are better eaten fresh.  So, in the end, it worked out.  We won't have any strawberry or raspberry jam this summer, but that's ok.  I've realized that we really only need 1-2 batches of fruit preserves to get us through the year.  So, this may be an apple butter year.  And I'm just fine with that.   

I picked an ice cream bucket full of blueberries, which gave me 12 cups to freeze for muffins, pancakes, smoothies, and whatever else we want them for.  I also set aside 6 cups for a blueberry pie (yum!!!) and 4 more cups to be used this week and for fresh eating.  So far we've made blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry kombucha, and of course eaten many more of those berries fresh out of the fridge.  

How about you??  What types of berries do you like to pick and how do you use them??

buying locally

The time for buying plants is in full swing in Minnesota!! It's a time that's filled with so much life and color everywhere you go.  It seems that there are plants for sale at almost every store around town.  Last year I decided to buy some of my basic annual flowers at the big box stores in town to save money and then buy the more decorative or specialty annuals at our little local garden store.  However, after a very frustrating experience at the big box store, I walked out with a few containers of decent looking flowers and a receipt with a larger than expected dollar amount on it.  It was frustrating because no one knew how to answer my questions.  They didn't know the difference between regular petunias and wave petunias.  And they couldn't tell me where to find the things I was looking for.  Then I walked in to my little local garden shop and had such a different experience.  The staff knew all about the plants they were selling.  Things were set up with clear signs and clear categories such as native plants, perennials for shade, annuals for shade, plants for sun, plants for the birds and bees, fruit trees, vegetables, etc.  Not to mention, the aesthetics of the place were lovely.  And when I swiped my credit card, I was pleasantly surprised that I got about the same number of plants for the same price as what I'd paid at the big box store down the road.  It was in that moment that I decided that the local shopping experience not only is better than the big box store experience, but the quality is better, and sometimes (even often times) the prices are very comparable.  

So this year, I said farewell to the big box stores when it came to plant buying and instead I stuck to the small local stores.  With my father being a landscaper, I get most of my perennials and shrubs with him at one of our big local nurseries in the area.  And for the past two years, my tomato and pepper plants have come from a small home greenhouse run by a doctor in St. Cloud who grows heirloom tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and eggplant.  The plants are so hardy and such good quality!  Not to mention, I get to order everything in February, which gives me time to really decide what I want to grow and to make plans for where each plant will go in my garden.  This year, my annuals came from our little garden store that's about two miles up the road from us.  Just as last year, the experience was so pleasant and the plants I brought home are healthy and ready to thrive.  

Buying from small garden stores and greenhouses also gives you more control over the types of plants you bring in to your yard.  Most local stores can tell you what things have been (or have not been) sprayed on the plants.  And often times you can find more organic or non-GMO plants at those places as well.  These things are important to consider when growing your own food and when striving to turn your yard into a bird and bee haven (which is such a fun thing to do!).  If you haven't considered these things in the past, or even this year, I encourage you to do it in the future.  I love shopping locally because it helps support our local economy, provide me with better quality plants, and give me a much better shopping experience!  

How about you?  What have your experiences been in buying locally??

planting and more planting

The best kind of days start and end with dirt on my feet and grass between my toes! Hooray for planting season! This week has been filled with trips to the green house and the local garden center, and with planting and more planting! The new shrubs, perrenials, and annuals are almost all in the ground and the rest of the veggies will go in this weekend. This year more than ever before, it being our third full summer at this house, I'm beginning to see the slow work of landscaping a yard turn into something really beautiful. So many of my plants and shrubs are still so small, but their potential is evident. 

This year's additions include a Candy Lights Azalea, a Black Lace Elderberry, a slew of perrenials, and three Chippewa Blueberry bushes!! I'm very excited about all of them, but especially the three little blueberries. It will be a few years before they are producing well, but the wait should be worth it!  

How about you?! What are you planting these days?