Pickled, Potted and Canned
Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 06:01
Wow it has been a while since I posted!
I wanted to share with you a little something that has been capturing my interest lately.
It is a book called Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the art and science of food preserving changed the world~ by Sue Shephard.
It is truly amazing and mind blowing. It has some incredible stories and quotes that just amazed me. I could rant all day, but I'll just say that if you are interested in food preserving in it's many forms, then you should read this book.
But I wanted to post here an excerpt that really struck me.
Feast or Famine:
"When shopping for food took over over from food production in the home it removed people from the realities of food sources and from the experience of food production and processing. Slaughtering, butchering, gutting, and plucking, once natural parts of preserving food at home, are all activities few would undertake with any confidence. Sowing manuring, growing and harvesting are less offensive but still considered better left to the experts. Many city children do not know where milk, eggs, or bread come from nor have they seen animals on a farm or vegetables growing in the ground. For many people their only contact with food is reheating and eating it. With fast food came fast eating and a decline in the social importance of mealtimes. Eating is gradually becoming fast intake of fuel rather than a social or sensual experience." It then goes on to talk about the whole industrialization of foods and it's effects. And goes on to say: " More recently there has been a return to home food production...out of a wish to be in control of food, to know where it came from and how it is prepared and processed. More than ever before, people are concerned about whether their milk came from a cow and their eggs from a hen."
Many city children do not know where milk, eggs, or bread come from nor have they seen animals on a farm or vegetables growing in the ground. Isn't that just the epitome of our modern culture today. That is part of what homesteading is all about, to regain that lost knowledge, and have a real connection with that which sustains us, with what God has provided us with?!
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Raisins...and rain!
Posted on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 08:07
:D First off I just have to say that today was absolutely wonderful because we had the FIRST rain in probably about 6 months!!! It was SOOO beautiful. I stepped outside this morning and for the first time in a very long time I smelt one of the most scrumptious smells on earth...the smell of a fresh rain! Most of you Californians out there can probably relate to the utter happiness that comes with the first fall rain. Oh, what joy!
Anyway, back to the first part of my title...raisins. It has been my latest project. We had a HUGE amount of grapes this year, so I decided to try and preserve some of them and make raisins.
I'll let the pictures do the explaining: These are the best grapes we have EVER had...they are huge, seedless, and super sweet.
 These are them de-vined ( or whatever you call that:) and washed.
It did take quite a while to pick them individually all off the vines, but I am sure if there were other people to help it would go a lot faster. My little siblings just happened to be gone while I was doing this. ;)
 This is them at the beginning...
 and them 3 days later.
Now on the down side of things... Unfortunately the trays in the bottom of the oven that were closer to the vent were miserably burned. Most of them just burned completely round and didn't even have a chance to shrink, but the others were little raisins so hard you couldn't bite through the skin. I tried to think of all the possible uses I could give these pathetic little failures: beads, decorations, etc...but in the end I thought I would just give the chickens a try at them. :)
The ones that did work out, about half of the total amount, were really quite tasty and very sweet, but the end result was only a quart sized bag...so I doubt they will last very long at all... kind of a disappointment.
But such is life in the world of cooking, some things are a success others a failure, the real art lies in accepting the failures, and (trying ) to not do them again.
It was my little lesson of patience and acceptance for the day, and it will make me enjoy the successful ones even more, (I hope ;)
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Tomatoes and apples... my existence!
Posted on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 07:55
It is a bit ironic I think that I am writing this post, because, of all the wonderful fruits and vegetables out there why spend so much time on tomatoes and apples, when I don't even like them that much?
Well that is what I have been cooking up in this very hot kitchen of ours... Tomatoes and apples.
I will start with the tomatoes because it took A LOT less time than the apples:
 This is the beginning of the tomato sauce and salsa.
 All those tomatoes become a big pot of tomato mush...
 that then shrink down to less than half it's original size...
 and result in 3 quarts of tomato sauce. :)
As for the salsa on the left, I made one quart which I then lacto-fermented using Nourishing Traditions recipe. It preserves it much longer, and if I had a root cellar I could keep it there, but because I don't it stays in the fridge.
Both tomato endeavors ended up tasting pretty good, and I will make them again, once we have enough tomatoes accumulated.
Here are the recipes in case anyone wants them. :)
LACTO-FERMENTED SALSA~ Sally Fallon
Makes one quart, double, or quadruple if you have lots of tomatoes and peppers
4 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
2 small onions, finely chopped
3/4 cup chopped chile pepper, hot or mild
6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (optional) ( I used about 4 big cloves)
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
juice of 2 lemons
1 TB sea salt
4 TB whey, if not available, use an additional 1 TB salt
1/4 cup filtered water.
(I added lots of black pepper, powdered garlic, and any other seasoning I thought tasted good.)
Peel tomatoes, cut along the “equator” of the tomato, sqeeze out the seeds. Dice up tomatoes, and combine with all the other ingredients, and place in a quart-sized, wide-mouth mason jar. Press down lightly with a wooden pounder or large spoon, adding more water if necessary to cover the vegetables. The top of the salsa mixture should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 2 days before transferring to cold storage. Make several jars if you have plenty of tomatoes, as this salsa is wonderful. The same Salsa can be made using canned tomatoes in the winter time.
Adapted from Nourishing Traditions
I think that overall this recipe turned out very well, and it is definitely a healthier and way easier way to make salsa than canning it.
As for the tomato sauce, I really just made it up as I went along.
Ingredients:
A large pot of tomatoes, (yes I know it is vague, but it is how I remember :)
1 large bell pepper- finely chopped
1 medium onion- sauteed in butter
4 cloves of garlic- finely chopped
Handful of basil- finely chopped
Handful of chives- finely chopped
A bit of fresh oregano and thyme, if available.
about 1/4 -1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
LOTS of salt and pepper and powdered garlic
Fill the pot to the top with diced tomatoes. Simmer at medium heat for about 2-3 hours ( I can't remember how long it took) stirring often.After most of the water has boiled down and all that remains is a thick sauce, add all the other ingredients, except for fresh herbs and olive oil.
After about 5-10 minutes turn of the heat, take about 1 cup of the sauce and put it in the blender with the cheese and olive oil. Blend thoroughly, then mix back into the rest of the sauce, and add in the herbs. Enjoy fresh, canned, frozen.
This is what I did as well as I can remember, sorry that it is so vague. :)
We all just ate it straight from the pot, like soup, then with the rest I froze it.
I decided to freeze it instead of canning because 1. It is WAY easier than standing over a pot of boiling water the whole day. 2. Because we were a little concerned about botulism and unsafe canning because we have no pressure canner, just boiling water, so we preferred to be on the safe side. Correct me if I am wrong about water bathing tomato stuff, but from what I read it is not safe.
Anyway that is it for the tomatoes, I will probably do this many more times until we have enough tomato sauce and salsa to supply us for a while.
Now for those apples...
 There was actually a whole bushel full.
 This is the applesauce, when I started it, it was full to the top with apples.
 A bushel full of apples and 8 hours peeling, chopping, stirring, boiling, and canning... gave me 4 quarts of applesauce, 2 1/2 pints of apple butter, and 2 quarts of apple pie/crisp filling.
It seems like it took a lot longer than it should have for such a small amount, but I am grateful all the same to have it done.
Here are the recipes ( again this is all from my imagination, so it may be rather vague.)
Applesauce:
A large pot filled to the top with peeled, cored and chopped apples.
Enough lemon juice to coat the apples
And enough water to cover the bottom
Simmer over medium high heat, stirring often, for about 1-2 hours, until most of the water and juice has evaporated and it is a thick chunky sauce. Then add
About 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon ( or just sprinkle and taste)
About 1-2 teaspoons of allspice and cloves
about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
a lid full of vanilla
and any other spice that would taste good!
It is already really sweet, so I don't add sweetener, but a bit of honey might taste good.
Spoon into sterilized quart sized jars and process in boiling water for 20-30 minutes, or whenever the lid pops down. I like it warm and cold!
Apple Butter:
Preheat oven to 350
A large pot filled to the top with peeled, cored and chopped apples.
Enough lemon juice to coat the apples
And enough water to cover the bottom
Simmer over high heat for 15-20 minutes or until the apples are soft.
At the same time, make a mixture of about 1/2 cup water, a little less than 1/2 cup lemon juice, and about 1 or 2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. (If you want you can add sweetener, but the apples are sweet enough for me.)
Then transfer the apples to a baking dish and mix it with a third of the water/lemon/ vinegar mixture, and sprinkling a good amount of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg.
Then put into the oven on the lowest rack. Every 10-15 minutes mix it well, and every 30 minutes add in thirds, the rest of the liquid mixture. Bake for about 1-2 hours or until very soft, dark and resembling applesauce.
Then in the blender put about 1/8 cup lemon juice or leftover liquid, and add half of the apple mixture. Blend until smooth and creamy, set aside. Do the same with the other half, and mix the two together. Then add a lid full of vanilla, a pinch of salt, and more spices if it needs more spice. Pour into sterilized pint or half pint jars, and process for 20-30 minutes or until lids pop down.
It is amazing on toast ( that was our dinner tonight. :)
So there are my recipes, if you use them I hope you like them, this is really also for my reference, because I always forget how I make everything when I want to make it again.
Even though I may be sick of apples and tomatoes now, I am sure that months down the road I will be very grateful that I spent the days chopping or peeling, and stooping over boiling pots.
:)
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Food that would last forever...
Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 04:59
Here is a link my sister sent me about food irradiation:
"In a concrete vault with walls twenty feet thick, in a building peppered with signs warning "Danger-Radiation Area," a door opens. Through the door, neatly boxed and stacked on a conveyor belt, come thousands of potatoes. The door silently closes and another opening-a shutter in the floor of the vault-contracts, revealing a pool of water beneath the vault. Within the pool lie rods of radioactive cobalt-60, products from the core of a nuclear reactor, or cesium-137, waste products of atomic bomb construction. Once the shutter has fully opened, these rods rise up out of the water and into the vault, exposing the potatoes to 100,000 rads of ionizing radiation. This is 2,500,000 times the dose of a typical chest X-ray. It is more than 150 times the dose lethal to humans. According to even a basic physics textbook, exposure to 10,000 rads totally destroys living tissue.
Inside the potatoes, atomic bonds are breaking apart and reorganizing. Molecules are metamorphosing, forming new alliances and becoming entirely different biological products. Further, up to one third of the vitamin C is being destroyed.
Within minutes the rods recede into the pool and the shutter closes. A second door opens, and the potatoes glide out on their conveyor belt. Now they are ready for you to eat. They will not sprout eyes. They will not soften and grow black. They can be used in commercial French fries, mashed potatoes, and prepared dinners. And you may never know the potatoes are irradiated.
This is not the beginning of a science fiction horror story. Food irradiation is happening now, across our country, in cities like Lynchburg, Virginia; Menlo Park, California; and Mulberry, Florida. It is a method of food processing that is designed to extend the shelf life of foods and kill any insects or bacteria that are infesting them. However, in addition to killing bacteria and bugs, irradiation has been shown to reduce nutritional content, produce several known carcinogens, promote the growth of some toxins and molds, and cause the formation of unique radiolytic products, (URPs). The URPs are biological "loose cannons," and their consumption has been associated with chromosomal damage, tumor development, birth defects, and a wide range of biological abnormalities. Nonetheless, the food production industry, the radiation industry, some governmental leaders, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) itself would have us believe that food irradiation is the next great hope for the world's food supply..."
This is just the first paragraph in the article, if you want to continue reading it go to this link: http://www.mindfully.org/Food/Food-Last-Forever-TOC.htm
Is that freaky or what? Yet another reason for us to grow our own food.
Every day there seems to be a new way that "they" destroy our food, and transform it from the natural and good way that God made it, into some strange, biologically altered, cancer-causing blob. The more processed it is the more likely it is to hurt us.
This will make me even more careful about where and what I eat.
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Summer Bounty and Blessings!
Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008 at 03:46
 Have a seat on our swing as I show you our summer bounty and blessings.
 Zucchini, beets, onions, basil, and other herbs... fresh from the garden.
 Strawberries! Not many, but they were good while they lasted.
 Broccoli! ( Before it got infested with aphids. :)
 Homemade, lacto-fermented, pickles, from our many, many cucumbers.
 Elderberries!
From that... to this:
 We already drank those three bottles...:)
 Corn! Lots of corn! Freezing 47 ears.
 And the result is 6 quarts.
 And our first tomato...mmm.
 Tomatillos... made green salsa enchiladas with those.
 Nectarines, plums and peaches.
We have been so blessed with this amazing harvest of food. God is so good.
Hope you have enjoyed seeing my little corner of the world here. :)
More pictures to come, as I am trying madly to do things with the many apples and peaches we are getting.
Thanks all and God bless.
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Hello!!!
Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 10:37
I have started this blog so that I can record, post pictures, post articles, talk about health, cooking and my small attempts at homesteading. I love the homesteadblogger site, and am very excited to start this blog.
Hopefully to follow will be pictures, recipes, and everything I have been doing this summer.
Glad to be here and more to come!
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About Me
This is my Declaration of Dependence on God and Independence from this materialistic and corrupt culture. I try to be healthy, so that I may have life, and want to homestead so that I may have liberty. It is through these things and my relationship with the Lord that I find happiness.
Recent Entries
• Pickled, Potted and Canned
• Raisins...and rain!
• Tomatoes and apples... my existence!
• Food that would last forever...
• Summer Bounty and Blessings!
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