Bread & Butter Pickles: Take One

Alright, I'm off the Dr. Seuss kick, but didn't you think that this was a pickle tree? Just for a second? It's where we've been tossing overgrown pickling cucumbers, I like to fancy that they're windfalls. We planted the "National" variety, and they were a wee too prolific for our canning pace. But we tried to catch up with CanningUSA's take on Bread and Butter Pickles. Pretty good.

PPWF September Style

A little behind on skimming out the crock with this batch of sauerkraut. But it's kinda pretty, right? Not as pretty as the colors on these corn leaves...

To support my habit for non-recipe related (barely food related, even) photos, here's some more weird Food Art for y'all. I liked the computer and the watermelon face...

Raspberry Cupcakes

I wasn't going to repeat my berry mistake of earlier this season and try to go savory with raspberries. Nope. Sticking with sweet.

The recipe was based on Jamie from My Baking Addiction's chocolate cupcake with raspberry white chocolate cream cheese frosting. We (er, Emma, mostly) made just a few changes. We added some raspberries to the body of the cupcakes, and we used smashed raspberries instead of raspberry extract to flavor the frosting. I'm guessing about a pint's worth of raspberries, and we didn't bother deseeding (did i ever tell you the story of the crazy guy who came to our booth at the MREA fair and told me that it was a sign of the apocalypse that people were eating seedless grapes and such because in the bible it says that seeded fruits shall be our food? He tied this in nicely with current Monsanto happenings, and it ended up being one of his saner arguments).

Anyway, the first time we made this recipe, I couldn't get over how fluffy the cupcakes were. The second time I liked them less. Just a warning.

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This...

The gardens look so serene from above. From below?

at least these guys are gone...

Need a hit of Shirelles? I do...

Mil Town Markets

Had the chance to accompany Tim Huth of Lotfotl Community Farm fame** to his weekend farmer's market in Milwaukee. Just wanted to post some pics of his pretty produce and throw up some links.

Milwaukee has a happening local food, community garden, urban ag, and food justice scene. Home to Growing Power and Fondy Food Center, this year it was the site of the Growing Food and Justice for All Intiative's first gathering. And that's just off the top of my head.

If you're looking to join up with a CSA, the Urban Ecology Center holds a CSA open house in March where you can get details and meet growers.

**not exaggerating. Check these articles in Midwest Airlines magazine and on Midwest Renaissance.

Does Honey Rot Your Teeth?

Sadly, the answer is yea. But maybe not! I tend to
ascribe mystical properties to honey--most of it deserved--and thinking of it as a simple sugar just never quite fit with that. Not that a little tooth rot is enough to unbalance all the wonderful things that honey does do. And the answer may be "depends on the honey", according to this admittedly somewhat crazy site.


With beeman Dan we extracted over 60 supers of honey, for a whopping total of nearly 2800 pounds of the stuff. And I saw the white foam for the first time.

I'm not sure how to explain it--think melted marshmallow, maybe? Or marshmallow fluff, if you've had that stuff. If you open a jar of honey and there's a thin layer of the stuff you can be sure that it wasn't pasteurized. I'm not sure what it is--scraps of propolis? Air bubbles caused by the extraction process? All I know is that I love the foam. Sweet and light in flavor, puffy in consistency, mmmm. I filled a jar of just foam when it reached the bottom of the tank.

Here are some photos from the extraction.

PPWF, repetitive version

Some of these are repeats, but some are new: Youtube Stills of Food Art

Eggplant for Haters?

Yea, I basically hate eggplant. Have I admitted this already? I had a bad experience once and it blocked out any good times I'd had previously with this nightshade fruit. I'm fine with excluding it from my diet, it was never a big part. But I liked these photos--pretty amazing how similar the colors are, between this Rosa Bianca and red garlic, right? So I typed "eggplant haters support group" into Google (no joke), and found Eggplant for Haters, a recipe by Nonlinear Girl.

I'm intrigued (though not that down with the racism-food aversion analogy). Haven't had a chance to try it, it requires somewhat fancy ingredients (dark sesame oil, rice wine), but I'm determined to give it a go. Well, maybe next eggplant season. Her tip is that Chinese eggplant, the one that looks like a purple zucchini, is a more likeable version than the rounded, dark purple American or Globe eggplant.

Kale Soup, Kale Soup for Dr. Seuss

Alright, level with me: are these whimsical blog post titles making you lose your appetite? Because I swear this one was totally deserved--the brassica garden looked like it jumped off the lovable Dr.'s page, and I took a break from weeding to imagine being miniature and wandering around under these knobby, slightly goofy-looking trees. Then I took another break to photograph them (no wonder there are so many weeds!).

Kale soup recipe here

Above: Brussels Sprout Palms (lower leaves removed to allow sprouts to get nice and big). Left: Kale "trees" within the asparagus forest--don't mind the weeds!

Some Seed Saving

Joy's the real expert in this area, but I thought I'd at least throw up some links--it's fascinating stuff. It's also a lot of work. Luckily we had a lot of volunteer help for our major projects, including these pretty purple shelled beans.

Saving Our Seed, a website on just that.

Common vegetable seed saving guide from ISSI.

Short and sweet guide from Sustainable Methow.

PDF specifically on isolation distances by Jeff McCormack.

Leslie Land's instructions saving tomato seed.

I think when I do start I'll go with easy herbs like cilantro and dill, then try beans and tomatoes, to get my confidence up. Here are some other suggestions on "easy" places to start.

Cilantro seed starting to turn

Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut

We had a chance to visit Mark Shepard's permaculture shire (oh okay, "perennial agricultural ecosystem", according to this bio) in southwestern Wisconsin last week. I won't get into the awesome awesomeness that was Mark and his farm, but I will post some hazelnut photos...

In the U.S. we use the term hazelnut and filbert interchangeably, while in Europe filbert only refers to varieties of Corylus where the husk is longer than the nut. The "hazel" comes from the Anglo-Saxon haesel, which means headdress or bonnet (referring to the outer shell's shape). The "filbert"? Some think the term comes from the German vollbart, meaning full beard, also a reference to the husked shell, but the most commonly heard explanation is that hazelnuts mature around St. Philibert's Day, August 20.

According to "Permaculture Plants", hazelnuts begin bearing at 4 years of age, and can live fifty years or more. Their flowers can survive temperatures slightly below zero (-20 degrees C), and they have the potential to produce over 30 pounds of nuts per tree (though in the midwest, sans pruning or any cultivation, i think 5-8 pounds was cited as a good go). Great source of protein and oil (think of how great a hazelnut biodiesel tractor would smell--although maybe the alcohol component would neutralize the oil's aroma? Any chemistry majors in the house?).

Due to the high percentage of oils in hazelnuts they aren't storage hardy. Shell on, you could get four months in the fridge (one month at room temp). If your hazelnuts rattle in their shell when they're shaken, they've lost water moisture and are probably not so great anymore.

For more on permaculture goodness, check out Midwest Permaculture or the Permaculture Research Institute. For filbert cooking tips, check out about.com's hazelnut cooking page.

PPWF, Garden Photos

Some Fruit Carving Oddities for your viewing pleasure

Joy's Enchiladas

This recipe is easy--even I could do it! I was sure, too, that my version just wouldn't be as good as Joy's. But credit the simple recipe, it's nothing if not trustworthy. I did feel like a bit of a jerk for using canned tomatoes when there were fresh ones on the vine, so I threw some diced in between the layers, and the next time I made the recipe I did a combo of dicing and blending fresh tomatoes to substitute for the canned--yummier, of course.

Enchiladas de Joy

1 2/3 C pinto beans, uncooked
1 C rice, uncooked
2/3 C onions, diced
1 t garlic, minced
1 t cumin
1/2 t coriander
1/4 t chili powder
2 10-oz cans tomato sauce
12 corn tortillas
1.5 C corn
4 C monterey jack cheese

Soak beans overnight, cook until tender (1 hour abouts). Cook rice. For sauce: saute onions, add spices and tomato sauce. (If you like spicy, you'll need to add that--this basic recipe isn't). Simmer until hot. Combine beans, rice, and sauce. In greased 9 x 13 pan, layer tortillas, rice and bean mix, corn, and cheese. Repeat. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve with salt and pepper.

Onion Harvest

We sure grew some big onions this year. Hats off to Emma, the onion crop-planning queen.

Not really in a soup mood these days (yay for summers in the midwest), I managed to dig up an onion bread, or Pletzel, recipe. From the way the author tells it, you'd be doing your part to save this alledgedly endangered staff of life.

We laid them out on screens in the steershed to dry and braided some, too.

An Easy Carrot Side

I loved this recipe. Not only did it allow us to rescue all the carrot seconds from the morning harvest from languishing in our kitchen, but it's also yummy (I just knew I was keeping fennel seeds around for a reason). The recipe comes by way of Straight From the Farm, submitted by reader Gintonio. I hope linking to them makes up for reprinting the recipe...

4-5 large carrots
2 garlic cloves
3 T extra virgin olive oil
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 t fennel seeds
1 t paprika
Salt and pepper
2 T chopped fresh cilantro

Slice carrots thinly, place in a saucepan with some water and steam 5-8 minutes until tender, but not soft. Drain, let cool a bit. Mince garlic and mix with everything else but the cilantro. Toss carrots with dressing and cilantro.

She recommended letting it marinade at least overnight, a fact that I didn't realize until right now (and obviously did not do. They were still good, I guess better the second day, though). Serve cold or at room temp.

Zucchini Trial

Not really a fan of zucchini? Blame Monsanto. Okay, that's a stretch. But blame the consolidating impulse present throughout the agri-business food system. I don't think I'd ever even seen anything besides that plain, dark green, bland variety of zucchini until a few years ago. And when I did I just assumed that they all tasted alike. Not so. Joy fixed us up with a taste trial and here's how it shook out:

1) Mutabile
2) Costata Romanesco (Johnny's calls it "best tasting", but I was overruled here)
3) Yellow Crookneck
4) Dk. Green--your plain old grocery store zucchini

If you've never dug on zucchini, maybe you just need a variety upgrade!

Stuffed Squash Directions:

Use any stir fry that you would have included squash in, thems the guidelines. Hugo kept this one pretty simple: onions, garlic, tomatoes. Scoop into quartered, de-seeded zucchini, sprinkle with cheese. Bake on low until heated through/cheese is melted.

Food Playing with People

In tribute to the current zucchini onslaught, here are people being Attacked by Food, a la zefrank.

Golden Beets

How gorgeous are golden beets? I'd never heard of them before, but luckily Joy had and we ordered seed--they are almost too pretty for their own good. Very full greens, as well. No specific recipe for these allegedly sweeter sisters of the red beet, just some eye candy.

I'm Currantly Rocking Out

We made currant jam this week, yup yup, and did you know that fresh red currants are unrelated to the dried currants you may know from various baked goods? Those are actually dried zante grapes, and they had the name first.

Related to the gooseberry, currants are high in vitamin C (the black more so than the red), though canning temperatures destroy vitamin C. So I guess you just have to like the flavor. It's a nice change from the regulars, but not my favorite. Though maybe because this recipe made for a less gel-like jam, it's more the consistency of a pear butter. The color of the finished product, however, is a vibrant 80's pink--that makes up for a lot.

Currant jam recipe here

Another good option is to juice the raw berries (no heating) and freeze the juice in ice-cube trays, for adding to smoothies and other concoctions all winter long. This method is especially attractive when it's hot and humid out and the thought of being in a hot canning kitchen is too much to take.

Cutting Celery

Heard of it? We hadn't, so we ended up planting enough for a big, healthy bed of it. Call it a successful, if unintentional, experiment. I like cutting celery's vibe. When it's neighbors were droopy or bolting, complaining in some way, it seemed just dandy. It's season is also longer (and earlier) than regular celery, a plus for spring or late fall soups.

Cutting celery looks like a hardier cousin of flat-leafed parsley, but the smell and ridged stem will end any confusion. The flavor is a bit stronger than regular celery--a few sprigs will substitute for one stalk (i heard)--and it holds its flavor when dried.

I first tried substituting cutting celery in my lazy sunday lentil recipe.