Garden Dreaming

January 10, 2014January 10, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 11 Comments

This is the time of year when the grand garden dreams begin. It has been bitter cold out and I’m sad to say the only outdoor adventures I have had in the past month is taking the dogs out twice a day. The snowshoes are waiting in the shed for another good snowstorm.

Like every project I have I start with truly unrealistic plans and then pare them down as the time grows shorter. The list of seeds is pretty long this year with the hope that the spring weather will be decent and my plants will get a better start. I plan to start everything at home rather than buying starts anywhere, including my onions. In years past I just bought onion sets but last year I was unable to get Walla Wallas and was disappointed, this year I won’t leave it to chance.

There has been so much in the news lately about GMOs that I’ve decided this is the only way to go for me. I can’t source anything anymore, you just have no idea where anything comes from and can’t trust what you’re told for the most part. I never thought I would have to work so hard at knowing where my food came from.

I am fortunate to have grown up in a family that always had a large vegetable garden. We canned, froze or otherwise put by most of the food we ate. We always grew our own beef, had chickens for a spell and raised a couple of pigs one time. Having my food source close to me is nothing new but now there seems to be more of an urgency to it. I thought it was just me being a little paranoid but having talked to a couple of medical professionals who are seeing more cancers in much younger people I’m thinking I’m not being over cautious. When someone tells me they know of a 26 year old with breast cancer my first thought is their diet. We have had decades now where our protein sources are laced with hormones and antibiotics all in the name of increasing production. The same goes for our GMO crops. Corn is in everything – every thing. Even if you are trying to do right by your family if you are not reading labels (and reading into them) you simply don’t know what you are getting anymore.

So the grand plan is to plant a large variety in quantities that will get me through to the next harvest. Things that will keep in a root cellar, are good canned or dehydrated. In reading over the long seed list it would seem that my experiment for this growing season will be Dinosaur Kale and a savoyed cabbage. Spinach will be in the mix as well. I’ve grown it before but haven’t in a few years so it made the list. The garlic and asparagus are in the ground both of them are experiments in themselves albeit really long term ones.

This weekend I will spend some time sitting by the wood stove, drinking coffee, plotting out my garden space and ticking off the seed list to see what stays and what goes. I will also do a viability test on some of the seed I have just to see what I really need. I’ll try to sprout some of my popcorn as well because that was one experiment that worked particularly well.

A Hogwarts Inspired Dessert

January 7, 2014January 7, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

At our little gathering last weekend one of the sweets I made was Pumpkin Pasties. These were far more delicious than I expected and were incredibly easy to make.

For the filling I made my regular filling for pumpkin pie, baked it until set and then just scooped it out of the baking dish as I filled the pastry.

The dough couldn’t be easier although it requires some work. It’s 1 1/2 cups of four, a stick of butter and 8 ounces of cream cheese. The butter is cut into the flour as you do when you make a pie crust. Once that is done you add the cream cheese and mix until it sort of holds together. Dump it out onto a floured surface and knead it until it holds together. This takes quite a bit of work, I honestly didn’t think it would ever hold together but eventually it did. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it for a minimum of an hour – I left it overnight.

I rolled the dough out (quite a bit of work in itself) until it was about 1/8″ thick. Using a 4 inch round cutter I cut the dough. This dough is very pliable, easy to roll out and fill. Putting each round in my hand I filled them with about a tablespoon of filling. I had beaten an egg with a little water and used my finger spread a little on the edge then pinched the edges together to seal. After putting them on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper I brushed them with the egg wash and sprinkled them with sparkling sugar. Then I cut a couple of vents in the top of each one.

Bake them in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. They will be a nice puffy pastry when they come out of the oven, quite beautiful.

Everyone thought these were delicious. The pumpkin filling was something unexpected in a tiny turnover. I think I will make these again deviating from the Hogwarts Express pumpkin thing and make them with an apple or blueberry filling. Maybe we just like our fruit better than our vegetables.

End of the Season

January 6, 2014January 6, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 5 Comments

As quickly as they ramped up the holidays are now over. This is an occasion for me to breathe a sigh of relief. The last of the gatherings was this past weekend with all of my family together in one spot. That’s a rare event but a most welcome one. The preparations were made in the week before – I researched and made some Harry Potter themed food for my sister’s girls, my sister and my youngest. Yes, they are all well into adulthood but there is nothing more exciting than experiencing some of the foods that you’ve only read about. If I could have turned the living room into the great hall at Hogwarts I would have but alas my wand was nowhere to be found.

The traditions around the holidays for us center around food. This being the first time in 15+ years my brother and sister have been together for a holiday celebration lead me to bring out the suet pudding recipe with the two sauces. This is a dessert my kids have heard about their entire lives yet had no recollection of having tasted it. The recipes and mold came to me from my aunt when she passed the responsibility of making the dessert on to me. I diligently made it year after year until the girls were little and we began spending a good part of the holidays with Bill’s family. The Alixes were scattered and no one else even considered eating something with the word suet in it.

My sister and brother were ecstatic to see it as dessert and my brother ate three helpings. It greased the wheels of reminiscing about food and we talked about our comfort foods in exquisite detail. It amazes me the power of taste and smell to bring back memories from so long ago. It was also wonderful to have my siblings and their families all together to share in the stories even though they find some of the things we eat on the line of disgusting. You know, it’s never going to stop us from eating it. I think next time we get together I will make mac and cheese with tomatoes and serve a side of sliced onions and cucumbers in a bowl of cider vinegar and the three of us will sit around the table and talk about childhood. I’m not sure what the rest of the family will do for food.

A Year in Review

December 31, 2013December 31, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

January was spent trying to finish my thousand cranes – a resolution I make every year and never quite finish. I figure a couple more years and they will be done. I do recommend this to any and everyone. It’s simple to do and is one of the most meditative things I have ever done.

The weather was wintry and exquisitely beautiful. Each and every storm left behind a landscape that screamed to be walked through on snowshoes and photographed. The quiet that goes along with weather is restorative and I always look forward to a snowstorms aftermath.

St. Patrick’s Day will be one of the most important days of the calendar year to me now, not because I’m Irish but because it was the day I talked to Scott for the first time. Given up for adoption in 1972 I had come to regard this moment as something that may never happen. I had left information on a website and through a convoluted chain of events was contacted through an intermediary. The rest of this year has been spent with each of us getting to know our new family members, a blessing in so, so many ways.

Sugaring this year was amazing although the snow was rather deep in the beginning. A lot of work gathering those buckets without the aid of snowshoes. It makes up for it when we boil and smell that hot maple goodness wafting through the sugar house.

Spring came in its normal time this year, no hot spells or odd cold snaps and the pear tree was happy.

I made my first overshot throw in wool and discovered a passion for weaving that far and away exceeds any other handwork I have ever done. My grandfather had wanted me to weave I think, I have a faint recollection of receiving a small, plastic kids loom when I was very young but without someone to teach me. This has been a special journey with a connection to just about every member of my family.

Every morning the weather cooperates this is what I look at as I drink my first cup of coffee. There is nothing like walking out the door in your pajamas and sitting in an Adirondack chair overlooking your land. Day to day the view is different, each having its own beauty. I feel very, very blessed to have this be such a big part of my life. It’s grounding.

The end of summer brings with it the fairs. I took full advantage this year. Heath Fair is one of my favorites with something for everyone. I also had some validation with winning a blue ribbon for my weaving.

Wood, wood, wood, we cut and split a lot of wood. It’s best when it’s like this – family all gathered to make it all go quicker and easier. It’s also more fun. Everyone pitched in and Chester thought is was awesome.

Chester started swimming this summer. He is a very hot dog when the weather is warm but loves playing fetch more than anything. This was the perfect solution. He was a bit of a panic swimmer the first day but after that he looked forward to coming to this spot each and every day we were in Rowe, sometimes twice a day. He is an amazing animal.

My garden had its issues this year but my popcorn, the experiment of the year was a complete success. There is no better feeling than finding out there is something new you can grow that’s beautiful and functional.

I went to Belfast, Maine to Fiber College this year and spent quality time with old and new friends and ate lobster every day. It was a fiber weekend for some but for me it was more about photography. I need to be alone to do my best work and I came away with images that were everything I wanted them to be. It was also a time to reminisce about childhood, we spent many summers up this way while I was growing up and I hadn’t been here in a good 30 years.

This autumn the foliage was more beautiful than I had seen it in years. So many of my friends shared exquisite images of scenes right out their front doors that were breathtaking. Photography slows me down and forces me to look at the details. The photograph above of the red tree was taken almost at dark. I drove by it in the center of town, said wow to myself and kept driving. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill I turned around to capture this. In my head I initially said “Oh, just take it tomorrow” but a few hundred feet down the road I realized that it wouldn’t be there. Those are the best photographs, the ones that catch that fleeting moment.

This fall I saw some of the most amazing sunsets ever. Enfield never looked so good under these vibrant skies. This particular evening it seemed that everyone I knew posted a photograph from a different place. It was like the sky made everyone stop whatever they were doing to watch. It’s comforting to know that the people I love were all looking at the sky at almost the same time and then sending what they saw to others.

Thanksgiving weekend was about family, our immediate family. What is usually a crowd was just Bill, me and the two girls, our nuclear family. It was the first time in so many years that it was just us and it was wonderful. It’s probably the most difficult thing to experience – the loss of your children to adulthood. The best time of our lives was raising our girls and they have both turned into amazing, remarkable women. It was good to have the opportunity to have them all to ourselves. For a treat Bill built an amazing bonfire to share with them and a couple of their cousins.

Christmas has come and gone, although the remnants are still in the house. A few decorations will return to their boxes in a week or so and life will begin its new cycle. There aren’t any resolutions this year for me other than to absorb the gifts around me. The time seems to go by so fast each year it leaves me breathless. I will spend the winter months planning the garden, weaving and cooking for the people I love. I will follow in the rhythm of the seasons and work the way I do for each year. It may seem a little dull but planning my life around what’s growing or the weather is the most comfortable way for me to live at this moment in time, you just roll with it. I take every moment spent with the people I love and savor it like a fine wine. Those times of love and laughter are what sustains me through any other trials that come along. The simplicity of it is all I need.

Bacon Jam

December 19, 2013December 19, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

This holiday season we will be attending a wine and cheese event given by Bill’s cousin. He is kind of a foodie so I decided to make a batch of Bacon Jam to bring along with a bottle of wine. I can’t imagine this not going well with cheese – or a cheeseburger or an english muffin or toast or your morning waffle or pancake. This stuff is gold.

It all begins with a trip to Pekarski Sausage in South Deerfield. They don’t have a website so I added a link to the reviews on Yelp. This is a wonderful family owned business that makes artisan smoked meats and sausages. We always have a stock in the freezer and somehow something makes it’s way into one of our meals on a weekly basis.

This is what I picked up – bacon, beautiful, lean bacon. One and a half pounds. I picked up a smoked Cornish Game Hen as well for dinner with sister Sue.

The bacon was cut into one inch pieces.

And cooked in a large skillet until the fat was rendered and it started to brown.

Meanwhile I diced two medium large yellow onions and smashed and peeled 4 cloves of garlic. The recipe called for three but they were small and who ever heard anyone say “Wow, too much garlic”. Never happens in this family.

When the bacon was done I took it out of the pan with a slotted spoon and let it drain on paper towels. Can you just smell this? Awesome, as bacon always is.

The fat was drained (to be used for other cooking) and the onions and garlic cooked in about a tablespoon of fat left in the pan. This smells pretty heavenly too.

The rest of the ingredients were assembled as the onions cooked to a translucent golden color. Maple syrup, brown sugar, cider vinegar and coffee all go into the mix.

The pan is deglazed with the liquids and once it comes to a boil the bacon is returned to the pan.

And then it simmers slowly.

And simmers.

And simmers, filling the air with the complexity of all these ingredients.

It simmered through dinner and 6 rounds of Yahtzee with my sister.

It cooked for almost two hours until the liquid was reduced to a thick syrup consistency.

It then cools until lukewarm and is put into a food processor until chopped very fine. All those ingredients melded together into a spread just waiting for your imagination.

This made a little less than three cups. I filled two canning jars and one will be staying in the refrigerator for our holiday enjoyment and the other will travel as a gift to the host. The recipe can be found at Leite’s Culinaria – my go to for great recipes of all kinds.

Now onto the Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies – don’t turn up your nose, they are spectacular!

Remains of the Day

December 2, 2013December 2, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

The Thanksgiving holiday ends when the soup is done. That’s the way I look at it anyway. Saturday afternoon, after guests had had their fill of all things turkey I removed the meat from the bones and made stock in a very large pot. I strained the broth and put the pan in the shed to cool overnight. The temperature hadn’t been above 25 degrees so it’s as good as any refrigerator.

Sunday morning I skimmed the fat and heated the stock. This is where we come to the rest of the ingredients. Everything that was leftover from Thanksgiving went into the pot. Mashed potatoes, squash, rutabaga, gravy, it all went in. Using this as the base for your turkey soup gives it the most wonderful flavor and thickens it to the perfect consistency. Last but not least comes the leftover bird – and this was one wonderful bird from Diemand Turkey Farm in Wendell, MA. I didn’t add any starch because I wanted to keep my options open since it was such a huge amount.

The soup was simmered for about an hour and then the canner came out. I had to can two rounds because the canner will only do 14 pints at a time. All in all I canned 24 pints. I do pints because many times it’s just one person (or two) opening a jar. If there are more people open more jars. It’s so satisfying to see the fruits of your labor sitting on the counter cooling. Then dream about the soup’s possibilities – turkey barley, turkey rice and I’m thinking dumplings would be a great winter meal.

The biggest treat is tasting this when Thanksgiving Day is a distant memory because this is really Thanksgiving Dinner in a jar – yum!

Thanksgiving

November 28, 2013November 28, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

“Gratitude can transform common days into Thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” William Arthur Ward

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It has always been about family for us. My extended family is small and widespread but as a child the excitement would build over the weeks before the holiday arrived. Family gathered at Fort Pelham Farm for food and all of the festivities of the season. My aunts, uncles and grandparents on both sides would arrive one after another in the days before Thursday, our 3 cousins as well. There was laughter, food, more laughter. My mother loved this holiday and having her siblings with us.

We would rise early on Thanksgiving day to the smell of Bell’s Seasoning, onions and butter. My mother had risen at her usual ungodly hour and had everything well in hand. My aunt would always bring dates stuffed with walnuts and rolled in sugar. I remember there being a lot of nuts consumed on that day (the only other time we had them was at Christmas or when visiting my mother’s father). We would consume savory and sweet with the Macy’s parade in the background.

An hour or so before dinner was served everyone changed into their Sunday best. It was the one meal a year when we “dressed for dinner”. It seems a little odd to me now but I’m glad we did it.

It is all so long ago and far away now. Most of those players are gone but having had those gatherings every year of my childhood really instilled in me the importance of giving thanks for family and friends. I try to be thankful every day but this day focuses on it.

This year we are having the smallest gathering I can remember. It will be my two daughters, one boyfriend, Bill and I. It seems to be a pattern with many of our friends and family – I think for us it’s about being home. We have given up the long distance travelling. Not so much for getting there but the long ride home.

The bird is in the oven, I started my day with Bell’s Seasoning, onions and butter. There are vegetables to be cooked, gravy to be made. The sticky buns are ready to be warmed. Our meals are always the same, they have been for me for well over 50 years. I asked the girls what they absolutely had to have for dinner and am making everything we always have for 5 people. It wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving without the same things we have every year. There will just be a lot of leftovers – never a bad thing.

Today I am thankful that we have good, local food available to us – some grown right here. I am thankful I will be spending the weekend with 2 of my children who I see less than I’d like to. I’m thankful that we are in a huge old house with a cranking woodstove. I’m thankful for the quiet, the snow and the birds that are gracing my feeder.

I am most thankful for the people in my life. I’m thankful I have a new piece of my family returned. I’m so thankful (and miss terribly) the people that are now gone – they made me who I am and made my life richer.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends that read this blog regularly. Surround yourself with the people that are the most important to you, breathe it in, make it part of that collective memory that sustains you.

2013 – Year of the Great Fruit Fly Infestation

November 7, 2013November 7, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 8 Comments

Every year we have fruit flies as summer turns into fall. They are a little annoying but if you pick up any food or things that are damp you can usually control the situation. For the past month we have had an infestation like I have never seen before. They were everywhere.

I went through everything, cleaning, washing, sanitizing. We would leave on Sunday night and I would come back on Wednesday, turn up the heat and they would be everywhere. They weren’t confined to one room either. Every room downstairs had fruit flies. The past couple of weeks have been pretty cold so I figured that would do them in – not so. It felt like black fly season in my living room.

I put out an APB to all of my cyber friends and family. Some replied with great advice. I googled how to rid yourself of fruit flies and tried many things suggested. Two weeks in a row I set out bowls of cider vinegar with a couple of drops of detergent. It worked quite well, except for the pesky buggers that would hang out on the rim of the bowl like birds on a birdbath. The bowls were in every room and it seemed like the population grew from week to week.

One morning I was at my wits end with a swarm around my head. I sat down to think about this – what was keeping them going? There had to be a food source of some kind for them to continue to multiply like this. Then it dawned on me – there were potatoes gone bad in a wooden bin in the kitchen. It hadn’t even crossed my mind. I had Bill remove their life source and waited another few days.

I am happy to say when I arrived last night I was pleasantly relieved to see they were gone. Not a one anywhere.

I must admit I took a perverse pleasure in sucking up their dead little carcasses with the vacuum cleaner.

Planning that Garden Years in Advance

October 14, 2013October 14, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 10 Comments

Sunday morning I was able to till the soil on the south side of the garage and plant my garlic. This was pretty much my entire crop from this year. It’s a hard necked variety called Music that performed very well. When all was said and done I planted 70 bulbs. Next year we should have enough to eat for the winter and spring plus the same amount to plant the following year.

Gardening is such a long term process. You always have to think years down the line and plan, plan, plan. “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray” is every farmer’s adage so we plan for the unexpected as well.

My garden has begun to expand with more permanent plantings. Raspberries and asparagus are the newest members. Blueberries, rhubarb and pears have been there awhile. I still have another year before I will be eating the asparagus but once the patch comes in it will be amazing. My raspberries have had two years of not doing so well and I am beginning to think I should move them to another spot, maybe in the back forty. They will have just as much sun but the soil won’t dry out as much. It’s worth a shot, they certainly aren’t happy where they are.

Growing your own food is both wonderful and anxiety producing. You worry about your plants. You wonder if your timing is right for planting, for harvesting. Every year is different. I used to think that once I had 10 years under my belt I would be able to relax but that is not the case. Too warm, too cold, too wet, too dry, sheesh. I keep records from year to year – garden layout, planting time, harvest time. I review it during the winter and try to plan but you never know. So all we can do is hope for the best.

End of Year Garden Assessment

September 16, 2013September 16, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

I took this photograph yesterday morning overlooking the best garden of weeds I have ever had. I have had a vegetable garden for a good ten years now and this has to be the worst one yet. Fortunately the rest of the view is pretty nice.

For some reason in my mind it is the first week of October (I even tore off the September page of the calendar on Saturday and didn’t realize it until Sunday). It may be the weeds or my confused state but I decided to dismantle most of the garden this past weekend. I had Cherry Belle radishes the size of beets – over 5 feet tall and gone to seed (which was interesting since I had never done that). I had a total of two beets the size of radishes.

I really began by pulling up all of my popcorn. It had been raining the past week a good deal and I thought I should probably get it out of the ground. I laid all of the stalks in my garden wagon thinking I would keep the ears on the stalks to dry further. This was Tom Thumb popcorn, an heirloom variety developed in New Hampshire. It was bred to do well in a short season. It only grows 3 feet tall and is quite cute. It did well. Sunday I decided to pull all of the ears off of the stocks, peel back the husks and let them dry further. They are supposed to dry to a 14% moisture content. I’m not sure how you’re supposed to figure that out but most people just try popping a few kernels every so often during the drying period to see when they pop. Works for me. Did I mention that none of these ears is more than 4 inches long? Most are in the 3 inch category – hence the name Tom Thumb.

I then pulled what carrots I had. I had planted two varieties – the old standby Danvers and Atomic Red. Another rather disappointing harvest. This is all I had – a total of 6 pints when it was all said and done. When I saw them scrubbed up in the bowl I was glad I had planted both, they look great together. I canned them with a brown sugar glaze. I had heard a review from my sister that this was the only way to go. Well, when you only have 6 pints you have to make a choice, I went with sweet.

The rest of the potatoes were dug on Saturday and left out in the sun until yesterday afternoon. Not a particularly good year for them either. We had a lot of rain and the earth really compacted around them. The potatoes are delicious, the yield was just not there (that and the fact that we ate fully half of them as new potatoes).

Then there is the matter of tomatoes. The vines in the garden have been brown without leaves for a couple of weeks. The yellow cherries just kept coming – we are at a loss to understand why. This tomato is extremely prolific. The bonus is it takes them a long, long time to rot. Another interesting thing is they drop off of the vine as soon as they begin to turn yellow so rather than pick them off of the plant you end up picking them off of the ground. I was pulling the stakes up that were holding the plants and these tomatoes were everywhere. Not being one to let good food go to waste I picked them up and canned them with 4 red tomatoes that were the only ones left. I ended the tomato season with an additional 6 pints of beautiful golden sauce.

I planted a total of seven eggplants – they produced 4 fruit. They were delicious but I’m not sure if it was this particular year’s weather or my growing season is just too short. The plants are blossoming like crazy right now but I know there won’t be enough time before we have a frost. I feel a little bad pulling them up but I’m not going to weed around them.

The asparagus looks great. The bed will be cleaned out, mulched and some edging will be put in this fall. The rutabagas are just okay this year, they will stay in the ground until a couple of frosts hit, then I will pull them. They are smaller than usual. The rest of the garden will be tilled in the next week or so (because I can’t look at the crabgrass any more).

We have scoped out a new area for the garden. This will involve outside help for excavation and some fill but it holds the promise of being a better location long term. We have some mature maples along the south end of where the garden presently is and that is the one tree we are loathe to cut down. I figure the way the crabgrass grew in this year it would take about a month to turn the present garden into lawn since most of the lawn is crabgrass anyway.

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