Little Gifts

September 13, 2013September 13, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

I ran out of the grape jelly I made two years ago from grapes grown on a friend’s property in Rowe. I was lamenting the fact that she wasn’t around to ask and I didn’t want to wander around on her land without permission. I had just come to the sad conclusion that I would have another year without it. Yesterday, at the shop, I walked over to get some information on a car and looked up at the fence that is in between our lot and the next. Grapes – loads of them. I brought out a box this morning and picked away. They are small, they are wild and they are tart. With the amount of sugar that is used in jelly making this is the perfect fruit.

This is a classic case of finding food in unexpected places. This is on a fence in a parking lot. There is maybe a 4 foot wide span of earth in between the lots and that is where they grow. They have been growing there for years judging by the size of the vines. With all my whining about not having any grapes I’m surprised that Bill didn’t say anything about these. After I said I was going to pick them today he told me that he had a customer that used to come in and pick them every year. I guess I’m not really that surprised. He, like me, never thinks we are going to see wild food growing anywhere down here. It always seems so . . . urban. Too much asphalt and concrete. Then again we have an old Italian body shop owner 3 doors down from us that cut a 3′ x 6′ patch out of the parking lot and grows tomatoes and peppers there every year – right up against the building. They are spectacular but I always looked at that as the Italian gift, they seem to be able to grow tomatoes anywhere.

I think the lesson here is to open your eyes and expect the unexpected. Then be brave enough to pick what you see and use it.

Now I’m just dreaming about those PBJs.

Mr. Photobomb

September 10, 2013September 10, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

I just had to take a photo or two of the pear tree. It is loaded with fruit this year and I am always amazed at how the branches bow down to the ground without breaking. The light was harsh but it was a beautiful evening. And guess who just happened to be in the shot. One of many that he was in. You’d think he was waiting to see the results.

I’m So Done with Peaches

September 4, 2013September 4, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 3 Comments

It’s been a busy few days. Lots of canning this past weekend in spite of the hot, humid weather. I always think if being way too hot when I’m canning, it’s the nature of the beast.

The canning marathon began Sunday morning with a large bowl of tomatoes. The photo looks like it’s all yellow but it was half plum as well.

These little tomatoes are bursting with flavor, one of my favorites and the plants are extraordinarily prolific. There is always a bowl of these on the counter to munch on as you’re walking by.

I made the sauce highly spiced with homemade pesto and oregano (and lots of garlic of course). It was cooked down to be rather thick and then I canned it in small jars (2/3 cup). You never need much sauce when you make pizza and this just made more sense to me – that and the fact that I had two dozen of these cute little jars.

Monday I wove and finished my scarf for the Big E. That took a good part of the day. It was hot, humid and rainy. We invited friends over for dinner so the only thing I did outdoors was dig potatoes for dinner. I also picked peppers and put them in to dehydrate. They were there overnight. Before going to bed I went online and saw Apex Orchards had put out an APB about an overrun of peaches so I knew what I would be doing in the morning.

Yes, peaches. Lots of peaches. I picked them up around 9:00 and started in as soon as I returned. This wasn’t the best peach experience I have ever had. They didn’t peel as well as I would have liked so it was slow going. I managed to put up 15 pints and with half a box to go I decided to make a little jam.

I had picked up this new pectin at the orchard and was hot to try it out. One of the reasons I don’t make much jam is the amount of sugar that has to go into it, this made more sense to me. I made a jam with peaches, honey and ginger. It smelled heavenly while it was cooking and what little was left in the pan tasted great. The thing with jam is it sometimes takes a while to jell up. By the time I left the house last night it wasn’t looking too thick. I figured I would give it a couple of days to see if it would be thick enough to spread on my toast. If not it’ll just go into my oatmeal or yogurt. Mmmmmm, Honey Ginger Peach yogurt, how good does THAT sound!

By the time the afternoon was over I was sooo over peaches. Canning fruit also calls for serious cleaning – everything was sticky, including the floor. This may be why peaches are one of the few fruits I put up. The next will be pears but not until November. I need a couple of months to recover.

I will be leaving for Fiber College in Searsport, ME this afternoon. I’m not sure how much time will be devoted to blogging but I will make an attempt. All I really want to do is smell and walk along the ocean and eat lobster but I may be coerced into doing a little crafting while I’m there.

Can All You Can

August 28, 2013August 28, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 5 Comments

I posted a photo of my canyon of canned goods the other day and some comments surprised me. I grew up canning. My mother canned – a lot. We had a large garden and what she didn’t can she froze. Everything was done with a hot water bath so there were hours spent in front of that stove or in a hot kitchen, it takes a long time to process things with a hot water bath. She used the WWII volume of the Ball Blue Book. I still have it but these days almost everything I do is with a pressure canner. It saves me time, water, energy and sweat. I am also able to can pretty much anything safely.

This time of year the concentration is on fruit with tomatoes included. Last week I canned tomatoes, peaches and made apricot butter as well as a few jars of dill pickles. This week will be a repeat. I really need about 50 pints of tomatoes to last me until next summer, I’d prefer to have more but tomatoes aren’t as easy to come by this summer due to a blight that seems to have effected everyone everywhere.

The peaches are beautiful this year and I had a really great canning experience this past weekend. I love it when everything goes smoothly. I don’t want to fight to peel those peaches. I read somewhere to make sure the water was at a rolling boil and to dunk only a few peaches at a time for 30 seconds then into the ice bath. Worked like a charm. I also made sure my fruit was at room temperature before I started. Canning fruit at home also allows you to control the amount of sugar that is used in processing. That’s important to me, I don’t like things really sweet, I want to taste the fruit.

Our pear tree is loaded with fruit this year – I fear for its branches. The apple trees are the same. I will probably make a few pints of pie filling from the apples just to see if I can make it work to my satisfaction. The pears won’t even ripen until after Thanksgiving and I will can those in chunks like I did the peaches.

There is nothing like the taste of home canned food, especially in winter. I know exactly what is in every jar, there are no preservatives, no additives, no GMO’s. It’s real food. There is also the feeling of food security which is certainly what food preservation is all about. Having enough to eat until the next harvest comes in. Plant enough to eat now and put by enough to get you to next summer. We live in a world where everything is immediate. It takes very little time to empty out a grocery store, they are restocked every day. I don’t ever want to worry about where my next meal is coming from or not having food to feed my family. I’m sure that comes from growing up when food security may have been a concern. I just remember this time of year the shelves were stocked and you had choices.

I know when I look at this my mind is set a little more at ease. I have good food, I took the time to make it right and now all that is left is the eating.

Tomato Thief

August 27, 2013August 27, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

I have a few combination pots of herbs that have (had) cherry tomato plants in them. I have had tomato blight this year in a big way so the tomatoes are on some very sad looking vines.

Years ago, when I had only one dog, it was a little schnauzer named Holly. She was completely food obsessed. Each year I planted a pot of cherry tomatoes in my back yard in Enfield so I would pick one for her every time we went out. She loved it and her first stop in the yard was that pot. Buddy came along and she showed him the trick. Years have gone by and I no longer have tomatoes in Enfield.

Buddy is getting on in years and we think he has a little dementia (which dogs actually do get). This is what we saw him doing Sunday night. He was picking the tomatoes off of the vines in the pots in the yard. He’s hard of hearing so was unaware of me being behind him with the camera, he was totally concentrating on eating tomatoes.

We all had a little chuckle about this finding it interesting that so many years have passed since he actually did this.

The day was beautiful and we cooked and ate outdoors. As we were sitting down to eat Bill looked over to the garden where Buddy was showing Chester the ropes in tomato eating in my tomato patch. One yell and Chester made a beeline out of the place he knows he’s not supposed to be. Buddy? He had to have at least one more before he left.

Garden Economics

August 26, 2013August 26, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 3 Comments

This is my garlic harvest for this year. A year ago about this time I was thinking I really needed to grow some of my own but when I went onto the High Mowing Seed website with the intention of ordering some and they were sold out. Bummer I thought – then figured I’d order it for this year. Garlic is planted in the fall, like tulips and daffodils, it needs that fall and winter time to set out its roots. It then blossoms in June or so and is ready to harvest in July (at least here it is). The seed companies send out their garlic for planting the first week in October.

I moved on completely forgetting about the garlic. A couple of weeks later I received a package in the mail – a pound of garlic for planting from High Mowing. I had forgotten that I had ordered it with my spring seeds back in February. It felt like pennies from heaven because I’d paid for it back in February as well.

The garlic I had ordered is called Music. It’s a hardneck variety which I know seems to do pretty well around here. I dug a nice bed for them in a sunny, well-drained sight and placed each clove about 3 to 4 inches deep, covered it and walked away. When spring arrived it was the first plant out of the ground. In June the blossoms, called scapes, emerge. I pick all of them off – doing this puts the plants energy in forming bulbs. The scapes are delicious – I chop them and cook them in eggs for breakfast but they are great in all kinds of things. Two harvests from one plant.

Towards the middle of July the stalks of the garlic begin to turn brown from the ground up. I’ve heard that timing is everything with garlic. You don’t want to dig it up too soon- you want those bulbs as big as you can get them. If you wait too long the bulb will no longer be tight, the cloves will have splayed out – ready to continue growing for another year. I had to guess. I waited until the plants were brown half of the way up the stalk and then I dug one out to see. It was a thing of beauty. I dug the rest.

Curing the garlic takes another 3 to 4 weeks. The skins dry to that thin paper we are all familiar with. I just laid the whole plant on paper in the house and waited (of course a couple of bulbs were sampled along the way). This weekend I cleaned and trimmed the crop. What you see in the photo is what I grew. This was a pound of garlic cloves. The cloves are very large on this garlic so it doesn’t take many to get to a pound. For every clove you plant you get a bulb.

This garlic is so good I vowed to plant 3 times as much next year – the problem? It would probably cost over $60 for the seed.

Bill and I gazed at these beautiful bulbs and decided that I would use most of what I grew this year as seed for next year. It made me a little sad to think about not eating most of what was in the basket but I could quadruple the number of bulbs next year just by planting what was in front of me. It was sort of a no brainer, but all I want to do right now is eat garlic mashed potatoes from the garden.

Let the Madness Begin

August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

I made a couple of quarts of dill pickles the other night and was commenting to my sister about what hot work canning is. I do most of my canning in August when everything seems to come in at the same time in the garden. This weekend I will probably can some new potatoes. I’d like to do some salsa but that never seems to make it into a jar once the prep is done, it’s too good fresh.

Peaches are just starting to come in so I may do up some of them as well. Diced this year, yes a lot of work but worth it in January. Most of the time I just halve them and pack a jar in light syrup but I’m the only one who ends up eating them and a pint of peach halves is too much for me. Diced ones I can just throw into my cottage cheese – nothing yummier.

Pesto, tomatoes of every kind, beans, pickles, relishes, these are all the things that I expect to have to eat each winter so the pressure is on now to get it done.

At the end of last winter I cooked a smoked turkey that I had bought from Pekarskis. There were not a lot of people who were there to eat it and there is a lot of meat on an 18 pound turkey (it was a lovely free range bird as well). I cut all of the meat off of it, made a stock of the bones and canned it in pints. There were about 15 I recall. This canned turkey has been one of the best experiments in canning ever. I use it in jambalaya or black beans and rice and it is spectacular. Not only does it taste wonderful with a great texture it is the ultimate convenience food. This was my first foray into canning meat but will not be my last.

I think anyone who is considering canning should make that leap into a pressure canner. Yes they are expensive but canning with a hot water bath limits you to high acid or sugared fruits. I know once I got over the initial fear of the thing my canning options were exponentially expanded, it seems like there is nothing I can’t can now. Pressure canning is faster and safer and helps you diversify your larder. There is nothing better that wondering what’s for dinner, opening your canning closet and seeing choices.

Garden Update

July 24, 2013July 24, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

This year gardening has been a challenge. We’ve had weeks and weeks of rain, followed by high heat and humidity. The weeds are loving it since I simply cannot pull them when it’s 100 degrees in the shade.

I planted my beets twice this year and have two that survived. The same thing went for the lettuce. My carrots are spread all over the garden because Chester took a romp through it before I put up my makeshift fence. Fortunately they are a very recognizable plant and they are growing where they landed. The potatoes are insanely huge, but they too are growing all over the garden in odd places as well as the hilled rows. The only squash I planted this year was the Long Pie Pumpkin. They love my garden every year so I knew I would not have to worry too much about them.

My tomatoes may or may not have blight, I’ll have a better idea when I get up there today. It’s too bad because they are loaded with fruit. The most exciting thing happening is the eggplant. I have never grown them (not sure why not) and they are doing quite well. I like getting to know a new plant. I thought I would see fruit before now because it seems like it blossomed some time ago. Each plant has at least one eggplant on it now so I’m dreaming about ratatouille or moussaka.

Canning season should begin in earnest this weekend. I used to do jams with spring fruit but have found that we don’t eat it – at least not as much as I can. Strawberries are frozen for desserts in the winter. Tomatoes are the big item for me to put up. I always like to plan on 40 or more pints done various ways at the very least. I will also be making bloody mary mix as well, hopefully we will manage to keep a couple of quarts until Christmas once again this year. We always seem to drink it as we make it – it’s so good you can’t help yourself.

I have a few cucumbers – I’ve planted enough to eat fresh but not enough to can. I always think they are going to yield more than they do. If I was to grow enough to make pickles I think half the garden would have to be reserved just for them.

I will be picking yellow beans this week. I didn’t plant as many as last year and I have to say they didn’t come up as well either. Just as well, I canned quart after quart of them last year and it seems like that was the only vegetable we ate all winter. I’ve had my fill. The scarlet runner beans never ran. They too had some issues with the leaves curling up and turning yellow. I did notice a couple of flowers on them last weekend but they are bushy and only a foot high – quite the disappointment there, was hoping for some hummingbird action. The new beans I planted this year, Organic Blue Cocoa Beans, I thought were bush beans but it turns out they are pole so I have rigged a trellis of sorts for them to climb. Had I been on top of my game and actually reread the specs on this bean I might have laid out my garden in a whole different way. Live and learn – that has to be every gardeners mantra.

After a very slow start my asparagus bed is looking awesome! Another two years til harvest, isn’t gardening fun?

The garlic looks fantastic and I will be digging that up this weekend. The onions not so much. They are small and just don’t seem like they are doing much (probably too many weeds around them).

Last but not least are the rutabagas, my favorite vegetable. They are doing great. I should have enough to get me through the winter and share with everyone I know to convince them just how delicious they are.

I picked a few quarts of blueberries last weekend, I will be picking more today. I like to have some in the freezer for winter muffins or pancakes. The wild ones have a tartness that isn’t found in the large domestic ones. There are a number of bushes all over the back forty, I cover only one of them and share the rest with the birds.

All in all the garden is more successful than I had originally thought although the yield is not what I expected. I will be visiting farm stands for canning this year and rethink how things were planted and dream about next years garden – always thinking ahead. I keep thinking that one of these years I will hit upon the magic formula that make everything grow to its potential. Of course, mother nature will have other plans I’m sure.

The Joys of Cherry Season

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

Cherries are my all time favorite fruit, hands down. When they to come in each year I eat them every day. Every. Day. I can’t get enough. I’ve canned them in the past and they are wonderful in the winter. I’ve made them into pies, crumbles, cobblers and clafouties. This years experiment is infused vodka. Of all the vodkas I’ve infused in the past this one is the most labor intensive. It requires you to pit and halve 4 to 5 pounds of cherries (and if you’re like me you eat a lot of them while you’re pitting). It takes awhile, but the fruit is beautiful.

I put the halved cherries into the container and added 2 liters of vodka. It’s sitting now in it’s dark little spot where I stir it daily. The plan is to have it ready for July 4th. Photos and a review will follow. I have to confess to having a bit of a taste this afternoon as I stirred the fruit around. This is going to be one fabulous vodka.

Rain, Rain, Rain

July 1, 2013July 1, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

This photo says it all. I wear these crocs when I work in the garden in the summer. They are easy to slip on, hose off. After working yesterday I hosed them off as usual and left them on the patio to dry. They may have dried but it started raining in the late afternoon and continued off and on through the night. The forecast for today – rain.

I managed to get half of the garden weeded but really need to get out there again and finish before the weeds take over.

All this rain has wreaked havoc for farmers of every variety over the whole of New England this year. It’s been one of those years where you think you have the right combo of things to plant because they have grown so well in the past only to find no matter how many times you plant the seeds the conditions won’t allow them to germinate. I’ve planted beets twice so far this year and have had one sprout. It’s not a matter of bad seed either. I’ve planted two varieties, new seed. I will plant them one more time, if they grow great, if not I wait until next year. My carrots are sparse, but the rhutabagas are fine. The potatoes are finally going after a very slow start. They are also sprouting all over the garden – apparently I didn’t dig up everything last year. They’ve survived tillage 3 times so I guess I will just hill them where they are.

The beans are a bit disappointing as well, they have had a tough time starting. There will be a few more seeds planted there as well. Although my tomatoes had a rough start they are looking pretty good at the moment. I need to tie them up for the second time this week. Onions and garlic are very happy. There are blossoms on my cucumber starts but I’ve come to realize that I don’t plant enough to really put up so they will probably be eaten fresh and I will have to visit the local farmstands to make pickles. My long pie pumpkins look great, they are one of my favorite varieties and they are great keepers.

The potted flowers have never been happier. Every summer for the past few years I’ve had to have someone water them on the days when I’m not here. No problem this year.

One of the biggest problems that has occurred this year is with haying. It’s has rained every day for weeks, for hay you need at least a couple of dry days (dry, not exorbitantly humid like it has been). With the weather pattern that we’ve been in the hay has been in the field too long so the quality of the feed suffers. I’m not sure what the answer is here. There may be more steers going to the auction in the fall because there won’t be the hay to feed them through the winter. We’ll have to wait and see.

Farming is such a difficult way of life. You are dealing with the unknown on a daily basis. Each week the weather is bad you adjust your expectations for the off season. This is something that hasn’t changed since the dawn of agriculture but each year when it happens to me it is deeply personal.

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