Becoming a Master Food Preserver

After being ever-so-lucky to be accepted into UMaine Cooperative Extension's Master Food Preserver course, I've been attending classes a couple of nights a month in Gorham.  It is an extremely quick commute for me, with some folks traveling upwards of 3 hours to be there.  It has been SO FUN so far, and I am learning so much.  Every time (for real, every time) I leave the class I call Joe to tell him about my night.  Meanwhile, he's doing his best to smoothly transition the girls from the living room through the tumultuous teeth-brushing inconvenience, and then on to their beds without a war, and I'm going on about canning beans or eating fabulous chutney.  He is amazing as always.

Anyway, one of the things about the class is the incredible fate that is the fact that there are so many other people who obsess about canning, freezing, drying, fermenting, and generally preserving food as much and even more than me.  Who knew?  Did I mention how much I am learning?  Despite making jam and pickles (peanut butter too, of course) at least 40 hours per week during the summer, I have been humbled by the new information I've learned.  There are opportunities every week in class to be a part of some new preserving experience, from making quick freezer jam, to drying herbs, making flavored vinegars, freezing fruits and veggies, canning a variety of pickles, making sour kraut (fact:  Never tried it 'till now), and talking about it all the entire time.  It is wonderful.

Having been an educator for a dozen or so years, I'm fully aware that my own learning style is to "say back" what has been read or said to me for learning.  This can be extremely frustrating and annoying to a traditional teacher who wants to lecture and move on.  But in this totally hands-on class, I'm reading, asking questions, actually experiencing the lesson with my hands, and talking about it the whole time.  It is the perfect way to learn.  I can't wait to share what I've learned with everyone I know.

As the class is about half way through, I thought I'd give you a glimpse into what we've been up to so far.  Sorry I didn't get photos of strawberry jam/jelly night.  The low-sugar jelly was my favorite by far.  So delicious!  So really, this is just a bitty glimpse, and probably not totally in the right order.  I'm not too fancy when it comes to the blogging.  Here's some of the recent scoop in photos:

Our class, minus Lauren.  We'll catch up with her next time!

Prepping sage for its vinegar.

Herbal Jelly in the making.

It's a very serious moment of pondering pesto and dried herbs.

Blueberry Freezer Jam.

Prepping the peaches for freezing.

Perfect peaches.

The Most Beautiful Peaches!

Beans over Peaches.

I'm not gonna lie:  I'm pretty sure I ate most of this jar of dilly beans one of our groups made in class.

Canning beans.

Not exactly watching water boil, we have to keep an eye on the feisty pressure canner.

Just needs corn, then Corn Relish.  Mmmm.

Corn prep for relish.

Heidi was a trooper when it came to mashing the cabbage for kraut.

Everyone gets a chance to mash the cabbage!

It's pretty amazing that this results from simply "bruising" cabbage in preparation for fermenting.

Removing the blossom end helps pickles stay crisper.

The pickle line.

Quick sour pickles.

Out of the water bath and sealing.

Our first independent project included these terrific rye crackers...

blackberry jam, homemade cream cheese...

Wait for it... Pickle Leather!  Very odd, but not bad. 

Dehydrated spaghetti dinner.  Smart and yummy meal for the local boy scout troops to take camping.

Garden Update, June 2011

Some things early, some things late.  Weeds everywhere.  So far no sign of bird damage to the fruit, but we'll see what happens when it gets really ripe!

  

What would YOU do if 24 quarts of just-picked Anderson Farms strawberries showed up on your door step?  Start eating?  Make jam?  Both.  Thanks, Sarah!  Soooooo yummmmy.  It all started tonight with no-sugar, all strawberries and local-honey-sweetened jam.  Next, on to more SR while the R (rhubarb, of course) is still aplenty.

The Sunchoke Dilemma

Holly dropped off a beautiful sample of her winter CSA supply this weekend, including her recent post subject:  The Sunchoke.  Ah, the sunchoke.  As if I know what the heck to do with the little ugly root, also known as a "Jerusalem Artichoke."  No, it's nothing like an artichoke by looks or taste.  It is, however, high in iron and fiber, and it's flowers are lovely and belong to the daisy family.  Oh, and it's also known as an earth apple, which is weird, since in french a potato is called "pomme de terre," meaning "apple of the earth."  Anyway, I sensed a challenge when Holly said that neither she nor Jess (csa partner, blogger, and creator of the lovely items at Barefoot by the Sea) knew what to do with their sunchokes.  So what did I do?  I made pea soup, of course!

1 lb package of dry peas
12 cups water
1 small onion
2 carrots, chopped
4 Tbs butter
1.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp pepper
1 or 2 ham hocks
3 peeled sunchokes

Rinse peas, then combine them with water, onion, carrots, butter, and hocks.  Cover and heat to boiling for 30 minutes.  Then add salt and pepper, cover and simmer for 20 more minutes.  Add grated sunchokes (I used a small cheese grater) to the soup and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  This leaves the sunchokes tender but not soft and adds texture to your soup.  Hocks can be removed and boned, the ham placed back into the soup.  Cook it up until it's at the consistency you desire.  We love pea soup at our house.  Well, Joe and I love it, and the girls are in training.

Saving Seeds

I've been attempting to dry sunflower seeds in order to eat them.  Some people leave the flowers right up on the stems to dry, then cut them off when the seeds are dry enough to fall off on their own.  Others cut the flowers from the stems when they are still, well, flowers, then let them dry in the sun or inside in a dry place.  I've split up half the flowers to try both methods.  However, I already understand that unless you live in a land where no birds, rodents, or other wildlife live, which would really then also be a place where sunflowers probably wouldn't grow, you just can't let the suckers dry outside on their own.  The zillion birds picking off every last seed of those helpless flowers are set for several winters as far as I'm concerned.  So, I'm going with the indoor-drying method for sure.  We don't have the bird issue inside of course, but I must say the seeds have been tough for Boogie to avoid.  The new pup eats everything.  I loved this when it meant I could throw Joe's ridiculously old Teva's out in the front yard and know they would be shredded in a matter of minutes.  However, I did not enjoy coming home to the total destruction of every couch pillow, along with the actual couch arm itself.  Ugh.  Anyway, back to the seeds.  I rinsed off the first batch of seeds, put them in a pint jar filled with water and half a cup of salt, then let it set overnight.  Then I roasted them on a cookie sheet, not unlike pumpkin seeds, for 4 hours at 250 degrees.  They came out just fine, like you'd expect home grown seeds to taste.  A little less salty than when you get them in the store, and a bit smaller too.  But do they look gorgeous in a jar!  Matt and I prepared some more tonight during happy hour (aka unplanned-opportunity-to-get-together-for-a-beverage).  I'll add more salt during the roasting process, then put them in jars to eat later on or give away.

Sunflowers

Last weekend I left my camera at Abby's birthday bash, so this weekend I made Laurie take pictures of my sunflowers with Shea's camera, just so you could get a look, and for proof that they exist of course.  Yes, the sunflowers really are this beautiful, and next year my plan is to plant an acre of them.  I can't believe I haven't actually counted how many individual flowers I have, but there have to be a couple hundred anyway.  My mother, who regularly lets my girls cut gorgeous flowers from her own beautiful gardens, asked if she could cut a bouquet of these babies, and I firmly said NO.  Just please let me bask in the glory of what is my first real success in growing something from seed to flower!  Besides, I know she'll cut some anyway while I'm not looking.

Planting Sunflowers

We borrowed Auntie's rototiller a couple weeks ago and finally got around to using it to finish up the area of our lawn that we want for some gardening.  I've already mentioned here before that I did not get the "farming gene," but I can't help but want to try it out with the girls.  Besides, Ed gave me a couple pounds, yes pounds, of sunflower seed so I can try to grow a little field of massive sunflowers.  Several years ago, I remember driving with an old boyfriend through the Hamptons-- I know, it really does sound like I'm making this up, but not so-- anyway, we're driving through this incredible place and we come upon an enormous field of sunflowers.  I'm talking acres of them.  At the edge of the field by the roadside was this one little bucket filled with cut sunflowers, and a little sign that said $1.  It was priceless-- well, it was $1, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, I don't think we'll be growing any acres of the beauties, but it would be nice to see a few pop up out of the ground and grow into flowers.

Spring Fever

This is evidence of me thinking I can plant something in the ground and make it grow. It would be terrific if the girls could have the experience of actually planting something, watching it grow, harvesting it, and eating it. Even though we'll be getting most of our produce directly from Anderson Farms this summer, they're still missing the first few steps of that process, so I'd love to fill in the gaps. We'll see how it goes.



You can see why I've been hesitant to plant anything at all. Winter comes and goes through the spring, and I'm terrible about weeding. Still, I picked up a bunch of seeds, and I still have a couple pounds of giant sunflower seeds to plant in the fields by our house. Let the tilling begin!

Nuts and Tulips

At 5:00 this morning, the frickin chickens, as they are now known to be (I use these words with love, of course), woke me up with a new high-pitched peeping I had not heard before. You'll have to imagine, if you haven't been inside my house, that the noise of peeping can already be heard through the night since the babies are about 5 yards from our bed in our bathroom. So, when the new panic-peeping began, it was unbearable, and I couldn't sleep. It seems that the new chick-starter-- this is what baby chicks eat until they're a couple months old-- is not good enough for them. Apparently they can not adapt to a new brand of food. So, after this mutiny occurred, and I decided to try to ignore it since I couldn't get to Andy's Agway until mid-morning anyway, I got up and came to the computer. I instantly discovered Saving the Season.com, a terrific web site dedicated to preserving food. Then, I found a recipe I just can't wait to try out with farm fresh peppers this summer. Check it out if you get the chance: Fire-Roasted Red Peppers in Red Wine Vinegar



We walked down to Auntie Carol's in the morning to say hi and get a photo of her incredible nuts. Yes, you read correctly. Aunt Carol collects hickory nuts from the woods next to her house, then dries them on a sifter so she can use them to bake with when they're ready. They are gorgeous.



Also gorgeous is Auntie's basil. Can't wait to snag some of that when it gets a little bigger.


The girls and I checked out our tulips today too. It looks like they're thinking about blooming. I love watching the looks on the girls' faces when they first walk out each day to see just how much each flower has grown. I supposed I need to start thinking about planting. I've always said that I didn't "get the farming gene," but I can't imagine it would be too difficult to have a little garden, right?