I intend most of my Thursday, Let’s Get Cultured posts, to be about cultured dairy products. However, from time to time I might feature non-dairy cultured items on Thursdays. Today I am going to talk about curing olives at home.

I learned about home curing olives from Jenny’s blog, Nourished Kitchen. She has an awesome and easy to follow step-by-step guide on how to crack, cure and season olives. She also has one of the best blogs out there, so I suggest once you are over there, to check out her fabulous recipes. I am not re-inventing the wheel on olive curing, so I will refer you to her fantastic blog where you too can see the process for olive curing at home. I do however, have some notes, and then I would like to share with you the various flavors I added to my olives.

But first I will share with you my source for the olives. Chaffin Family Orchards is a diversified farm in the Sacramento Valley of California. Their farm has been in the hands of the Chaffin family for 5 generations. Most of their olive trees are over 100 years old. The farm has been harvesting and producing olives and olive oil for over 75 years. Their olives are farmed without using chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. They use cover crops and rotations of cattle, goats, sheep and chickens to control vegetation and fertilize the orchards. The goats are also used to prune the trees!

Most of the research I did on olive curing suggests that you should soak your olives in water (changing twice daily) for 2-4 weeks. This is the process whereby the raw olives lose their bitterness. If you have ever tried eating a raw olive, you will see why this step is of utmost importance.

Olive Curing Notes:

I found that even 4 weeks was not enough time – I think we soaked our olives for close to two months, and they were still a bit bitter after all that time. I am not sure if it is because I cured them during winter, and it was just too cold in the house, or what. So after about 2 months, we decided to decant the olives, and flavor them but we added about ¼ cup of raw apple cider vinegar to the individually flavored jars. This seemed to take care of most of the rest of the bitterness – but it is not consistent from olive to olive. Some olives still are bitter. We have only started eating one jar, so we will see how the other jars are as we get to them. Maybe they just need a little more time.

Curing olives is really quite easy and straightforward. It is a fun project, especially if you have children and would make great presents to give to family and friends! It is a great traditional skill to add to any homesteader’s repertoire.

My Flavors:

*Lemon, Bay Leaf, Saffron
*Lemon, Bay Leaf, Herbs de Provence
*Lemon, Bay Leaf and De Arbol Chili
*Juniper, Mustard, Lemon and Black Pepper
*Lemon, Bay Leaf, Habanero Pepper
*Lemon, Bay Leaf, Coriander Seed, Cumin Seed, Sumac, Ras el Hanout

(Jenn and Suzanne at Burns Night)

“My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer -
A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe;
My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.” ~ Robert Burns

On January 25th, Scots, those of Scottish ancestry and poets all over the world celebrate the life and poetry of Robert Burns by celebrating Burns Night and hosting a Burns Supper.

I meant to post this yesterday, but since our -30 F weather hit, our connection has been sketchy at best. Now that we are past sub-zero temperatures, it seems to be waking up again! Hope it lasts!

January 25th is the birthday of Robert Burns, the famous Scottish bard and poet. Traditionally on this day those that celebrate their Scottish ancestry prepare a dinner of haggis, a traditional Scottish dish with neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes), recite An Address To a Haggis , a Burns poem, toast with whiskey (single malt) and spend the evening with family and friends, reciting the poetry of Burns and having a grand old time.

I have always been fascinated with Scottish culture, myth and history. I have studied it quite a bit over the years and have always felt a deep connection to Scotland. When I had the good fortune to visit Scotland several years ago, I kept experiencing déjà vu. Due to my interest in all things Scottish,  I even hosted a fabulous Burns Supper many years ago. I had connections to NYC at the time and was able to procure a traditional haggis and prepared it with all the traditional trimmings.

My dad’s ancestors come from Paisley, near Glasgow. Although that is pretty much all I know about them. His surname is Barr, of Irn-Bru fame, although I don’t think there is any relation.

This year, after finding my birth family I came to learn that I have quite a lot of genetic Scottish ancestry as well. My maternal great-grandparents came to the USA from Glasgow, and through this lineage I am proud part of the Boyd Clan. I also have some Scottish ancestors through my genetic paternal line.

With my new found Scottish heritage, I decided starting this year, I am going to celebrate Burns Night every year, by preparing a traditional Burns Supper. This year, to kick things off, we invited our friend Suzanne, a haggis-phobe to join us for our Burns Supper. I was able to order a haggis from Scottish Gourmet USA . It was shipped frozen, over night. The haggis comes pre-cooked so it just needs to be re-heated, and the vegetables need to be cooked. The ingredients are simple, lamb, oats, beef liver and spices. While I was boiling the tatties and roasting the neeps ( I used rutabaga and turnips mixed) I went about preparing the dessert: Cranachan.

Cranachan is layers of Drambuie infused whipped cream, toasted oats and raspberries. I had some homemade granola which I used in place of the toasted oats. It is a light, yet delicious dessert and so easy to make! I did not get a picture of my cranachan, because we ate it too fast! But this one from BBC Good Food should give you the basic idea, and a delicious recipe to boot. We used raspberries that we picked over the summer and canned. It was delicious.

We started off with oat cakes, smoked salmon, cheddar cheese and a very un-Scottish glass of Malbec.

We presented the haggis, and listened to this roaring raucous version of the address at the table.

“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.”
~Robert Burns

Then we toasted with a dram of Glenlivet 12 year and dug into the food. It was delicious – and despite being a haggis-phobe and declaring emphatically many times that she does not like lamb, Suzanne really enjoyed the haggis. I wish her husband Bob had been able to join us (next year!), but he was away on business. But we got pictures to prove it!

We had an absolutely wonderful night talking about all our animals, crazy journeys in life, languages, cultures and many other assorted topics over several hours. We had a wonderful time and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

Today is a very exciting day for the Thistlemoon Meadows homestead. We just finished an incredibly delicious farm fresh breakfast – from OUR farm. One of our sweet little hens gave us a very unexpected surprise this week – an egg, and then ANOTHER egg! This came as a surprise, because we were not expecting eggs until late November at the earliest.  They are only a week shy of 5 months, but at least one of them is mature enough to begin laying.

I can’t explain my excitement when I found that first egg. My heart swelled for this flock of birds that we have raised from day-old chicks. We have fed them the best organic feed, which happens to be local, and they feast on grass, clover and other greens as well as bugs, grubs and worms and our kitchen scraps (vegetables).

They have been such a joy to have, especially our special girl, Gimpy. But even the healthy ones all have such personalities and we have so enjoyed their greeting clucks and squawks whenever we  pass by.

I cannot ignore the fact that we are in the middle of harvest season, and as part of that harvest we can now add these eggs. I am just so thankful to our hens and for all the beautiful sun and rain we had this spring and summer that allowed them to have such good quality fresh food. You can tell by the deep color of the yolk. Look at your eggs the next time and take note of the color of the yolk, and how well the egg holds its shape after you crack it open – this will tell you so much about the quality of the eggs that you are buying.

We look forward to more eggs to come. But we wanted to really celebrate these first two. To do so, I made a delicious harvest breakfast – fried eggs, with bacon and kale homefries. The potatoes in the homefries were also from our garden. I served it all with a dollop of homemade ketchup.

Happy Harvest and Hallows to all!

This year we joined a CSA – a meat CSA. Most people are familiar with vegetable CSAs but this was the first time I had heard of a meat CSA. We are very fortunate here in our little piece of heaven called Vermont, to have many amazing diversified farms, including one in our town, Applecheek Farm. For us, Applecheek is not just a place to get raw milk, free-range chicken eggs, delicious grassfed beef, or pastured pork. It is also a community hub. Since we have moved here we have been to numerous “Localvore Dinners” catered by and served at the farm, a pig roast, as well as several farm tours.

Applecheek has become a destination for our out of town guests that come to visit us and want to see and experience a real farm, where many animals co-exist together, grazing on green grass, as opposed to a feedlot where there are thousands of one type of animal grazing in, well, their own excrement.

(My step-daughter Gwen having fun with chickens, Jenn at the Welcome sign, Rocio w/ pigs and llamas, a real tractor, Jenn with a goat and the happiest cows you will ever meet).

At Applecheek people can get up close and personal with happy cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys guinea fowl as well as non-food animals like emus, llamas, draft horses and retired pet goats. It is also a place where the local community gathers to eat good food, learn about sustainable farms and spend time with each other.

Rocio and John who have recently taken over the farm operations from John’s parents John and Judy, and Jason and Sarah, who run the catering operation and the Localvore dinners became the first friends we made when we moved here. They have helped us immensely by providing tips for where to get various things locally and of course where the good eats are. We all share a love for good, nutrient dense foods as well as home-brewing, lacto-fermentation and food preservation.

Here is the Applecheek Farm philosophy:

“We strive to produce food that encompasses dignity for our animals, stimulates local economy, provides optimal nutrition for our customers and restores the ecological capital within our soils. Our priorities here on the farm begin with the soil and the nutrients that develop within our land and ultimately passed on to those who eat our food. From our perspective, this is a grass farm that converts grasses into meat, milk and eggs. While many people refer to our farm as a sustainable farm, we feel it is simply not enough to sustain. We are committed to a restorative approach to farming our land and animals in an effort to increase the quality of our soils.”

A dream come true. It is the kind of farm that all of us dream we had in our town after watching Food Inc. or reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Our dream was realized when we moved to this part of Vermont, and we are grateful for it daily, as inevitably some food item from Applecheek graces our table at least during one of our daily meals, be it fried eggs and sausages for breakfast, a delicious burger, or in this case a whole roasted duck.

I am getting really familiar with duck in this household since joining the CSA, which invariably make the fire department really familiar with us because no matter what, I cannot stop myself from frying potatoes in the fat from the duck – which always makes the house a smoky mess, and sets off our alarm! But look at this beautiful dish – it is totally worth it!

Besides that, I am always trying a new recipe with the duck, this time, I decided to make something simple, a classic French dish – roasted duck with olives, or Canard aux Olives. I pretty much followed this recipe, except that I used white wine instead of broth, added some lemons (also stuffed the bird with lemon wedges), skipped the vermouth and used all green olives. I also cooked it in a 350 F oven, instead of on the stove top. I served them with those delicious duck fat fried potatoes. The result was an incredibly good roasted duck that was unanimously declared to be the best duck I have prepared to date. The bones and leftover meat I used to make a delicious stock and soup. Nothing went to waste.

For dessert I made individual preserved plum tarts. I made a crust using almond flour and butter, vaguely fashioned after this recipe pressed it into my individual baking dishes, and baked for about 20 minutes at 350F. Then I placed some of my plum preserved in brandy-vanilla-cardamom syrup and topped with fresh maple whipped cream.

Now since Applecheek really is a special place, I don’t expect that all of you, my dear readers have access to such a farm. But I am sure that you do have farms in your area where you can buy free-range, organic eggs, or humanely raised meat, or if you are lucky raw milk. So support them, learn from them, ask questions and help to make the food on your table a little bit better for you and your family. The more we support these farms, the more farms like this will be available to us! To find farms in your area, check out LocalHarvest.

Last month in my post My Life As A Squirrel, I discussed various ways of preserving foods for winter. I did an overview of various preservation methods, advantages and disadvantages to those methods. I also made the case for why we, as Americans should be preserving more food. If you missed that post, be sure to check it out, it is full of great information.

I have also been featuring lacto-fermented foods on this blog . My most recent foray is in traditional juniper berry sauerkraut. You can see the recipe at the end of this post. My posts on lacto-fermentation have raised a lot of questions and comments from my readers about this ancient art of food preservation. Is it safe? For many the process of lacto-fermentation goes against fundamental things were have been taught about food safety. We have been taught to be afraid of food, in a world of industrial big agriculture, salmonella and e-coli scares.

I really did not feel like enough of an expert to answer some of those questions, being a lacto-fermentation newbie myself. So I consulted a professional! Through my good friend Jen, I was introduced to David Klingenberger owner of The Brinery, an Ann Arbor, Michigan business focused on the ancient art of fermentation. David agreed to answer some of my questions, and yours about this process of food preservation. He and I share a lot of similar thoughts and values when it comes to not being afraid of food, and what he calls the “re-skilling” that is so important to people interested in preserving traditional foods.

Lacto-fermentation has had a very long history. What personally draws you to this ancient form of food preservation?

As a young man 10 years ago, I found my way to a local organic vegetable farm here in south eastern Michigan. I felt deeply drawn to growing food, and feeding my community. As I learned the skills of agrarian life, I was drawn to lacto-fermentation. I love that it is a raw food, teeming with beneficial bacteria that not only preserve the food, but are of the utmost benefit to our health!

The process of lacto-fermenting scares a lot of people. When I write posts about it, I have even gotten emails and comments from people claiming I will kill my readers if they make my recipes. The idea of allowing vegetables and other perishable food items to sit out at room temperature for weeks and sometimes months goes against the modern way of looking at food safety. What do you tell lacto-fermenting newbies who are interested, but at the same time afraid of these types of foods?

I think there is a re-skilling and a re-learning that is necessary for our modern culture! I like to remind people that fermented foods have been very common and continue to be so. Everyone knows yogurt, cheese, salami, sauerkraut. These are all naturally fermented foods. Yogurt is the perfect example, and perhaps the most socially acceptable in our modern age. It’s a much similar process with lacto-fermented vegetables. There is a modern myth that we must destroy all Bacteria. (for example anti-bacterial soap). We need the beneficial probiotics found in lacto fermented foods!

Once the food has gone through the fermentation process, how does it need to be stored? Many recipes and books call for refrigeration, but people have been preserving foods this way before the advent of refrigeration and some say they can be stored in a cool basement. Can these foods be stored out of the fridge, and if so for how long? At what temperature? Are there some basic guidelines that you can share based on your experience?

Good question! Theoretically fermented foods do not need refrigeration! However the warmer it is the more it ferments. I have had sauerkraut in a basement for 8 or 9 months before. It wasn’t the best texture or flavor, but was totally edible and fine! So Yes, I do believe out of the fridge is fine. The middle of summer is probably not a good time to leave it out for extended periods! Make batches in the fall, and it will ferment slowly and keep longer in the cold of winter! Fermented foods will keep better the colder they are stored! And that is where refrigeration comes in! It’s not necessary, but allows more temp. control. Remember: if a proper laco-fermentaion has occurred then, you cannot get sick! I think it just comes down to taste/texture preference!

How can you tell if something has been properly lacto-fermented? Are there any tell-tale signs?

As far as I know, proper lacto-fermentation occurs under the brine! As long as the veggie are submerged under the salty brine, they will ferment! Conditions become very inhospitable to pathogens in that salty brine! The ph lowers quickly, which means the acidity levels rise! I have an electronic ph meter that I use to measure ability levels. LACTO-FERMENTATION CREATES CONDITIONS UNFAVORABLE TO PATHOGENS! Especially when their is no hermetic sealing of the jars!

Your company, The Brinery, sells several different kinds of lacto-fermented veggies. What is the first lacto-fermented food you tried, and do you have a favorite variety today?

At the Brinery I make Sauerkraut, Pickles, and Kimchi. Within those categories, I make many variations! I started out 10 years ago with good old sauerkraut, which I think is the perfect gateway fermented veggie to make at home. It doesn’t get more simple and pure than cabbage and salt! For my business, Kimchi has become quite popular. I just started making it for the Brinery, and love it! I try and do my own variation on a traditional Korean kimchi. I use dried Korean hot pepper flakes, and fish sauce for a traditional flavor. I try and source all produce from local organic farms. I also offer a vegan kimchi with no fish sauce. I have enjoyed making cucumber pickles, and turnip pickles as well. I am constantly experimenting and attempting to come up with new recipes!

Do you have any tips, anecdotes, etc. for people that are interested in learning how to prepare fermented foods? Any advice to those who have some experience but want to broaden their fermentation horizons?

I love preserving food through fermenting! Anyone can do it with little experience or investment. I feel it’s an important step in the re-skilling of our modern culture. Do it for health, for fun, for homesteading! Don’t be afraid. Trust yourself. Food is not scary. It doesn’t have to come from a factory or a laboratory. Food was naturally fermented at home for thousands of years! Even if you see moldy funky stuff on the top of you fermented veggies, that’s o.k. Scrape it off, and most likely, what ever has been under the salty brine is o.k! Don’t be afraid!
Anything you want to share with readers that I did not cover in the questions, but that you feel is important to share?

Have fun, eat living raw food! I think the best introductory book is Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz!

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Recipe for Traditional Sauerkraut with Juniper Berries
from The Joy of Pickling

INGREDIENTS:

5 lbs trimmed and cored white cabbage- save some of the outer leaves
3TBS pickling salt
1TBS whole juniper berries

TOOLS:

5 pint sized mason jars

METHOD:

1) Quarter the head and shred the cabbage very thinly.

2) Add salt and juniper berries to the cabbage and thoroughly mix with your clean hands.

3) When it has softened and released some liquid – about 10-15 minutes, pack the cabbage into pint sized mason jars and tamp down with the back of a wooden spoon or spatula, pour the brine evenly over the cabbage.

4) Weight the cabbage to keep it under the brine. Place a clean outer leaf from the cabbage on top of teh shredded cabbage and then place a food grade plastic bag filled with more brine on top of the leaf (1 ½ TBS pickling salt for each quart of water), in case of a leak. This helps if the brine gets scummy – you can replace the leaves instead of skimming off the scum or mold. Cover the container with a cloth or pillowcase and store in a dark place.

5) Within 24 hours the cabbage should be submerged in its brine. If it isn’t dissolve 1 ½ salt in 1 quart of water and pour as much as you need to over the cabbage. Check the sauerkraut every day or two for scum. If you find it, remove it, and replace the brine filled bags and cabbage leaves.

6) Start tasting the kraut after 2 weeks. It will be fully fermented in 2-4 weeks at 70 degrees and 5-6 weeks at 60 degrees. It will have a pale golden color and tart flavor.

7) Store it, tightly covered in the fridge or cool place. Or you can freeze it for later use.

This is part of The Healthy Home Economist’s Monday Mania. Check out the other great posts!

This could very well be the most important post I have ever written, for myself. It is what Roberto and I have been working towards steadily these past 2 years, making changes and big decisions in our lives to get to the point of really practicing what I preach on this blog. Changing in our own lives what we see needs improving in the world around us. Getting back to a simpler existence, one that you depend on your own hands for.  The journey has had some hard moments, many moments of doubt, confusion and frustration. But it has been extremely rewarding, fascinating, satisfying on the soul level and let’s not forget – FUN. This reflective post all started with the act of blogging about food preservation, an old-fashioned, traditional way of making sure your family had enough food to survive a cold winter.

Last Year’s Pickled Peppers

The better part of this month has centered around preserving food for the winter and I have been wanting to post about it. Some of you might be seasoned preservers, while others have just dabbled. Some of you might have not preserved anything yet, but would like to learn. This post is an overview of various preservation methods, advantages and disadvantages to those methods and the method behind the madness of my own preservation this year. I have also listed some resources at the end of this post to get you started or deepen your relationship with food preservation. I also make the case for why we, as Americans should be preserving more food, and how by taking small actions, like this, WE can truly change the shape of our food system.

I will warn you, this is going to be a bit long. I could have posted on each aspect separately, but that would put me farther behind in posts than I already am. Not only that, but my kitchen has been a constant state of “work-in-progress” for the last several weeks, and I can justify all of the mess, by organizing this post! So I opted to share a lot with you in this one massive post! So grab a nice hot drink, relax and let’s talk about preparing food for winter storage.

English Style Red Cabbage

A few weeks ago, I, along with several other Vermont foodies, were featured in an article about canning and preserving in the Burlington Free Press. The interview really got me thinking about my views on food preservation, why I do it and how I choose the methods by which I do it. The article says: “Campus likes canning because it provides a homemade, lasting food supply that is not dependent on electricity”. That pretty much sums it up.

The weather has started to turn cooler here in Northern Vermont, and like an internal timer, my mind has become a bit like that of a squirrel, or my friend “Chippy” the chipmunk that lives in our garage and wood pile. I saw her/him the other day with cheeks packed full of seeds, foraging and storing for winter. In that instant, we had a lot in common. There is an almost instinctual drive to make preparations for hunkering down for the winter while the days are still warm, but the nights are getting colder, reminding and urging us all on with our tasks.

Maybe it is because we started homesteading this year. I have always felt that I had a close connection with nature and the changing seasons, but it has really become the focus of our lives this year, with a lot more to go. Our goal for this year was to start the process and gain some of the skills necessary for producing the majority of our food in the coming years. Meaning flora and fauna. Having a garden, and livestock really puts you in tune with nature on a very practical level and when you are responsible for the comfort and over-wintering of those animals, and need to prepare the grounds for next years garden, you can’t do it on the fly, there is planning involved. Kind of like food preservation.

Tomato Preservation Heaven

I have preserved little bits here and there during the summer. I would go to the farmers market, see what was in abundance, buy some for eating, and a little extra to preserve. But last week I started feeling antsy. I only had 30 jars of various foodstuffs, and that wasn’t cutting it for the squirrel in me. So I went and bought 25 lbs of tomatoes as well as 5 lbs of Roma tomatoes. I made 11 pints plus 3 quarts of crushed tomatoes and 6 cups of oven-dried tomatoes. We incorporate tomatoes into our menu pretty much daily, and so for us, it is important to have a lot on hand. I also supplemented these home preserved tomatoes with our favorite packaged Italian tomatoes – buying in bulk when they are on sale at the store. I also bought a large head each of red and green cabbage. I made 6 pints of winekraut with the red, and a big batch of lacto-fermented sauerkraut with the green.

Fermenting, Freezing, Drying and Canning:

Lacto-Fermented Pickles

This year was my first year fermenting foods. I started with the basics – pickles,  pickled daikon, and sauerkraut. Through all my book and online research, I have not yet gotten a clear understanding whether or not these fermented foods can be stored without refrigeration. I have a “test” jar in my makeshift root cellar as an experiment to determine next year’s preservation methods. I imagine since this type of food preservation has been done for a very long time, before refrigeration, that it should be fine. But I want to be sure that the exact methods I am using yields the same results in terms of longevity. Like I said, these things take time.

I love the idea of fermenting foods – a great way to preserve nutrients, since the food remains alive . I also like the fact that there are not many steps involved. No multiple steaming pots on every stove burner. The possible downside is, I do not like relying on electricity to store my preserved foods. In the country, especially where snow is prevalent, we have a high chance of losing power all winter long. If one relies on the fridge or freezer for all their preserved foods, one could lose their entire storage and all that hard work in a matter of hours. Not a personal risk I am willing to take at this point. This is why for this year, I have not relied solely on fermentation. One of my preservation philosophies – don’t put all your pickles in one crock.

This leaves you with oven drying, sun drying or traditional canning. Personally, I like to do a little bit of everything. Keeps tastes varied and interesting, even if your storage revolves around a few main crops. It also ensures that my fridge is not going to be made up solely of pickles and kraut (even though I do use an old dorm sized fridge for my pickles and other lacto-fermented foods).

Plums, Dried Plums in Syrup and Canned Plums in Vanilla-Cardamom-Rum Syrup

Traditional canning is fun. I always love a good steaming pot in the kitchen. There is something comforting and homey about it. This year I canned carrots, English style red cabbage, bread and butter pickles, beets in wine, crushed tomatoes, raspberries, blueberries and plums in a vanilla-cardamom-rum syrup.

There is nothing better than the taste of slow oven roasted tomatoes. This method brings the natural sweetness out – making essentially candied tomatoes. I just drizzled Roma halves with olive oil, and spices and let them go in a 200F oven for about 8 hours. I also oven roasted plum halves. I sprinkled those with maple sugar and cinnamon. They came out like the best tasting prunes you’ve ever had! I don’t have a dehydrator. So for now, I have been oven-drying. We will see about a dehydrator down the line, if I end up feeling like I need one. Probably will once I (hopefully!) have a deer to process. And don’t forget to dry your herbs for winter use! Hanging in my outdoor shed I have rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano.

Herbs Drying in the Shed

The thing I love about freezing, is if I have leftover produce from any of the above methods, I can just throw it in mason jars or freezer bags, and put it in the freezer for later use. There is no method easier than that. But it is my last option. This year I froze beet greens, corn, berries, frozen tomato juice (nothing from my tomato processing went to waste), homemade pesto, red cabbage, soaked beans and grains, etc. We are in the process of buying half a lamb from a local farm. Another way to save money on your meat bill. Want to know an even cheaper way to get the best, most healthy meat you can? Join me this season and try hunting for your own.  I hope to soon be stocking my freezer with fresh venison before the end of October!

Food preservation doesn’t stop there! This year we used the majority of our garden space to grow storage vegetables – 75 feet of heirloom potatoes and 75 feet of dry beans, 3 varieties of winter squash, turnips beets and carrots for our root cellar. We might not have enjoyed the huge harvests of tomatoes and lettuces this summer as much as some, but in the winter when local produce is scarce it will all be worth it.

When I was a little girl, I loved my grandparents basement. It was filled with shelves all stocked with food stuff, paper products, etc. When you needed something, you got it from the basement on most occasions. After living for 3 years in hurricane country, Roberto and I have been well versed in emergency preparedness. That combined with this nostalgic memory from my childhood, and the fact that we live in the country, we decided to buy dried goods that we use all the time in bulk. Items like organic beans and lentils, buckwheat, quinoa and oats as well as whole wheat and spelt flours can be pricey when you are purchasing only a small package at a time. Buying in bulk not only saves tons of money (almost 1/3 of the costs) but all the extra time and gas it would take to make all those trips to the store for smaller re-fills. So I finally have my own pantry in the basement, just like my Nana did.

All of this was done in an effort to save time later in the year, because now I have a pantry and freezer stocked with all the components to make easy and nourishing meals all fall and winter long, with enough variety to keep it interesting!

Crushed Tomatoes

This post is pretty much the cumulation of what I write about on this blog – the ability to have healthy, flavorful, organic and local foods on a budget. YES, it can be done. I have taken great pains to show that, I wanted to prove that it is possible. It takes some good old fashioned work, some crazy days here and there, and it does cut into TV watching and reading time but in the end you have something to be proud of, and a healthy larder to eat from all winter long. What is more important?

Which brings me to my final point. Our food system in the USA is very sick, and it is making our people very sick – our children, spouses, parents, siblings, neighbors and friends. Take a moment and think of one person that you care about in your life that should be eating differently for their own health.  I am sure we all know a few. By doing just a little bit of raising your own food, or if you really truly can’t (and look at the book list below before you say you can’t), support your local farmer who does and we can all make a difference, together. But WE have to do it. The people. It is up to us. There is no magic wand or fairy godmother to do it for us. It is about the small decisions and choices we make in daily life and we vote with our money and where we spend it. We need to stop complaining about how sick we feel, and about the behavior problems in our children, and the affordability of good food, and really look at what we are doing to contribute to this nightmare, and then do something to change it, in our own lives. I came across an article the other day, and it has a lot of good points. I don’t agree with everything, but it does delve deeply into some very important issues, and puts the owness on the individual, which is vital.  So ask yourself, do you have the balls to change the food system?

Most of the recipes and inspiration that I used this year came from these three books:

The Joy of Pickling: 250 Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables and More from Garden or Market (Revised Edition)

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

For information on Root Cellaring, this is THE BOOK:

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables

If you want to learn more about homesteading on just 1/4 acre of land, this book is jam packed full of information on how to raise your own food (plants and animals) and then recipes, for when the harvest is in. Did you know you can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 lbs of wheat, 60 lbs of fruit, 2,000 lbs of vegetables, 280 lbs of meat and 75 lbs of nuts on just 1/4 acre?? This book tells you how:

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!

Another great book for the library of anyone who wants to be more self-sufficient in food, energy and household skills, this is a good one to have:

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition

Do you have 10 minutes to spare? Good, then you have plenty of time to make your own, healthy condiments to accompany your nutritious meals. Making your own condiments is cheaper and you are able to monitor exactly what goes in them, and adjust flavorings to suit you and your family’s taste buds. You can be eating grassfed beef and organic veggies from the farmers market, but if you are topping it all off with bottled condiments, you are probably un-doing much of your hard work. Bottled condiments contain corn syrup, MSG aka “natural flavors” and various other preservatives. None of which we should be eating for optimum health.

You see, eating healthy is quite simple. It is actually more simple than many of us think. People are always asking me what they should be eating to be healthier or to help this or that health problem. The reality is that there are really no magical cures specific to individual health problems. The key is taking care of our immune system and our brain health, and the battle is won. If we feed our bodies with the best possible fuel, it will be able to function optimally. How do you do this? Eat whole foods as close to their natural state as possible.

I am not a doctor, I just know what has worked for my family, and this is what I try to share on this blog.

On the path to eating healthier, there are many obstacles, most of which center on overcoming our own fears and hurdles to health. There is also a lot of un-learning to do. Some of the healthiest foods, like eggs, meat, real butter, and even olive oil have been maligned all in the name of processed foods, preservatives, industrial agriculture, over-indulging in grains and unhealthy oils. We have also been taught that eating healthy, cooking from scratch and eating locally and organic is expensive. So even if you know you should eat better, you can’t afford to. This is simply untrue. The reality is it has saved me so much money over the years, not only on food bills but also on health bills. We need to start asking ourselves hard questions as a nation. What are we willing to do as individuals to make our nation and families healthier? Can we find a few hours a week somewhere, maybe cut into our TV watching a little, to cook wholesome food for our family? Maybe then our children won’t have so many health issues. But it is up to us, as families and individuals to make those changes. So many of us are still blinded by the agendas of the food industry.

Although I am pretty hardcore when it comes to my food beliefs, I also believe in taking baby steps to get long lasting results. The way I eat now, has been years in the making, and I am still learning. Some people find success changing everything at once, but personally, I find that if I incorporate too much that is new all at once, I just get overwhelmed and frustrated and then I become resistant to change. Making condiments is something easy you can do, that takes only minutes and can really help the health of your family and your budget. So let’s get started!

Aioli (Homemade Mayonnaise)

INGREDIENTS:

3 large farm fresh yolks from free-ranging, pasture raised chickens ( I would not recommend any other eggs in a recipe using raw eggs)
¼ cup of lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
fresh cracked pepper (to taste)
1 TBS whey (optional), for longevity of the mayo
3 garlic cloves
1 cup olive oil

METHOD:

Place egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar, salt and pepper and whey (optional) into your blender or food processor. If using a blender (the better tool for this) start on a low speed and then move up to high. While the machine is running, drop in the garlic cloves and blend for about 10 seconds. Then while the machine is still running, pour the oil in a thin steady stream, until emulsified. ( If you have used whey, allow the mayo to sit, covered on your counter for 7 hours before refrigeration – for the lactic acid fermentation process to occur). With the whey added your mayo will keep for several months. If you do not use whey, it will last in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks. Refrigerate in an airtight jar. Makes about 2 cups.

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Ketchup

INGREDIENTS:

2 – 8 oz. jars (organic preferred) tomato paste
½ cup canned tomatoes, crushed
¼ cup whey (optional)
1 TBS sea salt
½ cup real maple syrup
2 TBS raw apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
pinch of oregano

METHOD:

Mix all ingredients until well blended. Place in a glass jar. If using whey, leave jar out at room temperature overnight before storing in the fridge. Makes about 1 quart.

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Cranberry BBQ Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of homemade ketchup
¼ cup sautéed onions and garlic
2 TBS balsamic vinegar
½ tsp smoked paprika
2 handfuls of dried cranberries

METHOD:

Mix all ingredients together in a blender until smooth.

I am entering this post in the Two For Tuesdays Real Food Blog Hop. If you have a real food recipe to contribute follow the link and see all the other participating blogs and recipes!

Lammas or as it is known in Celtic Britain, Lughnasadh is a Northern European celebration of the “first fruits of the harvest” or beginning of the harvest season. It is still observed in England, Ireland and Scotland today, usually on August 1st. In modern times it is reserved for family reunions, bonfires and dancing. The Christian church has also established a ritual of blessing the fields on this day. In the past it was mainly a grain harvest festival, the name being translated to “loaf-mass” after the festival was co-opted by the Christians, but the festival also includes the harvest of berries. I decided to celebrate by bringing the two meanings of the festival together for this holiday and make a blueberry (berry) sweet breakfast bread (grain) to celebrate. As with most celebrations, even if it is celebrated one day, there are preparations to be made in the week or so leading up to it.

Since this is a harvest festival, we needed to harvest our berries first, something I have been looking forward to all summer. Now that we live in Vermont, and have very obvious changing seasons, it is much easier to recognize and connect with the celebrations that were important to our ancestors. They lived more in tune with nature, marking the seasons by what was in bloom, and other events such as various livestock cycles. In our attempts to become more sustainable, and more in touch with natural cycles, we decided this year, to go berry picking. This way we are getting the freshest fruits, at their prime in our location, and then preserving those berries for fall and winter eating. We went to Fruitlands in Marshfield, Vermont to pick blueberries and raspberries. We picked 6 pints of raspberries and 12 pints of blueberries. We probably should have gotten more. We ended up freezing 4 pints of each, and the rest I canned in syrup.

*tip* to freeze berries, do not wash them (if they are organic and you know they are not sprayed with pesticides). Place them on cookie sheets in a single layer, not touching, and place in the freezer for an hour. Then you can bag them – this extra step prevents them from sticking together and freezing in one big mass.

We left 1 ½ pints of blueberries fresh – half a pint we ate on the car ride home, and the rest, we used in smoothies and to make this Lammas Day bread.

We had a great adventure at Fruitlands – not only was it a beautiful and sunny day but it was picturesque – on the grounds of a quaint bed and breakfast, covered in various gardens. But we weren’t alone in our picking adventures, we were accompanied by some guinea fowl (which I thought were wild turkeys – thank you Darlene, for letting me know – I am still working on becoming a country girl)!  They weren’t too happy about me taking their picture and were screaming bloody murder, the whole time, but surprisingly didn’t run away! The lady doth protest? Methinks, not.

We brought with us a small cooler with ice packs to keep the berries nice and cool on the drive home. This is an important step during hot summer days.

I raw packed the berries in order to retain the most freshness. I will try preserving other fruits in honey or maple, but for my first time using this recipe, I made the syrup according to the directions, and used organic cane sugar. I normally don’t use cane sugar, but canning is more of a science than an art – there is acidity and pH levels to consider. All of these factors directly affect the ability of the jar to seal properly and prevent harmful elements from spoiling all your hard work.

As my friend Amber, from Adventures in the Pioneer Valley pointed out in the comments, here is a great resource. She says: “there are some helpful guides out there that can help you figure it out. If anyone’s interested, I think the National Center for Home Food Preservation has some of the best resources. They give details on what you can adjust in a recipe vs. what you can’t, amongst other helpful tips. The link: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html”

Thanks Amber!

*tip* after jars have cooled and before storing, rub your finger over the lid to see if the seal is down. For added security, I always remove the bands from the lids, and shake the jar upside down over a large bowl, to make sure they have sealed properly. If the contents fall out, then the jar is not sealed. If they have not sealed, you can try re-processing, or just storing in cold storage for more immediate use.

Why can, when you can freeze? Sometimes in the country, and elsewhere, power can go out. If you have all your winter storage in the freezer, or fridge you could lose it all in a matter of hours. Which is why I chose to freeze some, but can the majority. Yes, you do lose some nutrients in the process of canning, but at least you are not in danger of loosing your entire food storage due to a power outage. There are other options such as dehydration, but that still requires the use of electricity. There is also sun-drying (not so useful during a rain spell – and berries are quick to spoil). I am certainly open to these other wonderful methods, but canning is still a good option in my book.

The blueberry breakfast bread was delicious. I am still trying new sourdough recipes and some have been delicious, while others have been dismal failures. This bread was an exception – sweet, and crumbly. It is wonderful served for breakfast or tea. Delicious with an ice cold glass of milk too as a quick snack! Read the rest of this entry »