The Garden is up and running!

It has been quite some time since I have last posted.  Winter is a hard time for me to get motivated to do much.  I love my summers and my garden and I can barely sit inside for long, but I am a hibernating kind of girl. Around February I actually rouse myself from my slumber, though not my warm house, and begin to prepare my tomato seeds.  I have a couple green lights, just little ones from Home Depot, not the kind that will get me tagged by the ATF.  I set the seeds in the furnace room, and set the lights at about 4" from the planter.  As the seedlings grow, I keep the lights about 4" above. The furnace room stays at about 76 - 78 degrees, warmer than the rest of the house, which is really too cold for me or the tomatoes.

This year, because of a Senior graduating, a second-grader doing 1st Communion, and a flooded basement getting a complete overhaul, I decided to start my tomatoes be seed, but not my peppers.  Instead, I went to the Pontiac Farmer's Market and bought my peppers, eggplant, rosemary and squashes from an awesome lady who is local and organic.  The beans, corn, broccoli, beets, onions and peas were all started by seeds on May 12 - 15.

Before planting, the garden had to be prepared.  For Valentine's Day two years ago my wonderful husband bought me an awesome gas-powered tiller.  After the last of the veggies are harvested, and the largest plants removed, but before the ground freezes, we till the garden over with the compost and straw from the chicken coop.  The first warm and dry days in March, or early April, we till again, and when I say "we," I really mean Robert.  This year I was able to get my 18 year old to pull all the weeds out too!

I am a big fan of the Farmer's Almanacs, and they have not failed me yet. The recommended day for planting was May 12, and about a week before, Robert tilled the ground again, and I raked it smooth, pulled out weeds, and let the chickens have at all the bugs that were emerging from winter.

Ethel working in the Garden

Buttercup taking a break from feasting

 I also started hardening my tomatoes a few weeks before. I bring them out for a few hours, in the shade, on warm days, and extend the time and sun exposure until they are out all day in full sun. It is amazing how much faster and greener they grow with real sun. After the garden is smoothed again ... (Chickens can make some large holes and mounds as the dig.)

Rolling and digging in the fresh tilled soil

 ... I lay out the garden with sticks and twine.  I use grid paper with the measurements of my garden drafted out to make a map first of where my veggies are to be planted, and measure out all the plots from one specific corner. I save all my garden maps from years past so that I can keep track of crop rotation.

Plotting out the garden with sticks and twine

 Rotating helps keep plants safe from specific types of insects, like cut worms. If you plant your tomatoes in the same place year after year, you are just inviting the insect to cut down your stalks. Moving beans around also helps with soil nutrition.

Now that everything is in, I am getting excited about all the fresh meals I can make.  Over this past winter, I took several classes at  Schoolcraft College of Culinary Arts.  The classes are great, inexpensive for the quality of instruction, and you do not need to be enrolled in the Culinary program.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, one of the three days (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)  that the Pontiac Farmer's Market is open, and it is strawberry season in Michigan!

Dehydrating Carrots - Great for Soups, Salads and Toppings

The carrots are arriving in droves in the backyard, and at the Farmer's Markets.  Fresh carrots have so much more flavor that the "fresh" carrots that you buy in the store.  We usually make soups to preserve, and eat tons fresh, but there are still lots left over, so I freeze and dehydrate them for winter.  The dehydrated carrots hold most of the flavors of fresh carrots, and they make a wonderful addition to many soups, stews, and casseroles.  I even add them to veggie lasagna for a bit of color.  Dehydrated carrots can also add some crunch to a fresh salad, or can be sprinkled in a Caesar Chicken Roll-up.  Carrots top the "Favorites" list in this house, so they are used in many different dishes.

Carrots do need a small bit of preparation before being placed on the dehydrator, and how they are prepared depends on what they are going to be used for later.  If they are for soups and stews, you will want sliced carrots, and for salads, toppings or veggie lasagna, you will want shredded carrots.

Once you have decided how you are going to prepare them, you can get to work.  I usually do both shredded and sliced at the same time, because I only have two herb tray inserts for my dehydrator, and that leaves lots of room for sliced carrots as well.

To begin, I clean and peel my carrots, and then shred some of them in a food processor, enough to fill two trays in my dehydrator.  If you do not have herb inserts you can use cheese cloth.

Shredded Carrots

After I shred enough to fill two trays, I slice the rest of the carrots, or just enough to fill the rest of the trays.  Carrots can be sliced and then refrigerated for a day or so, if you are doing large quantities, but carrots are known for losing flavor fast in the fridge, so I try to cut only what is needed for one day.

Sliced Carrots

I try to slice the carrots 1/8th of an inch thick, and I like to use a knife.  The mandolin is not so good with carrots, and with a knife I can cut them at an angle so that skinny carrots will be a bit longer.

After the carrots are cut and shredded, I put the shredded carrots in a strainer, and set them aside until I am done processing the slices.  I put the sliced carrots in my veggie steamer, and drop them into a pot of boiling salted water for about 3 minutes.  I use the steamer because it is easy to remove the slices without damaging them.  I just pull up the steamer and place it in a bowl to drain.

Carrot Slices in Boiling Water

Drained Carrot Slices

To finish processing the shredded carrots, I place in the sink the strainer containing the shredded carrots, and pour the boiling water that was used to blanch the carrot slices, slowly over all the shredded carrots, making sure that they all get a good dousing.

  Shredded Carrots ready for a good dousing!

Once this is done, both sets of carrots are ready to be placed in the dehydrator.  I like to put my shredded carrots on the herb trays, but cheese cloth will work just as well.  Make sure that you spread them out, but do not worry about keeping every shred separate.  I just scatter them thinly around the trays.

Shredded Carrots on the Trays

I place the sliced carrots on the regular trays, and this is also why I like to cut them on an angle to make them a bit longer.  The very skinny carrots, when sliced without an angle, would fall through the larger openings on the regular trays.

Sliced Carrots on the Trays

I set the dehydrator at 135°F, and start checking back in about 8 -10 hours.  Carrots dry quicker than some other veggies because there is less water content.  Depending on the thickness, they may take a few extra hours. This is a great project to set up before heading to bed, and by the time the kids are off to school the next morning, the carrots are about done.

Dehydrated Shredded Carrots

Dehydrated Sliced Carrots

Once the carrots are done, I place them in a zip close bag and put them in the pantry in an air tight container.  I can use them for a couple months.  The slices do re-hydrate nicely, and I use them in many different recipes.  They are also a part of my "Instant Soup".  If you would like to read about making your own, check out my post "Powdered Beef Stock - Making Instant Soup with homemade Beef Bouillon.

Preserving Green Beans - Freezing and Dehydrating

I grow both bush-type green beans, and pole beans.  My bush beans are Royal Burgundy beans, which are purple beans that turn green when cooked.  My Kentucky Wonder pole beans are a great duel crop.  I can eat the young beans as a green bean, and if left on the vines for the fall, they make a great dry bean, similar to pinto beans, for soups.

Saving green beans is fairly easy, and if I still did not have way too many canned beans in my cellar, I would be canning them this year also.  This year, I am dehydrating them more, because they take up a lot less space than in canning jars.

I prepare my green beans in the same way when dehydrating and freezing, so I can process a whole bunch of them all at the same time.

Royal Burgundy and Kentucky Wonder Beans

When preparing the beans, I cut off the ends, any bad spots, and strip the strings down the sides of the beans.  I then wash them in cold water and cut them into 1 - 2 inch long pieces.  Once the beans are cleaned, I blanch them for about 3 - 4 minutes in boiling salted water.  The nice thing about the Royal Burgundy beans is that they turn green as they boil, and I usually use them to gauge the blanching.  When the purple is gone, the beans are blanched.

Blanched Beans

As soon as the beans are blanched, they need to be taken out and cooled quickly, to stop the cooking.  I usually dump them in a strainer and run them under cold water while I stir them around gently.  The beans can also be plunged into ice water to cool them quickly.  Once the beans are cool, I either place them on the dehydrator or freeze them in vacuum sealed bags.

To dehydrate the beans, I place them in rows on the dehydrator trays.  Once they are are placed, I set the temp at 135°F and will check back about 12 hours later.  The beans should be brittle when they are done, and can take from 12 - 16 hours or more.  When breaking them, they will not snap directly, but will have just a small bit of flexibility before they snap.

Green Beans on Dehydrator Trays

Dehydrated Green Beans

Once the green beans are finished drying, I place them in an air-tight container.  These green beans can be used in soups, and can be re-hydrated by boiling them.  If I am using them in my instant soup mixes, I cut them up into smaller pieces, as green beans take a little longer to re-hydrate than the other veggies I add.  If you want to make your own instant soup mix, check out my post "Powdered Beef Stock - Making instant soup with homemade beef bouillon."

When I freeze the green beans, I fill the bags with a family dinner serving size each, and use my food-saver to vacuum seal the bags.

Sealing the Green Beans

Once all the bags are sealed, I make sure that I mark what the contents are and when they were sealed, and place them in the freezer.  For more on vacuum-sealing, check out my post "Freezing Your Produce."  When you are ready to eat the green beans, just boil the beans, or add to soup.  When beans are vacuum-sealed, they can last for up to 2 years in the freezer.  Enjoy!

Ready for the Freezer

Powdered Beef Stock - Making instant soup with homemade beef bouillon

I have been dehydrating veggies all summer, and the pantry is getting full, along with the downstairs fridge.  The nice thing about all the dehydrated veggies, is they make hiking and camping easy, and several family members like to take a prepared soup mix along to school, work and hunting.

Along with the veggies, I have also been dehydrating roast beef for soup stock.  Though the tomato powder can be used to make a veggie based soup stock, a nice veggie beef instant soup mix is a nice treat on a cold day at school. 

I use dehydrated roast beef instead of beef jerky, because it has a much better flavor when re-hydrated, and it also dries extra brittle, which makes it so much easier to grind into a powder.  I usually just use the left-overs from a roast beef dinner for dehydrating, but if having home-made powdered beef stock is something you use a lot, cooking a whole roast just for dehydrating can be done.

I like to cook my roast in a slow cooker, after searing the beef in a tablespoon of olive oil with salt, onions and garlic in a saute pan.  I usually put a few cups of water and a cup of red wine in the slow cooker with more onions, garlic, salt and pepper, and cook the beef until it can be pulled apart with a fork. 

Once the roast beef is done, I pull it apart, and layer it with kosher salt in a bowl and let it sit for about an hour, letting it cool in the fridge until it can be handled without getting burned.  I then place the beef in single layers on the dehydrator trays, sprinkle more kosher salt over the beef, and set the temperature at 165°F until the beef is very brittle.  I start checking the beef after 6 hours or so, but it can take 10 or more hours for all to be done.

After the beef is completely dried, I use my spice grinder to grind it into powder, but I do set aside a few little chunks for re-hydrating as pieces of beef in my instant cup of soup mix.

To make soup stock, the flavor intensity I like is 3 tablespoons of beef powder to 1 cup of boiling water.  This soup stock tastes just like the au-jus from the slow roaster.

To make my instant cup of soup mix, I put the following ingredients in a zip-close snack bag:

3 Tablespoons beef powder
1 Tablespoon tomato powder
1 teaspoon dried onion
1 teaspoon beef chunks
1 - 2 teaspoons dried carrots
1 -2 teaspoons dried sweet corn
1 teaspoon of chopped dried green beans
a pinch of salt and pepper - can also be added later to your own taste.

It is best to keep these little bags in the fridge, as it will keep for months longer this way, and then on a hiking or camping trip, they can be kept un-refrigerated for a few weeks.

To make a cup of soup, just put the mix in a thermos of a large coffee cup and add 1 cup of boiling water.  Cover the cup, or close the thermos, and the soup will be ready to eat in about 3 - 5 minutes.  The kids take the thermos to school, and have it as a quick snack between breakfast and lunch.

The nice thing about making your own instant soup mix is you can add what you like to the mix.  You can get tiny pasta stars to add to the soup, or add dried mushrooms or more onions for a different flavor broth.  Your soup mix is only limited by you soup imagination, so have some fun and experiment with your favorite flavors!

Dehydrating Corn - Making Soup and Cornmeal with Sweet Corn

If you go to Farmer's Markets during the summer, especially here in Michigan, you will see sweet corn everywhere.  I love to roast it and freeze it for dinners, but sweet corn can be saved in other ways as well.  Dehydrated corn is easy to make, can be used in soups and stews, and can also be ground for cornmeal.  The sweet corn cornmeal will be sweeter than the Dent or Flint corn that is usually used, but if you are aware of this fact, it can be used to make a delicious sweet cornbread!

Before dehydrating the corn, you need to decide what you want to do with it.  If you are dehydrating it for soups and other dishes, you will want to boil it first to set the milk inside the kernel.  If you are going to grind it for cornmeal, you can just dehydrate it without boiling it.

When I am going to save corn for soups and such, I keep it on the cob and boil it in a pot of salted water for about 4 - 5 minutes.  I then pull the corn out and cool it under cold running water.

Once the cobs are cool, or if you have decided to not boil the corn because you are using it as cornmeal, it is time to get the corn off the cob.  I have finally broken down and bought a corn cutter.  It really does make stripping the kernels off the cob so much easier!

Corn Cob Cutter makes this so much easier!

I find it is easier to break up the corn kernels before dehydrating, but it's not so hard to do it after they are dry either.  I do have the herb screens that fit my dehydrator, and I usually use them with corn, but if the trays are being used to dry other produce, I use a layer of cheese-cloth cut to fit the tray.

Cheese Cloth keeps the Kernels from falling through the tray!

Both the boiled corn and the raw corn take quite a bit of time to dry.  I start checking after 16 -18 hours, but have kept them on for 24 hours.  These kernels must be brittle, especially if they are to be ground into cornmeal.

Dehydrated Corn for Cornmeal

Once the corn is dry, you will notice that they do differ in color.  The raw corn will dry a brighter yellow, while the boiled corn will dry a more dark yellow to amber color.

Dehydrated Boiled Corn for Soups

Once the corn is dry, you will want to keep it in a cool, dry place, in an airtight container.  If you are doing large quantities, you can put them in the vacuum bags for longer storage.  When you are ready to use the corn, just add it to hot soups or stocks and allow it about three minutes to re-hydrate, or you can re-hydrate the corn in boiling water and use it in your favorite corn chowder.  When you are doing cornmeal, it is best to grind it as you need it.  This will help preserve it longer.

Cornmeal

Dehydrated corn is very easy to grind.  I usually grind it in my spice/coffee grinder on the fine or medium setting.  There are grain grinders that can be purchased from as little as $20 to as much as $400 if you are going to be doing all of your own grinding.

Here is my favorite recipe for cornbread that we used at Firestone Farm while I worked there.  I do not have the actual documentation of which cookbook this is from, but it is a delicious recipe!  This is for the less sweet Dent or Flint corn, so if you are using sweet corn, you may want to lessen the sugar, but this is your preference.  My kids like it sweeter, so I do not change the recipe.  Enjoy!

1 pint cornmeal

1 pint flour

1 tbls baking-powder

Sift meal, flour and baking-powder together.  Add 1/2 cup sugar, one more tablespoon of baking-powder, one tablespoon of melted butter, two eggs, and one pint of sweet milk. Mix well and bake until done.

(I usually bake at 350°F, in a cast iron fry pan, until I can put a knife in the center and it comes out clean.  You can also bake it in a buttered glass dish.)

Apple Chips - An Easy Snack the Kids will Love!

The best part of Michigan is Apple Season.  Michigan has the best apples anywhere, and there are so many orchards and Cider Mills to visit, that you can soon be overwhelmed with apples.  Never fear, you can turn those apples into tasty treats for you and your kids, that will last past the last days of October.  Apple Chips are fun to eat and are delicious too.

During Apple Season, my dehydrator is in constant use, processing apples into chips.  Apple chips can be used for making all kinds of things, like apple pie and apple muffins, but the family favorite is Apple Chips.  For every one bag I do get to put away, the kids eat two or three.  They are the favorite school lunch snack, and I know that they do not get thrown away.  The kids will fight over a last bag, and hide out in a bedroom to not have to share.  I used to make applesauce and apple jelly, but the kids think that any apple not made into an Apple Chip is just a wasted apple.

When getting apples I look for orchards or farmers at the Farmer's Market that do not use pesticides on the trees.  Many orchards still use pesticides, and the apples feel very waxy, or have an oily sheen.  They look too perfect, like store bought apples.  The problem here is that when processing apples, even if you remove the skins or wash in hot soapy water, pesticides can become concentrated.  Apples are on the Dirty Dozen, so for me, it is worth looking for pesticide free.  More farmers are using a soap spray to protect their fruit trees.  This is basically a dish soap and water spay that keeps the bugs down and washes off easily.  I would rather deal with a bug spot that is easily cut off before processing than dealing with pesticides.

Apples do need an acidic bath so that they do not turn brown on the dehydrator.  If you use lemon juice, it is usually half lemon juice to half water.  You can also use Ascorbic Acid, which is Vitamin C, and water.  Ascorbic Acid can sometimes be found in grocery stores, but if you can not find it in the produce aisle, just look in the vitamin aisle.  I buy the 500mg Vitamin C tablets - store brand, and it is just ascorbic acid, but much less expensive.  I usually wait for a buy one get one free, which is quite often on the store brands, and save even more.  Get the tablets, and for 2 cups of water, crush and add 22 tablets - for 4 cups of water, crush and add 44 tablets.  Once your bath is ready, you can start preparing the apples.

Apples and Bath Water

When preparing apples, it may be a good idea to just prepare a few at a time, until you know how many fit on the trays and how many you need to process.  If you process too many, they will go to waste because they can only sit in the bath for 10 minutes, and they will turn to mush in the fridge waiting for their turn in the dehydrator.

I prefer to skin the apples, but this is a preference.  If you are wanting to use them for things like an apple pie, you may want to keep the skins on.  For chips, the skins are not the best.  Try them both ways and decide what you like the best.  If you peel them, it is best to core and slice directly into the bath.  If you do not peel them, you can core a few and them slice them all at once.  I use an apple corer and a mandolin slicer to get them about 1/8 inch thick, and slice them right into the bath.  Once half the apples are done, I let them all sit for about 10 minutes, and then remove them to a colander to drain.

Apples in Bath and on Trays

I then do the second half of the apples, and while they are in their bath for 10 minutes, I put the first batch on the trays.  Once the second batch is bathed, drained, and put on trays, and before the trays are put on the actual dehydrator, I add a little something special for the kids.  In a spice shaker, I combine equal parts table sugar and powdered cinnamon, and then sprinkle the apple slices lightly with the mixture.  Do not over coat the Apple Chips, because the idea is to keep them somewhat healthy, and just a small bit of cinnamon goes a long way.

Apple Slices with a light sprinkle of Cinnamon and Sugar

Once the slices are sprinkled, I put the trays on the dehydrator and set the temperature to 135°F.  The apples  are a little quicker to dry than other fruits, and I start checking them about 6 - 8 hours after starting the dehydrator.

Yummy Apple Chips

Apple Chips are finished when the apple has no moisture, and when it has a leathery texture.  You can remove them at this point, and they will be slightly chewy.  This is a good point to stop if you are planning on using them for other recipes.  My family prefers the chips to be more crunchy, and not chewy, so I leave them on until they are crispy.  The crispier they are, the longer they will last in storage, that is if they even make it to storage.  I lose about half the chips as soon as they are removed from the trays!

For storage, I keep them in zip-close sandwich bags, one serving size in each bag.  These snacks travel well, and can go anywhere the kids do.  For longer term storage, place them in airtight containers, or, if you are planning on using them in recipes, pre-measure what you will need into a vacuum seal bag and seal it in the vacuum sealer.  Keep all bags and containers in a cool, dry place until needed.  I will be posting a little later on one of my favorite Dried Apple Pie recipes from my days at Firestone Farm, so stay tuned!

Preserving Cucumbers - Making Refrigerator Pickles

Two cucumber plants in my garden is enough to get my family through a whole year of pickles, and sometimes the next-door neighbors as well.  I like to do refrigerator pickles because they are easy, quick, and if your cucumbers come in over a week or two, you can add them to the already made brine without much trouble.  I also prefer refrigerator pickles to canned pickles or crocked pickles because they do not need to be cooked or heated and they stay crisp.

The best part to these pickles, is that you can flavor them how you like.  If you like dill, you can add your flavors to the vinegar, if you like garlic, just add a few cloves.  However you spice your brine, these pickles will only take a week or two before you can try them out and decide if you need to add more of something.  Unlike canned pickles, you can change the flavor in the first few weeks of making these.  My favorite flavor is garlic-dill.

The first thing you need is cucumbers.  I do grow my own, but most Farmer's Markets will be overloaded with the pickling cucumbers starting in July, and continue carrying them into September.  When doing refrigerator pickles, you want to make sure that the cucumbers are well-formed, with no blemishes or mushy spots - if you are going to pack them whole.  If the pickles will be cut into long-quarters or slices, you can be a little more forgiving.

Once you decide how you want to pack them, prepare your cucumbers.  I like to cut them into quarters for my two 1/2 gallon jars, and long slices for my quart jars.  I am showing quarters here, but you can do whole, quartered, long slices, or round slices, the same way.  The only difference with the process is how long you set the pickles before you eat them.  The whole pickles are going to take longer in the vinegar than the slices before they are ready to eat.

Quartered Cucumbers in Salt

Once you have washed and cut your cucumbers, removing any bad spots, mix them in a bowl with Kosher Salt  Make sure there is enough salt to get every cucumber.  You want the salt to pull out some of the moisture, but you do not need to completely cover or coat them.  You also want to use Kosher Salt because it draws out moisture better and does not contain additives like table salt.  Once you have the cucumbers in salt, stir them occasionally for the next 30 minutes.  After about thirty minutes, you will want to rinse off the cucumbers quickly and place them on a paper towel to drain.

Rinsed Cucumbers and Pickling Jars

While the cucumbers are salting and them drying, I get the vinegar brine ready.  I have two 1/2  gallon glass jars with rubber rimmed tops that I use for my pickles.  They fit nicely on the bottom shelf of my fridge, and I do not need to worry about them being in the way.  You can use any glass jar you wish, such as a quart mason jar, as long as it has a tight lid.

I first pour about a cup of cold vinegar in the jar, and then add about a 1/2 cup of distilled water.  In each jar I add 1 tablespoon whole mustard seeds, 1 tablespoon dried dill weed, 1 pretty sprig of dill, with the "weed" part and the little flowery top (this is more to make the jar look pretty when I pull it out for parties), 1tablespoon sugar, 6 - 8 garlic cloves, sliced thin or diced, 4 whole cloves, and 1/2 tablespoon peppercorns. 

Cucumbers becoming Pickles

Once all the spices are in, add your prepared cucumbers to the jar.  Once that is done, fill up the rest of the jar with vinegar so that the brine covers all the cucumbers.  After closing the lids, pop the jars in the fridge for a week or two.  In the picture you can see that I still have a bit of room in the jar.  This is fine, as long as the brine covers everything.  I started to pickle these cucumbers because I did not want them to go bad, but I know that there are still a few on the vine that will be ready in a few days.  When they are ready, I will cut them in quarters, salt treat them, and add them to these two jars.  You can add new cucumbers for about a week or two, but after that, you will want to start a new jar.  Most pickles will be ready about 7 days after the last cucumber was added, though I usually wait a few weeks to make sure they are really full of garlic goodness.

What is great about these pickles, is you can spice them any way that you want.  You may already have Grandma's recipe, but don't want to go through all the trouble of canning. Just use her spices in comparison to the size you are pickling, and you can just refrigerate them instead.  If you are unsure of the garlic or other spices in this recipe, or another recipe, you can always start off with smaller amounts of spice, and after a week, taste your brine or one of the pickles.  You can add more spices if needed, but do remember that the pickles will continue to slowly bring in more taste the longer they sit.  My Father-in-Law once added a habanero pepper to his pickles about 6 months after being in the fridge, and within 2 weeks those pickles went from mild to HOT!

Now if the brine has too much spice, you can always remove some of the spices. This will require removing all the pickles first, and placing them in a bowl, then remove some of the offending spices and  a cup or two of the brine.  Put the pickles back in the brine and add fresh cold vinegar and 1/4 -1/2 cups distilled water to the jar until it covers the pickles.  You only want to do this the first week or two after starting the pickling process.  If you decide 6 months later that you have too much pepper or garlic or mustard, no amount of fresh vinegar will get the taste out of the pickle.