I mentioned a couple of posts back that I had decided to dry my beans. Why? Well, I'd originally planted them to eat them green, but after only a couple of times of that, I just fell behind and ended up with plants full of fat green beans at the end of the season. Once they get those full beans (the seeds) inside, they're no good for eating green anymore. I could have let them dry on the vine if we'd had nicer weather, but about that time it turned wet, and we had frost predicted on several occasions. Frost that never materialized and hasn't to date, but it meant bringing them in.
I went out and pulled all the bean plants and stripped them of their fat pods. I had four teepees of beans, with three stakes per teepee. Each stake had two plants, which means a total of 24 bean plants about 6' high. Took me a couple of hours to strip them all bare and pull out the stakes, pile up the vines and leaves for compost, and put all the beans into a bucket.
After I had all the bean pods inside, I used some heavy cotton sewing thread to stitch them all into 3' long strings, by simply running a needle and thread through the end of each bean. Once I had about 3', I tied the strings to the bottom of a sturdy coathanger, about 5 bundles per coathanger. Then I took them down to the woodstove and hung them from cracks behind the stove, against the brick, to dry out thoroughly.
A few days ago, my husband came to me with a handful of chocolatey brown beans and let me know that the pods were splitting open and dropping their beans everywhere. I interpreted that as, "Your stupid beans are getting everywhere, do something!" So tonight I took them all down, got a bucket, and shelled all the beans out. We ended up burning the dry pods, but I was thinking that they'd probably make good feed supplements for ruminants, if we'd had any.
After all that, I wound up with about 4 pints of beautiful brown beans. 4 pints. I figure it was about 2 hours each picking, stringing, and shelling, so over an hour to get a single pint of beans. *looking at large bag of beans picked up at Costco* Well, at least I know these are organic! Plus, drying them wasn't the original intent, it was just the result of wanting to save the last of the beans from going to waste. Now, we'll see how they actually taste...
Showing posts with label food preservation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food preservation. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Food Preservation Tips
A few tips and preservation techniques I thought I'd pass along. Seems like the appropriate time of year, when people are hauling in the last of their crops!
* Beans to be dried for later use in soups or bean dishes can usually be left to dry on the plant. When they rattle in the pods, they're dry. If you live in an area, like I do, where frost or rain would threaten the beans before they're dry, you can pick them early. If you have the space, pull the entire plant and hang somewhere warm and dry until the pods turn brown and the beans rattle. If you don't have space, pull the individual pods, then string together 2 or 3 feet-worth on a heavy beading thread, and hang somewhere warm and dry (such as near a woodstove.) When the beans rattle in the pods, you can either continue to store them in the pods, or pop them out of their pods and store them in a glass jar.
* Many vegetables can be sliced and dehydrated. You can follow the instructions on your home dehydrator, or you can use your oven turned to the very lowest setting, around 175 degrees. Celery should be blanched first. Zucchini, apples, pears, eggplant, carrots, and tomatoes can be merely sliced and dried. All of the above can be stored in glass jars. (Note: Potatoes need to be blanched and steamed to absolute transparency before dehydrating. Skipping this step or under-steaming will result in your dried potatoes turning black.)
* Most herbs can be dried by gathering a bunch early in the morning (when the aromatic compounds in the plants are at their peak) and then hanging them upside down somewhere cool and dry.
* Winter Squashes can be stored for months. Pick the squash, leaving at least 2-3" of stem. Allow to toughen on your counter for 2 weeks, then rub the skin lightly with olive oil. Store on your counter if you like, or in cold storage. Do NOT store in a basket or bowl, as the restricted airflow and retained moisture may cause them to rot prematurely. Thinner-skinned summer squashes can also be stored longer by the same method, though they should be refrigerated and may only last a couple of extra weeks.
* Other things can be fermented and made into "sauerkraut"-like concoctions in the same way sauerkraut is made. Shredded carrots and red onions make an amazing combination.
So, if you want to extend the life of your harvest and don't want to dry, can, or ferment your pickings, you can also keep them in a kind of "suspended animation" using vinegar, salt, or a combination. This would be the kind of storage folks used before refrigeration, when copious quantities of salt or storage in cold root cellars were the preferred method for storing foods.
* Basic Brining Formula - 1 Tbl salt per 1 quart of filtered or spring water. Pour over green beans, sliced carrots, peppers, eggplant, or other vegetables to extend their storage life. Keep in the fridge for up to a month. The salt retards the growth of mold and other spoiling organisms, as does the cool temperature.
* Basic Vinegar Formula - Wash your vegetables and dry thoroughly. Pack a jar with your vegetables, poke holes in larger ones like Japanese eggplants and peppers. Fill jar 1/2 full with vinegar, 1/2 full with good filtered water, and top with a few drops of olive oil to create a seal at the top. Store in cold storage for several months.
NOTE: I don't vouch for the safety of storing foods without proper canning or refrigeration, unless fermented safely as in sauerkraut. Botulism, while uncommon, is a dangerous potential side-effect of improper storage under anaerobic (low oxygen) conditions such as produced when submerging vegetables in liquid and sealing the surface with oil. The acidity of the vinegar should provide protection from most toxic growths, but as it's not a measured, tested recipe, variables may change results. Proceed at your own risk, and do your own research online or in books!
* Beans to be dried for later use in soups or bean dishes can usually be left to dry on the plant. When they rattle in the pods, they're dry. If you live in an area, like I do, where frost or rain would threaten the beans before they're dry, you can pick them early. If you have the space, pull the entire plant and hang somewhere warm and dry until the pods turn brown and the beans rattle. If you don't have space, pull the individual pods, then string together 2 or 3 feet-worth on a heavy beading thread, and hang somewhere warm and dry (such as near a woodstove.) When the beans rattle in the pods, you can either continue to store them in the pods, or pop them out of their pods and store them in a glass jar.
* Many vegetables can be sliced and dehydrated. You can follow the instructions on your home dehydrator, or you can use your oven turned to the very lowest setting, around 175 degrees. Celery should be blanched first. Zucchini, apples, pears, eggplant, carrots, and tomatoes can be merely sliced and dried. All of the above can be stored in glass jars. (Note: Potatoes need to be blanched and steamed to absolute transparency before dehydrating. Skipping this step or under-steaming will result in your dried potatoes turning black.)
* Most herbs can be dried by gathering a bunch early in the morning (when the aromatic compounds in the plants are at their peak) and then hanging them upside down somewhere cool and dry.
* Winter Squashes can be stored for months. Pick the squash, leaving at least 2-3" of stem. Allow to toughen on your counter for 2 weeks, then rub the skin lightly with olive oil. Store on your counter if you like, or in cold storage. Do NOT store in a basket or bowl, as the restricted airflow and retained moisture may cause them to rot prematurely. Thinner-skinned summer squashes can also be stored longer by the same method, though they should be refrigerated and may only last a couple of extra weeks.
* Other things can be fermented and made into "sauerkraut"-like concoctions in the same way sauerkraut is made. Shredded carrots and red onions make an amazing combination.
So, if you want to extend the life of your harvest and don't want to dry, can, or ferment your pickings, you can also keep them in a kind of "suspended animation" using vinegar, salt, or a combination. This would be the kind of storage folks used before refrigeration, when copious quantities of salt or storage in cold root cellars were the preferred method for storing foods.
* Basic Brining Formula - 1 Tbl salt per 1 quart of filtered or spring water. Pour over green beans, sliced carrots, peppers, eggplant, or other vegetables to extend their storage life. Keep in the fridge for up to a month. The salt retards the growth of mold and other spoiling organisms, as does the cool temperature.
* Basic Vinegar Formula - Wash your vegetables and dry thoroughly. Pack a jar with your vegetables, poke holes in larger ones like Japanese eggplants and peppers. Fill jar 1/2 full with vinegar, 1/2 full with good filtered water, and top with a few drops of olive oil to create a seal at the top. Store in cold storage for several months.
NOTE: I don't vouch for the safety of storing foods without proper canning or refrigeration, unless fermented safely as in sauerkraut. Botulism, while uncommon, is a dangerous potential side-effect of improper storage under anaerobic (low oxygen) conditions such as produced when submerging vegetables in liquid and sealing the surface with oil. The acidity of the vinegar should provide protection from most toxic growths, but as it's not a measured, tested recipe, variables may change results. Proceed at your own risk, and do your own research online or in books!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The sky is falling!
Seems appropriate...wasn't that an apple falling on Chicken Little's head which set the whole thing off? Two things I have a lot of around here right now: chickens and apples.
The three new chickens are still skittish, but getting settled. The one missing a large patch of her back feathers will launch herself at me when I come into the coop, but not to be mean. No, she wants to sit on whatever bowl of food I've brought out so she can gobble her fair share without any of the others picking on her. The other buff orpington will come out and let me hand feed her and pet her, but she doesn't yet go down and join "my girls". The little game hen, now dubbed Racer X, is speedy, flighty, nervous, and the low girl on the totem pole. I did manage to catch her tonight with little effort, and held her and cooed at her for a while until she calmed down. They'll get there eventually, I'm sure. Meanwhile, one of my original girls has a big owie on the back of her comb, presumably where the other girls were picking on her. Turns out that one likes to sit on my lap and cluck to herself and have her wings scritched. I'm sure my neighbor thinks I'm insane; he used to raise chickens by the hundreds, in a very "factory" mindset, and here I am petting mine.
As for apples, well, we have a lot. There's a tree in the front yard which is obviously old, and had a few sad apples stuck on it last fall when we were moving. It's dropped a ton so far, filling a big cardboard moving box with soft-fleshed yellow apples with a bit of surface scabbing but no sign of anything major. Once peeled, they are perfectly acceptable apples. I made some into a pie last weekend, and though I objected to them on the basis that they are soft and don't hold up well after baking, they did have a nice flavor. They're destined to be applesauce though.
We have even more apples than that, though, because we went over to our old house and raided the Emerald Spire columnar apple tree in the back yard. (My parents now own the house, so it's not as weird as it sounds.) We planted the tree three or four years ago, and it's a beautifully compact tree less than 4 feet wide but about 12 feet tall. The apples are big and green, and those that hadn't fallen yet were also smooth skinned and relatively free of anything resembling scab or insect damage. I did find a few with a worm parked right at the stem end, but they appeared to be doing nothing beyond sitting there in a little webby bit. After bringing them home, I slated them for apple pies and apple cheesecake, because I know they are wonderfully firm and have a nice tart flavor that holds up well in baking. I still have a few left, but I canned a batch of yummy apple pie filling today!
Apple Pie Filling
* 6 quarts blanched apple slices
* 5 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups Clear Jel (a food starch, available at WilCo Farm Stores and some baking stores)
* 1 Tbls cinnamon
* 1 tsp nutmeg
* 2 1/2 cups cold water
* 5 cups apple juice
* 3/4 cup bottled lemon juice
* Ascorbic acid powder, or commercial anti-darkening powder for fruit
* At least one 6+ quart saucepot, two very large bowls, and a strainer or sieve
* Quart jars and lids
Prepare your jars and lids for canning, leave the sterile jars hot and leave the lids in the hot water from scalding. Fill your water canner and set on to heat.
Wash, peel, and core your apples. (If you do this a lot, let me recommend a hand-crank apple peeler-corer. I've had mine a couple of years now, and I love it. LOVE it.) Cut apples into 1/2 inch wide slices, place in a large bowl with anti-darkening solution of 1 tsp ascorbic acid to 1 gallon of water, or solution made according to the directions on the bottle.
Remove slices from the solution, drain well. Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Blanch fruit by placing 6 cups of slices in the water, then return it to boiling. Boil each batch for 1 minute after it returns to a boil, then remove the fruit from the water, drain well, and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl to keep warm.
After all fruit is blanched, drain the pot of water. In the large pot, combine sugar, Clear Jel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, and applesauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.
Add the lemon juice, stir in well, and boil one more minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, immediately fold in the hot blanched apple slices. Fill hot jars with the pie filling, leaving 1 inch head space. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula, wipe jar rims, adjust the lids. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes (pints and quarts.) Makes 5-7 quarts depending on how much your apples shrink during blanching.
The three new chickens are still skittish, but getting settled. The one missing a large patch of her back feathers will launch herself at me when I come into the coop, but not to be mean. No, she wants to sit on whatever bowl of food I've brought out so she can gobble her fair share without any of the others picking on her. The other buff orpington will come out and let me hand feed her and pet her, but she doesn't yet go down and join "my girls". The little game hen, now dubbed Racer X, is speedy, flighty, nervous, and the low girl on the totem pole. I did manage to catch her tonight with little effort, and held her and cooed at her for a while until she calmed down. They'll get there eventually, I'm sure. Meanwhile, one of my original girls has a big owie on the back of her comb, presumably where the other girls were picking on her. Turns out that one likes to sit on my lap and cluck to herself and have her wings scritched. I'm sure my neighbor thinks I'm insane; he used to raise chickens by the hundreds, in a very "factory" mindset, and here I am petting mine.
As for apples, well, we have a lot. There's a tree in the front yard which is obviously old, and had a few sad apples stuck on it last fall when we were moving. It's dropped a ton so far, filling a big cardboard moving box with soft-fleshed yellow apples with a bit of surface scabbing but no sign of anything major. Once peeled, they are perfectly acceptable apples. I made some into a pie last weekend, and though I objected to them on the basis that they are soft and don't hold up well after baking, they did have a nice flavor. They're destined to be applesauce though.
We have even more apples than that, though, because we went over to our old house and raided the Emerald Spire columnar apple tree in the back yard. (My parents now own the house, so it's not as weird as it sounds.) We planted the tree three or four years ago, and it's a beautifully compact tree less than 4 feet wide but about 12 feet tall. The apples are big and green, and those that hadn't fallen yet were also smooth skinned and relatively free of anything resembling scab or insect damage. I did find a few with a worm parked right at the stem end, but they appeared to be doing nothing beyond sitting there in a little webby bit. After bringing them home, I slated them for apple pies and apple cheesecake, because I know they are wonderfully firm and have a nice tart flavor that holds up well in baking. I still have a few left, but I canned a batch of yummy apple pie filling today!
Apple Pie Filling
* 6 quarts blanched apple slices
* 5 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups Clear Jel (a food starch, available at WilCo Farm Stores and some baking stores)
* 1 Tbls cinnamon
* 1 tsp nutmeg
* 2 1/2 cups cold water
* 5 cups apple juice
* 3/4 cup bottled lemon juice
* Ascorbic acid powder, or commercial anti-darkening powder for fruit
* At least one 6+ quart saucepot, two very large bowls, and a strainer or sieve
* Quart jars and lids
Prepare your jars and lids for canning, leave the sterile jars hot and leave the lids in the hot water from scalding. Fill your water canner and set on to heat.
Wash, peel, and core your apples. (If you do this a lot, let me recommend a hand-crank apple peeler-corer. I've had mine a couple of years now, and I love it. LOVE it.) Cut apples into 1/2 inch wide slices, place in a large bowl with anti-darkening solution of 1 tsp ascorbic acid to 1 gallon of water, or solution made according to the directions on the bottle.
Remove slices from the solution, drain well. Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Blanch fruit by placing 6 cups of slices in the water, then return it to boiling. Boil each batch for 1 minute after it returns to a boil, then remove the fruit from the water, drain well, and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl to keep warm.
After all fruit is blanched, drain the pot of water. In the large pot, combine sugar, Clear Jel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, and applesauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.
Add the lemon juice, stir in well, and boil one more minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, immediately fold in the hot blanched apple slices. Fill hot jars with the pie filling, leaving 1 inch head space. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula, wipe jar rims, adjust the lids. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes (pints and quarts.) Makes 5-7 quarts depending on how much your apples shrink during blanching.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
What a crock.
No seriously, it's a crock! I was at the local Wilco Farm Store yesterday looking for canning jars and generally poking about in the canning section while my daughter was amusing herself riding the pint-sized tractor. I was about finished with my selections when I happened to glance down to the bottom shelf and realized they had 3 gallon stoneware pickling crocks in stock! It takes so little to make me happy...I squee'd out loud, grabbed one, and stuffed all my pickling supplies inside it.
I'd been on a quest for a stoneware pickling crock for a couple of weeks. For my first batch of dill pickles I used a plastic vacu-sealing bucket, but if I'm going to be soaking foods in acids I'd rather have something besides plastic (even though this particular bucket is deemed "okay" chemically, it just seems better to use stoneware or glass.) I'd searched local secondhand stores, and though I'd found a couple that were gallon sized and would have worked, I hadn't found what I really wanted. I looked online, and while I could find listings for them, most of them were out of stock. Even Lehman's page for crocks marked them all as out of stock; it looks like perhaps one of the primary manufacturers has gone out of business. Of the couple I found, the shipping was in the $20-$30 range, so I saved quite a bit by finding one locally. When I told my husband I'd found one at Wilco, he said, "Go buy another one." Not one to need a lot of encouragement when it comes to geeky old-fashioned farmlike equipment, I swung by there tonight on my way home and dashed in 10 minutes before closing to snag one of their last 3 crocks. Turns out Todd's mother also has a 3 gallon one that used to belong to her mother, which has been sitting in her living room and likely functioning as a plant holder, and which she offered to let me use. More pickles!
So today I stopped by BiZi Farm (support your local farm!) and picked up 6 heads of cabbage, 2 cauliflowers, and a bunch of celery, plus a bag of Bob's Red Mill 13 Bean Soup Mix, some lemon cucumbers, a few peaches, and a book on Log Cabin Cooking since I'm a sucker for pioneer recipes. I came home and shredded all the cabbage and started it fermenting for sauerkraut in one of the new crocks, then I chopped up all the cauliflower and celery plus a row of carrots from our garden and made 5 quarts of pickled vegetable mix for Todd's snacking pleasure. After that, I chopped up 6 pounds of pickling cucumbers and made 11 pints of sweet pickle chips, and started another 10 pounds of dill pickles brining in my other stoneware crock.
And I'm still getting around 5 pounds of cucumbers per day from my garden. Oh dear. I think I shall soon be offering cucumbers to unsuspecting passers-by!
Homemade Sauerkraut
* 20 pounds of cabbage (approximately 6 heads)
* 3/4 cup pickling and canning salt (or NON IODIZED, non-rock salt like Kosher salt)
* 3 gallon crock
* plate or wooden disk that fits inside the crock with 1/4-1/2" clearance around the edges
* cheesecloth
Wash the cabbage heads, remove any wilted leaves. Quarter the heads and remove the core. Cut into very fine shreds, about 1/16" inch, using a sharp knife or a food processor or mandoline. In a large, non-aluminum bowl, place 5 pounds of shreds with 3 tablespoons of the pickling salt. Toss to cover, then allow to rest for 5-10 minutes or until wilted. Pack down firmly into the clean crock, using a wooden tamper if you have one. (The head of a wooden tenderizing mallet will work, or use your hands.)
Repeat with the rest of the cabbage and salt, pressing down firmly on the cabbage in the crock after adding each layer and before adding the next. The cabbage should begin to shed its liquid, and by the time you reach the end of the packing, you should have enough liquid to cover the shredded cabbage. (If you do not, add a brine made of 1-1/2 tablespoons of salt per quart of water until there is sufficient liquid to cover the cabbage entirely.)
Place a layer of cheesecloth on top of the cabbage, and top with a plate or a wooden sauerkraut "lid". Add a weight (a ziploc bag full of water, a canning jar full of water, etc.) to the top of the plate to ensure that the cabbage all stays submerged. Allow to ferment between 55 and 75 degrees for 3-6 weeks. Fermentation is done when bubbles cease to form after the sides are tapped to remove bubbles. If a scum forms on the top, skim it off. Switch plates to a clean one if necessary.
Bring sauerkraut to a simmer (185 to 210degrees F). DO NOT BOIL. Sterilize canning jars and equipment per manufacture instructions, leave jars hot. Pack hot cabbage into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula run around the inside of the jar. Adjust caps. Process pints 15 minutes, quarts 20 minutes, in a boiling water canner.
I'd been on a quest for a stoneware pickling crock for a couple of weeks. For my first batch of dill pickles I used a plastic vacu-sealing bucket, but if I'm going to be soaking foods in acids I'd rather have something besides plastic (even though this particular bucket is deemed "okay" chemically, it just seems better to use stoneware or glass.) I'd searched local secondhand stores, and though I'd found a couple that were gallon sized and would have worked, I hadn't found what I really wanted. I looked online, and while I could find listings for them, most of them were out of stock. Even Lehman's page for crocks marked them all as out of stock; it looks like perhaps one of the primary manufacturers has gone out of business. Of the couple I found, the shipping was in the $20-$30 range, so I saved quite a bit by finding one locally. When I told my husband I'd found one at Wilco, he said, "Go buy another one." Not one to need a lot of encouragement when it comes to geeky old-fashioned farmlike equipment, I swung by there tonight on my way home and dashed in 10 minutes before closing to snag one of their last 3 crocks. Turns out Todd's mother also has a 3 gallon one that used to belong to her mother, which has been sitting in her living room and likely functioning as a plant holder, and which she offered to let me use. More pickles!
So today I stopped by BiZi Farm (support your local farm!) and picked up 6 heads of cabbage, 2 cauliflowers, and a bunch of celery, plus a bag of Bob's Red Mill 13 Bean Soup Mix, some lemon cucumbers, a few peaches, and a book on Log Cabin Cooking since I'm a sucker for pioneer recipes. I came home and shredded all the cabbage and started it fermenting for sauerkraut in one of the new crocks, then I chopped up all the cauliflower and celery plus a row of carrots from our garden and made 5 quarts of pickled vegetable mix for Todd's snacking pleasure. After that, I chopped up 6 pounds of pickling cucumbers and made 11 pints of sweet pickle chips, and started another 10 pounds of dill pickles brining in my other stoneware crock.
And I'm still getting around 5 pounds of cucumbers per day from my garden. Oh dear. I think I shall soon be offering cucumbers to unsuspecting passers-by!
Homemade Sauerkraut
* 20 pounds of cabbage (approximately 6 heads)
* 3/4 cup pickling and canning salt (or NON IODIZED, non-rock salt like Kosher salt)
* 3 gallon crock
* plate or wooden disk that fits inside the crock with 1/4-1/2" clearance around the edges
* cheesecloth
Wash the cabbage heads, remove any wilted leaves. Quarter the heads and remove the core. Cut into very fine shreds, about 1/16" inch, using a sharp knife or a food processor or mandoline. In a large, non-aluminum bowl, place 5 pounds of shreds with 3 tablespoons of the pickling salt. Toss to cover, then allow to rest for 5-10 minutes or until wilted. Pack down firmly into the clean crock, using a wooden tamper if you have one. (The head of a wooden tenderizing mallet will work, or use your hands.)
Repeat with the rest of the cabbage and salt, pressing down firmly on the cabbage in the crock after adding each layer and before adding the next. The cabbage should begin to shed its liquid, and by the time you reach the end of the packing, you should have enough liquid to cover the shredded cabbage. (If you do not, add a brine made of 1-1/2 tablespoons of salt per quart of water until there is sufficient liquid to cover the cabbage entirely.)
Place a layer of cheesecloth on top of the cabbage, and top with a plate or a wooden sauerkraut "lid". Add a weight (a ziploc bag full of water, a canning jar full of water, etc.) to the top of the plate to ensure that the cabbage all stays submerged. Allow to ferment between 55 and 75 degrees for 3-6 weeks. Fermentation is done when bubbles cease to form after the sides are tapped to remove bubbles. If a scum forms on the top, skim it off. Switch plates to a clean one if necessary.
Bring sauerkraut to a simmer (185 to 210degrees F). DO NOT BOIL. Sterilize canning jars and equipment per manufacture instructions, leave jars hot. Pack hot cabbage into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula run around the inside of the jar. Adjust caps. Process pints 15 minutes, quarts 20 minutes, in a boiling water canner.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Pick a Peck of Pickles
One of the spaces in my garden this year went to pickling cucumbers. I bought a pack of seeds for around $3.00, and started them in the greenhouse. I'm not sure every single seed came up, but it was pretty darn close. And once I moved them to the garden, even though it was late in the season, they took off. They are now producing several pounds of pickles a day. They are thus far the single most productive, useful vegetable I've planted in the garden just in terms of volume picked and used, especially with regard to cost outlay in the beginning.
So far, I've got two gallons of dill pickles brining in the jelly room, using dill from my yard. I also have 8 quart jars and 8 pint jars of bread and butter pickles stored away. In the fridge I have my last three days' worth of pickings, which amounts to enough cucumbers to make about 12 quarts of sweet pickles. And the cucumbers really don't show any signs of slowing down. Pickles anyone?
Brined Dill Pickles
* 15 pounds of pickling cucumbers (whole, small)
* 2-3 bunches of dill heads, fresh or dried
* 3/4 cup pickling spices
* 3 cups white vinegar
* 1 1/2 cups pickling salt (not table salt)
* Garlic cloves (optional)
* water
Wash the cucumbers thoroughly. In a large crock (at least 2 gallons), sprinkle half the pickling spices, and half the dill, and 2-3 cloves of garlic if you wish. Pack with cucumbers to within 4 inches of the top. Add the rest of the salt, pickling spices, and dill. In a large pot, mix the salt with the vinegar and enough water to fill the crock, and add to the crock of cucumbers. Be sure the cucumbers are all submerged in the brine; weight with a wooden block or ceramic plate if necessary.
Let brine in a cool-ish place for 2-3 weeks. Don't stir or disturb, but do make sure the pickles stay submerged. If a scum forms on top, skim off (it's a byproduct of the fermenting process.)
When you're ready to can, strain the brine into a large, non-reactive (stainless steel, enameled, or glass) pot. Bring to a boil. Sterlize your jars and pack with your brined pickles and a small piece of the dill from the crock, then add the hot brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Do not overpack.
If your brine is cloudy, it's due to yeast blooming during fermentation. It won't hurt the pickles, and in fact will taste better if you use it, but if you prefer you can make new brine before canning. Use 1/3 cup salt, 4 cups vinegar, and 1 gallon of water, and bring to a boil, proceed as above.
So far, I've got two gallons of dill pickles brining in the jelly room, using dill from my yard. I also have 8 quart jars and 8 pint jars of bread and butter pickles stored away. In the fridge I have my last three days' worth of pickings, which amounts to enough cucumbers to make about 12 quarts of sweet pickles. And the cucumbers really don't show any signs of slowing down. Pickles anyone?
Brined Dill Pickles
* 15 pounds of pickling cucumbers (whole, small)
* 2-3 bunches of dill heads, fresh or dried
* 3/4 cup pickling spices
* 3 cups white vinegar
* 1 1/2 cups pickling salt (not table salt)
* Garlic cloves (optional)
* water
Wash the cucumbers thoroughly. In a large crock (at least 2 gallons), sprinkle half the pickling spices, and half the dill, and 2-3 cloves of garlic if you wish. Pack with cucumbers to within 4 inches of the top. Add the rest of the salt, pickling spices, and dill. In a large pot, mix the salt with the vinegar and enough water to fill the crock, and add to the crock of cucumbers. Be sure the cucumbers are all submerged in the brine; weight with a wooden block or ceramic plate if necessary.
Let brine in a cool-ish place for 2-3 weeks. Don't stir or disturb, but do make sure the pickles stay submerged. If a scum forms on top, skim off (it's a byproduct of the fermenting process.)
When you're ready to can, strain the brine into a large, non-reactive (stainless steel, enameled, or glass) pot. Bring to a boil. Sterlize your jars and pack with your brined pickles and a small piece of the dill from the crock, then add the hot brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Do not overpack.
If your brine is cloudy, it's due to yeast blooming during fermentation. It won't hurt the pickles, and in fact will taste better if you use it, but if you prefer you can make new brine before canning. Use 1/3 cup salt, 4 cups vinegar, and 1 gallon of water, and bring to a boil, proceed as above.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Asparagus - The Pointiest Vegetable
I saw that sign on a local Burgerville..."Asparagus - The Pointiest Vegetable". At the time it made me giggle, but lately I've been a little overly excited about asparagus, so I thought I'd share.
A few years ago, someone in my family asked me to pickle some asparagus spears. Okay, I said, bring me some asparagus and lo, I shall render unto it a pickle form. What happened next was not pretty; my father stopped at a farmer's market in Yakima on his way through, and brought me 45 pounds of asparagus to pickle. That's a LOT of asparagus. A whole lot. 7 hours worth of work, actually. And the kicker? I don't even like pickled asparagus.
Anyway, I decided when we moved to a larger property that we needed a permanent asparagus patch. Asparagus is a perennial plant which can produce spears for 25 years, so it's a good investment. Drawback is that it's at least 3 years before you can harvest it if you start it from seed, and 2 years before you can harvest from most transplanted crowns. I've heard that a 10 foot row of asparagus should yield 5 pounds of asparagus after the third year, though of course I haven't had it long enough to verify that.
I ended up getting 25 asparagus crowns of a couple of varieties, one of which is the ubiquitous Martha Washington. I planted them out in the vegetable garden and hoped for the best. Well, at least several of them have sent up shoots, whoo! They look just like asparagus from the store. I'm hoping all of them come up, but I won't know for a while yet if they'll all survive. I may hit them with some nitrogen rich fertilizer in the meantime to promote vegetative growth.
I also started some asparagus from seed in my greenhouse. After a week of soaking on a paper towel in the house, they did absolutely nothing, so I gave up and planted them in peat pots and just assumed they wouldn't do anything. Well, I was wrong! They're sending up slender little tiny shootlets, which I will nurture along in the greenhouse until they're big enough to transplant. Here I am presented with another issue that I hadn't really considered; asparagus plants are dioecious, meaning they have male and female plants. Both genders produce flowers, but in the fall the female plants produce red berries which will drop and re-seed the asparagus bed, rendering it potentially crowded and weedy. Buying dormant crowns, you can usually get all male populations and never have to face that issue. Both genders of asparagus are edible, with the female producing more but thinner spears, and the male producing fewer but more robust spears.
In the fall, the asparagus left uncut will go sort of ferny, with flowers and more structure than we're used to seeing in the spears. This is normal, in case anyone thinks they have mutant asparagus!
** A note on how to avoid the hard, woody ends of asparagus **
The easiest way to ensure that you only use the tender part of the asparagus is to grasp it near the base, and bend it. It will naturally snap at the point between the woody part and the tender, tasty part. Toss the woody ends into the compost heap, and work only with the tender bits!
Roasted Asparagus
* 1 lb asparagus spears
* Olive oil
* Fresh grated parmesano-reggiano cheese (or regular parmesan)
Heat oven to 400. Roll asparagus spears in olive oil to coat thoroughly, and arrange on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with the grated cheese, and roast 10 minutes or until tender. Salt and pepper to taste if desired, and eat with your fingers!
Pickled Asparagus
Recipe from my friend Meg Safranek
* Asparagus, fresh
* Mustard seed
* Dill seed
* 2 cloves peeled garlic per pint, or 4 per quart
* Crushed red pepper flakes
* Lots of ice water and extra ice
* White vinegar (or use half Apple cider vinegar and half white)
* Water
* Rock Salt
* Cane Sugar
* Pickling Spice (remove the cloves)
* Alum
One batch of Brine will cover: 6 quarts of spears plus 1 quart of chunks, or pints to total that much. Depending on how much asparagus you chop, you may need more than one batch of brine.
Prepare a large ice water bath in a tub or large bowl. Next to this, lay several clean towels for drying your asparagus.
Wash the asparagus thoroughly. Snap off the woody ends and discard as described above. Working with the tender portion of the spears, measure the depth of your jars and chop the asparagus spears to fit in the jar with at least 1/2" left between the top of the asparagus and the jar lid. Keep the bits you chop off; they will pickle just as well as the spears, they just don't look as cool.
Blanch the asparagus: Bring a pot of water to boil, preferably one with a collander insert like for cooking pasta. Plunge the asparagus into the boiling water and leave for exactly one minute, then remove from the boiling water and plunge immediately into ice water. Use lots of ice, and get it very cold immediately. This helps retain the crispiness. Remove the asparagus when completely cold, and allow to drain on clean towels until thoroughly dry.
Wash and sterilize canning jars by boiling 5 minutes or by running through the hottest setting on your dishwasher. To each clean jar add:
* 1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
* 1/2 teaspoon dill seed
* 2 cloves peeled garlic per pint, or 4 cloves per quart
* 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
For one batch of brine, bring 5 cups water, 1/2 cup rock salt, 1/2 cup cane sugar, 1 Tablespoon pickling spice (remove cloves), and 1 teaspoon Alum to a boil in a large saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add 5 cups vinegar, and cool.
Pack the jars with asparagus. I usually pack spears point up. Be sure you have about 1/2" headspace between the top of the spears and the lids. You can just fill jars with asparagus chunks any old way, but still leave 1/2" headspace at the top.
Pour the cooled brine over the asparagus in the jars, covering the asparagus but leaving 1/2" of headspace. Process 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.
NOTES:
Um, my garlic is blue.
Yeah, that happens. It'll turn either blue or green sometimes in the pickling brine. It's harmless.
Boiling Water What?
It's a canning method. If this is your first time canning something, congratulations! In a nutshell, it means to bring a large pot of water to a boil, then place the hot, filled jars in the water bath. Bring back to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Remove the jars from the water, allow to cool overnight. The lids should vacuum seal down (test with your finger; if the lid "pops", it didn't seal). Once the seal is set, remove the outer bands and store without them.
If you want more information about canning, I recommend purchasing the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, as it's a great guidebook. And there is lots of information at the Ball jar home site, Freshpreserving.com.
A few years ago, someone in my family asked me to pickle some asparagus spears. Okay, I said, bring me some asparagus and lo, I shall render unto it a pickle form. What happened next was not pretty; my father stopped at a farmer's market in Yakima on his way through, and brought me 45 pounds of asparagus to pickle. That's a LOT of asparagus. A whole lot. 7 hours worth of work, actually. And the kicker? I don't even like pickled asparagus.
Anyway, I decided when we moved to a larger property that we needed a permanent asparagus patch. Asparagus is a perennial plant which can produce spears for 25 years, so it's a good investment. Drawback is that it's at least 3 years before you can harvest it if you start it from seed, and 2 years before you can harvest from most transplanted crowns. I've heard that a 10 foot row of asparagus should yield 5 pounds of asparagus after the third year, though of course I haven't had it long enough to verify that.
I ended up getting 25 asparagus crowns of a couple of varieties, one of which is the ubiquitous Martha Washington. I planted them out in the vegetable garden and hoped for the best. Well, at least several of them have sent up shoots, whoo! They look just like asparagus from the store. I'm hoping all of them come up, but I won't know for a while yet if they'll all survive. I may hit them with some nitrogen rich fertilizer in the meantime to promote vegetative growth.
I also started some asparagus from seed in my greenhouse. After a week of soaking on a paper towel in the house, they did absolutely nothing, so I gave up and planted them in peat pots and just assumed they wouldn't do anything. Well, I was wrong! They're sending up slender little tiny shootlets, which I will nurture along in the greenhouse until they're big enough to transplant. Here I am presented with another issue that I hadn't really considered; asparagus plants are dioecious, meaning they have male and female plants. Both genders produce flowers, but in the fall the female plants produce red berries which will drop and re-seed the asparagus bed, rendering it potentially crowded and weedy. Buying dormant crowns, you can usually get all male populations and never have to face that issue. Both genders of asparagus are edible, with the female producing more but thinner spears, and the male producing fewer but more robust spears.
In the fall, the asparagus left uncut will go sort of ferny, with flowers and more structure than we're used to seeing in the spears. This is normal, in case anyone thinks they have mutant asparagus!
** A note on how to avoid the hard, woody ends of asparagus **
The easiest way to ensure that you only use the tender part of the asparagus is to grasp it near the base, and bend it. It will naturally snap at the point between the woody part and the tender, tasty part. Toss the woody ends into the compost heap, and work only with the tender bits!
Roasted Asparagus
* 1 lb asparagus spears
* Olive oil
* Fresh grated parmesano-reggiano cheese (or regular parmesan)
Heat oven to 400. Roll asparagus spears in olive oil to coat thoroughly, and arrange on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with the grated cheese, and roast 10 minutes or until tender. Salt and pepper to taste if desired, and eat with your fingers!
Pickled Asparagus
Recipe from my friend Meg Safranek
* Asparagus, fresh
* Mustard seed
* Dill seed
* 2 cloves peeled garlic per pint, or 4 per quart
* Crushed red pepper flakes
* Lots of ice water and extra ice
* White vinegar (or use half Apple cider vinegar and half white)
* Water
* Rock Salt
* Cane Sugar
* Pickling Spice (remove the cloves)
* Alum
One batch of Brine will cover: 6 quarts of spears plus 1 quart of chunks, or pints to total that much. Depending on how much asparagus you chop, you may need more than one batch of brine.
Prepare a large ice water bath in a tub or large bowl. Next to this, lay several clean towels for drying your asparagus.
Wash the asparagus thoroughly. Snap off the woody ends and discard as described above. Working with the tender portion of the spears, measure the depth of your jars and chop the asparagus spears to fit in the jar with at least 1/2" left between the top of the asparagus and the jar lid. Keep the bits you chop off; they will pickle just as well as the spears, they just don't look as cool.
Blanch the asparagus: Bring a pot of water to boil, preferably one with a collander insert like for cooking pasta. Plunge the asparagus into the boiling water and leave for exactly one minute, then remove from the boiling water and plunge immediately into ice water. Use lots of ice, and get it very cold immediately. This helps retain the crispiness. Remove the asparagus when completely cold, and allow to drain on clean towels until thoroughly dry.
Wash and sterilize canning jars by boiling 5 minutes or by running through the hottest setting on your dishwasher. To each clean jar add:
* 1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
* 1/2 teaspoon dill seed
* 2 cloves peeled garlic per pint, or 4 cloves per quart
* 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
For one batch of brine, bring 5 cups water, 1/2 cup rock salt, 1/2 cup cane sugar, 1 Tablespoon pickling spice (remove cloves), and 1 teaspoon Alum to a boil in a large saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add 5 cups vinegar, and cool.
Pack the jars with asparagus. I usually pack spears point up. Be sure you have about 1/2" headspace between the top of the spears and the lids. You can just fill jars with asparagus chunks any old way, but still leave 1/2" headspace at the top.
Pour the cooled brine over the asparagus in the jars, covering the asparagus but leaving 1/2" of headspace. Process 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.
NOTES:
Um, my garlic is blue.
Yeah, that happens. It'll turn either blue or green sometimes in the pickling brine. It's harmless.
Boiling Water What?
It's a canning method. If this is your first time canning something, congratulations! In a nutshell, it means to bring a large pot of water to a boil, then place the hot, filled jars in the water bath. Bring back to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Remove the jars from the water, allow to cool overnight. The lids should vacuum seal down (test with your finger; if the lid "pops", it didn't seal). Once the seal is set, remove the outer bands and store without them.
If you want more information about canning, I recommend purchasing the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, as it's a great guidebook. And there is lots of information at the Ball jar home site, Freshpreserving.com.
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