canning

I'm working on canning the preserves and marmalades I made over the last three weeks. I like to let the stuff accumulate in the fridge, and wait for a day to can that is either cool, or very warm when I know I'll have the air conditioner running, to start the canning pot boiling. The jams last a long time in the fridge but take up too much space, so eventually it all has to be sealed properly to

The chickens are going to be hot today. I guess we all are. It's going to be the last heat wave of the summer, or summer as defined by the school year, since school starts tomorrow. We're processing the birds on Sunday, so I hope they make it until then. When they are large, it's hard for their little hearts to keep up. And, when it's hot and they're large, they are prone to susceptability to

my first cantaloupe

I left the kitchen this morning to enter my second office, and let the screen door bang against its frame. The door is badly in need of repair, and before the fall spiders take it over, Bob will take it apart and replace the screen that came out of its grooves. Your back door is your front door here in Vermont, so what do people think when they see this relic? Few people come up the driveway and

A Femivore bucket list

As a professional woman with one foot in the world of public policy, and one firmly stuck in the mud in my 22 acre farm, I am a proud femivore. I raise chickens, minicows, bees, turkeys, laying hens, and lots of veggies. We are trying to raise as much of the meat we eat as possible -- and what we don't raise we usually buy from a wholesaler who buys mainly native produce. We have a buying group,

damage from the wind storm

Burton Island, VT -- please, please don't go there

Burton Island is a wonderful state park in Vermont, in the middle of Lake Champlain. No cars, just tents and lean-to's and a lot of really nice people. But, it's really hard to get campsites there due to the popularity. So, I'm going to show photos from our trip there this month, but please, please don't ever go there, unless you just want to make a day trip of it.

cookies, not brain surgery

If you're like me, you like to have a few recipes memorized so that you can go in the kitchen to whip something up with no fuss. Memorizing recipes has made me understand the concept of the food a bit better. If you know the basics for a cookie -- you can fool around and make any cookie you want.

Yesterday Rosie said -- I wish I could have a cookie that tastes like the way the lemon ginger

Short ribs -- easy!

Okay -- so we boiled the heck out of short ribs in the crock pot -- for a few hours anyway. Then I sauted in olive oil some chopped vidalia onion, garlic cloves, chopped celery and carrots, and then put the short ribs in for a quick braising. I also added some fresh thyme, sea salt and pepper.

I poured in 1/2 bottle of nice red wine, then the beef stock from the crock pot. It's simmering away

In this kitchen, there's a lot going on

Margaret stopped by to pick up some peaches -- I was a little embarrassed by how many projects I had going on in the kitchen. I started a bunch and then got carried away today.
1. whole wheat bread - 2 loaves with the artisanal flour from King Arthur are rising and almost ready for the oven.2. a crock pot full of short ribs - I didn't braise 'em or sauce them up -- just put them in a pot with

Lemon Ginger Marmalade

Should I make it like I make preserves? Maybe peel the lemon zest off and cut it into thin strips, then cut up the pulp and cook with minced ginger and sugar? Maybe a little pectin?

Or, should I make it like the way I make marmalade -- and boil the lemons with water and ginger chunks for a couple hours, then cut it all up into thin slices and cook with sugar and a little pectin?

It's not an

36 hours in Manchester, VT

If you had only 36 hours to be in Manchester Vermont -- I'd recommend a hike, a nice dinner and lunch, and some shopping.

1. hikes -- Equinox trails - Equinox Mountain - climb to the top like my son's soccer team did this morning for their first pre-season workout, or take a stroll around the pond. there's a huge range of hikes on the mountain. This is my favorite place to see Vermont fall

More canning this weekend

When making jams and jellies it always seems like recipes call for a blend of cups of sugar and to cups of fruit that is the same -- it makes it easier to memorize the recipes too. I made these this weekend too.

Orange Peach Marmalade --
6 cups combined peach and orange cut up - 5 cups peaches/1 cups orange -- cut up fine
6 cups of sugar
2 T lemon juice, peel from 1/2 orange cut up fine
Cook

Canning good garden foods

I had a great time yesterday making tomatoes, corn and limes into winter treats. I have more tomatoes to work on today. What I really wanted to do was make and can foods that we typically buy -- not just plain canned tomatoes, but spicy chili tomatoes, ketchup, and tomato sauce. I'll conquer the sauce today.

Catsup/Ketchup -- I made a gallon this weekend

ingredients -
olive oil - 2 T
2 onion,

Gifts from Ecuador

The smell of my knitting bag is intoxicating. Last night I went to our collective's pot luck and my dear friend Pia came with small baggies of dried herbs. It looked funny of course, like we were making some kind of illicit deal, but I greedily grabbed each bag and took a deep whiff - the complex scents of Anise, Talamancan peppercorns, cumin, and other precious herbs from Ecuadoran, Pia's

harvest

The weather was gorgeous today. I picked zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, herbs, and even cantaloupe from the garden!

what we're doing here

The egg recall has made me think more about why we do what we do. Is the food system safe in this country? I guess it seems worthwhile to grow our own food as much as possible, or to purchase food from reliable sources and store it for year round use. We buy locally often because we feel we can trust farmers we know. But, we don't shop at the farmer's markets much. It's just too expensive. $3.50

I'm working on canning things that we usually buy...and some special items that we would just really enjoy.Raspberry JamPeach Orange MarmaladeChili CatsupAmish CatsupRed Chili RelishPickled peppersPeach ChutneyYum!

honey woes

Our honey has been amazing - 13 gallons from the three hives so far. Bob thinks we'll probably extract a few more gallons before the weather turns cold. Of course, the best laid plans often need to be tweaked -- in this case, the extractor is on the fritz. We were okay about investing the money into the hives and tools to have bees. We were told we could borrow our friend's extractor whenever we

Camping menus for localvores

We went camping on Burton Island, in the middle of Lake Champlain, this weekend. I gathered up good food from the pantry and freezers and brought it along. I love cooking outdoors, especially in such a beautiful setting. Having our local or home-grown food made it even more delicious.Friday dinner -- salmon -- ok not local -- but cooked in packets of local onions, garlic, and our zucchini. Served

Dill pickles and roasted red peppers

Yesterday I made 3 gallons of dill pickles and 1 1/2 gallons of roasted red peppers. I'll use both all winter long. The peppers are great in soups, in place of fresh peppers and are stored in jars of olive oil in the fridge. The pickles stay in their gallon-size pickling vats -- food grade plastic containers with lids -- in the back of the second fridge we own. I let them sit in the brine for a

mama's bread

Made two loaves of bread today -- my kids call this Mama's bread --Mama's bread - 1 loaf3 cups of unbleached flour -- stir it up before measuring it out1 1/3 tsp salt3 T sugar4 T butter cut up2 tsp instant yeast -- this is Red Star or SAF yeast that you don't have to proof first -- works better and you can buy a 1 lb package and keep in the freezerabout a cup of waterCombine all the ingredients,

I was out watering and feeding the turkeys, both groups of meat birds, laying hens, and cows. Well, just watering the cows because they still have plenty of grass to graze on. The air is so thick with humidity, you could almost drink it straight out of the sky. Is there an animal that can do that? I need some of those.Tomorrow's our big day for meat bird processing. The first batch are going to

Nature likes to play tricks on me.Today I was running a little late to make a lunch meeting. I didn't plan the chores well and ended up with no time and a lot to do. Without a doubt the best way for me to have something go wrong is to make too many plans. As I was filling the water reservoir for the chicken tractor, it came lose and landed with a giant woosh -- and I was drenched head to toe.

old walls

I took a walk out on our ridge on Sunday with Bob. There's one area where our land dips down to a stream. We walked along the path and stood next to the large stone walls that must have kept the sheep from crossing the brook. Up the narrow valley, the stone foundation of a mill wheel still sits. A moss covered stone wall serves as a retaining wall for a narrow path along the far side of the

Suggestions for canned peaches

Tonight's supper will include green beans from the garden, a meat chicken from the flock, and local potatoes and onions roasted up. I have a lot of leftover jars of canned peaches from last summer, so I'm looking for suggestions on what to do with them. Peach chutney - I'll make this tonight. Saute for just a couple minutes cut up shallots, garlic and jalapeno. Add chopped up home canned peaches

We extracted honey tonight from 5 honey supers. Bob weighed each box before and after extraction, so there was about 35 to 38 pounds of honey in each one. A quart of honey weighs around 3lbs -- so each super had around ten and a half quarts in it. That's a lot of gallons of honey! It's very light in color and really delicious.Chris and Pia came over and ate dinner with us and helped us extract.