When the weather threatened to freeze off our tomato plants last Saturday night, we took advantage of a slow day at home and went to the back yard around noon to grab the last of the red 'maters from the garden. Unlike the previous sweat-filled harvesting sessions, we were bundled up in warm jackets and hats at first before the sun broke and the heat of our efforts caused us to shed a layer.

Andy came out and helped, too, as my ability to bend and pick has greatly diminished as the months wear on. Ethan again showed laser beam dedication to the cause, easily picking his own weight in tomatoes before asking to go ride bike. Elly was a bit harder to keep focused and I finally had to give her a tangible goal of filling two grocery bags before she was excused to hop on her two-wheeler.

   

Before we were even half way through the rows (if you can even figure out where the rows are in the photo above), two neighborhood boys came zipping through the alley on their Razr scooters. I'd seen them before. In fact, a few weeks ago, I'd been out weeding while our kids played and they came by, asking if I had any jobs for them to do. I was amused as I had heard about this; people paying local kids to rake the leaves or mow the lawn for them. While our lawn really needed it, we didn't have petty cash budgeted for jobs we could do ourselves. I weighed the value of the work they could do verses our saving money, and in the end I was just too far outside my comfort zone to give them anything to do. As it was, they were happy to play with our kids in the yard while I worked, which benefited all. I have seen them around here and there since that day and each time the boys were very friendly and waved hello or asked what we were up to.

There are a lot of kids around our neighborhood, ranging in age from baby to teenagers. Most of them are pretty indifferent to our family and won't even acknowledge when our overly outgoing kids yell "Hello!" to them. There's a pack of them that hang out at the end of the alley on school nights, all sitting on bikes and chatting idly as the evening creeps in. We call them the Biker Gang and deem them about as harmless as the Apple Dumpling Gang. I'm not sure if these two boys are a part of that group, but of all the kids we've seen zoom past our backyard this summer, they have been the most polite.

I was pondering all of this when the boys stopped on the road and asked what we were up to. Smiling, I said, "What does it look like we're doing?"

"Harvesting tomatoes," said the brown haired boy.

"That's right!" said I.

"Can we help you!?" he asked with such fervor that I wasn't sure what to make of it.

I hesitated. "Well, we don't really have any money to pay you for your time–"

Brown Haired Boy responded before the words were out of my mouth. "That's ok! Just give us a bag and we'll help 'til you're done!"

"Wow, ok! And if your families like tomatoes, you can pick some to take home."

Brown Haired Boy dropped his scooter on the grass and his friend, Blonde Haired Boy did the same. Andy handed them some bags and they began grabbing beautiful ripe tomatoes and filling each respective bag until they had quite the haul. We asked them where they lived. Blonde Haired Boy lives on the very end of the alley, in the house closest to where Biker Gang congregates. Turns out, it's his family that has a small bike repair business in their garage and every time we walk past, someone is working on a bicycle with countless pieces of two-wheelers scattered about the garage floor. (that might explain Biker Gang a bit). Brown Haired Boy lives on the next parallel street to ours and is best friends with Blonde Haired Boy.

Finally I asked them their names. Brown Haired Boy turned out to be Austin. Blonde Haired Boy goes by Carter. Austin and Carter took their cache of tomatoes to Austin's house (down the block) to give to his mother. Andy and I kept picking, thinking that was the end of it.

We were very wrong, in a very blessed sort of way. Within minutes, we saw the boys walking back to our yard with a couple plastic bags bulging with produce. Behind them a woman just a bit older than us came with another bag. It was Carter's mother.

I was closest to the road as they approached and paused my picking to acknowledge her. She asked, "Do you like cabbage and carrots? We just harvested these from our garden and thought you might be able to use them, seeing as the boys told me you only grew tomatoes this year."

"A veggie exchange! How wonderful!" I exclaimed.

In fact, the bags were filled with squash, onions, beets, carrots and cabbage. What an incredible trade! They must have brought over three times as much as we gave them. Andy and I thanked her profusely while Austin and Carter began harvesting again. It was the first time we had met her and she and I talked about the gardening year and Carter's friendship with Austin. Soon she headed back home and the six of us continued to work in the garden.

Sooner than I thought, we had found every last ripe tomato. Because of the frost coming, we also picked any tomato that showed the least bit of ripening, including some that were by all accounts green, but yet had a shade of pink or orange on one side.

"Well, guys, I think we're done for today," Andy announced as we hauled our bags to the back of the house.

"Oh, do you have anything else we could do?" asked Austin. He is the more outgoing of the two.

"Actually, if you don't mind, it would help a lot if the tomatoes were sorted by ripeness, so we can process them before some go bad," I stated.

"OH YES! Please let us help sort the tomatoes!" both boys exclaimed. How could we resist that? Andy and the boys put all the harvest in one area of the lawn and began sorting by green, sort of ripe and super ripe. Below, you can see the group sorting together.

   

When the task was finished, they happily helped us haul the boxes and bags of produce up the stairs into our newly cleaned out back pantry. We're not really sure what the room is supposed to be. It shoots off our kitchen with a single door and is about four feet deep by fourteen feet long. There is a makeshift door to the backyard without a handle on the outside. The whole thing looks like someone put an afterthought into it and just tacked it to the back of the house. It looks a lot like an enclosed porch with very few windows. A few weeks ago, Andy cleaned it out from top to bottom and made it into a very useful storage space for our food, cleaning supplies and other odds and ends. This is where we'll be cold storing a lot of our winter produce as it keeps a solid temp of 40˚– 50˚. Below, just some of the produce Carter's family shared with us, neatly stored in existing boxes and containers left here by our landlord.

   

When the harvest was in, I asked everyone if they'd like to be in a photo for a blog I was sure to post. :) Of course the kids were super excited, so here are our harvesters from left to right: Carter, Austin, Andy, Elly, Ethan. Not pictured, me. Liam had been napping the whole time. Behind is the alleyway we speak of so often.

   

As Andy and I prepared a hasty lunch of three left-over soups, we invited the boys to stay and eat. While we worked in the kitchen, they played with our little ones. When it was time to eat, they helped set the table and politely tried each soup, even though they had never heard of two of the three we were serving.

During the meal we were able to get to know Carter and Austin a little better. They are both ten and go to school together at the elementary school just a few block from our homes. When they saw Andy spicing up his soup with some chipotle powder in his soup, they wanted to try it as well. Soon this escalated into a no-holds-barred heat-tolerance-man-show in which each young man at the table tried to up the ante with more and more hot sauces from our fridge. By the end, Austin was pretty red and sweaty, but Carter held his own, going spice for spice with Andy and keeping his cool (we even broke out Might Mustard and had them try it straight up)!

When lunch was over, they helped clean up the table and then offered to clean up all the toys they'd used when playing with our kids. Before I knew it, they had the broom out and my washcloth and were urging me not to leave the kitchen until they were ready for me to see their work. "Almost there! Don't look yet!" I kept hearing from the other rooms.

It really warmed my heart. And the whole experience from harvest to meal time with these two ten year olds got me thinking about the children in our cities. As I washed the dishes and listened to the hustle in the living room, I wondered how many of our children are craving the sort of attention these boys were. They were literally begging to be put to work by us and when they finished one job, they happily moved on to the next. I bet they would have cleaned our bathroom had we asked.

When I was growing up in the country, I had designated chores from early on. Pretty much as soon as I could wield a broom and feed calves, I was officially employed by my parents. I began getting a weekly allowance of a few dollars per week and I was able to save up for toys or art supplies that I really wanted. It gave me a sense of value as well as responsibility in my own home. I went to a country grade school in which most of my friends had farms of their own and had the same home life as I did. It wasn't until middle school when they blended the city kids with the country kids in one big city school (big for a small town I guess) that I began to see how the "other half" lived outside of the classroom. Many walked home, dumped their backpacks in their rooms and ran off to someone else's house to play video games or play basketball or just loiter in the streets in groups until the dinner bells rang. These kids had nothing to do!

As middle school gave way to high school, the separation between country kids and city kids was far less apparent as many of us got involved in after school sports and spent more time at the school going to games and participating in clubs. As I reflect, however, those of us with chores waiting for us at home were far less likely to be the ones getting in trouble. It wasn't a generality, of course, because those farm kids are very ingenious with the way they spent their midnight hours on a weekend. It wouldn't be a small town without someone having been toilet papered over the weekend and a party in the woods being busted. Still, the sense of purpose and a general ability to face down temptation was higher in those of us with something real to do after school.

As more and more Americans have moved away from the farm or countryside and grow up in pretty little suburbs with everything at their fingers, there is a sense of un-direction in the youth. We've seen it with the Biker Gang down the street. This mindset of "I've got four hours to kill between the last bell ringing and dinner. What do you want to do today?" is perplexing those kids. They WANT something to do. They crave responsibility. How many college students can't handle the freedom when Mom and Dad are no longer there to come home to? How many thirty year olds are back living in their parents' home?

I grabbed a soup pot and began scrubbing as the clamor in the other rooms continued.

An overall sense of un-direction. What a disappointing and depressing way to feel. Austin and Carter, at age ten, showed the initiative and drive that I'm sure most of those kids have to begin with. Humans are designed to feel needed and useful, especially the children. I think it's only from years of being trained otherwise that folks grow into the cog role that most adults fulfill. Work for the weekend and indulge in as much pleasure as possible between 5pm Friday and 8am Monday. 

It seemed to me that part of the reason Carter and Austin were the only polite kids on the block and so willing to help is a combination of desire to be needed and responsibility at home. I don't see them very much on the weekdays like I see most the other kids. I see them out and about on Saturdays, presumably their day off. The fact that they wanted to help us, then hang out with us, then eat with us and clean belied their own unique sense of family.

We seemed right to them. We felt safe. A garden was a familiar start for them to step into our world. We felt just as drawn to them, as if we could offer something for these boys that they might be missing.

"Ok, you can come look!" Austin yelped from the dining room. I was torn from my thoughts and the soup pot in my hands. I grabbed the kitchen towel and crossed the kitchen to the dining room door. "Wow!" I exclaimed, not even a bit exaggerating. They had washed the table, picked up the toys, swept the floor, put all the shoes in order, tidied up the end tables and folded the blankets in the living room. The place looked amazing and I'm not sure I could have done it better myself. Andy gave out boisterous high fives and I offered Mom-hugs to each child.

We sent them off with a bag of home-canned tomato products for their mothers and a handful of chocolate chips for themselves, and the promise that they were welcome to stop by anytime.

I really hope they take us up on that offer because it is genuine. Both of the boys were especially interested in what Andy had to say and followed his every move, whether he noticed or not. I felt very deeply that they needed us in some tangible way and who were we to brush that aside? I wish I had gotten their phone numbers so that I might call them over this week as we process tomatoes and make sausage. I know they would jump at the chance to learn a skill, to be useful. And their enthusiasm would be a wonderful influence on our small ones who are just learning the trades of self-sufficiency at home.

Yes, I'll be looking for those boys next Saturday, zipping by on their Razr scooters. We have so much we can share with them and I'm not really talking about the food.

This is how community starts in your own backyard garden.

PS: The freeze we were expecting never came. There will be another harvest before the week is out!

As I mentioned last week, I was inspired to keep writing in this blog, but I never fleshed out what I might be writing about. A short list of items includes homesteading, harvesting, unschooling and urban foraging.  

One of the sessions I attended at the Mother Earth News Fair talked about all the food she had within reach of her backyard, or on the roads she travels to and from work. Living in Maine, she had an abundant supply of wild blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. But she also found that the plants in her own garden, so often ripped out as weeds, were very edible and sometimes more nutritious than the very veggies she was trying to protect. 

In our home, we have already known from our time at Foxwood Farm that pigweed, purslane and lamb's quarter were very delicious and hardy weeds. The kids make a regular snack out of the purslane we keep in our backyard garden this year, pulling it between bike rides and the tree swing. They love the idea of foraging for food, even in this small way. Sometimes they'll bring me a stalk or leaf and ask if its food? After careful identification, I give them the thumbs up or down. Since I am so inexperienced in what herbs and plants can be consumed, most of the time it's been a thumbs down. 

Well, no more. I endeavor to learn every plant we can eat on our 1/2 acre lot we rent here in Oshkosh. 

An easy one to start with is our city garden. 

I suppose this can't be considered foraging as we intentionally dug up the ground and planted it with peppers and tomatoes. However, seeing as the spirit of foraging (especially in the city) is to be more self sufficient, the garden is our number one supplier of free* food. 

* We paid $30 at the beginning of the season for all the started plants and $15 for some makeshift fencing.  

In June, when I was holed away in an office for 12 hours per day, Andy took on more than most Stay At Home Dads (SAHD) do. He kept the kids wrangled and dug up a garden from sod that hadn't moved in well over a century. At first he did it by hand, spending three hours moving sod from a 6 x 3 foot patch of lawn. 

  

Then my father graciously offered the industrial sized rototiller we had used when we gardened at the farm. There is a setting on the tiller specifically made to uproot grasses and this made the work much more expedient, though still exhausting. 

  

We decided to make four rows, three feet across and about forty feet long, with three foot stretches of grass in between the rows. 

  

This was a good start for the garden. Good for this year. Next year we will likely expand it just as many rows. As it is, the plants we bought completely filled in the rows and we had no room for anything but tomatoes and peppers. We have some large stuffing peppers, but mostly hot banana peppers, which we think was a labeling error on the part of the gardener we bought from, as we never had a need for that many hot peppers. The tomatoes are two varieties; the classic red heirloom Brandywine and a new (for us) long-storing red tomato called Mountain Mist. You can easily tell the two apart both in appearance and flavor. It's nice to have a small variety; we usually have about 15 different tomatoes, but in the end, they all get boiled and canned and look about the same, even the colorful ones. 

Very late in June, shortly after my temp job ended, we planted the tomatoes and peppers in the fresh farm compost my father had driven over in the pickup truck. Since it came from several composting sites on Foxwood Farm, there was a rich variety of nutrients and compost age. A lovely black earth, Andy took the same tiller and worked it in with the hard, poor soil the sod had been hiding. At last, he used a hiller function on the tiller and gave us "raised beds." Not the fancy ones held in by gleaming white pine boards but certainly enough to keep the plants from drowning in case of a flood. (Little did we know in June that this would be a record breaking year of drought for not only Wisconsin, but over half of the United States. Drowning...not really a concern this year.) 

  
In the process of planting, we discovered lots of bones in the compost. Some were small. Some were large. Now before you get the willys, remember that this came from when Andy and I were still on the farm. Do you remember us talking about those sheep we purchased from a Craigslist ad? We had been told they were wormed before we got them, but shortly after their transition to Foxwood Farm, we lost three ewes in as many days. On a farm, all flesh is grass and they went into the newly formed compost pile to aid in fertilizing our fields in the coming years.  

We really didn't think about that very much after we left the farm. We had a nice little reminder of our time as shepherds and thanked the sheep for their contribution (however untimely) to our new garden here in Oshkosh. At the time of their death, could we have ever known how that compost would be used? It served as a simple reminder of how God works things out in much more perfect and complicated ways than we ever could.   

After the tomatoes were planted, we headed out west and came home to find an amazing growth spurt in both the tomatoes, but also the weeds. In fact, before we even put our luggage back in the house, Andy and the kids and I spent two hours weeding compulsively, before dusk and hunger pains shooed us indoors.   

 
Above, before mowing the walkways. Below, after. Isn't it beautiful? This of course, before the great tomato take over in about a month! 

   

After that, we kept the garden watered during July and August to preserve the parched plants. Our lawn was brown, but our garden was gorgeous. As the farm market vendors began to showcase their Early Girls and Cherry Tomatoes, we were beginning to get restless for our own brood to hatch. Plenty of green globes danced about the ever-expanding vines but nothing even hinted at ripeness. We bought our tomatoes from a vendor friend instead and dreamed of the first sun-warmed red fruit that would sit triumphantly on our kitchen counter, proclaiming to anyone who cared, "I'm as local as they get!" 

We didn't have to wait long. Early September came and we were getting a steady sprinkle of red maters  hanging out on our counter, waiting for bruschetta or BLTs or a simple slice and rock salt. Then...we didn't look for a few days. We got a heat wave followed by a steady rain for three days.   When the thunder clouds cleared, our own homegrown downpour had only just begun. As Ethan excitedly proclaimed, "It's tomato season everybody!" 

  

And we set to work. Since we didn't get the tomato plants staked in time, they literally took over the garden and even finding our grassy walkways was a tall order. All the super ripe fruits begin at the bottom, so much of the work is gently and firmly lifting a plant to find it's hidden treasures below. It's exhausting work for a normal person, but with my belly expanding daily and heat tolerance near zero, harvesting became quite the chore.   

Thankfully, I had two excellent helpers in Elly and Ethan...and Liam was just amusing to have around as he eagerly picked all the tiny green "balls" he could find. I found out that while Elly has an eye for the very ripe ones, Ethan was fearless, burying his small 3 year old body deep in the monstrous tomato plants for the red globes underneath. 

  

Over the course of the month, Ethan has been my best and most eager helper in the garden. As a middle child, it's sometimes hard for him to have a niche in the family. I want him to know that his help has been irreplaceable and of great value to his Mommy and Daddy.   

 
Once the harvest is in, the time comes for processing. This is where Andy takes over and shines as his personality must find the most efficient and effective ways to can food. Putting eager kids to work never hurts and much of canning is very kid friendly.  

 
One Sunday about two weeks ago, I had some pressing freelance work that needed to be completed by Monday morning. The tomatoes were just as dire. So beginning right after church, Andy began the long day of processing what we guessed to be 120 lbs of tomatoes.  

  

  

It was a long day indeed. Hours after the kids were in bed, he was still boiling water and slicing stems and peeling skins. Hours after I was in bed, he was cleaning the kitchen and making sure the last jars sealed. In all, he worked for 14 hours. We are now blessed with 50 quarts of stewed tomatoes and sauce. When I asked Andy if that would supply us for the winter, he laughed and said, "Maybe til Christmas!"   

It's a good thing that when I began harvesting tomatoes again this morning, we got 90 lbs in boxes and I still have 2/3 of the garden to pick.     

  

Our neighbors in our small block think we're nuts. Some even have gardens, but only enough to supply them for the fresh season. An older lady saw us weeding in July and asked if were had planted a truck garden. For those of you who may not know, truck gardeners were the equivalent of the farm market vendors of today; people who planted huge gardens with the intent to truck the produce into the nearby towns and cities to sell. No, we assured her, this was not our intent. We explained that we just liked to make our own food and her eyes brightened immediately. She told us a story of her own mother, canning away in the kitchen and how she had to help put the food by. We promised to share our harvest with her when the time came and she seemed delighted. "Can't beat homegrown tomatoes and how I do love to slice them and eat them fresh!"     

We love how a garden brings people in a small community together. The rag tag family down the alley comes by often and offers to pull weeds from time to time. The divorced hairdresser across the street checks up on the progress regularly as she has a green thumb for landscaping. The blended family two houses down has a little girl about Elly's age and after a few get-togethers, we gave the mother several tomatoes and hot peppers. Just yesterday her daughter came over with a homemade cake for us.  Just three days ago, we got a note in our mailbox from a handicapped woman who walks through our alleyway regularly. She asked for some of the green tomatoes for fried green tomatoes. She offered to pay for them, but we'll just give her a bag to enjoy. We'll certainly have enough! 

As the canning season winds to a close in the next two weeks (our first hard frost often lands in the first week of October), we will turn to other means of foraging and winter prep. As I'm actively learning, there's a lot of food out there if only we are willing to work for it.   

  

This brings me to the country garden.     

A few days ago, we headed about fifteen miles due west to the farm (formerly known as Foxwood Farm). My brother and his family live there now, keeping up the house and front yard quite beautifully. My father continues to raise crops and beef cows on the rest of the acreage while the fate of the family farm seems more securely in generational hands than when we first exited two years ago.     

One of the projects they are diligently working on is repainting the house and garage, no small task as they are doing it without help of a contractor. My parents and brother and sister-in-law have been working for the last month, prepping and priming and painting the wooden siding and sills. When Andy and I pulled in the driveway late in the afternoon, the house fairly glowed with fresh white paint. Ever the classic midwest farmhouse, she is doing well under new management. Having spent about 75% of my life in that home, I am pleased with the care being given.     

Our purpose, however, was not to supervise any home improvements that might be brewing. Today we came for pumpkins and potatoes.   

A joint project between my parents and my brother's family, a large field garden was planted with rows of sweet corn, pumpkins and potatoes. What used to be sheep and cattle pasture is now commercial corn. The temporary fences long taken down, the lane between fields offered ample access for a small strip of garden. Here is where the sweet corn and pumpkins grew. Across the lane, a small triangle of land with very sandy black soil holds the two long rows of potatoes.   

Last week the farm experienced an early frost, killing the family garden and causing the field garden to die down as well. My family harvested the pumpkins and brought them to the front lawn in hopes of selling a few to passersby. Mom and Dad have been involved in a year long fundraiser to build a well in sun-parched Uganda and decided that half the proceeds from pumpkin sales will go towards that cause. We thought it would be nice to see the operation and get a few orange cucurbits ourselves. 

  

I had hoped to help with the harvest, but they had to grab them last week when I was in PA, so we got to benefit from the season's labor by just walking amongst the beauties and choosing what we'd take home. Since we had no hand in helping grow the pumpkins and yet were invited to take some home free of charge, we chose sparingly.   

  

I was a bit surprised when the kids gravitated towards the smallest pumpkins in the group, but pleased that they could carry their prizes to the car all by themselves. It also gave them a sense of accomplishment, I'm sure. Even wee Liam managed to grunt a pumpkin over to Daddy before thumping it at his feet! 

And of course, the obligatory kids in the pumpkin patch photos ensued. :-) 

  

Elly with her new hat from Grampa Steve. 

   

Ethan, with his exuberance flowing through even a static photo. 

  

Liam, more than displeased to have been deposited in between these cold, slippery lumps of orange, attempting a fast get-away.   

After we chose our pumpkins, we drove down the dusty lane and began our subterranean search for potatoes. Again, beneficiaries of my family's hard work, we were thankful for the homegrown goodies that lay in wait of our digging fork. 

At five and three, Ethan and Elly have been two full years removed from the last potato harvest we undertook. I knew they wouldn't remember that potatoes grow underground. I asked Elly as we stepped out of the car where she thought the taters were. She looked around and guessed at the remains of the pumpkin patch across the pathway.   

Nope, we told her. You've got to look under the ground. She thought we were crazy and when I explained that a potato was part of the root of the potato plant, it didn't really help her dismay. The best way was to just show her. Andy and I had good fun playing up the digging experience. What could have been a sweat-inducing, mundane task became a veritable hunt for treasure as our children squealed in delight at the sight of each colorful tater emerging from the black earth. 

  

Here, Elly grabs handfuls of a red variety in which the name presently escapes me.   

  

Ethan and Elly work together to find the "baby ones" and add them to our grocery bag.   

  

Finding a particularly large potato caused ripples of excitement. 

  

Below, Ethan shows off his "Swimming Cow" potato which he dug himself. As I found in the tomatoes, Ethan was again our best helper, sticking with Andy as he dug for the duration of the hunt. Elly lost interest and began exploring the fields with Liam, which was fine. However, our Little Man here never lost focus. 

  

Before we knew it, we were joined by three of our nieces, who walked the 1/8th mile from the white farmhouse to join in the potato dig. They had come from digging potatoes with their own parents not one hour earlier, but enthusiastically helped us up and down the rows by finding the biggest and most unusual looking taters to add to our bag. In no time at all, we filled the bag much past our initial intent and had to call the search party to a close. With 6 pairs of helping hands, the abundance of food will last us a solid few months. 

  

Again, I am thankful for the generosity of our family in sharing the feast without any help from us during the season. We were able to share a 30 pound box of tomatoes which mutually helped us out. 

We intended to eat potato soup that evening for supper but by the time we were back in Oshkosh it was already 6pm and the kids were clawing at the windows for food. Poor planning, Mom and Dad! We stopped for pizza at Papa Murphy's instead. I know I know! We're not perfect by any means and we do love a good pizza... 

We had warm potato cheese soup for lunch the next day instead. :-)   

 

I love the flavors of Mexican cooking.  I fell in love with so many flavors of this country when I lived in Los Angeles and learned to cook.  I especially loved going into the supermarkets there and trying out all the chilies, tomatillos, and other ethnic spices for cooking.  Sometimes, my taste buds yearn for those flavors.  Unfortunately, living on Cape Cod, those truly authentic flavors and ingredients are just unavailable.

I love tortilla soup.  Authentic Mexican tortilla soup is simply a flavorful tomato soup poured over wonderful crispy tortilla strips, avocado and cheese.  The soup is very easy to prepare and a real crowd pleaser.  The best part is that I created this soup with ingredients that are readily available in all areas of the country, but still bring the authentic flavors of Mexico home.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 (14oz) can of diced tomatoes

3 cups of chicken broth

1/2 large yellow onion diced

2 tsp cumin

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro (optional but truly enhances the flavor)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 tsp of salt

black pepper to taste

3 cloves minced garlic

jalapeno rings (Spice Guide: 1-2 rings-mild, 3-4 rings-medium, 5-7rings spicy)

Manchego cheese or Queso Fresco- 1/2 cup cut into small cubes

1 avocado- cut into cubes

crispy tortilla strips (look in the salad topping area)

Preparation:

In a medium stock pot, combine all ingredients except cheese, avocado and tortilla strips, Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for 25 minutes.

Turn the heat off.  Carefully with the very hot soup blend it into a creamy puree using either a hand held blender, food processor or a blender.  Return the soup to the pot and reheat to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Cube up the cheese and avocado.

In the bottom of the bowl, place some tortilla strips, cheese and avocado.  Remove the soup from the heat and ladle it into the prepared bowls.

Craving more?  Find us at our blog and on Facebook.

Having a goat chase was not the way I wanted to spend my Sunday morning, especially before I had had my coffee. It all started Saturday night with a 2 hour trip to Leola, SD to look at doelings (baby girl goats.) I had been wanting to increase my goat herd to 6 milking does (next season) and 1 buck. I had found a promising herd through our area agricultural newspaper affectionately called the Green Sheet. We came home with 2 cuties; a Nubian and a Saanen/Boer cross. It was really late when we got home so we tucked the girls into the horse trailer for the night waiting until after church to introduce the new goats to our herd. In the morning, I was in the shower and Bethany (my 6 yr old) came in crying and saying one of the new goats were gone. Seems my youngest daughter, Emma, went out to say hi to the new goats and let one out. My husband and I spent the next 2 hours searching for and chasing the little goat for over a mile. I thought I had her once. I was calling in goat language andshe stopped and called back. We “talked” for several minutes, but I must have said something wrong because she was off and running again. We were very fortunate to trap her in a neighbor’s shed, but not so fortunate to make it to church. 

I took my daughters camping in the Black Hills for 4 days leaving my husband behind to work and handle chores. It was a nice break for us and he did a great job handing both responsibilities. He even made a new goat house.  I guess it shows I can leave the farm once and a while.

I live in the melon growing area of the state. It seems you just have to say Woonsocket or Forestburg and people’s mouths water. Currently they are picking muskmelons, then they will move into watermelons and finally pumpkins. Muskmelons and cantalop are not the same thing. Muskmelons tend to be bigger, and are segmented rinds.  I worked out a deal with a local grower. I come and collect all of the cutters (overripe or cracked melons) for exchange of an occasional meal or food item. Such deals benefit all and bartering is the way of rural life.  Its also fun.

My garden has started showing me the fruits of my labor. We have been enjoying albino beets, and sweet corn for a couple weeks.  Yep, albino beets.  They are very good and sweet. I just peel them and cook them in a bit of water in the microwave until they are soft. They are so good I sometimes just I eat them as a snack. My tomatoes are in a holding pattern; nice, big and full of green tomatoes that don’t turn red. I am going to give them a shot of fertilizer to see if they can give them a kick. South Dakota State University Extension is putting on a webinar for Master Gardeners on tomatoes August 14 that I plan on attending. I am a firm believer in education and learning new things. There is always something to learn.

There have been several peach stands lately. Peaches as well as blueberries do not do well in South Dakota. I bought a lug (17lb) box of canning peaches. I have never tried canning peaches so it will also be a learning experience. I am going to do raw packed peaches and some peach preserves. If the recipes work out, I will post them. 

  

Sometimes it is just too hot to cook.  No one feels like eating anything too heavy and we certainly do not feel like cooking in the house.  This is when we take our cooking to the grill.  It is very easy to make a wonderful light meal for warm summer nights that is both easy delicious and keeps the kitchen clean!  Who doesn't love that part!?  One thing that we find incredibly delicious and simple is rustic crusty bread with fresh from the garden tomatoes and basil, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Some days, this serves as our main course paired with an assortment of summer salads.  Other days it's a side.  Either way, it is fast, delicious and easy!

Makes 4 toasts 

Ingredients: 

4 slices of fresh rustic bread~ I used a Fresh Batard loaf

1 medium sized tomato-8 slices

4 leaves of Fresh basil into chiffonade

Cheese of your preference-I used goat but fresh mozzarella works nicely too

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Preparation: 

Heat grill to medium heat.

On a slice of the bread arrange two tomato slices.  On top of the tomatoes, place 1/4 of the fresh basil and some cheese on top.  Salt and Pepper to taste and drizzle with olive oil.

Place on the upper rack of the grill keeping the cover closed for approximately 5 minutes,  Be sure to keep checking on the bread often to be sure it does not burn. Remove when the bread is toasted and the cheese is slightly browned.

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We recently took some vacation time and traveled to Texas to visit Tabatha's family.  While we were there, we decided to plant some trees in my father-in-law's backyard and start a potted garden for him as well.  The trees came first.  My brother-in-law helped me dig the holes, and boy did we get a workout!  I didn't know that just below the top few inches of soil was a whole bunch of rocks waiting to be dug out.  We worked hard and finally had three nice holes dug and ready for whatever my father-in-law would bring back from the store.  He delivered two small fig trees and a tall peach tree that would grow to provide fruit and shade for the backyard.   We set the trees, backfilled with garden soil, added a brick border, and topped the dirt with some wood mulch.  We were all very pleased with the results.  

  

  

After the trees were in place, it was time to work on the garden.  My brother-in-law had started some tomato seeds that he received in the mail.  I notice that the neighbor had some plastic 55 gallon barrels in his yard and I inquired as to where he got them.  Turns out that this guy is a truck driver for the local grocery store and is able to get these food grade barrels when they are emptied.  I told him that I wanted to get one to make a garden and he kindly passed one over the fence to me.  My wife decided that cutting the barrel into three sections to create a raised garden border would be our best option.  I used my father-in-laws cordless reciprocating saw to easily 'cut' through this task.

  

The tomato seedlings were transplanted to the newly created raised garden, and we added some bell pepper seeds and carrot seeds to increase the variety and yield of this garden.  We didn't use all of the tomatoes in the garden, so we put some in pots and placed them in the front room of the house where they get plenty of sunlight and should continue to grow.

  

My wife's family was very grateful and excited about their new fruit trees and vegetable garden.  My brother-in-law has been doing an excellent job at taking care of his new garden and looks forward to enjoying the tasty food that it will provide.  Please visit us at Stone Hill Garden to see updated pictures and posts about this garden in San Antonio and our own garden in Southern California.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions. – Benjamin Franklin 

Things that flow from one thing to another.

What I mean is … a relative had white grapes and had left over white grape juice. My husband asked if I wanted to make jelly. Sure. So, I came home from work early, and thriftily turned her left-over grape juice into jelly. Of course, I had to buy pectin. Which sort of makes it less thrifty. But at least it wasn’t the way it was earlier, when I had to purchase jars also. My first year in graduate school, I was enrolled in a poetry writing course. Trust me, I’m no poet, but I wrote a poem about the free tomatoes my husband brought home.

The Tyranny of the Tomato 

"Do you want some tomatoes?" 
The Man asks me.  

"Sure," I foolishly reply. 

That evening, he returns 
Armed with four grocery bags full; 
I know he thinks he’s being kind. 

Tomatoes are free from a friend. 

They won't last. 

To town I go for all I need for salsa – Jalapenos, onions, habanero peppers, green chilies. $20.  

But the tomatoes are free. 

A day spent – Washing, cutting, cooking tomatoes; 
Roasting, peeling, seeding peppers; 
Boiling canning water. 
Electricity, water, jars, lids, bands – 
Not studying.  

But the tomatoes are free. 

 

I’m not sure I can say more than this …

 

Dehydrating (drying) tomatoes is easy to do, requires little skill or equipment, and produces very satisfactory results. You can dry tomatoes in a food dehydrator, in an oven or in the sun (if you have sufficient steady sunshine). Dried tomatoes are great for cooking; the dried 'maters will re-hydrate in liquid, like soups or stews, and the intense tomato flavor is a great bonus when used dry for breads and salads because the tomato flavor is concentrated when the water is removed. 

 

Also, dried tomatoes store very compactly for long periods if you vacuum seal them into pouches. If thoroughly dried, they can be kept in your pantry or in a decorative jar on your kitchen counter.

Preparation

 

For drying, you will want firm, meaty tomatoes, not the juicier ones like beefsteak. Romas are an excellent choice, as are small Best Boy and Lemon Boy tomatoes. Freeze the big ones, dry the small ones. Before dehydrating, wash, dry, remove the cores and cut your tomatoes. There is no hard and fast rule on how to cut tomatoes for drying; some like wedges, some like slices, some like halves. Mostly it seems to depend on the size of your tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes, plumb tomatoes and even Romas, do well as halves because of their small size. Anything larger dries faster and with fewer hassles as wedges. ¼ to ½ inch thick slices dry the fastest, but will wither up to practically nothing in the process. Use the same "equatorial cut" I described in Freezing Tomatoes and clean out the wet, seedy goop with a spoon or paring knife to speed proper drying… except with cherry tomatoes, it's not worth the bother on them; just cut them in half. Regardless of the drying method you use, place the tomatoes skin side down while drying. Refrigerate them if you must stop the dehydration process for the night or if you must leave the house for an extended period.

Using Solar Power

To sun dry tomatoes, first prepare your "rack"; a piece of plywood works well, cover it with Saran Wrap and tape that to the wood around the edges. Cut your tomatoes and arrange them on the rack. Slices work best for sun drying. Sprinkling with salt will hasten drying by absorbing some liquid, but this is optional. Set the rack in a secure location that will get the maximum amount of direct sunshine. Do what you can to keep bugs away until they "skin over" at that point the bugs seem to lose interest. This will take 18 to 24 hours of strong sunshine, so you will need to plan on setting them out for several consecutive days. Refrigerate them between sessions. This method won’t work well for us here in the mountains of Tennessee; folks in Texas, Arizona or California would have better luck with it.

Oven

To dry in a regular oven, spray a rack (could be an oven rack or a special drying rack) with cooking spray or rub with olive oil to prevent sticking. Cut and clean your tomatoes and arrange on the rack(s) skin side down. Place the rack(s) in the oven and set the temperature to 135°. Anything below 120° promotes bacteria growth; anything above 145° can scorch your 'maters. Prop the door open a little to allow moisture to escape. It will take 12-15 hours to dry larger cuts this way, keep an eye on them and remove the ones that are done as they get there, differences in size, shape and moisture content will cause variance in this. This method works well, but tends to heat up the house quite a bit. I cannot find anything on the use of a convection oven, but I should think that if the oven vents moisture, it would be even more effective. If not, you will still have to prop the door open. Do not dry tomatoes in a microwave. Trust me on this, just don't do it. Really.

Food Dehydrator

 

In many ways using a food dehydrator is the easiest way to go - if you have access to one. Even if you don't own one, someone you know might: ask around. I borrowed my Mom's. We really don't have room to store such a large contraption in our kitchen, and she doesn't use it very much, so borrowing hers works well for both of us because I will share the product of my labors as "rent". Spray the racks of your dehydrator with cooking spray or rub with olive oil and arrange the tomato pieces on the racks so they are not touching. If yours has fan speed and temperature controls, set them on low and 135°. It will take up to 15 hours to complete, check them occasionally and remove those that have finished drying. Slip the racks in the fridge if you must stop for the night so they don’t start to mold.

How Dry is Dry Enough?

You may go two routes: leather-like or crispy-dry. Crispy dry will last longer in storage and can be easily crushed if you desire. Leather-dry means there are no moist pockets left and the tomato does not stick to your finger when you poke it, but it is not dried hard. The danger is that if moisture is left in leather-dry tomatoes they will mold. Refrigeration slows this down but does not prevent it. Vacuum packing will also extend their life in the fridge. Since we intend to store these for the winter, I’ve been drying mine to the crispy-dry state and vacuum packing them using our Food Saver machine. Using this method I can store about 10 pounds of whole tomatoes in one quart-sized vacuum bag. Theoretically, these can be stored in the pantry, but we’ll put them in the fridge just the same.

Uses for Dried Tomatoes

For use in most cooking, dried tomatoes will need to be re-hydrated by soaking in water for around two hours. More if they are crispy-dry, less if you use boiling water. Dried cherry tomatoes can be added to homemade bread dough or sprinkled on a salad for a flavorful punch. We’ve found we like “tomato chips” made from halved tomatoes just as a snack. A particularly gourmet way to store dried tomatoes is to layer them into a decorative jar with seasonings and cover them with extra virgin olive oil. When the tomatoes are gone, use the seasoned oil in your cooking.

   

I made several jars of dried tomatoes in olive oil – and botched them badly. I believe the mistakes I made were: The dried tomatoes will absorb the oil and expand, therefore you must not fill the jars with tomatoes, but leave room for this expansion and add oil as needed to keep them covered. I filled the jars with tomatoes layered with fresh basil, oregano and thyme from our garden. They looked beautiful, but began to push oil out the top of the jar in short order, making quite a mess! I transferred them to larger (less attractive) jars. It was my impression from the several articles I used to research this tomatoes-in-oil thing that they could be used as a decorative touch on the counter. I did not refrigerate my tomatoes in oil and those on top of the jar molded, necessitating disposal. I’m not sure if I didn’t dry them enough, or didn’t keep them covered with the oil or if refrigeration is required despite the many photos of decorative jars sitting on counters. One of the folks who drop by The Prattle from time to time is Aussie Sire; and he’s an old hand at making these, perhaps he will favor us with an explanation of what I did wrong on his next visit.

What About You?

Have you tried drying tomatoes? Do you have a favorite use for dried tomatoes? Do you have any tips to share? Please join in through the comments below. Thanks for reading!

 

Above, Liam sits and exudes joy for everyone. He's a good kitchen mate. It's a good thing, too. The family spent a good deal of time in the kitchen on Saturday. We had half a bushel of very ripe tomatoes needing to be processed and in our minds, there was only ONE THING we could do with them.

Lacto-fermented salsa. It's probably our most favorite home-preserved product out of everything we've ever tried canning.

We discovered this technique while reading a book called Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. In a sentence, this book changed the course of our very lives. Click the link. Buy it. Be forever changed...for the better!

Tonight, I'm going to give you our recipe, which is built for a sliding scale of quantities based on the harvest you are bringing in. The first time we made lacto-fermented salsa, we had our dining room table full of ripe, heirloom tomatoes and about two, 5 gallon buckets full of bell peppers.

 

Above, this was taken in September of 2009. 2 year old Elly is standing on our 7 foot long couch behind the table, four leaves in place and both ends extended, with tomatoes piled two deep. It was overwhelming and awesome and blessed all at once. Obviously, we couldn't have given quantities for this amount of tomatoes. All I know is that by the end of the LONG night, we had sealed 55 quarts of salsa. Enough for one quart a week for a whole year. Isn't that what harvesting your own food is all about, though? Making it through the winter?

So, let's begin. This recipe is adapted from one in the Nourishing Traditions cookbook to fit our taste. You can adapt ours as well to fit what's sitting on your counter top. Got some summer squashes with no home? They work great in salsa. Sweet corn? Great! Not sure how to use kohlrabi? It's got a place in your salsa. (just peel it first).

There are four great things about this homemade salsa that I want to emphasize.
1. It's not cooked, so it saves on energy and spares you a hot kitchen in an already hot season.
2. It's not cooked, so all the natural enzymes and probiotic activity are still present in 6 hours and in 6 months.
3. It tastes and looks fresher than fresh when you open it. No mushy salsa here!
4. It's carbonated! Yes, naturally fizzy, which takes some getting used to, but makes for a great side dish or topping this way (as well as the obvious).

Ingredients

(all organic, of course! It's not homemade for the pesticide load)
1/2 bushel ripe tomatoes
10 bell peppers (green, red, yellow, whatever)
1 large onion (the kind that resemble softballs)
1 head garlic
2 bunches cilantro

In the canning jars
1 TBSP sea salt per quart jar (halve it for pint jars, etc)
4 TBSP raw whey per quart jar  

Now let me just stop you right there. This is not the whey you would find in the body-builder section of Target (if there is such a place). That stuff is processed and powdered and won't have active enzymatic activity. In fact, I don't know of anyone selling what we need to make this salsa complete. Lacto-fermentation is the process by which the micro-organisms that are on everything are allowed to flourish and make war and have an otherwise territorial battle for supremacy on your food. While doing that, they kill off any bad bacteria and leave only the beneficial bacteria. Think of it; probiotics all over your food, and it's whole, uncooked and ready to sit on your shelf for months. And all you had to do was add a little whey to a jar and screw the top on.

But whey-t! (I couldn't resist!). How does one acquire this amazing whey? Well, remember Miss Muffet? Her favorite food was curds and whey. Curds of what? MILK! Properly soured milk will divide itself and create two components: soured cream curds and yellowish whey. Both have a lot of good uses, but today we'll just talk about the one that gets us lacto-fermemented salsa.

How to Make Whey

I need to mention that this recipe for making whey is also found in Nourishing Traditions. Thank you Ms. Fallon! Below, I have a half gallon of fresh, raw milk sitting on my counter. It hasn't been there long, only about a day, so you can't see any separation going on yet.

 

You can see the cream line on top and we've discovered over the years that skimming the cream off is best as it does weird stuff when it sours. Use the cream fresh for whipping cream, in your coffee, alfredo sauce, etc.

After your milk has sat on the counter for about 4 days (less if it's warm outside, more if it's cold), you should notice a split in the milk either in the middle of the jar or on the bottom. In the split will be a clearish, yellowish liquid. This is your whey. The milk has successfully soured and you are ready to divide your curds from your whey.

**DO NOT try this with pasteurized milk. It will not sour. It will rot and be useful to no one.

Find your fine mesh strainer and straddle it across a deep mixing bowl. We find that the bowl of our stand mixer is perfect. Take a super clean tea towel or any fine grain towel and line the strainer evenly with the towel. Next, pour the entire contents of your milk jar into/onto it and the strainer. The curds should look something like this:

 

Our tea towels are packed away right now, so this hand towel did well in its absence. Once the entire curds and whey are out of the jar, you will notice that already the whey is dripping through the towel and strainer. You want as much of the whey out of that milk as possible, so the next step is to carefully pull up the sides of the towel and bring them together in a bundle. Secure the ends with string, rope, zip-ties, or whatever you can find. Be sure not to squeeze the towel as you'll get soured cream pushed through the fiber pores and that's counter-productive.

 

When you lift the towel up, you'll still have a steady stream of whey coming from the bundle. This is good. Move the whole aparatus (bowl and all) to a counter situated below a wall cupboard. You will tie the whole thing to the cupboard and allow the whey to continue to drip for about 4 hours. Don't worry, you'll be so busy you won't even notice the time flying by!

 

The Salsa

While your whey collects in the bowl (leave the strainer in place to reduce splashing), you now turn your attention to the bounty of produce sitting in your kitchen. The recipe above, I want to reiterate, is a starting point for ratios, but use whatever you have on hand. If you want hot peppers, add them. If you want no green peppers, eliminate them. Seriously, as long as you get the salt/whey ratio spot on, you'll be fine.

First dice your onions. Or do them last. Whatever. I'm just showing you the order of our salsa. It all goes in the same bowl.

Andy has a cheater trick for chopping onions. Below you see him slicing lines into a halved onion about a half inch thick. The onion is halved for greater stability. You will do the same thing for the other half soon. The lines he cuts are not through to the other side. Rather, they reach to about a half inch from the other edge of the onion. This keeps the onion together.

 

Next, turn the onion 90˚ and cut similar sized cuts the opposite direction. This time, however, try to follow in a radial pattern, the natural curvature of the onion. As you see below, with minimal cutting and effort, you have perfectly diced onion squares. Notice also the way he holds his hands. The one holding the onion has finger knuckles pushed out and fingertips turned inward, gripping the veggie. His knife slides along his knuckles, the blade securely below where his fingers meet the metal and thereby ensuring a safe cut over and over.

 

One big onion yields quite a bit of diced goodness!

 

Next, the cilantro can be chopped. If you take your bunches and bind them with a rubber band, you can easily chop off the desirable leaves with two quick diagonal cuts. Proceed to chop the leaves several times until you have broken up most of the big areas and are satisfied with the size of the plant. There really is no substitute for cilantro. To me, salsa isn't salsa without it. But you add it only if you like it! Some folks don't.

 

 

Next, take your green peppers. Cut the seed packet out with the stem and dice into squares similar to your onion. Here's another perspective for safe handling of veggies and knives. See how Andy's finger tips are safely pointed away from the blade, even at an angle? The knuckles provide a barrier to the blade and help stabilize it at the same time.

 

Be sure to share the fresh bounty with anyone helping make salsa!

 

Above, the finished product. You'll want to have a large, large mixing bowl set aside for combining all your ingredients. When we processed the tomatoes in 2009, we had to use four sanitized 5 gallon buckets!

Here come the tomatoes. These are probably the most finicky of the group because you want to get the skins off without actually cooking the little beasts. If you are the type of person who does well in an assembly line, this should actually be quite fun.

Get a large pot on the stove and boil some water. You want enough water to cover your largest tomatoes. While that comes to temp, plug your sink and fill half way with icy water. Now, grab your washed tomatoes and carefully core out the stem.

 

Cut out any bad parts and then slice a small "X" on the bottom of the tomato. You don't need to cut deep, just enough to break the skin. This will aid in getting a peeling started later.

 

 

Above, I used a nested colander to put about 8 tomatoes in at a time. Once the water is at a rolling boil, dip the tomatoes in (one by one if you have to with a slotted spoon) and let sit for no more than 5 seconds. This will loosen the skins but isn't long enough to kill off the enzymes. Immediately submerge the hot tomatoes in your ice bath.

 

They'll float and that's fine. You just want to stop any sort of cooking and this will do the trick. Once you have them all par-boiled and dunked, you can begin the skinning process. It doesn't take long if the tomatoes are super ripe. Nearly ripe or tomatoes with some green left on them will need longer than 5 seconds in the boiling water to loosen the skin. Here the "X" comes in handy finding an edge to pull from.

 

Everyone can help with this part of the job as it involved no knives, hot water or exact measurements. (I was referencing Ethan, not me!)

 

 

When the skins are off, you will then de-seed the 'maters. The best way that we've found is to physically shove your thumbs into each quadrant of the tomato and sort of scoop out the seeds. It's not pretty and you'll get full of juice, but the other methods we've tried are no less messy and far less controlled (meaning, seeds shooting all over the place).

 

Andy, in his eternal quest to find the most efficient method in every process, wondered if dicing all these skinless, seedless, slippery globs of tomatoes was the best route. He experimented with a food processor on short bursts of speeds and found the result to be satisfactory. The tomatoes were chopped and runny, but exactly the desired consistency for salsa. This little trick saved us quite a bit of time.

 

Here he pours a batch into the great big mixing bowl, being careful not to lose the blade.

 

Finally, take your head of garlic and remove the papery outside. Separate each clove and smash with the flat side of your knife blade. That's right, press the flat blade against the clove and slam down with the heel of your palm. This will split the clove in about four pieces and allow you to peel it with ease. Mince the cloves and add them to the big bowl.

Now you are ready to mix it up. The best way, really, is to use your hands. They are your best tools after all, and besides, you are so full of veggie goodness at this point...you really won't care.

 

Well, we'd been working together for about 2 hours at this point and Andy got a little punchy.

 

This was nothing compared to the epic canning of 2009, though. Four, five gallon buckets of salsa goop and Andy nearly up to his armpits, stirring the ingredients together. That was a sight to see at 1am! I laugh to think of it now...but I digress.

Find your canning jars. Hopefully you already have them sanitized and tops at the ready. If not, sanitize and get your tops ready.

 

We have so many canning jars in our possession, but very few of them are NOT in the storage unit right now, so we scrambled to find any that would be empty for our use.

Turn your attention back to that dripping towel in the corner. By now it should be an intermittent drip and most of the whey is in your bowl. One half gallon of milk (with cream skimmed off) yields roughly 1 quart of whey. This is more than enough for the quantity we've spelled out here today. The remainder will successfully refrigerate for half a year!

Scoop out 4 tablespoons of whey from the bowl and dump it in your quart jar. If you use pints (we had a smattering of both), then only use 2 tablespoons.

 

Next, take your sea salt (I do mean sea salt; table salt is refined and has a bunch of added yuck to it) and add 1 tablespoon per quart jar. Just dump it on the bottom with the whey. Won't look pretty, but it doesn't have to. Again, half this for pints.

 

Once you have divied out the whey and salt, now is the time to add your salsa. We were missing our trusty canning funnel, so we had to carefully scoop the mixture into each jar, but no matter.

 

Now this is important: Be sure to leave at least one inch of headroom at the top of the jar. Lacto-fermentation builds up enzymatic activity in the exact opposite way that pressure canning reduces it. You literally need that room at the top for all the bacterial parties that will be starting as soon as you screw the lid on. If you fill it too full, you'll know it. The jar will leak. Not the end of the world and you won't lose the salsa. But it's messy in your cupboard or cellar. Below, Andy is scooping some salsa out. We filled it too full.

 

The beauty of filled jars and preserved food never ceases to catch my breath. The best part is, the food will look just this fresh the day you open it again, even if that day happens to be during a blizzard in February and the thought of a ripe tomato is completely foreign to your mind.

 

 

Wipe the tops of your lids clean and dry, then attach the lids and screw them down tight. TIGHT. Let the jars sit in a room temperature area for two full days, out of sunlight. Then place them into cold storage (for us, this meant our basement at the farmhouse, a steady 65˚ and that worked out well).

Within hours, you will see tiny bubbles forming on the sides of the jars. This is the bacteria gathering for their epic battles and you know only good things will come of it. By tomorrow, your jars will have a very distinct bulge on the top. Again, you want it to bulge up; opposite of pressure canning where the delectable "pop!" of no air means success.

 

One more thing to note is there might be a liquid gap on the bottom after a day or so as the vegetables rise to the top and the water/whey sit at the bottom. This is not a problem and a gentle flipping of the jar will mix everything back.

Congratulations! With minimal heat energy and just a couple hours of chopping and mixing, you now have about 6 quarts (give or take) of organic, home-made and fresher than fresh salsa to enjoy the rest of the year through! We like to use it not only for chips but as a topping in salads, over meatloaves, as a side by itself or in stews. The possibilities are vast.

But wait! There's more!

How to Make Sour Cream (or Soured Cream)

Lest we forget the title of this post: how one product becomes three, I shall conclude with a simple wrap up of the curds from the beginning.

If you want to wait until you see your bundle of soured cream dripping no more, you can go for another few hours, or up to about 12 full hours of room temperature hang time. When you have extracted as much whey as you please, carefully remove the towel from your cupboard and untie it on a clean surface.

 

When you open it up, you'll notice that the contents are much much drier than when you first poured them into the strainer. In fact, you wouldn't be able to pour them at all now. Depending on how much whey you extracted, you have soured cream all the way to a soured cream cheese. Above, the soured cream is about the consistency of Philadelphia Cream Cheese spread, just the way we like it. I had the towel hanging for about 6 hours, so right in the middle. After six hours, you won't really get much more whey out, but some folks like it drier for different purposes.

Next you want to store the soured cream in a container in your fridge. DO NOT use plastic! The plastic leaches off flavors into the soured cream and actually causes it to go rancid a lot faster. Glass is best. Ceramic will do as well.

Andy discovered awhile ago that a soup spoon works well to scoop up the soured cream from the towel without pushing too much of it through (and thereby rendering it useless). Cap your zesty creation and refrigerate. It will last a solid month, but you won't have to worry about that; it will be gone long before!

 

Be sure to wash the towel you used as soon as possible. Rinse it in the sink to get any visible cream chunks off and then wash. You may have to designate one towel for such deeds as souring because the odor lasts even through a couple washings.

Homemade soured cream can be used as is, or as an incredible base in dips, spreads and even in baking. Andy makes a sour cream coffee cake that is just divine!

Well, there you go! How one amazing product (raw milk) gives you three life-giving foods all at once. And this is just one lacto-fermentation recipe. Wait til I tell you about lacto-fermented sauerkraut! And your very own lacto-fermented lemonade! But that's a post for another night.

Let me know how your recipes turned out! Comment on here or email me. I'd love to know, and learn from your variations.

Good night!

Originally I was going to use one post to cover all the ways we can preserve tomatoes, but it was getting awfully long. So instead I'll beak it up into smaller chunks that are easier to chew. You're welcome!

Unlike cucumbers, there are many ways to preserve tomatoes so you can enjoy the bounty of your harvest all through the winter and spring until your next crop is ready for harvesting. We planted lots of tomatoes because we use lots of them in cooking, salads and as side dishes. Preserved tomatoes will not have the same look and texture of a fresh from the garden tomato, but if done properly, much of the flavor will be retained. 

Speaking of Flavor…Have you ever wondered why store bought tomatoes lack the exuberant flavor of a fresh-grown one? That’s easy.

Commercial Tomato Field, By Marie Bittinger

Most commercially grown tomatoes are picked while they are green and rock hard so they will travel better and not become over-ripe before they get to their destination. At the foot of our mountain – and scattered all through our county – are commercial tomato fields. As we go from here to there we watch them working in the fields, planting the sets, stringing the maturing plants dousing the crop in pesticides, picking them green, then spraying the field with something that causes the plants to wither to mush overnight. They have to post POISONOUS signs to keep poor people from trying to glean the fields. 

The trucks used to transport the tomatoes from distributors to their final destination are pumped full of ethylene gas to make the fruit turn red and (sort of) ripen. Ethylene is produced by most fruits as part of the ripening process; in miniscule amounts. Exposing them to concentrated amounts of the gas forces them to undergo the ripening process very quickly. When they get where they are going they look nice, but never had the chance to develop the flavor of a properly ripened, sun drenched fruit. 

Actually, a tomato is classified – botanically - as a berry, not a fruit, but I figured that would confuse most people, since most folks consider it to be a vegetable if anything. 

Whether you think of them as vegetables, fruits, or berries, they taste great, are good for you, and are fun to cook with. So, lay up plenty for use throughout the year. 

Freezing Tomatoes

Tomatoes are easy to freeze. They can be frozen in many forms, depending on your intended usage. One thing to remember: their skins will become tough after freezing, so in most cases you will want to remove the skins before using the ‘maters in your cooking. You can do this easily before freezing by popping the tomato into boiling water for just 45 seconds to a minute, depending on size, fish it out and ease it into a bowl of ice water for 5-10 minutes. This will cause the skin to split and it will peel off easily; just peel it with your fingers like peeling a grape. You can then chop it into cubes, dice it, or puree it before freezing. You can freeze them whole if you like, but they take up a lot of room in the freezer this way. If you will be cutting the tomatoes into wedges, you may want to wait to remove the skins; when they thaw out the skins will slip right off. No need to fuss with blanching and icing now. 

I’m going to demonstrate freezing them in wedges because we feel this will give us the most versatility when we thaw them out again, and because it’s warm this evening and I don’t want to heat up the house more with a big pot of boiling water on the stove. 

 

First, gather yourself a mess of tomatoes, a very sharp knife, cutting board and a cookie sheet. The nice thing about freezing is that they can be done in small batches with a minimum of fuss and equipment. 

Wash the tomatoes and remove the stem. I always leave the stem-stump on the tomato until we use it to prevent the stem scar from absorbing impurities from the air and while washing. When washing them, do not dump a load onto a sink full of water, again, the stem scar works like a sponge and will pull some of the dirty water into the tomato while it’s soaking. Don’t use soap. What is recommended to use is a solution of four parts water to one part vinegar. This “vegetable wash” can be used on most of your produce to kill the majority of the bacteria on the skin and greatly extend storage time of the fresh tomato on your counter or in the fridge. We do not refrigerate fresh tomatoes because it changes their flavor. Most store bought tomatoes have no flavor, so it doesn’t matter. 

 

I quarter each tomato by cutting it once along the core line, cutting out the stem scar area, then cutting across the diameter of the tomato instead of lengthwise. This exposes all of the chambers where the seedy-goop is hiding, making it easy to remove.  

 

This stuff does not freeze well and adds little to the nutritional value. The “meat” of the tomato is what you’re after. If you want to be especially frugal, clean the tomatoes over a colander sitting in a bowl. This will strain out the seeds and let the juice through to the bowl. You can put the juice in a jar and refrigerate it for use in cooking or making energy drinks. Dispose of the seeds carefully… if you compost them you’ll have bazillions of baby tomato plants popping up in your compost in no time.  

HINT:If you’re a seed-saver, spread the seeds on paper towels to dry, roll up the paper towels and store them in an air tight canister in a cool place for next year. To plant, just tear the paper towels into chunks with two or three seeds stuck to each and plant them in starter pots – paper and all. When they come up, thin them by removing the weaker seedlings. 

Do not *wash* the seeds out of the chambers, you want the tomato to be as dry as you can get it before freezing so excess ice does not form on its surface. 

Lay the wedges skin down on a cookie sheet and slide it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Once they are frozen firmly, transfer them quickly to a zip-lock freezer bag, remove as much air as possible (one of those vacuum food preservation systems would be nice) and set the bag in your deep freeze for long term storage. 

Done this way, the tomatoes don't freeze into one solid clump; you can open the bag and take out what you need as you need it. You may have to smack it around a little after extended time in the freezer, but the tomato wedges will break apart. If you tossed them into a bag as you cut them, then into the freezer they will freeze together requiring you to thaw the whole bag to use any of it. 

When freezing tomatoes in a “wet” form (chopped or pureed) bag them in sizes appropriate to your typical use. If you will be using a gallon of tomatoes each time you make soup, stew or casseroles, then by all means use the gallon bags. If smaller portions are more appropriate, use quart or pint bags to reduce storage hassles and waste after thawing. 

Alternatives

In addition to freezing tomatoes by themselves, you can prepare them in your favorite sauces, or casserole starter, and freeze that. Then all you have to do is pull out a bag, defrost, add macaroni and hamburger and you have a delicious, homemade casserole. Spaghetti and a bag of your own made from scratch sauce, a quick side salad and viola, a dinner fit for a king (or queen) in no time. 

Coming Up Next

Next time I’ll continue the exploration of preserving your tomato harvest by looking at drying them. I have a batch in the dehydrator right now, and it smells like an Italian bakery in here.   Wonderful!  We’ll also look at what you can do with dried tomatoes and explore several ways to dry them. Please come back again. 

Marie called me the other day and asked me if I’d seen those As Seen on TV upside down, hanging tomato planters in the magazines (we don’t watch television) and if I thought they’d really work.

 

The reason she asked was that she’d seen them in a local dollar store for a buck each. They had lots of them. She has seen the exact same product in our big-box department store for $8.99. The clerk in the dollar store said that the distributor and donated a semi-load of the things to the dollar store distribution center so all the stores in the region have cases and cases of the things to sell. Marie wanted to know if I’d care to try one out. If it worked as well as was advertised, she could get me more and next year I could take my tomato patch air borne. I answered that for a buck it can’t hurt to try. I even had a couple of volunteer tomato plants that had come up in places I didn’t want them, courtesy of bird droppings.

The thing is essentially a heavy vinyl cylinder with a plastic plate at the bottom and a steel hoop at the top. This bottom plate has a hole, approximately 3” in diameter in the center of it with a ring standing up from the inside surface a little larger in diameter than the hole, forming a lip inside the ring. This ring holds a disk of dense foam rubber that is slit half way across. The idea is to poke the root of the tomato plant up through the hole on the bottom plate, slip the disk onto the stem of the young tomato plant just above (or below, since we’re working with it upside down) the root ball and seat the disk in the ring on the bottom plate.

Then, we fill the cylinder with a high quality potting soil – I used the Mel’s Mix formula used in the planting boxes in the garden. The key here is to put the “dirt” in GENTLY, at least to start, to avoid crushing the root ball and stem.

 

I could see even before starting that the problem here was going to be in holding the container up to avoid crushing the plant hanging out the bottom, while filling it with a couple cubic feet of soil – which would get heavy pretty quickly. I solved the problem by simply driving a stout nail into a post on my loading dock (a left-over from my furniture building days) to hold the planter at a convenient height for filling, yet keep it off the floor so the plant doesn’t get mooshed underneath. This worked very well.

 

Three steel cables swaged around the hoop at the top lead up to a heavy swivel/loop hanger in the center. There is also a lid that fits over the top end that forms a shallow funnel toward a hole in the center for watering, but will help keep debris out. The lid is slotted to fit over the support cables, but getting it installed after filling was something of a wrestling match.

I mounted a plant hanger bracket on a post where it would receive sunlight most of the day, and used a real heavy “S” hook to hang the filled up planter on the hanger. This thing has to be watered every day. It has drain holes in the bottom to release excess water so the roots don’t rot, and the swivel allows me to turn it to expose all sides to the sunshine, and to ease picking tomatoes off it later on.

The manufacturer claims the vinyl will not break down in the sun so the planter will last for many years. Having to water them daily could put some people off, because they only have to water the rest of the garden once a week (twice a week at most). My initial thoughts are that it is solidly built and the theory explained in the pamphlet that comes with it seems sound. It might just work. As to whether it works any better than my planter boxes – I’ll have to get back to you on that later.

* * * * *

On Monday of this week we had a gully-washer rain storm. Lots of rain came down very fast, the water ran down slopes faster than normal and washed out some areas and many driveways; including one of ours.

There is a long driveway that runs from the hard road up the hill and around a bend to my workshop / office / lumber yard. When my Mom & Step-Dad decided to move here, seven or eight years ago, we wanted to put their house up by the workshop – at the time, what is now my workshop was our home and what is now a lumber storage shed was my workshop – but the “steep” driveway scared the willies out of them, being flatlanders from Nebraska, so they wanted their house put in at the bottom of the hill, as close to the road as possible. So we carved out a flat spot down there and put their house in at the bottom of the hill. Their driveway branches off of the drive that goes up to the workshop, and I installed an 16 inch diameter tile in the drainage ditch where their drive crosses it to allow for proper drainage. Most of the time drainage is OK. Gully washers are the exception.

 

This photo shows a portion of our side yard. This is the area we laughingly call our “lawn”. Just out of frame to the left is my workshop and lumber yard, just out of frame to the right is our house (I’m standing at the back of our house to take the photo). That’s Mom’s house, our storage barn for lawn and gardening equipment and of course my garden. Mom’s driveway is between her house and the barn. This area encompasses… maybe a half an acre; maybe a little less. Behind me as a took this shot is another half-acre, maybe a little more of equally sloping land that I have reclaimed from the forest by cutting out all the brush and smaller tress. Beyond that are hundreds of acres of virgin forest on it’s way up to the mountain ridge above us.

In a gentle rain, most of the rain water is absorbed by the forest floor and our “lawn” and does no damage. In a gully washer the ground becomes saturated and can to take on no more, so the excess rolls along over the top and picks up velocity as it goes. This is rarely a problem in the forest because God knows how to take care of his creation and the fallen leaves and ground cover form an armor plating that holds the soil in place. But where we “silly creatures” (to borrow a term from Fraggle Rock) decide to tear things up, remove the leaves and tailor everything to suit our tastes, it’s different. Three inches of rain in two hours will do a fair bit of destruction if it is not channeled properly.

Last fall I detailed the digging of a proper ditch to replace one of my feeble hand-dug efforts, and that has proven to be an immeasurable improvement, for that driveway and not washed out since. But, I never have done much to direct the water that rolls along the photographed expanse, through my garden and across Mom’s driveway. The flood or water washed a considerable amount of mud, rock and debris into my formerly pristine, Mel’s Mix filled planter boxes, then proceeded to carve great runnels out of mom’s graveled driveway and out in the main drive, it joined with water flowing down from the top of the drive and excavated channels deep enough to make the drive unusable until we got them filled it a bit. A couple of hours with a garden rake allowed me to move enough gravel around to make things passable again. If you’ve never tried raking gravel – up hill – let me clue you in should you ever try: keep the Advil handy; your shoulders are going to HURT!

So, after the damage has been done I decided it was time to actually DO what I had been considering for several years, but kept putting off because it’s just about my least favorite job: ditch digging.

 

After the rain I got out a narrow spade and dug one of my piddly lil hand-dug ditches from about 8 feet in front of the barn all the way down to the main drive, next to the uphill end of Mom’s driveway tile (some would call it a culvert). This is NOT sufficient to handle a gully washer, but it’s a start.

The rains stopped and we were expecting 3 days or more of clear, sunny days, so I let the wet, heavy, clumps of red clay dry out a bit before carting them way up to the other side of the house where we have a hole I want to fill in. Why is it that the place we need dirt is NEVER downhill from the place we are removing dirt?

This ditch will need to be 3 times as wide and twice as deep at the lower end (by the tile) and taper in as it climbs the hill to the top. I’m still trying to decide how to line the ditch to prevent the clay from collapsing into the ditch and clogging it in a heavy rain. To use rock big and heavy enough to stay put in a torrent would mean having to dig the ditch even bigger than I’m planning, and that, simply, is more work than I want to put into it considering that it will be done by just me, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow. If I had access to a small backhoe, I’d be happy to dig another Panama Canal, if that’s what it took. But not by hand; I’m getting too old for that sort of stuff.

Things I’ve considered include using rectangular pavers, angling the sides out and smearing an inch of concrete into it, and simply lining it with black plastic. If you have other ideas, or an opinion on these, I’d love to hear it. I’ll let you know what I decide – and whether it works out – in a later episode.

For now, I’m just glad I don’t live in Montana, Missouri, or Iowa where the residents are having to deal with *really* serious flooding problems. My heart goes out to those folks. Thanks for reading, please come by again next time.

 
We've had quite a lot of ripe tomatoes harvested this week, and we haven't been able to keep up with the harvest just by having fresh tomatoes. So, I decided to make some SALSA! I wanted to make a recipe that included fresh cilantro, but couldn't get my hands on any. And I haven't come across any cilantro seed either, so I haven't been able to grow my own in the garden.

So... when I was at the grocery store I picked up a little packet of dehydrated salsa ingredients (dried peppers, onions, herbs and seasoning) and used the recipe on the back of the packet along with the fresh tomatoes. The recipe couldn't get any easier ... chopped tomatoes, the ingredients of the packet, and 1/2 cup vinegar. (If you don't have fresh tomatoes on hand, store-bought canned/diced tomatoes can be used.)  I chose to freeze one quart of the salsa to see if we like the result of it being frozen, and then canned the rest of it for longer shelf-life storage.

(Photo from Tattler's website)
I recently got some reusable canning jar lids by Tattler and thought this would be a great time to try them out. I've been using regular metal canning jar lids for our canned goods, but don't like that metal lids are really just a "one time wonder" when it comes to using them for preserving. (I do reuse the metal lids that are in good condition to cap jars that aren't being canned/sealed.)

Something else that's concerning is that I've noticed that metal canning lids are not always available in local stores. There always seems to be a few boxes of jars available, but extra lids aren't always in stock. Last time I bought a box of 12 metal regular sized canning lids (at a big-box store) I paid $1.63, and a box of wide mouth sized lids was $2.27. Investing in some reusable lids seems like a smart thing for me to do.

I like the fact that the Tattler lids are reusable again and again, that they're made with BPA-free materials, and that they're made in the US. I also like that they can be used in water-bath canners, pressure canners, and can even be used for vacuum-sealing!

I don't usually have trouble getting jars to seal, but since this was my first time using the Tattler lids, I kind of expected to have at least one or two seals fail simply due to my inexperience in using them. But I was very pleasantly surprised that every jar sealed up tight as can be! Beautifully! I also used Tattler lids to seal up a couple quart jars of yellow zucchini relish, and they turned out great, too!

Overall I'm pleased with the lids and the results. I opened up one of the salsa jars to test the seal and the salsa, and was impressed with both! Time for me to order up a few more boxes of Tattler lids and seals!

Would you like to try Tattler lids, too? I've arranged for the nice folks at Tattler to send one lucky (randomly selected) winner a box of 12 regular, and a box of 12 wide mouth lids. What a deal!!  Leave me a note on this blog post and you'll be entered into the give-away (this drawing is being hosted at my Sassy & Sweet Notes blog too, if you'd rather comment there). I would like to know what your favorite preserved food is, and what you enjoy preserving for you and your family. I will randomly select one winner on Monday morning, June 27th.

Now, where did that bag of chips go...

As always, you are invited to read more about our life on the farm.

 How nice to discover someone who was writing about gardening, cooking, country living, the coziness of home and family and the beauty of nature—and was doing it decades ago, during the suburbanizing 1950s, the plasticine 60s and wrapping up her career in the 70s, when there was finally a turnabout in the appreciation of Mother Earth. (Remember natural-eating Euell Gibbons, and Johnny Carson doing funny skits about Euell Gibbons eating twigs and leaves?)

Gladys Taber came from an era of literary nonfiction, where writers could muse and observe rather than write a stream of how-to pieces. (I am guilty myself of spending the 90s writing “how to get flat abs” and “build big biceps” for men’s fitness magazines). Her column “Diary of Domesticity” began in Ladies Home Journal in November 1937, and she wrote a similar column, “Butternut Wisdom” for Family Circle from 1959 to 1967. Writing about gardening, raising animals, pets and cooking dominated the themes of her columns, much like these very blogs on Grit.com.

Most of the time she lived in Stillmeadow, a 1690 farmhouse near Southbury, Connecticut, a home she refurbished over many years, the amusing progress--or lack thereof--appearing in her writing.

 She wrote more than 50 books. Among the most known are Harvest of Yesterdays (1976) and Country Chronicle (1974). Of her cookbooks the best is Gladys Taber’s Stillmeadow Cookbook (1965). Many of her narrative books contain recipes, too, written like this: “Then I add a cup or so of carrots cut in pieces, quartered onions or small white ones, half a parsnip, and, if I have it, a wedge or so of turnip. On my next trip through the kitchen I add some celery and quartered potatoes…when I get around to it, I add some tomato paste…”

Her cookbooks are reflective of an earlier era, and curiously contain instructions like “Accent can improve anything,” when any good cook now knows that Accent is pure MSG. But for home cooking, the recipes can’t be beat. She had an ample garden and created a bevy of great vegetable recipes.

This recipe springs from her “Fried Tomatoes” recipe, which has a gravy made from the drippings, flour and “top milk.” Another similar recipe, “Fried Tomato Bake,” she recommends for a dinner party because “who wants to stand watching frying tomatoes when the guests are in the living room having fun?” Hmm, I don't recall ever having that dilemma. Her recipe says to use green or red tomatoes but with red, ripe tomatoes and tarragon, it’s a tantalizing side dish. It seems very simple, but it tastes complex.

She’s right, it is best to stay close by when you’re making these. They are worth it.

  

FRIED RED TOMATOES 

2 large or 3 medium ripe red tomatoes, sliced about a half-inch thick

1/4 cup (half-stick) of butter, plus additional 2 tablespoons (additional needed if frying more than one panful)

1/3 cup heavy cream or half and half

1 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon dried tarragon leaves

1 teaspoon coarse salt

 

 Heat butter on medium low heat in a heavy skillet. Mix cornmeal, tarragon leaves and salt in a shallow bowl and stir to mix thoroughly. Pour cream into another shallow bowl. Dip each tomato slice into cream, then dip into cornmeal mixture and coat thoroughly on both sides. Once butter is hot, place tomatoes in a single layer in pan and fry, uncovered, until golden brown, approximately 7-10 minutes. Gently turn each with a large fork to fry on the other side. Fry an additional 5-7 minutes, testing with fork to see if tomatoes are tender. Transfer to a platter. Add another 2 tablespoons of butter to pan and heat butter to repeat the process for additional tomatoes, if needed. Serve immediately.

You walk into the grocery store mid winter, spy those perfectly smooth and red tasteless tomatoes and instantly engage in a visceral emotional battle to buy a package. You pick up the loveliest of those tasteless tomatoes and place it below your nose, inhaling deeply – is that the scent of tomato or is that the memory of last summer’s fruit you detect? No matter, you so crave the tomato’s potential for culinary complexities that in your mind you’ve already sliced that tasteless tomato and applied it to a sandwich or chunked it atop an out-of-season salad. And then you bite into it – Blech! 

In investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook’s upcoming and quite possibly greatest work, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit you will discover just how and why commodity tomatoes came to be nothing more than hard, fibrous, potentially poisonous and completely unappealing stand-ins for the real deal. You also will discover that the human and environmental costs associated with the $10 billion fresh tomato industry simply cannot justify consuming the so-called fruit, not to mention that when you do, you get a good dose of at least 35 pesticides, some of which are among the most dangerous. And besides, who wants to support any industry that uses modern-day indentured labor, preferring to employ non-English-speaking illegal aliens because they’re easier to enslave?

Estabrook’s narrative begins with an animated analysis of uniformly hard, and perfectly shaped, green orbs flying off trucks at 60 mph (all safely hitting the pavement and rolling to a stop none the worse for wear) and reveals the inner (and often very dark) workings of Florida’s winter tomato farming industry. Along the way you will meet true villains who would keep workers in the field, picking while spray rigs douse them with a cocktail so toxic their babies are born without limbs – and worse. You will meet modern-day slavers, growers in denial, mothers beaten for taking time off for pre-natal care, lawyers and public officials doing their best to elicit change, scientists and breeders just doing what they do. Tomatoland illuminates the seedy labor contractor lurking in the shadows and calls the uber-powerful Florida Tomato Committee on everything from keeping good-tasting tomatoes off grocery store shelves to threatening growers with six-figure fines for paying pickers a fair wage. 

Barry Estabrook is a masterful story teller with an uncanny ability to render intricate intellectual pathways entirely accessible. Tomatoland deftly leads us through a complex maze of interrelated occurrences, legal decisions and cultural practices (human and tomato) in a narrative that reads a little like a thriller. I finished the book in two sittings and found myself identifying with farmers, migrant workers, lawyers and even some large growers.

Perhaps the most important lesson from Barry Estabrook’s Tomatoland is that no matter how hard the PR voices and online advocates try to make industrial agriculture all about “feeding a hungry world,” the fact of the matter is that corporate wealth is No. 1. When large corporate (so-called family) farms are willing and able to exploit, poison and otherwise despoil people and environment alike, all while delivering a product that appeals only to their large corporate customers, not the end consumer, the motive is all about money.

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit is a must read for everyone who eats. I don’t care if you are in the commodity cattle business or feed your own family with a small garden. I don’t care if you are a policy maker, extension professional, molecular biologist, industrial mogul, minister, teacher, or what have you. Tomatoland illustrates how fundamentally bankrupt our current commodity-based, industrial food systems have become and offers a glimmer of hope for a food future that’s healthful for all involved. Read it and try not to weep.

Estabrook’s Tomatoland will be available June 7. Pre-order your copy today.  

Janis Joplin burnished her gravelly voice there. Jerry Lee Lewis rocked there. Willie Nelson was on the road again to perform there. And you can still hear artists like Leon Russell there.

America's best side-dish restaurant? Yes. And a concert spot. A former filling station. Once known as an old honky-tonk where guys gambled. With Southern cooking inspired by a preschool teacher who cooked for 50 hungry children each day.

 

It's Threadgill's (301 West Riverside Drive) in Austin, TX. Their colorful history is too long to explain here – it involves a groundbreaking liquor license, free soup, hippies and more – so let's just list their horn-o-plenty menu of 29 side-dish choices: steamed rice, Spanish rice, red beans and rice, green beans, sweet potato fries, black-eyed peas, steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn off the cob, Old South butter beans, black beans, broccoli-rice casserole, stewed okra & tomatoes, garlic-cheese grits, turnip greens, collard greens, buttered carrots, spinach casserole, yellow squash, steamed asparagus, scalloped potatoes, fried okra, French fries, onion rings, cole slaw, dinner salad and "Texas Caviar" (it's really a black-eyed peas recipe).

Wow! This place was a must-see, must-eat spot on my recent trip to Austin. Masterminded by Eddie Wilson (his mother was the preschool teacher), Threadgill's sports excellent main dishes like steaks, fried catfish, meatloaf, chicken-fried pork and much more. But the choice of succulent side dishes is the star – and they're all well-made. It made me want to sing Janis' "Cry Baby" because I couldn't have them all.

Until you make it to Austin to eat there, here's one of their side dishes you can make at home:

Stewed Okra and Tomatoes

• 1/4 lb. bacon, diced
• 1 cup yellow onion, diced
• 2 cups tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 lb. frozen cut okra
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1-2 cups corn kernels (optional)

Saute bacon, onion, then add all other ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and stew, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes or until okra is tender. Makes 10 "big servings" (according to Threadgill's).

This dish and more are all in their colorful cookbook (and I do mean colorful – it even includes cartoons), which I highly recommend: Threadgill's the Cookbook. And for music, play "Me and Bobby McGee" while you're cooking.

So much to talk about … where to begin??? The last time I posted here was waaaay back at the end of June!! I know, I know, it’s unforgivable. “Bad Blogger ... Bad blogger!!”

So then, now that the self punishment has been doled out, what say I start trying to get you up to date? You may remember that I mentioned that my wife and I went through our local extension service’s Master Gardener program this Spring. It was a pretty long course that consisted of 40 hours of classroom instruction spread out over 10 weeks. But it didn’t stop there; the second part of the program, and one that must be finished if we were to actually be counted as “graduates” of the program was to provide 40 hours of garden-related service to our community. That took a surprisingly long time to do working on it only part time but was truly one of the most rewarding parts of the process as well.

One of the things that I did a lot of was to teach beginning gardening classes to different groups in my area. It was so fun to get to share my passion for the garden and the many fruits of that sort of labor with my neighbors and community groups. I can only hope that I was able to affect at least one person or family. We also spent a couple of afternoons at our county fair manning a Master Gardeners booth and worked together to answer phones at the extension service office; both times providing knowledge and “expertise” on some of the typical garden problems that arise in our area. They’re called diagnostic services and its amazing how much you can learn just by looking up information for others. I heartily encourage anyone who is seriously interested in gardening, of whatever sort, to check in with your local extension service to see if there is a Master Gardener class scheduled for your area. Now is the time to check too since they usually start at the beginning of the year.

And speaking of the garden, a lot of good things came out of it this year. This spring we added a new garden bed to the side-yard area of the front of our house. It’s not a common site in our suburban area but we hope it will be soon! You can see that new garden area in the bed below.

The low lying plants are the potatoes that I talked about planting earlier this year, but as you can see they weren’t the only thing that did well in this area. Let me take this opportunity to tell you about how many sun flowers of varied and prolific numbers that we had. The sunflowers you see here - both the large ones and the small - are naturally seeded ones that came up as volunteers from last year. I did thin them out quite a bit, but the ones I left did great and brought us lots and lots of bees and lady beetles. Of course we know that the lady beetles showed up because we had an abundance of aphids.

In the back yard we had some more positive developments. The Lasagna Garden Beds that I started at this time last year and planted for the first time this summer did better than I could have expected! (That’s it above.) Watermelons, tomatoes peppers and cukes all did awesome in the fertile, nutrient-rich humus. I’ve decided that this fall I’m ammending all my raised beds with my last clippings, leaves, coffee grounds and chicken bedding to break down over the winter and enrich the soil. I am sold!

Also in the back yard I finally got the rest of my side yard cleaned up and added four more 4-by-4 raised beds to it. That’s them all the way down at the end of the row. The soil is still a little bit neutral for my liking, being that it is just a basic soiless mix of peat, vermiculite and compost. I’m ammending it this fall and look forward to growing in it next year.

One of my big successes this year was with okra. (You can see the early growth in the picture above, it’s in the second bed from the right.) They are really an interesting plant. Before the familiar pods in the picture below form, this relative of the hibiscus and rose of sharon sports a quite beautiful flower. Better keep an eye out though, they’re only there for about a day. I’ve learned that they don’t like any cool weather, nor do they care to have wet feet. Otherwise a pretty easy plant to work with.

With all the talk of the good things going on you must be wondering how the harvest was. Quantity isn’t the sole measure of a successful garden mind you, but it sure does help an urban farmer to know how he’s doing. I’m glad to report that this was our best season yet! Of course that was bouyed by the added garden areas that we developed this year but I also felt a little more organized than I have been in years past.

Here’s one of only a few harvest pictures that I took this year. It was after we had pulled our mid season potatoes and a half bushel of tomatoes; along with some other stuff, too, of course.

Ever wonder what 135+ pounds of tomatoes looks like? OK, I never did either, but now I know ... and here it is. One of the things that we decided to do a little differently this year was to plant a good mix of indeterminate and determinate tomatoes. Of course wanted to have enough tomatoes trickling in to keep us in fresh ones (indeterminate), but this year we also wanted to have those big single harvests (determinate), too, so that we could can and put up more tomatoes for this winter. Mission accomplished.

After all was said and done we ended up with just barely shy of 810 pounds of food from our 0.25 acre suburban lot, not counting the eggs we got, which I stopped counting at somewhere past 750. To say I was pleased would be an understatement.

Of course all was not successfull, as is the way in the garden, or we would likely have topped 1000 pounds. Pumpkins, watermelon and some zucchini plants were completely decimated by an abnormally large number of squash bugs. Our green beans also did miserably, I think due to the long cool spring that we had this year, and were plagued by a rust not long after emerging. I had to plant them twice and still needed a fungicide. Time to rotate beds for a few years I’d say.

Well, I think that almost catches you up with me. Still a few more recent developments, but I think I’ll try to put those in another post. Hope all your gardens did well this year. For my part I’m looking forward to relaxing just a little and getting ready for the holidays.

Best to you all!

Paul Gardener~

We have had our gardening ups and downs this year. You may have heard that it has rained almost every day this summer in Massachusetts, so our poor waterlogged plants haven’t had much of a chance. But we are beginning to reap the benefits of our home garden. We’re getting a bowl full of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes every day. At first every ripe tomato went directly into Ella’s mouth, but finally there are enough to share. We have tons of other unripe tomatoes on the vine waiting for some sun to ripen. We have some yellow leaves, so we’re praying they don’t get hit by the late blight, which is wiping out whole fields of tomatoes around here.

We’re also getting quite a few zucchini, which seem to grow about four inches overnight. Fortunately, we are big fans of the secret placement of zucchini in everything from cookies to bread to smoothies, so we are happy. Ella has even rewritten the Raffi song, “I like to Eat Apples and Bananas” to be “I like to Eat Apples and Zucchinis.” Of course, she doesn’t really like to eat zucchini that much at all, but we’re hoping the song will sink in. We also started a whole host of other squash, pumpkin, and gourds, which we forgot to label, so now we are watching every day to see what they will turn out to be. 

Our bean crop had a few disadvantages going in. First we mixed up our beans and planted the pole beans in the garden and the bush beans by the fence. Next we actually followed the directions on the package that said to plant them 6 inches apart. So we only planted like 12 plants. We could have planted them a couple of inches apart and actually produced more than two servings of beans. Good to know for next year. The Royal Purple Pod Beans did win the most interesting vegetable from the garden though. We love the color combo of the dark purple with the vivid green when you break them. Of course, when you cook them, they turn just plain old green.

We’ve also got peppers, cucumbers, carrots, onions, our second planting of lettuce, tons of basil and other herbs including lemongrass.

Our biggest surprises were our berry crops. The good surprise is we actually have strawberries on the plants Brent grew from seed. Our friend who works on an organic farm said we should probably pick them off so the plants will produce next year, but we just couldn’t do it. Our first strawberries!

The less good surprise was that the very prolific huckleberry bushes we also started from seed are not the wild huckleberries that grew on LeAnna’s grandparents’ farm in Kentucky, but are actually garden huckleberries, which don’t actually taste very good. Any ideas for what we can do with them?

We’ve definitely learned a few things in our garden experiment. First, we need to plant a lot more to feed our family for the summer and be able to can. Second: it seems to benefit most anything to start it from seed before planting it in the ground. Third: We miss our CSA more than we thought we would, especially those giant u-pick fields. Depending on how the rest of the month goes, we’re thinking about joining a local college’s Fall Semester CSA and trying to take advantage of the u-pick and seeing what we can preserve. Until then we’re supplementing our diet with lots of free, foraged berries and local fruit and produce from farmstands. How has your garden been growing?

Summer officially has started in my world now. It isn’t the seven chigger bites judiciously placed where I can’t scratch them at work, though I do have those. Nor is it the sudden spike in my electric bill as I try to refrigerate my way out of July in Kansas. The lightning bugs have been around for a few weeks, and the junebugs already have latched onto my screen door. I’ve heard three “Hot, ain’t-it’s” down at the grocery store, and just today I heard my second, “It’s like a steam bath out there” as I headed out of the drugstore.

Nope, while all those occurrences provide evidence of summer, it wasn’t until last night that I knew for a natural fact that summer truly had arrived: a Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato sandwich with tomatoes fresh from the garden.

Ma-a-an, life doesn’t get a lot sweeter than that. The bacon was from piggies raised right in the neighborhood, the bread was from a bakery 30 miles down the road, the lettuce was … well, it was just lettuce (mine bolted about a month ago), as was the dependable Hellman’s mayo. Put them all together, however, and my taste buds broke out into a robust version of “Roll out those lazy, hazy crazy days of sum-merrrrr…” and did a little jitterbug on my palate.

My neighbors and I had a brief disagreement over whether the tomatoes were the Black Krims or the Cherokee Purples, since we had lost track of what we’d picked (my vote still is on the Krims). We discussed briefly the perfect wine accompaniment for BLTs and agreed that it was chardonnay and a nice malbec, since that’s what was already opened. And then … we dug in.

I instantly was transported a few decades back to my family’s kitchen in rural Oklahoma, where as a child I learned that BLT is an acronym for “Food Fit for Royalty,” despite the mismatched letters. As I ate, I thought for a nanosecond that the mayonnaise I put on this sandwich probably put me several hundred calories over my daily limit. A consideration about maybe not having that second half a sandwich briefly flitted across my brain, but I swatted it down instantly.

This wasn’t a meal, it was a ritual. Realistically speaking, how many more first-BLT-of-summer’s do I have left in me? Even if it’s 30 or more, shouldn’t I give everything I have to the observation of this ancient rite?

Darn tootin’ I should. And, ooh-baby, did I.

And after our sandwiches, Nancy’s dessert sealed the deal on summer: Fresh-off-the-tree  peaches, sliced and covered with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, topped with blackberries the size of kiwi fruit, picked a couple of hours earlier.

Take me now, Lord. I’ve already been to Heaven.

When I was in college and graduate school in Chicago, I managed to pull off some kind of a vegetable garden in vacant lots here and there. Gardening was good for my soul, and it seriously stretched our meager food budget.

One summer we were blessed with a bumper crop of Roma tomatoes and several dozen scrounged, bail-type glass-lid canning jars. After processing one batch of tomato sauce by hand with a cone-shaped colander, I figured there had to be a better way.

I was a subscriber to Mother Earth News at the time and was aware of many expensive, and therefore unobtainable, machines that would have made making tomato sauce and paste a piece of cake. One of the more affordable pieces of equipment advertised in Mother was the Squeezo Strainer. As luck would have it for us, we were regulars at the once famous Maxwell Street Market on Chicago’s near South Side, and before I spent the money on a new Squeezo, we found a used one at the market. It was all metal including the hopper, as I recall, and it looked like it hadn’t been worked hard at all. Using the Squeezo, we actually had fun processing that bushel of remaining Romas.

Our Squeezo Strainer processed hundreds of pounds … perhaps thousands of pounds … of tomatoes, grapes, apples and other fruit before it was retired many years later. We replaced it with a strainer attachment on our first KitchenAid Mixer … one of the last to wear the Hobart brand. I can tell you that we stripped the main drive gear in that mixer twice … we never stripped anything in the Squeezo. But for the life of me, I can’t remember what we did with it … perhaps it was a casualty of some yard sale or another.

Earlier this year, I learned that the Squeezo Strainer is still being produced … built in the U.S.A, in fact. The good folks at All Seasons Homestead Helpers, Inc. in Vermont have kept the Squeezo alive, and they were gracious enough to send me a new one. What I discovered about the Squeezo this year is that it is still every bit as hard core as that old model was. And even though our tomato harvest this year was pretty slim, running some of the fruit through the strainer was a delightful blast from the past.

If you are looking for a high-quality juicer/strainer that has relatively few moving parts, requires no electricity to operate, and will serve your children, and perhaps even your children’s children well, then I suggest you make the $250 investment in the deluxe model. It comes with three strainer screens (different perforation sizes), a 2-plus quart hopper, wooden plunger, brush and recipe/instructions booklet.

 If you are looking for other useful low-impact stuff to help around the homestead, be sure to spend some time exploring the All Seasons Homestead Helpers website.

It’s that time of year, time to store away all those wonderful garden goodies to be used this winter. No matter if you freeze, dry, or can your food, it’s a great feeling to be able to go to the pantry or freezer and pull out your own stuff.

Although I’ve been canning and freezing right along, the past couple of weeks have been especially busy for me. I am up to my armpits in tomatoes! I’ve been canning pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and salsa. My family especially likes the salsa. We like to eat it with so many things. This is how I do the salsa dance!

First, I wash and core a sink full of tomatoes.

While I am doing this, I have my large stockpot filled with water on the stove, bringing it to a boil. When the water has come to a rolling boil, I dump it on my cleaned and cored tomatoes in the sink to soak.

Don’t forget to have the stopper in the bottom of the sink, or you will be calling yourself all kinds of things because you now have to wait for more water to boil!! The boiling water splits the tomato skins and makes it very easy to pull the skins right off of the tomatoes.

While the tomatoes are soaking in the very HOT water, I do a little chopping. I chop up the onions and peppers that I am going to add to my salsa.

Chop as little or as much as you like for the amount of tomatoes you have. I should say here, that I am not much for following exact recipes for something like this. I very much make it according to taste. If you don’t like a lot of onions, then by all means, cut back on the onions!

Make it according to what you and your family like. My family does not like sweet sauce, so I never add sugar to my sauce when I make it. Don’t be afraid to change things up to suit you and your family. After all, you are the ones who will be eating it!

Now, back to the salsa! When I can see the skins have split and pulled back somewhat on the tomatoes, I take them from the HOT water and put them in very cold water. DO NOT use your hands to do this! Use tongs or a large slotted spoon. Be advised, the little buggers can be very slippery at this stage! Let them soak in the cold water for a few minutes. This cools them down so they can be handled safely. Now, carefully check to make sure they have cooled down. If they have, get your hands in there, and start removing skins. You will be surprised how easily they come off.

Now that you have all the skins removed, on to the next stage. It’s time to cut the tomatoes into chunks. Cut them as big or as little as you like. I make mine about 2 inches, and put them into my large stock pot on the stove at medium to medium-high heat. You don’t need to add any water; the tomatoes will cook down themselves.

Now you have some choices! Don’t you love choices? My family does not mind tomato seeds, so I do not take the seeds out of my salsa or sauces. If you would like to take them out, it isn’t difficult, but you will need a food mill to do this. Simply cook your tomato chunks till they become very mushy and watery. At that point you would put them through your food mill to remove the seeds. After the seeds are removed, put the tomatoes that will be like juice at this point, back into your stockpot and proceed. I skip this step, so I’m going with the chunks of cut up tomato on medium-high heat.

Now is the time to add all the good stuff. Add your onions, peppers, and any spices that you like. I add some vinegar, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, and any other spices I see in my spice cabinet that looks good to me. If you like your salsa with some kick, add hot peppers, or some hot sauce. Taste test as you go. I warn you, your house will smell like a pizzeria, and your family will be hungry when they come in and smell it! After everything is added, bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat a bit and simmer. If you want your salsa to be a little thicker, you can add some tomato paste at this point. I let mine simmer for about 10 minutes.

Now it is ready to put into containers to freeze, or into jars to be canned in a boiling water bath. I can mine, so I will go on with that.

Fill your clean jars with your salsa, leaving a half inch headspace at the top. Boil your flats to soften and sterilize the rubbers. Wipe the tops of your jars to clean off any drips. Put the hot flats on the jars, rubber side down, and turn on rings. Tighten them by hand so they are snug. Submerge the jars in water in your canner. Bring to a boil, and process, (just let them boil) for 35 minutes.

When they are finished, turn off your burner and be very careful taking the lid off of your canner. There will be lots of steam. Be VERY careful pulling your jars up out of the water. They are extremely hot! I usually let mine set and cool for a minute or two after I have pulled them up out of the water, but before removing from the wire rack in the canner. Now set them somewhere to cool and listen for that magical POPPING sound that indicates your jars have sealed. I love that sound!

Congratulations, you have finished a batch of salsa! Now reward yourself with a cup of coffee and some lovely chocolate chip cookies!