Preserving the Harvest

It's always nice to eat fresh, but sometimes you've just had your fill. Or you know you'll want a fill later. I always preserve berries, either in jams or by freezing. I used to can blueberries for a ready-made sauce, but it's way easier to freeze them whole and whip up a 5 minute sauce when you need it.

The Berry Deal

I'm a firm believer in using two hands, and I'm not a fan of blueberry rakes. I wear a 2 quart jug fastened to my front by a belt. One hand holds the branches, the other picks--it's easy and fast. No spilled berries unless you fall!

I let blueberries soak in water for a few hours to purge any worms. I clean them then spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet. I freeze them on the sheet then transfer them to gallon-sized plastic bags. (This can work for any berry). After the summer gorge of crisps, muffins, pancakes, and waffles, three gallons of blueberries does the trick for my family. Red huckleberries are frozen if I can keep from eating them all. I store salmonberries, in the form of jam, and it's our most coveted flavor. I always go crazy on jam since I want to try so many combinations of fruit and spice. Luckily, they make great gifts!

We also make fruit leather, as my son is a huge fan. Huck and I made bunch berry/blueberry leather this week that is almost gone already! Bunch berries are bland alone, but they mix in with other things wonderfully. They are easy to find, easy to pick, and are ready when most other berries are done.We used about half blues and half bunches and an old mushy banana. The trick is to not over-dry it and to roll it off the drying rack while it is still warm. Let the rolls cool then store them in an air-tight container in the fridge.

 Chicken of the Woods

I know nothing about mushroom identification. That said, you can't really misidentify chicken of the woods. It's bright orange, grows on the dead or living trunks of trees, and appears out of nowhere. When it blooms, it's all over town. It's meaty and delicious!




 I usually saute mine in oil and eat it like I do any other mushroom. I put it on pizza, in stir fries, and in burritos. I recently had some boiled, breaded, and fried by the Wabi Sabi crew at the JAHC market. SPECTACULAR! This year, I decided to try preserving it. After searching a bit on the internet I decided to try four different methods. Freezing raw, freezing after sauteing, drying raw, and drying after sauteing. The taste test will come in a month!

It's out right now, so go on a hike and find your own stash! Remember not to take all you find, and leave the bases attached to the tree trunk so they can continue to grow. 

Herbs

I can't come close to using all the herbs I have. Last year I dried oregano and rosemary. Both were great. This year, I gave flavored vinegars a try. I was inspired by a friend who gave me some apple cider nasturtium flower vinegar last year, which was phenomenal on rice. I did a trial run of 12 quarter-pint jars. I tried using white, apple cider, rice, red wine, and white wine vinegars. For the herbs I used sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and even nasturtium leaves. It'll be interesting to see what combinations are best.  They are all steeping in the dark for a few more weeks.

Garlic

I wash off my garlic and let it dry on a wire rack. I put a sheet of newspaper over it to keep it dark while it dries, and I have it in the living room so there's some heat from the woodstove. I usually store mine in fridge, but I've recently read that just cool and dark is best, so I'm going to try storing some in a mesh bag in the shed and some under my kitchen sink. I only have about 20 bulbs to keep, so I don't need to worry about saving them too long. At the JAHC market last week I bought 4 different types of garlic from Orsi Organic Produce to use as my planting stock. Their website has Juneau directions for planting, caring, harvesting, and drying. They recommend planting garlic 1-2 inches deep. When I dug the last of mine up yesterday they were 5-6 inches underground--opps! I guess garlic ain't tulips!

Next week I leave for a moose hunting trip, so hopefully I'll be busy wrapping, canning, and drying! What are you going to save this fall?

Eating is Wonderful

Sometimes there's just so much fresh food to eat my belly never has time to growl. Here's what a plate sees on a typical day at our house:

Breakfast (6 local ingredients)

Burritos:
     Local: Eggs, kale, onions, chives, chicken of the woods mushrooms
     Purchased: butter, tortilla, hot sauce

Lunch (10 local ingredients)

Salad:
     Local: 3 or so varieties of lettuce, kale, nasturtiums, onions, peas, carrots, garlic tops, chives
     Purchased: olive oil, vinegar + flour, yeast, salt, and butter for homemade croutons

Supper ( 7 local ingredients)

Stir Fry

     Local: Moose steaks, onion, kale, garlic, garlic tops, chicken of the woods mushrooms, parsley

     Purchased: Rice and hot sauce

When I opened up the rice lid--after having prepared the colorful stir fry--I was utterly disappointed. What a bland and distant pot compared to the skillet! The only reason I made it is because Huck would have eaten moose and nothing else otherwise

Dessert (2 local ingredients)

Tea and berries

   Local: mint, nagoon berries, thimble berries, or red huckleberries, oh my!
   Purchased: optional butter, oatmeal, flour, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds if we want a crisp

25 local ingredients in one day. 

We are so lucky to eat so well! 

(and you could be this lucky too!)

Can you believe my son won't try a vegetable even when I prepare them like this?! 

At least I get a kick out of it!

 .....Now if I can only grow my own chilies to make my own hot sauce!

Garden Eats

Growing up, I always loved eating salade de jardin, also known as garden salad. It's super simple, delicious, and varies the summer salad fair. This year I grew a patch of green leaf lettuce specifically for this dish! I just sprinkled a packet of seed over the bed (2x3 feet), raked it over with my hand, then patted it all down and watered. It comes in thick, which is what you want. You just grab a handful and snip off the tops of the plants with scissors, leaving about an inch so the plants can continue to grow. In Maine you can buy this stuff fresh by the yard! You don't have to grow it this way--it just works well and the leaves tend to stay small and tender. It's also handy since you have lettuce starts at hand to uproot and plant elsewhere in the garden when you harvest radishes or onions.

 Salade de Jardin (Garden Salad)

salade (green leaf lettuce)

onions (green onions)

crème sur (sour cream)

sel (salt)

First off, you will need to harvest about twice as much lettuce as you think you need. It's mats down considerably so don't wave off this advice. Wash each leaf of lettuce to remove debris and hiding slugs. Drain well (muy importante!) and hand shred into pieces like you would any salad. Chop the bulbs and greens of the onions. Place all in a bowl then plop on a wad of sour cream, salt it, then mix it all together with your clean hands. You really have to work it to get the sour cream to completely coat everything!  It should be tangy and slightly salty. Keep it in the fridge until you're ready to eat and enjoy it.

Eating locally

We're so lucky. We've always had at least one local food a day, and usually one at each meal. We're always grateful for eating locally, and many times we're humbled at how many local things we're eating. Saturday's example of our own ingredients:

Breakfast: 2 ingredients

Waffles and rhubarb sauce (eggs and rhu)

Lunch: 3 ingredients

Beany noodles and arugula pesto (arugula, onion greens)

Tea  (mint)

Supper: 15 ingredients

King salmon (Atlin caught)

Herb bread - homemade with (garlic, chives, rosemary, oregano, and thyme)

Salad (2 kinds lettuce, two kinds of kale, totsoi, radishes, onions, and arugula dressing)

Crisp (rhubarb and blueberries)

So that makes for 20 local ingredients today. And this isn't out of the ordinary--this is what every day is like spring to fall. Winter is a little more sparse, but still plentiful compared to most.

 

Arugula Pesto/Dressing

Ingredients: arugula, olive oil, walnuts, rice vinegar, water

Chop arugula coarsely and put in a blender with olive oil. Drizzle in enough to make the leaves wet and get the blender going. When it's bright green and the leaves are all finely chopped, add chopped walnuts and blend a bit more to break up the nuts. Serve on noodles, rice, or whatever you'd like. To make it into dressing stir in rice vinegar to taste, then add water (or more oil) to adjust thickness. It'll keep well in the fridge, so make a big batch and enjoy!

Jammin'

I just finished my 7th batch of jam. Blueberries were a bust last year, and we were very glad I had frozen and jammed copious amounts the preceeding year. This is another stock up year. Here are recipes of what I've made so far:


Rhubarb Medley
4 cups Rhubarb
1 cup blueberry (frozen from last year)
1 cup strawberries (thanks to Costco)
4 cups sugar
1 box sure-jell pectin







Triple Rhu
2 cups Rhubarb
2 cups blueberries
2 cups strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 box  sure-jell pectin





I also made a lot of spruce tip jelly, which I had never tasted before. We absolutely LOVE it! It'd also be great with apple and cinnamon in it. I plan on drying extra crab apples this fall to save for next spring's spruce jelly. To make the jelly you need to make juice.

Gather about 18 cups of tips when they are bright green and soft. If you wait until they've opened the picking goes much faster and I couldn't tell a difference in flavor. Put the tips in a large pot, add water until it's just below the tips, cover, and boil. I followed one recipe that required 1 hour of boiling and 3 hours of simmering. I couldn't tell a difference between that and the batch I just simmered for an hour. Do what you want! Once you've boiled to your heart's content, strain through a sieve and you have spruce juice. 18 cups of tips makes enough for two batches of jam.

Spruce Tip Jelly - yields 3 pints
3 cups spruce juice*
4 cups sugar
1 box sure-jell pectin

Spruce Tip Honey Jelly -yields 2 pints
3 cups spruce juice
1/3 cup apple juice
1 cup honey
3 tablespoons no/low-sugar pectin