The Fall Garden

Remember all that great compost I was on and on about? Well, instead of letting it all just sit there, we decided to get a fall garden bed going and plant some fall things. None of which we will get to enjoy, but all the same, planting a fall garden seems to just be a necessity for us.

I adore our gardens. I love how many people in our neighborhood we have met via our gardens, I love that there are certain uptight neighbors who hate our gardens (b/c gardens should be pretty and vegetables aren't) and I love that I can tell folks where I live and then mention my gardens and they know exactly what I am talking about.

Our yard is unique. Ben and I figured out a while ago that our best sunshine was in the easement. With all our proper paperwork filed with the city, we were granted permission to garden it and we have made the most of our sunlight. You've heard about the cucumber tunnel? We have had cold frames, lots of flowers, lots of herbs and great successes in this garden without full sun.

I will miss it's statement, that people can grow food anywhere, but look forward to full sun and almost limitless space to really become the great gardeners and self sufficient food folks we are destined to be.

Pickles!

Our cucumber tunnel is booming this year (Asher's words). Something about the dry heat, bottom watering has helped them thrive. We have been picking daily for the last week and every other day the weeks before that and made so many batches of pickles.
The boys love hanging out in the tunnel, sad to think that we will need to make it taller next year, Asher has grown.
We do hope to make some kosher dills for winter, but thus far we have been enjoying batch after batch of live pickles. They don't last long around here and the boys love making them.

Sometimes we cut them.

But mostly they are whole cucumbers.

Make a bucket of water salty like the ocean, the boys love doing this. Add spices (great use of garlic bulbules). Submerge cucumbers, let sit out for a day 24-36 hours until it is bubbling, and then put them in the fridge. Eat as the bright green color fades.

Marshmallows!!

I have been wanting to make marshmallows for awhile now, since I first read a recipe. They sounded so easy, yet the final product is filled with such a mysterious texture that I wasn't sure this could be pulled off in the home kitchen. Surely such a processed food item must need industrial food technique? But the time was right, my ingredients purchased and so I dove right in. And let me just say, while, no, I don't want my children to eat these, I am not going to deny the campfire marshmallow or smore, it's like camping law, but now, because this endeavor really was that easy, I will insist that there only be homemade mallows on said camping trip! Here is a great recipe, and their own beautifully photographed tutorial, I had a different one but they sound pretty much the same except mine was egg free.There are definitely some questionable ingredients for me. Gelatin, knox brand isn't exactly something I want to eat. There are some kosher gelatins that I may try to get my hands on, hoping for a slightly better product. Step one is softening the gelatin, which just doesn't smell good and it really absorbs water fast, I though maybe I botched because by the time I walked and got the spoon to stir it, it looked like the mess above.
Next the heating of the sugars. Ah corn syrup, those of you who actually know me, know my rants about high fructose corn syrup, and I don't necessarily like to use corn syrup, but the marshmallow was the bigger focus- this is a place you should read ingredients (if not always!) as the generic brand's second ingredient is HFCS! It is hidden everywhere- you know b/c corn syrup isn't bad enough. My thoughts here: at least the rest of the sugar is organic, and those kids of mine are only getting two anyway. So you heat the sugars, requiring a candy thermometer, and use a brush with water to prevent crystals forming on the side.
Add to the geletin in your stand mixer and mix on Medium High, not just medium or one notch past medium, one just before high- I made the mistake of just a high medium and it took longer than the 8-13 minutes to get the peaks needed.

Pour into an oiled pan that is dusted with sifted powdered sugar, cocoa or toasted coconut. sit for an hour and then you can cut. Or you can throw a lid on it and cut it in a couple days, or perhaps a week, they last a month, so I think I would store them like this and cut them when we go camping and put them right on the stick.

My recipe was from jam it, pickle it, cure it a wonderful book that I have taken out of the library several times. They also have homemade graham crackers, which I will be sure to try before the summer.

I think this would be a great gift to give along with some hot cocoa mix. We have some leftover from our party that I am going to sink into my first cup of cocoa this year, which I am now looking forward to even more.

Home Made Candy

As thanks to our customers, we hosted a holiday party this past weekend, which was a great time to try out some new things. I am the one who makes the sweet stuff around here and was happy to have some kitchen time. Though Ben is still close for assistance and the boys are happy to be testers (their official work title).

It was fun to try out things and work with lbs of the vegan chocolate chips from the coop. We don't make enough time in all our kitchen work to try new things, something I hope shifts as we shift our rhythm with growing boys.

Peanut Butter Cups, Marshmallows x 2 (dipped in toasted coconut) and Coconut/Almond Bars.

A Perfect Day

What a great weekend. We hosted a canning/processing, do whatever you like with our outdoor and indoor kitchen spaces on Saturday on our fully complete new patio. And it was just awesome. Friends came by at 10 and we had almost 12 hours of fun.

Roasting and canning eggplant.
Hops harvested a few blocks away and brewed into beer.
A grill smoking away with some jalapeños, poblanos and other peppers.
A little boy sampling pasta.

Tomatoes bubbling away before jarring up and pressure canning.

Roasted reds before freezing.
A patio full of the best food of the season and some of the best folks around.
The new laying hens enjoyed all of their new space and have started to get used to food coming over the fence at them all the time.
We were all pretty productive. 85 lbs of tomatoes processed, 45lbs of peaches frozen or dehydrated, eggplant canned, pasta make, chilies smoked and dried, Blackberry Peach fruit leather made, roasted reds frozen and a batch of beer brewed.
It is a wonderful thing to be so productive with friends.

Bagels

I made bagels! This has been something I have wanted to try for a long time and finally the day came- and went- and bagels were made.
They were rolled out and boiled.
set on towels lightly dusted to dry.and baked until golden- which took a very long time.But I did it, and now I am ready to try it again- though with a different recipe as this one fell flat.Five minutes a day bagels, not my favorite, but a great starter. Also I am so happy that my husband has all these great braziers as I can boil 15 bagels at once, don't know what i would do without that. Nor do i know that I would recommend attempting without a big pot for boiling, doing 2 at a time doesn't seem like much fun. The result seemed a bit more ciabatta like than bagel like. I love this bread book and feel like the bagel tastes just like their breads- delicious, but not a bagel. Now off to find a different, more my style, recipe.