Living in Season

Putting Food By

'Tis the season to pack food away like a squirrel.  There is a big pot of applesauce bubbling away on the stove making the house smell heavenly. I'm using the Macintosh apples my friend, LeAna, brought when she visited last weekend cooking them down with the skins still on. I'll put them through the strainer before processing the pints in the hot water bath. Samuel's a big fan of the sauce, and now that John is starting solid foods, I'm sure it won't last long in the pantry.

A couple of weeks ago I turned 50+lbs of tomatoes into 13 quarts of sauce, and froze about 32 cups of fresh corn. This season I used the 'Martino's Romas' from Seeds of Change. They're a good choice. They produced nice sized fruit that cooked down well. I'm assuming it tastes good (once again - not a good person to judge a tomato). I added 1/2 tsp of citric acid per quart to ensure adequate acidity, and processed the quarts in a hot water bath for 20 minutes. They all look great. We'll use these primarily for a marinara either for spaghetti, cabbage rolls or the Greek chicken. I still have some of the 'Stupice' tomatoes frozen from last year, but need to do an inventory in the next couple of days to see if I should freeze additional ones before I can another batch. If so, I'll freeze them whole without blanching or peeling.

I planted 'Ambrosia' sweet corn on the recommendation of Marcia Bundi at Bundi Gardens here in Great Falls, and I'll plant it again. Even for an Ohio born corn snob, it was tasty. I was concerned it would be a litle tough since we were gone when it first began to ripen, but it held up well. Six "hills" had roughly 4 dozen ears, and I didn't notice any difference in production between the ones I de-suckered and the ones I didn't. I'm very happy to have our corn on hand. It beats store bought frozen corn hands-down!

This is such a nice time of year when the freezer and pantry are filled to the doors. It definitely gives me a little sense of security - like the hard-working ants in the children's fable - as well as a delicious reminder of summer.

Stop and Eat the Landscape

During my many years of designing other peoples' landscapes I never thought much about the usefulness of what we were using. Instead I was more concerned about what would actually grow in the oftentimes challenging conditions and would look good in the process.

Now I'm focusing on what will work, look good and produce tasty fruit or berries. When we bought this place, shade was at a minimum. There is a sad little apple tree at the front of the house, a lonely Russian olive up front and two Siberian pea along the side of the house. That's it. Not much to mitigate the scorching southern and western exposures.

Because we want the best of both worlds, trees and shrubs that will shield us from the wind and sun plus produce something edible, we opted for a few more apple trees up front. Planted in a group they'll eventually provide a nice shady spot to play. Linden (basswood) trees were put in along the western side of the house to create good shade areas, as well as providing a valuable nectar source for the bees.

In the garden, I planted the native golden currants to provide a living windbreak along the northern side. Despite being nipped by our -8 record temperature in April last year, they grew over a foot and should provide delicious berries this season.

This year I'm adding elderberries to the mix as a hedgerow along the eastern side of the yard. After a few seasons they'll hopefully provide enough berries to make yummy pies and jams. I used to harvest them during the late summer when I was growing up in Ohio, but don't see them out here as much. I'd also like to add at least one crapabble tree - probably a Whitney - so I can make crabapple jelly and other preserves.

We also need more shrubs along the perimeter of the property to break up the howling winds that tear through here, but it will come eventually. I would like to use more currant bushes, American plums, elderberries and chokecherries. Not only will these options provide plenty of fruit for us, but it will give the birds places to hide and snack.

Good Day for Making Jerky

Our winter wonderland turned into ground blizzards today with 30 mph winds gusting to over 40 mph. It's pretty normal for Great Falls, but it's still no fun to drive in this stuff. I think it'll be another day at home for me.

Since we're not going anywhere, Grant's going to work on his venison jerky. Yesterday he mixed up his marinade consisting of soy sauce, pineapple juice, honey, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and pepper. He thinly sliced the meat he held back just for jerky, and has been soaking it in the marinade overnight.

Today he'll take several hours drying out the marinated meat in our gas oven at its lowest setting. It takes a bit of babysitting since it dries the best when you can turn it often, but it's as good of a project as any on a blustery day like today.

Winter Bee Worries

It was a good year for the bees for most of 2008 with relatively mild temperatures and reasonable weather. Granted, our record breaking -8 degrees on April 21 was an unwelcomed surprise, and the June blizzard wasn’t much of a help except for providing much needed moisture, but the hives weathered all of it without a problem. Now I’m not so sure.

 

We’ve endured sub-zero temperatures for over a week with many, many nights dipping below -20F. A few days have cracked single digits, but for the most part, we’re the epitome of a big deepfreeze.

 

Grant stacked bales of straw along the west side of the hives to help buffer them against our gale force winds, but particularly with last week’s blizzard, there was virtually no way to adequately protect them. Any tiny crack – whether in the garden shed or the front of my truck – allowed snow to fill an area. I shudder to think how much found its way into the hives.

 

Honeybees live through the winter by clustering in the middle of the hive keeping the queen warm in the middle of thousands of tiny bodies. Grant placed a thermograph in a hive years ago (although not squarely in the middle), and one on the hive’s exterior to record the temperature variation. At times there is nearly a one-hundred degree difference. It can be -20 outside, and a healthy hive will stay well above 80-degrees inside. This is pretty remarkable considering these tiny creatures keep it warm through muscular contractions. Basically they’re shivering to produce heat.

 

But with temperatures this cold for this long, it can be tough for the girls to hold it together. (The drones were kicked out after the first hard freeze, by the way. There’s no room for slackers during the winter.)  In winters past, we’ve insulated the hives with the rigid foam, but for so many seasons it’s almost caused more trouble than it was worth since the temperatures weren’t as extreme. Plus, ventilation issues and allowing the bees to venture outside of the hive during warm winter days is extremely important, and can be difficult if the hive is tightly sealed.

 

On sunny days some bees will fly outside to defecate since they are fastidious when it comes to cleanliness within the hive. Unfortunately, just because the sun is out doesn’t mean they’ll make it back without falling to the ground, particularly when the temps are still barely above freezing. (This is evident in the photo – there are many dead bees in front of the hives where they flew out and chilled.)

 

It’s obviously not prudent to peek into the hives now, but if a warm Chinook wind blows through the area (oh please, please, please!), and it might be worthwhile to check them to see if we need to combine hives to help them pull through the rest of the season. Only time will tell.

Getting a Jump on the Season

  Okay, even I'll admit it's a bit premature in northern climates to start working the soil right now (especially since everything is frozen solid), but it's never too early to start planning.

In the current issue of Grit magazine www.grit.com), I wrote the article, Get Growing Early, on some of my favorite techniques in gaining a jump on the season. I discuss everything from Wall-0-Waters, floating row covers, solar umbrellas and cloches. These tools have saved me more than once from freak spring - and summer- snowstorms, as well as allowed me to plant weeks before it's traditionally "safe." When you're dealing with an abbreviated growing season every day counts.

Many of these techniques are also helpful to reduce problems with insects and marauding deer and rabbits, plus they offer that extra boost of heat during cooling summer nights. And if the sun keeps quiet as many scientists are predicting, we might need a little extra help in the garden to make sure veggies have a warm enough season to mature.

Fresh Salad in November

It pains me to buy lettuce in the grocery store, particularly because we enjoy an abundance during the summer. Thankfully, I had enough wherewithall to seed in a little lettuce and mache in September. Sam weeded out most of the mache by climbing in the coldframe with the weeder, but most of the lettuce is thriving. It's wonderful to be able to head out to pick a salad...in November. But I can still harvest lettuce, carrots, beets, parsnips and kohlrabi. Such a treat!

My greatest challenge is keeping enough water on the lettuce. Our hoses are all put away for the season, but when I remember I dump a gallon of water on them every week or so. We've already had nighttime temperatures in the upper 20's, but it will be interesting to see how long it holds on into the season.

Next year I definitely need to make a greater effort into the late season planting to take advantage of every moment in the season. It's too short as it is, and there's no point in wasting a moment.

The Garden's Bounty goes to a Good Cause

This article ran in the Great Falls Tribune (www.greatfallstribune.com) a couple of weeks ago. I was suprised by the amount of meals given to seniors... and the increasing need. After meeting with the community garden members last week, we're definitely making growing for the food bank and programs such as this a priority.

 

Everyone appreciates a home cooked meal, particularly when it is created with loving care and locally grown vegetables. At the end of this summer’s harvest season, the Great Falls

Meals-on-Wheels recipients enjoyed the bounty of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church’s youth group community garden. One of the objectives of the garden was to grow vegetables to ultimately deliver to the elderly, and the Meal-on-Wheels program was a perfect fit.

Casey Bailey, the youth group director and garden organizer, said, “One day I ended up asking (Nancy Wilson) to come by the garden on a Sunday.” He said the kids picked and boxed up produce for her to take back to the Meal-on-Wheels kitchen, and Wilson

talked to them about the great need in the area.

“It really captured our minds and hearts on how this produce would be used,” said Bailey.

He said it wasn’t long before Wilson called and told him the patrons called her to tell her how wonderful the vegetables were.

“They always know when (the vegetables) are fresh,” said Wilson, who’s been working with the community oriented program for over two decades. She said when she sent out the fresh cooked beets with a little butter, she received calls wanting to know “where did you get these?”

The same was true for the cherry tomatoes. “They know,” said Wilson. “(The tomatoes) have a whole different taste; they taste like tomatoes.” She was pleased to report they came from the youth group garden.

“It makes them extremely happy when they know it’s locally produced,” she said.

Filling a Need

The Meals-on-Wheels program has served Great Falls’ seniors for nearly forty years delivering one meal a day, five days a week to elderly residents who are homebound or limited in some way.

Wilson said they’ll typically deliver between 250 to 270 meals per day to older people who are trying to stay in their home, but might have trouble cooking for themselves.

She said they offer the “basic comfort food,” such as meat and mashed potatoes with gravy. While they provide balanced meals, homegrown vegetables are almost a luxury. “We don’t have a sufficient budget to buy fresh produce,” she said.

“We say we’re delivering more than meals; we’re delivering smiles; we’re delivering a wellness check. We’re looking to see if they’re okay,” said Wilson who noted that if a driver notices someone doesn’t answer the door, or isn’t acting the same, he’ll report back to Wilson

so she can contact someone to make sure the person is alright. For elderly people living alone, this is critically important to their well-being.

Gifts from the Garden

Wilson said one day, “Casey called me from out of the blue” inviting her to share in the bounty of their community garden tended by the youth group at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. Bailey and the young people on the Electric City Conservatory lot on 5^th Ave. N provided by Electric City’s owner, Gary Petrini, who also gave them water, fencing and much-appreciated advice.

She said when she visited the gardens she was impressed by the kids willingness to be at the forefront of helping the seniors. Wilson said so many times young people have a bad reputation. OSLC’s youth are completely different. “They want to help. They’re the opposite of what I hear about watching out for the kids.”

Wilson recognizes the benefit to the youth, as well as the seniors. “They’re really happy kids. They’re fun to be with,” she said.

And she knows their hard effort didn’t just happen. “Casey’s a hard worker. I give him all sorts of credit. Seeds and plants don’t just fall out of the sky.”

All of the youth group’s hard work paid off. “I personally saw boxes and boxes (of vegetables) going out,” said Bailey. They sent Wilson copious amounts of corn, tomatoes, beets, carrots, potatoes and “lots of beans – our beans really did well,” he remembers.

As much as the seniors appreciate the taste and quality of the local produce, the kids probably gained just as much out of the experience. Bailey said it really hit home when Wilson spoke to them at the garden that morning. He said he could tell how much the kids gained from it.

Bailey reflects that there are times when the kids have a chance to connect offering little windows into a much larger picture. He said in the garden “nothing is in your face like in a half-hour show.” There are no neat wrap-ups, but a constant process of awareness and growth.

Bailey plans to continue the youth group garden next season, although the specific details aren’t finalized at the moment, so Great Falls’ seniors can look forward to more delicious vegetables to add a loving touch to their meals. It’s a continuing gift from one generation to another.

And Wilson reminds all gardeners that Meals-on-Wheels is always happy to accept the abundance from anyone’s garden. She said, “Don’t be afraid to plant that extra row. I don’t think people understand how hard it is for low income people to get fresh produce.”

One thing is for certain, fresh is always best and always appreciated by our town’s seniors who know what real food tastes like, and are grateful for the care put into it.

 

Rockin' Root Vegetables

The last veggies I have to pull out of the garden are the root vegetables: potatoes, carrots, parsnips and beets this year. They're fine in the ground as long as the ground doesn't freeze, but even though we're enjoying 70 degree temps this week, it's an anomaly that will definitely not last.

 

The beauty of root vegetables, besides not being part of the typical end of season harvesting rush, is they become tastier after a frost. The carrots and parsnips are decidedly sweeter, and I think the potatoes have much better flavor than the ones I dug earlier in the season.

 

I started digging carrots the other day, and need to decide whether I'm going to can or freeze them.  If we weren't in such a windy area I could just bury the carrot patch in a heavy layer of leaves, and keep them in the ground the entire winter digging them as I needed them, but no lightweight mulch would last more than five minutes up here.  

 

Some folks scratch their head on how to use these delicious and nutritious - plus economical - menu items. Here a few recipes that are easy and the epitome of comfort food:

 

 

Quick Root Roast

 

A very quick and delicious winter side dish is roasted root vegetables. Wash, peel and cube a couple of parsnips, carrots, turnips, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Place in a baking dish and drizzle with a little olive oil… and maybe a dab or two of butter. Depending on your preference for sweet or savory, sprinkle over a couple of teaspoons of minced rosemary (or one teaspoon dried) for an aromatic side dish. Or add a couple of tablespoons of honey to the mix for a sweeter version. A pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg make it even richer.

 

This is a recipe that a lady in my gardening class made them. If someone is unsure whether they like beets, give them this salad and you will win them over!

 

Beet and

Orange

Salad

 

1 lbs. beets, very thinly sliced (a spiral slicer works great if you have one)

2 tsp. grated orange zest

1 T. orange juice

2 T. vinegar

1 T. honey

¼ cup olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh cilantro (optional depending on the time of year)

 

Slice the beets. Rinse and pat dry.

 

Whisk together orange juice, vinegar, honey, olive oil and orange zest. Blend well. Add beats to dressing and cover completely. Add salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle over fresh cilantro, chopped fine. Let it sit for a half an hour before serving to allow the flavors to blend.

 

Be adventurous and try using root vegetables in other dishes. If you’re making soup add parsnips along with your carrots and potatoes. Same with a traditional Sunday pot roast. Pack it with additional punch by including turnips and rutabagas in the mix.

 

Scalloped Cold Cellar Vegetables

 

3 parsnips

3 potatoes

4 carrots

2 rutabagas

2 apples

2 leeks

2 T. flour

2 cups milk

2 cups cheese (medium cheddar works well)

1 tsp. dried thyme

 

Wash and peel vegetables. Cut into ¼ inch slices. Mix together in a bowl and sprinkle with flour and thyme to coat. Layer in a buttered 9x13 baking pan. Pour milk over all of the vegetables. Cover and bake in a 400-degree oven for approximately an hour. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for another 20-30 minutes until the cheese is slightly browned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 100-Mile Diet

A fellow writer, Jill Adams, started her second "100-Mile Diet" adventure this month choosing foods within a 100-mile radius of her Albany, New York home. I think this is great. It opens our eyes to how much is available, and how well we can do opting for a more sustainable diet. She's blogging her progress on her site: http://placingmyself.blogspot.com

Her effort makes me wonder how we would do. The garden is producing a tremendous amount, much of which I'll freeze and can, so veggies wouldn't be an issue. Fruit I would miss. We experienced a record low temperature of -8 degrees on April 21 effectively eliminating any chance of apples, pears or plums from the local area this year. (And the challenge with 100-miles in Montana is you might not even leave a county!)

Grain would be easy. Northcentral Montana sits in the "Golden Triangle," some of the best grain production in the entire country. There's even a small mill in Fort Benton that produces speciality flours. Plus, Timeless Seeds in Ulm offers all the lentils anyone could want.

The greatest challenge finding local beef is standing in line because the demand is so high. We don't have enough packing plants in the state to handle the growing demand for grass-fed, or at least locally grown, beef.  (It still seems insane to me that Montana produces some of the best beef in the country, but we ship it off to other states for slaughter then buy who-knows-what beef back!) There is a mobile chicken processing unit, making pasture raised poultry a more viable option. For pork, the only option may be one of the Hutterite colonies. But much of our meat is in the freezer from last hunting season, so we're sitting pretty good there. And fish is as close as the Missouri River.

Jill's inspired me, and I might have to give this a try with our family in the near future. There's nothing like the satisfaction of realizing everything on your plate comes from your own hands, but there has to be an equal sense of accomplishment making the effort to support local growers.

In a Pickle

They say when it rains it pours. We woke up Saturday morning to a seven-o-clock phone call from Dave at the Rockport Hutterite Colony letting me know he had my bag of pickling cukes, and wanted to make sure I still wanted them. If I would've answered I would've passed this week, and taken my chances on having some next weekend because I have five articles to finish, plus tomatoes, basil, beans and zuchini ganging up on me in the garden. Canning 20 pounds of cukes wasn't on the radar, especially since the forecast was for 97 degrees Sunday and Monday. Not the best time to crank up the stove.

But Grant answered, and said yes, so I ran in to the Farmers Market to pick them up. Saturday afternoon I decided to make a batch of crock pickles to take care of at least some of them, and will hold the rest until it hopefully cools off on Wednesday. I still don't have the time, but I'll give it a whirl.

Of course, Sam helped me by taking one cucumber at a time out of the big bag and putting them in the bowl on the kitchen flour. I truly don't know why we have a pile of toys when he seems to enjoy produce just as much!

Here is my crock pickle recipe for this batch:

4 lbs. cukes - washed and trimmed

9 cups water

1 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup pickling salt

5 cloves garlic

handful of dill heads

First, dissolve the salt in the water and vinegar making a brine, then pour over the cukes, garlic and dill in the crock. Place the stones with the crock, or a weighted down plate, over the veg. Make sure there's at least an inch of water over the plate or weight to keep everything completely submerged. Check daily and remove any scum. They should be ready in about a week. They can be canned or kept in the fridge for awhile.