Sauerkraut 2015

I picked the rest of my cabbages yesterday and was able to make 12.5 pounds of Sauerkraut!  Here is a picture of it in the Fido jars for fermentation.  Here is how I do it.  Trim your cabbages of anything that is less than nice, cut them in quarters and remove the core.  Shred them in a food processor.  Weigh.  Add 3 Tablespoons of salt for each 5 pounds.  Stir it in well.  Let it sit and wilt for at least 1/2 hour.  Then squish it and squish it with your hands until it is getting softer and the juices are flowing nicely.  Pack into Fido jars, 3/4 full.  Close.  Let it set in your kitchen.  It will begin to ferment and "puff up". When it settles back down (length of time will vary) open a jar and taste it.  If it tastes good to you, transfer the jar(s) to the refrigerator.  It will keep a LONG time.  Easy.  Quick.  Delicious and so so good for you!

Pressure cooking - Chapter 9

Have you ever heard of "Purple Podded Pole Beans?" I hadn't either. This is the first year I have ever grown them and I am so pleased with them. I read about them in Eating on the Wild Side: The missing link to Optimum Health .  They are more nutritious than green beans.  Pole beans, of course, are much easier to pick than bush beans.  One very nice thing I've observed about these is that Japanese Beetles don't seem to like them.  The beetles munch on nearly everything else in our garden, but stay clear of these.  I picked some for the first time, today.  They are very pretty!

These beans are "string beans."  That means that the larger ones have fibrous strings you need to pull off before you cook them.  You don't have to, of course, but if you don't they are not very pleasant to eat as it will feel as if you have lengths of dental floss in your mouth.  No... better to "string" them - like this:

Do you see that cute little pointy up thingie on the end of the bean?

Carefully break it, downward, and you can pull the "string" right off the bean.  Then, of course, also snap off the stem end.

Here is how I use the pressure cooker to cook my fresh beans.  The beans will take only a few minutes to cook, and will be tender, and actually retain more nutrients than being steamed or boiled.  Here they are, on the trivet in the bottom of my pressure saucepan:

Put them in, add 1 cup of water, put on the lid and pressure regulator:

Bring up to pressure, and with the petcock gently rocking, and cook for 5 minutes.  As soon as it is done, put the pan in your sink and run cold water over it until the pressure is released.  Then, open the cooker and voila!  Tender, delicious, fresh beans and look!  They are GREEN now!

I served them with salt and a little dash of genuine Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.  It was so delicious!  

Incidentally, I bought my olive oil from that company linked above, but in buying 2 gallons, not only was the cost much lower per ounce, but I got free shipping, also.  I know it costs a lot, but that is only once a year.  It is oil to Die For!  So fresh!  Delightful!  It makes excellent mayonnaise, too, as well as any other use on salads, toast, vegetables... anything.  I highly recommend it and no, I am not on their payroll.

  

Three-quarters of a bushel of green beans!

I've worked really really hard this year to keep ahead of the weeds.  It worked very well until we had day after day of rain.  I am not complaining about the rain!  But now, the garden is a wooly mess!  That's ok.  The vegetables, as you can see above, have gotten a good head start.  :)

Easy easy easy homemade ice cream!

I ran across this recipe online, and of course now can't remember where...  Take a pint of heavy whipping cream and using an electric mixer, beat it until it forms soft peaks.  Then, pour in a can of sweetened condensed milk and mix that together.  Pour into a dish and cover with plastic wrap or put on a lid and freeze for at least 6 hours.  It is creamy, wonderful and delicious and rich!  You can flavor it however you wish.. this batch included 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.  My first batch had 2 Tablespoons of cocoa powder and 2 chopped up Hershey milk chocolate bars in it.  It is SO easy and SO good!

The girl up there is our granddaughter, who is visiting us right now.  She made a batch of sausage gravy last night for us:

She really loves animals and wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

At home, she has 4 pet gerbils that she enjoys very much.  :)

Tonight's stir-fry!

It's so nice, this time of year, when some of the early things are ready to eat in the vegetable garden.  This morning, I went out there and brought in some things to make a vegetable stir-fry for our dinner.  There is Jericho lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, green onions, rhubarb, chives, and radishes. I will add some garlic, too, and saute it all in coconut oil, serve it on brown rice and use Tamari for seasoning.  Too bad it's only lunch time now....  ;)  If you let me know you are coming, I'll makes some extra rice.

Mulberry Jam!

A dear friend, who lives close by, invited me to come and pick mulberries.  Her tree is enormous and it is loaded with sweet berries this year!  I came home with about a gallon of berries.  I decided to make jam, and looked in my cookbooks, but couldn't find a recipe.  I looked online and the information I found was all so contradictory that I decided to make up my own recipe from what I had read.  So, here goes...

Mulberry Jam

Before you begin, gather your jars, lids, rings, cloth for wiping jar rims.  Wash the jars and have them sitting on a cookie sheet in a 225 F oven.  Pour boiling water over your lids and let them sit until you are ready to use them.  Then...

1. Pour berries into a colander and rinse well and let drain.
2. Spread the berries out on some sort of tray and check for stowaways (i.e. bugs)
3. Quickly crush the berries in a food processor.  You can use a potato masher, but the processor works much better.
4. Measure the crushed berries.  In my batch, I used 8 cups.

 5. For each cup of crushed mulberries, add 1 cup of sugar.  It took 4 pounds of sugar for my batch.

6. Add 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg (for this amount of berries.)
7. Stir and bring to a boil and simmer until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

8. Skim off the "foam" that rises to the surface as best you can before it is fully cooked.

9. Ladle into sterilized jars leaving 1/8 to 1/4 inch head space.  Carefully wipe the jar rims. Put on the lids and rings and tighten finger tight.
10. Turn the filled jars upside-down and leave them like that for 2 minutes.

11.  Turn them right side up and allow to cool.  That's it!

I know this is not the approved method... that is, I didn't process in a water bath canner.  My experience has been that if I work quickly, and have everything sterile, my jam does not get moldy. It really is delicious, and mulberries are incredibly nutritious, being rich in vitamins, minerals and the important phyto-nutrients. 

Some pictures from today...

I spent 7 hours yesterday and 2 hours today fighting weeds and fertilizing our vegetable garden.  I'm all caught up, now, and just waiting for the next rain.  We need rain.  Then I'll start all over again!

Here is Heidi and the chickens.  I take Heidi out once a day so she can munch on green things.  It takes about 20 minutes for her to get a tummy full.  :)

See that big black thing there?  We got a heat pump!  It's really nice.  I've never lived with central air conditioning before.  I feel quite spoiled now.

Here is where I milk Heidi - 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

The milking stand is inside of this structure.  My husband made it for a hay shed.  Now that we only have one goat, we have more room for other things.

The front of our trailer.  The skirting is not on yet because my husband is still working on plumbing and electric projects to make it nicer for us. I really love our new house.

I let some dandelions grow and thrive in the vegetable garden.  I like to use the leaves in my egg noodles.

So, that's what is happening here right now.