Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
First Batch of Sauce.....
Over the weekend, while continuously picking an armful of various types of tomatoes each day, I finally committed to bottling them into sauce. I had been weighing my options because I really wanted a sufficient quantity of ripe tomatoes. This process which gets easier every year - involves blanching, peeling, mashing and sauteing with a blend of herbs, onions and garlic, and then sterilizing bottles, filling them with sauce, and finally, the timed water bath. Before I get started, I really contemplate if the 5 hours of work are really worth it. I recognize my laziness and promptly say to myself, "YES it is hard, YES it is a lot of work and there are many stages -- YES, it is worth it!"
So I selected some music CD's that might help get me into more of a domestic mood. I was glad that Madeline Peyroux, some Ella Fitzgerald, and the entire Greatest Hits CD by Fleetwood Mac, would set the tone. Singing while I work makes a difference for me. The bottling process reminds me most of what I miss about my Grandmothers, who sang while they worked. A lifetime of stored memories and experience readily at hand, no reference book required. I find that doing this work alone is not as much fun as doing it with a few other people. Perhaps, I could find a Grandma adoption program so that we both could share in the experience of bottling sauce together.
The bottles are now cool, labelled, and ready to go to the basement shelves that hold all my treasures. I feel wealthy when I look at my modest provisions, dreaming of the many winter dinners where I will not open another bottle of store bought sauce. Besides being able to enjoy the taste of summer in December, I know that my sauce does not contain GMO corn-based thickeners or GMO canola oil. It contains the stored energy of the sun and water, and the promises handed down by heritage tomato growers through the centuries. The locally grown garlic and onions, and the chives, rosemary, parsley, and oregano from outside my backdoor, all married together into a delightful sauce, sweetened with carrots!
The bowlful of cherry tomatoes - zebras, yellow pears and Isis candies, were chopped and tossed into a tabbouleh mix, with a little olive oil. Delicious! And I do remember to share the goodness, so I've made sure to give some ripe tomatoes away. I really believe it is a great gift to give, because so many of us have forgotten what a truly ripe tomato smells and tastes like! Someone needs to create a perfume that smells like fresh tomato plants after a good rain - there really is nothing like it.
So I selected some music CD's that might help get me into more of a domestic mood. I was glad that Madeline Peyroux, some Ella Fitzgerald, and the entire Greatest Hits CD by Fleetwood Mac, would set the tone. Singing while I work makes a difference for me. The bottling process reminds me most of what I miss about my Grandmothers, who sang while they worked. A lifetime of stored memories and experience readily at hand, no reference book required. I find that doing this work alone is not as much fun as doing it with a few other people. Perhaps, I could find a Grandma adoption program so that we both could share in the experience of bottling sauce together.
The bottles are now cool, labelled, and ready to go to the basement shelves that hold all my treasures. I feel wealthy when I look at my modest provisions, dreaming of the many winter dinners where I will not open another bottle of store bought sauce. Besides being able to enjoy the taste of summer in December, I know that my sauce does not contain GMO corn-based thickeners or GMO canola oil. It contains the stored energy of the sun and water, and the promises handed down by heritage tomato growers through the centuries. The locally grown garlic and onions, and the chives, rosemary, parsley, and oregano from outside my backdoor, all married together into a delightful sauce, sweetened with carrots!
The bowlful of cherry tomatoes - zebras, yellow pears and Isis candies, were chopped and tossed into a tabbouleh mix, with a little olive oil. Delicious! And I do remember to share the goodness, so I've made sure to give some ripe tomatoes away. I really believe it is a great gift to give, because so many of us have forgotten what a truly ripe tomato smells and tastes like! Someone needs to create a perfume that smells like fresh tomato plants after a good rain - there really is nothing like it.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Dithering over the squash
It has been hot and humid here in London, Ontario. The perfect conditions for mildew to form on most of the squash leaves. I have read up on many of the suggested organic methods to treat mildew, but sometimes I feel that it might be best to yank the plants out, and settle with the few fruits and vegetables they have produced. I really do try to let one zucchini squash grow nice and big, so I can save the seeds for next year. Yellow zucchini has been more difficult to buy lately. But, the typical organic treatments that I have found to prolong the squash despite having mildew have been a powdered milk spray and a blend of vegetable oil, dish soap and water. Both sprays only last until it rains, and washes them off. The same for a hot pepper and garlic spray for the beans, which have been chewed in spots by some very well fed beetles.
However, tomato blight has yet to appear, and tomato gardeners are leaping with joy. My tomatoes become like children to me, I watch them sprout as seedlings, I water them gently, harden them off in the hot house, transplant into a bed of well composted horse manure, watered with rain water from the barrel, tied up to invite every flower to produce....only to have them fail, withering away, with no sun-ripened gifts. I cried last year.
This weekend, I often stop in my kitchen to admire my collection of heirloom tomatoes. I arrange them like they were flowers, some yellow pears, some zebra cherries, some pink ping pongs, some Siberian Glasnosts, and some moonglows. They are too pretty to eat. But I will. Drizzled with some balsamic vinegar, sesame oil, fresh cracked pepper and Andean pink salt.
While I am dazzled by such beauty, I reflect on the fact that I am indeed becoming the tomato, or does the tomato become me? Brian Swimme Ph.D, asked once when does something become ourselves? When it enters our mouth and is swallowed? When we drink water and it becomes enlivened within us, can it not be alive and 'me' outside my body? The boundaries that we have constructed and reinforce are a false dualism. All the minerals of the soils, the gift of light photons from the sun, the water that fell as rain, and the biotic life all become "tomato" - through ingesting this beautiful food, we literally become our place and ultimately, our planet and universe. Knowing and celebrating this makes me happy, more fulfilled and centered. This is something that I know is real, reliable, and at great risk from our non-fulfilling, industrial worldview.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
World Kitchen Garden Day Aug 22nd ~ Meetup.com
Check out:
http://www.meetup.com/World-Kitchen-Garden-Day/18481/
August 22, 2010 at 2pm
Meet up in my backyard to celebrate World Kitchen Garden Day. Please RSVP on the www.meetup.com site. Bring photos of your garden if you have them. If it rains, it will be cancelled, sorry. But hooray if it rains!
http://www.meetup.com/World-Kitchen-Garden-Day/18481/
August 22, 2010 at 2pm
Meet up in my backyard to celebrate World Kitchen Garden Day. Please RSVP on the www.meetup.com site. Bring photos of your garden if you have them. If it rains, it will be cancelled, sorry. But hooray if it rains!
Hornworms...Amazing and Terrible!
While spending time in my tomato patch, I noticed green tomatoes that had been eaten. Then I saw that the tips of the yellow pear cherry tomatoes were missing. Then I saw the droppings. I knew then that Tomato Hornworms were busy doing their thing. The next step was to find them, the masters of camouflage. I had to sit and adjust my eyes so I could begin to see. With a little patience, I began to see them move and chew. I managed to capture and relocate, across the road to a field, 5 hornworms. They did not seem pleased. However, even if they do not find something else to eat of their liking, they can be a part of the food chain, by becoming lunch for some very lucky birds.
I have picked lots of zucchini, peas bursting out of their pods, and green beans. I am waiting for my cranberry beans to mature, and I have begun to harvest a few pink ping pong cherry tomatoes. Patience though, for I know when the tomatoes start ripening, there will be a flood of juicy, organic tomatoes for bottling and bruschetta. I cannot eat enough fresh brushcetta!
Storing food is often a bit of a dilemma. I do not have a deep freezer. I have only been bottling food. Salsas, tomato sauces and rhubarb jam have mostly been my favourite foods. However, this year I am going to pickle some beets and a green bean salad. Results will be forthcoming.
Storing food is part of my preparedness plan. I understand that our food supply chain is on the edge of a knife. If the cost of oil continues its march toward $100 a barrel, costs are passed on the consumer, and if they go too high, it can affect those of us who live on a modest income. If oil goes to $150-200 a barrel, food importation will likely experience difficulties, thus reducing supply, driving prices up due to continued demand. So, I may need to feed myself, my family, and maybe some neighbours if this happens. So bottling food is part of my insurance against starvation. I know this sounds a bit neurotic, but our 'just in time' delivery systems do not provide urbanites with a good back-up supply. I've read that the typical household has only 7-10 days of food, and our officials state that the government only has a 3 day supply for the entire population. Grain supplies have fallen too. And up until now, knowing that we can rely on our stores as having everything we want and need at our fingertips, has been the norm. But, things can shift on a dime. And I want to try to be moderately prepared for any hardship. I recommend reading Sharon Astyk's book 'Depletion and Abundance'.
Therefore, my seed saving activities are in full swing. My kitchen table is covered with dishes with seeds of all kinds, drying, waiting to be catalogued and stored in the basement for the spring. Wish me luck.
I have picked lots of zucchini, peas bursting out of their pods, and green beans. I am waiting for my cranberry beans to mature, and I have begun to harvest a few pink ping pong cherry tomatoes. Patience though, for I know when the tomatoes start ripening, there will be a flood of juicy, organic tomatoes for bottling and bruschetta. I cannot eat enough fresh brushcetta!
Storing food is often a bit of a dilemma. I do not have a deep freezer. I have only been bottling food. Salsas, tomato sauces and rhubarb jam have mostly been my favourite foods. However, this year I am going to pickle some beets and a green bean salad. Results will be forthcoming.
Storing food is part of my preparedness plan. I understand that our food supply chain is on the edge of a knife. If the cost of oil continues its march toward $100 a barrel, costs are passed on the consumer, and if they go too high, it can affect those of us who live on a modest income. If oil goes to $150-200 a barrel, food importation will likely experience difficulties, thus reducing supply, driving prices up due to continued demand. So, I may need to feed myself, my family, and maybe some neighbours if this happens. So bottling food is part of my insurance against starvation. I know this sounds a bit neurotic, but our 'just in time' delivery systems do not provide urbanites with a good back-up supply. I've read that the typical household has only 7-10 days of food, and our officials state that the government only has a 3 day supply for the entire population. Grain supplies have fallen too. And up until now, knowing that we can rely on our stores as having everything we want and need at our fingertips, has been the norm. But, things can shift on a dime. And I want to try to be moderately prepared for any hardship. I recommend reading Sharon Astyk's book 'Depletion and Abundance'.
Therefore, my seed saving activities are in full swing. My kitchen table is covered with dishes with seeds of all kinds, drying, waiting to be catalogued and stored in the basement for the spring. Wish me luck.
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