An Eggsperiment

With winter coming on we decided to freeze some eggs while the girls were still laying well. Having never done this before we were sceptical at best. We froze them individually in muffin tins and then transferred them to freezer bags.

Three months later we decided to give them a try. We thought they would be OK for baking or scrambling, but what about fried? We put them to the 'trial by fire' in our trusty cast iron egg frying pan.

It looked and cooked like it was fresh out of the hen house.

Only one test left...the taste test. Our toughest food critic, our 4 year old grandson, agreed with us that it was the best egg ever! The only dicernable difference was that the yolk was never runny - it came out more as over medium rather than over easy.

Although the hens haven't stopped laying and production is now picking up, it is good to know that we have this storage option available.

The Beginning Of Anything

We ordered seeds early this year. I was afraid if the economy worsened there might be a run on seeds. Actually I bought enough for next year also...just in case. Is anyone else nervous about this?

I narrowed my choices down to three companies, Fedco, Baker Creek Heirloom, and Ed Hume. This was done from past experience regarding quality, quantity, and price. These three companies normally meet all those standards. Baker Creek and Ed Hume seeds arrived within days of ordering, both came in good packaging and the full order arrived. Fedco seeds arrived on time and were shipped in proper packaging. The package that items are shipped in is very important when you live in Idaho and sometimes find your deliveries buried in the snow. Anyway, I was not at all pleased with Fedco's individual seed packets this year. Some of the seeds had dribbled out of their packets into the bottom of the shipping box and some of the items were back ordered...not pleased at all.

We save more and more of our seeds every year but are still at the mercy of seed companies for some. Most are stored in various plastic and glass containers. I find that salad dressing bottles work well but we do save a large amount of seed. Small containers such as pill and vitamin bottles or even envelopes work good for lesser amounts. Tomato seeds are dried on small screens and then stored in individual envelopes. I don't ferment them as mine seem to last longer if the outer coating is left on the seeds and they dry more naturally.

Saved seed is kept in a cool back room in various containers that I keep in well marked boxes and totes so that they are readily available.

I won't go into details on how to save seed here as this subject can be quite complex or very simple depending upon what seeds are being saved and a variety of other conditions and factors. A good book for this information is "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth and Kent Whealy. Or you can go to one of the best free online seed saving documents I have come across at http://cityfarmer.org/Neighborgardens.html and click on "Saving Vegetable Seeds In An Urban Garden" for a 32 page document on the subject.

One thing I have noticed is that the longer we save certain seeds the better they seem to adapt to our particular environment. For example, my Black Krim tomatoes have become one of my earliest varieties and also one of the last harvested in the fall. When I received my first black Krim tomato plant many years ago (thanks Dorothy) it was a mid season tomato susceptible to blight in the fall...not anymore.

The biggest and a rather unexpected benefit of letting things go to seed has been all the kale, mustard, strawberry spinach, sunflowers, boc choy and others that come up on their own all over the garden. We have not had to plant red mustard or purslane in years.

Below is a red lettuce who's name has been long forgotten but comes up every year all over the garden, as long we allow for it's full life cycle to be completed.

The end goal is to save all of our own seeds within the next 5 years. It is a lofty goal as our environment is not conducive for seed saving. At this point I am able to save all of my "must have" crops, such as beets, parsnips, beans, peas, carrots (a work in progress),

potatoes, squash, turnips, tomatoes, various winter greens, and so on. Hopefully, I will one day reach self-sufficiency not only in food but also seed.

12/16/2010 update:

We now ferment our tomato seeds as it allows for better germination. Also, we have managed to save seeds off most everything we grow now including carrots. That said, I am still working on a good/better system that will allow us to save a diverse variety of seeds from the same plant familys using a 5 year seed saving rotation...more on this later.

Tomato To Tomato

I am down to my last three "fresh" Burpee Long Keeper tomatoes. The last couple of years I have been working on getting my tomatoes to last longer in storage. Saving the seeds of this particular tomato has helped it adapt to our climate and conditions, last year this tomato kept until my first new ripe ones appeared at the end of June. I sat down and ate it with the first ripe one, it was a triumphant moment as I had been working towards this for years.

Unfortunately most of this year's crop ended up as sauce or frozen whole due to much smaller production. We shoot for about 1500 medium to full size tomatoes off of about 45 - 50 plants, and that easily puts us in fresh, frozen, dried and sauce tomatoes for the year, the total for this year was around 600.

When hail and wind storms devastated our gardens in July it was too late to replant tomatoes as we did with many other crops. So We had to cut them back and let them regrow, most of the indeterminate ones survived but only put out half as many tomatoes as normal. Many of our determinate plants died.

Determinate tomatoes, or "bush" tomatoes, stop growing when fruit sets on the top bud. Most of their crop ripens near the same time. Indeterminate tomatoes are vining and will grow and keep producing until the first frost does them in. They will set fruit throughout the growing season, and are our favorite type of tomato plants.

Burpee Long Keeper is a semi-determinate plant. They are of small to medium size thick skinned and orange-red color when ripe. Definitely not the most tasty or beautiful tomato but if you want to have a great keeper this one gets an A+ from me.

If someone else has a good keeper, please do tell?

A List Of Unnecessary Things

We made our weekly trek into town on Wednesday, and stopped by the store. That sentence is a very hard one for me write, because our whole lifestyle is based around trying to "not go to the store". It's strange how something like going to the store has become such a negative to me, almost shameful.

A goal was set years ago to grow all our own food, and we pretty much do, but for some reason when in Rome I still tend to act like a Roman. It's a weakness, that is helped along by a system that makes it so easy to be catered to, for a heavy toll of course. We have a $130 a month grocery limit that we allow ourselves to use on mostly necessary items that we do not produce or at least easily so. Things like toiletries, cat food, and condiments fall into this category.

This day, as upon past occasions, I allowed myself to fall prey to the system. Wednesdays we deliver magazines to convenience and grocery stores in order to make some pocket change to cover that $130 a month grocery bill. This also forces us into the "real" world where we are reminded what we are NOT missing out on. Our route went well, we made good time, and the roads were actually decent for a change. Then...we drove by an organic grocer that in another life was a favorite shopping place for us, and invariably the sirens call was upon us. We found ourselves once again in the store buying totally unnecessary goods.

Organic milk - We don't drink the milk but use it to make kefir, but this spring an opportunity to trade eggs for fresh goats milk slipped by us...that was not necessary.

Santa Cruz organic grape juice - We bought that for our grandson to drink, but we have 3 freezers full of berries that could be juice...unnecessary.

Braeburn apple - I honestly don't know why, guess it just looked pretty...we have lots of not so pretty, wrinkled apples in storage...totally unnecessary.

Avocado - I love to have them on my salads, but certainly do not need them...unnecessary.

Some of these next ones are just plain embarrassing.

Green cabbage - We have used all root cellar cabbage up already because some dummy (me), decided that keeping the rest of them in the barn in old garbage can full of straw would be a brilliant idea. They all froze solid...just plain stupid of me...and unnecessary.

Organic cucumber - Well we really bought an organic zucchini, but apparently it looked like a cucumber to the cashier....we just used our last one the other day, it was the longest we have ever been able to store a zucchini...it was not necessary to buy one though, even if it did look like a cucumber.

Organic kiwis - These were for our grandson, he eats them like candy...but it was not really necessary.

Organic kale, parsley, and Swiss chard - Just plain laziness on my part because I did not want to go dig my row covers out of the snow tonight, although I could have picked an ample amount the day before but did not do so. Absolutely not necessary.

This has happened a few too many times, why, I don't know. Weakness I suppose. It is amazing, when one takes a close look, how few things purchased are really necessities. I'm aware that in order to live this lifestyle I must be stronger when in Rome. To trade all that I love about my life for unnecessary things, and go back to the "system" that I despise is not a valid option. Perhaps I will not fall for the sirens call next time, perhaps I will be stronger. Perhaps not. How does your list look?

Poor Man's Coffee

We grow Belgium endive for winter greens but that is not all we use it for. We make a coffee substitute from the dry roasted roots. In appearance it is quite similar to coffee, I personally think it also has a coffee like taste...just no caffeine. It is supposed to have many health benefits.

http://www.orleanscoffee.com/explore/chicory.php

Having used the tops in a salad or stir fry we pull the roots and wash them. They can be a quite a hairy root.

I usually just use my fingers to pull the root hairs off and then use a potato peeler to finish the job. Try to leave as much of the skin on as possible, I think it improves the flavor and health benefits.

Chop the ends off and dice up all the scraps for your chickens or mulch pile.

Then simply slice the roots about 1/8 " thick, place on a tray in the oven, and roast at around 225° for about 2 hours. They can also be dehydrated or dried over a wood stove but may lose the roasted flavor.

The finished product is then ground up fine for a coffee maker or more coarsely for a percolator. You only need to use about a third of the amount you would coffee.

The same thing can be done with dandelion roots, I have tried that but much prefer endive. The biggest problem is keeping my wife out of the chips which are delicious on their own - she eats them faster than I can grind them. While quite satisfactory by itself, we usually do a 70-30% mix of coffee to endive.

Video On Permaculture

I really enjoyed this video, especially the pigs.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=727825431796194016

Forced To Provide

Forcing = the art of raising plants, flowers, and fruits at an earlier season than the natural one, as in a hotbed or by the use of artificial heat.

We do not totally rely upon the outside garden for greens in the cold months, forcing is used upon a variety of plants to help provide for us. To us, forcing means allowing certain plants that we have stored in our root cellar to get enough warmth that they will start to grow new edible leaves again.

In Victorian kitchen gardens of old it was popular to force belgian endive, sea kale and rhubarb. Belgian endive was always forced in the dark and the new non bitter shoots were often served at meals.

In the fall we pot up belgian endive

various beets,

turnips, kohlrabi (we call them martians),

and celery

that are stored in our basement/root cellar. As needed, we bring some of the plants upstairs and keep them next to a window so they get light and the pale new growth that has sometimes already started is allowed to change into a more natural healthy color.

The leaves are then cut and used in salads. The root or stalk on all of these is also used at that point. Most of these plants will send out more growth but it will not be as vigorous and the root will become less palatable. This also works well for onions that have started to spoil, instead of the mulch pile we can usually get them to send up some fresh shoots first by simply providing warmth and a little dampness to the roots.

We prefer to eat the leaves after they have been in the light, some of them (especially the endive) will be somewhat bitter tasting but perhaps much more nutritious. Our favorites are the endive and beets. Our endive roots are much smaller this year due to having been replanted in July after a hail storm destroyed them.

Here is a great YouTube video series on Victorian kitchen gardens. The last part of the video talks about forcing rhubarb and sea kale.



Has anyone else tried this, and if so with what plants and results? I am thinking of growing sea kale for forcing this year, I would love to hear others thoughts on this plant.

Mealtime Post - A Big Salad With Quesadillas & Tomatillo Salsa

Tonight's dinner consisted of a main course of simple salad with four types of kale, chard, mustard, and chicory greens, all fresh from the garden.

Topped off with belgian endive, bulls blood beet greens, grated carrots, chioggia and golden beets, turnip, acorn squash, and diced onions all fresh from the root cellar.

As a side we had homemade flour and corn tortillas filled with black beans and onions.

A salsa was made from frozen tomatillos, garlic, onions and some spices that Mrs. H. threw in.

Note the root vegetables are still alive and full of life unlike the poisoned non-organic, or limp organic produce found in the store, least wise in Idaho this time of year.

Growing, preparing, and eating one's own food is most empowering.