Apples

So its fall!

At least that's what my calendar is telling me.

I suppose if I were to sit and think on it...

It feels like fall too.

The air is cooler.

(Not so stifling and heavy)

The geese are honking their goodbyes.

The nights are beautiful!

(no bugs)

Not to mention, my calendar says its fall today...officially.

When its fall we pick apples.

Certainly not the first time.

Definitely not the last time.

We have picked apples at local farms too!

What makes this year a little different is that our favorite trees are heavy with fruit.

My sister in law has several GREAT apple trees.

The past few years have been hard on them.

Serious winters, porcupine damage, deer thieves...

These trees hardly stand a chance!

And yet this year they are spectacular!

(and luckily for us, they are right around the corner)

We drove up one evening to grab the apples before the deer at them all.

Owen was pretty annoyed that there was only one picking tool to be had...

So I made him the official apple picking photographer.

At 8 years old...he's not to bad!

Apple picking action!

I remembered the cloth in the picking tool this time...

No I didn't bring rum to pick apples...although...

We also scored a cabbage too!

(Located in the nearby veggie garden))

And in case you are wondering...

Here is a handy post that describes what we do with all of those apples.

And if you are interested...

I have posts on Apple and Havarti Quiche

As well as Parsnip Apple and Brie here.

Both are well worth trying!!!

I promise! 

Helping out helps everyone...

I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned this before...but we don't really have a full garden this year.

In the meantime, we are committed to helping out my mother in law with her garden!

She just lives around the corner, so its not an inconvenient endeavour.

I have to say, it's great to get my hands back in the dirt and taking care of blooming plants.

She planted cabbages, herbs, carrots, beets, beans, peas, pumpkins and cukes.

There are also tomatoes of various varieties.

Our mother in law is a busy lady and always has loads of stuff on the go.

She returns the favour by offering up some of the surplus veggies as well as bringing us the odd bucket of compost!

Owen checked to make sure the apple trees are still strong...

Helping out has so many benefits:

-healthy outdoor exercise!  (my legs are killing me)

-aiding another's desire to grow their own food is never a bad thing.

-pooling your resources is a wise endeavour.

-if you don't want to dig up your own property but still want home grown organic foods, helping someone else could supply you with that extra food!

-make a deal with your gardening neighbours, food for work!

-building relationships with your gardening buddies.

-takes the load off of someone who is busy.

-builds good karma!

and last but not least...you can still get the opportunity to get in the garden...even if it isn't yours!!!

Garden Update: Making due...

This could possibly be the first year I have not had some sort of a garden...

It has not been easy for me.

Above pictured is our proposed garden space for next season.  It seems like an eternity to me sometimes.

Certainly everytime I go to the grocery store and have to buy things I used to get for free in my backyard.

It stings a bit at the checkout too.

However...in true Pedersen fashion...we are making the best with what we have!

We started a number of containers with herbs.

My mother in law donated a whole herd of plants!

Crazy stuff like lime basil and purple basil.

The living mint plant I bought from the grocery store in march still lives!

Ches turned the back part of the old garden patch and planted all of the gifted plants.

Tomatoes a plenty!  Romas, cherry, beefsteaks and yellow plum tomatoes.

  

Our pepper plants went into an old metal container we found next to the garage.

Repositioned at the end of the big garden , we have a bunch of pepper types growing.

Yellow wax hot peppers...

Also regular green bell peppers.

It's amazing what you can do with a little imagination!

So the garden efforts are a bit hampered this year, they are not spent!

There are other things happening on our property that were pre-existing.

The concord grapes are coming along nicely (we think)...we've never grown grapes before!

I plan on reading up on their care this winter, but for now we are just marveling at how they grow.

Another thing we seem to have plenty of, in all of the areas with disturbed soil, is lamb's quarter.

Lamb's quarter is one of those wild edibles you never forget once you identify them. 

We're seeing it in all of those containers pictured at the top, basically anywhere we used the free topsoil from my husband's parents property.

You can use lamb's quarter like you use spinach, either steamed or raw.

I seem to only like the young leaves in salads...other wise the leaves of just about any age plant (before flowering) are good cooked.  The reportedly have astronomical health benefits.

How are your gardens doing?

Be sure to post pictures of your gardens and bounties on my facebook page!

100 mile Challenge vs the 100 ft Challenge

You hear a lot of talk these days about the 100 mile Challenge.  Someone told me a few years back about it (since we haven't had cable or satellite in years), they had seen it on the Food Network.  By purchasing items that were produced within a 100 mile radius, we would gloablly reduce carbon emissions by a drastic amount!  I was intrigued. 

I checked out the Food Network's website on the matter.  I've included the link for anyone one else who is curious about this global phenomenon.  It is quite a cool site!  It includes a list of what food are seasonally available.  There is also a meal planner and recipes too!  Their community is wide and varied...as showcased in their blog.  Also, it seems the idea has spun into a show too...there are episodes you can view of the families who have volunteered for the challenge.   

For the past few year,  I have consciously sought out local (or at least closer) items.  Its challenging in itself...as some labels are misleading.  Some say "packaged for distribution in Ontario", which is vague and doesn't tell you where it was actually grown.  I especially like it when the label includes the address of the producers.  The March issue of Harrowsmith Country Life had a large article about Food Fraud.  What that means is that people have been latching on to this closer-to-home phenomenon and taking advantage of gullible consumers.  Big food stores say they purchase from local producers...but then define local as anywhere in Canada.  (anyone who's ever driven from Nova Scotia to BC knows thats not really local in the generic sense of the word)  It takes a bit more effort and time to make those informed decisions, but its well worth it.  The more we buy stuff from off shore, the less we'll see those farms along country roads.  Its that simple. 

I like my cheese from Wilton cheese factory (a 20 min drive from the factory) or Ivanhoe in a pinch.  Luckily both are sold in several Verona stores.  The Ivanhoe factory is in Belleville, a 40 kms drive.  My milk is from Reids dairy, also a Belleville commodity.  My meat comes from either the famer's market here in Verona or the Local Family Farms store (also in Verona).  An important connection you should try to foster is between you and the person responsible for your food.  I'm working on getting a local egg supplier...but my husband still says we should just house our own chickens.     

I think that the 100 mile Challenge is also a contributing factory as to why I garden so whole-heartedly.  Its the closest I can do my grocery shopping!  Why pay big store prices when you can step out of your back (or front) door? 

Honestly, do you want your food to come from the other side of the world, and packaged in an environment like the one shown below?



Food production in China

Call me crazy, but I prefer the environment shown below:


Food production in my backyard

I understand that gas prices are not going down any time soon...so that means prices on everything we use and need will be much more in the future.  I would much rather learn to provide for myself, than depend on weather conditions in Mexico for my sustinance.  On a primal level, it just seems absurd. 

The more I learn, the more I grow.  The more I grow, the more I cook.  The more I cook, the more I learn.  Its cyclical!

I urge everyone to try the 100 mile challenge...or better yet, the 100 foot challenge!

I recently took a poll of my Facebook friends...and so far around 23 folks have said they plan to grow something this year.  People from all walks of life, urban or rural, house or apartment are growing!

I urge you all to try and grow something....or if you can't grow (that's called a black thumb)...make friends with a relative or neighbour who does....chances are, they will grow too much of something and you can partake in the goodness!



  

Cornmeal and Jalapeno Bass with French Fries and Beans

I've loved growing things for quite a few years now...but I've discovered that growing a thing is only half of the challenge.  What do you do with that thing after its grown???  Well, you eat it obviously...but its the eating of things that I've always had problems with.  I never liked cooking...I avoided the kitchen like it was a torture chamber.  I suppose that's one of the reasons why I married a chef.  This past summer, I spent a lot of time at home with my 3 yr old son Owen, while my husband desperately worked 3 jobs to keep us paying those bills.  I had plenty of time (and not much money) to consider what was going to be on the table when dinner time came along.

So this is the introduction to the other portion of this blog...what do you do with these things once you've grown them!?!?! 

There will be future posts in which I will discuss my new found obsession with eating locally, the 100 ft challenge and other things of this nature, but mainly we were quite broke and I needed to discover a way to make delicious meals with everything we grew in our garden.  I guess on some level it was a way to become as self-sufficient as possible on the budget we were attempting to live on.

Last night we started the freezer eat-out....well that's what I like to call it....simply put...we freeze most of the things that come out of the garden...and at some point we have to start eating it before it gets freezer burnt!  The garden has been almost completely emptied...so the thought of going to the grocery store now is actually painful for me to think about.  We have subsisted for several months now mainly on garden fair...so I dipped into the freezer for an outstanding meal! 



cornmeal jalapeno bass with french fries and green and yellow beans

Here is the dinner fare for last night...I'll break it down for you:

Cornmeal Jalapeno Bass
Bass caught on Holleford lake (less that 15 min from our house) which equals a very small carbon footprint!
cornmeal bought at the bulk barn
Jalapenos grown in our garden

standard flour/egg wash/cornmeal dip in that order
diced jalapenos (seeds removed because I'm a spicy wussy) added in the cornmeal dish

fried then baked for 10 min each

This is where I get to explain what I started this blog about.  We grow jalapenos every year.  This year we ended up with 15 jalapeno plants that seemed to yield about a basket EACH!  But here comes the problem I face.  No one in our family eats these things...but my husband.  So how do you prepare and serve something that no one eats?  Why do we grow these things?  These are questions I began to ask myself during this past summer's unemployment.  I rose to the challenge of finding something to do with these little fellas.  I scoured cook books and magazines.  I trolled the internet on sites like cook.com and allrecipes.com.  Eventually this fish recipe came from my huband wanting to make cornmeal jalapeno pancakes for the kids and I one weekend.  (i have no idea where he got that recipe...but he's a cook so it could have been from anywhere)

I love the crunch that cornmeal brings to the fish...which we normally fix up with breadcrumbs we make.  Evena  spicy wussy like myself was loving this recipe.  The peppers gave a hint of heat...but not too much.  The flavour of the pepper was able to be tasted without the taste buds getting burnt off.  I will definitely try this recipe again! 

French Fries
We didn't grown potatoes this year, but we do subscribe to a local "good food box" program.  You pay the month earlier and each month you get a blue bin sized box full of fresh, mostly local, often seasonal veggies all for $15.
I hand cut my taters for french fries as I feel like its a more nutritious solution to store bought freezer fries.  Hand cutting fries is a major time consuming endeavour...that's pretty much the only downside...but I'm unemployed with all kinds of time to cut fries...haha...
I toss them in sunflower or canola oil and kosher salt, then bake them at 425 degrees C on a stone.  about 25 min does the trick.

Green and Yellow Beans
We grew three colours of beans this year...green, yellow wax and purple.  We discovered that when you cook the purple beans...they turn green again!  So purple is purely for fresh veggie platters...
When the beans are ready to pick, I usually pick them every few days.  Each day I bring them inside, wash and pat dry.  Then I get a pot of water boiling for the blanching process.  I'm very new to this process...as the first year we froze beans, I didn't bother.  The result was awful tasting...and almost turned my step son off beans altogether (and he'll eat almost anything!)  I now blanche my beans as we pick them...if we aren't goingt to eat them right away.  They freeze wonderfully and I love seeing the bright summer colours on my plate when the weather turns cold.  Like an extra boost of vitamins!  When freezing beans, I fill the large freezer bag about 1/4 full...then press out the air and press the bag flat.  I freeze them flat, then after I have a couple of flat frozen bags, I'll empty them into one bag for storage.  It may seem like a bit of work...but its way easier than using a pick axe to separate the block of beans you'd have if you just filled a bag to the brim with fresh, unfrozen beans.  (we've had to do that too....learning from experience is fun!)

NOT SHOWN:  Home made quick n dirty tartar sauce...
-mayo
-sweet relish
-dill from our garden
-lemon juice
-salt n pepper to taste
-optional:  capers diced

SIDE NOTE:  we served the kids the cornmeal bass...but added the jalapenos for the filets that my husband and I ate.  When my 3 yr old Owen decides he's had enough beans, we always remind him to eat them all up...saying the green ones give him Hulk power and the yellow ones are Wolverine power.  Don't ask me why, but if you give cool names to veggies, your kids will have no problem wolfing them down...

From Generations Past...

Before I truly begin my rantings about our garden...I'd like to take this opportunity to expand a little.

There are so many books and articles about gardening, but at its roots is the basic, fundamental desire to provide sustanance for yourself and others who depend on you.  This is not a new phenomenon.  It has been going on since people set their homes in one place. 

Looking back only a few short generations, you'll see just how differently people lived.  Folks didn't have Miracle-Gro...so how did they know their garden crop would feed their family for an entire year?  It was trial and error.  Hope for the best.  Plant more than you need...just in case.  Their garden plant choices were based on what was the most economical, what was the most nutritious and what would store the longest. 

  My great grandmother Annie Hall and her daughter Irene (mid 1940's) 

Its strange to think that a lot of that knowledge of past generations is all but lost due to our ever growing dependance on MEGA stores for our food intake.  We now know less about food production and have to trust in documentaries like Food Inc and Super Size Me to hear all the gory stories.  Why not skip the horror and walk out to your own veritable grocery store....one that only stocks what you like! 

Its a sense of independance that the Foodland's and the Metro's of the world do NOT want you to know.

In future posts, I will come back to this idea of food independance...because it relates to my pioneer fetish...yes I said it.