I feel like, overall, we've settled into a pretty good rhythm with what we eat.  I still buy some things pre-made from the store, like crackers, cereal, some bread, and cheese.  But I've also learned to make many things myself, like pasta sauces, yogurt, many kinds of soup, pie crusts, and lots more.  I'm almost tempted to make a list of the things I make that "normal" people buy.  The past few times I've gone to the store, I hardly even ventured into the aisles, and I feel like people must look in my cart and wonder, "What do they EAT?" because there are rarely any ready-to-eat items there besides fruits and veggies. 

Because of our comfort with making rather than buying most foods, when I DO want something that's pre-made, I have an awful time selecting something.  Today I (or rather, Ethan) wanted to buy pickles.  I forgot them while I was at the market, and that turned out to be more problematic than I could have imagined.  I found myself in the condiment aisle at Meijer, staring at hundreds of jars of pickles that I just couldn't buy.  Every single jar had objectionable ingredients.  Vlasic, Mt. Olive, Claussen, and several "boutique" brands.  Dill pickles, Kosher spears, bread and butter, sweet gherkins.  Many varieties had corn syrup, and every last jar had artificial colors (yellow and blue) added.  I found a few lonely jars of organic pickles hidden in the middle, and finally selected Meijer Organics bread and butter chips.  I think there were all of three options for organic: relish, bread and butter chips, and dill spears. 

I know it's silly, because they're just pickles, but the whole experience depressed me.  Why should it be so hard to go into a store and find a product that you can be relatively certain is safe?  Why do pickles, a food that is already preserved by nature of being pickled/fermented, need preservatives?  Things like this are the very reason I started learning to make so many of my own foods, and overall I take great pride in making my own.  But there are days, like today, where it just makes me sad that I can't go into the store and find real food.

Although I'm still angry, I didn't come home and wallow.  I got busy and turned my $6 half-bushel of mixed seconds apples into 8.5 quarts of applesauce.  Then, for shits and giggles, I looked online at Walmart and found that a 48 oz jar of Great Value applesauce costs all of $1.97.  I haven't bought applesauce in so long, I didn't realize it was so cheap.  Of course, it also contains high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, cinnamon, and ascorbic acid (to protect color).  Approximate cost per ounce is $.04.  Santa Cruz organic applesauce, the only applesauce I could find that contained only apples, cost $.16/ounce.  Mine, while not organic, contained only apples and cinnamon and cost $.02/ounce + 2 hrs of my time (including processing).  The peace of mind from knowing where my food came from and exactly what's in it?  Priceless.

Pickles are definitely on my list of new things to learn to make this year...

Almost meal planning: week 3

Amazingly, I'm still sticking to it.  I still haven't noticed having to carve out huge amounts of time to make it work, and the results have been great.  Part of having this work is that I'm making casseroles, crock-pot meals, and roasts, so I'm not spending much time slaving over the stove.  I like to cook, and I wish I had more time for elaborate meals.  But right now, the reality is that just having something nutritious on the table is more important than trying new and exciting recipes.  Also, since I know what the other meals are that I'm cooking that week, if one of them requires mashed potatoes (or a side dish that requires more than opening a can or jar), I'll just make a huge batch with the first meal and eat them for both. 

And the best part?  My fridge!! 

It's stuffed!!  Granted, we have a smaller model fridge.  It's not quite apartment-size, but it's not standard.  It was the only fridge narrow enough to fit in that space between the cupboards and the doorway to the laundry area and short enough to fit under the cabinets.  It's little.  And disorganized, since I just tossed everything from grocery shopping in there when I had a spare second.  But everything in there is edible.  Some things could be moved to smaller containers, but there are no old, crusty leftovers or anything. 

I currently have a chicken in the oven for cajun alfredo pasta and chicken pot pie later in the week.  I think it'll need to go in the freezer, while we eat our leftovers... 

Almost meal planning: progress report

Yeesh, I'm talkative lately.  I feel like there are so many things bouncing around in my head, and I just want to post to get them all out in some sort of coherent way.  And if I can unload the little stuff, maybe there will be more room to mull over the big stuff.  I mean, there can only be so much room inside your head, yah?

So...  The great cook-at-home plan.  It's working.  I'm still not sure where I'm coming up with the time, since I don't feel rushed or like I'm having to work overly hard to make this happen.  Seriously.  I've had a two mishaps where I've neglected to eat breakfast and stopped at McDonald's for a salad on my way into work.  But I took my lunch to work every single day last week.  Shayne and Ethan also had dinner at home every day.  Major accomplishment, at least in my little world!

So what am I doing differently?  Basically, planning my meals a week or so ahead and sticking to the plan.  There's some room for flexibility, otherwise this wouldn't work for me.  For example, I had planned to make chicken and wild rice soup on one of my days off, so I roasted a chicken on my first day off, picked it apart, and stuck it in the fridge.  A few days ago, Ethan had a stomach bug, so I tossed some of the chicken into some stock I had canned last year.  Add onion, celery, carrots, seasoning, and noodles, and we had chicken noodle soup.  And somehow, in spite of a sick kidlet and raking leaves, I got a lasagna on the table that night for dinner.

Then I got sick.  I fell off the cooking wagon for a few days, but we still had enough leftovers to see us through (especially since I wasn't eating anything!).  It seems like as long as I cook every 2 or 3 days, we always have plenty of leftovers and wiggle room in case something goes wrong.

But since I'm now a bit behind and we are totally leftover-less...  Tonight, I need to toss the remaining chicken into the crock pot so that we'll have chicken and wild rice soup tomorrow.  And the ground beef in the fridge HAS to be browned before it goes bad.  Even if most of it goes into the freezer (Shayne and Ethan are eating dinner at my mom's tomorrow, and probably the day after as well), at least we'll have something in reserve for the nights the cooking just doesn't happen.

Something else I've learned is to pack up leftovers into meal-sized portions, even if I'm going to toss it into the freezer.  If I have to pack a lunch for work, I won't do it.  I'm cramped for time in the morning, and that's the thing that seems to get left by the wayside first.  But if it's already "packed" and all I have to do is throw a jar or container into my bag?  I can handle that.

Almost meal planning

I feel like a champ.  I haven't spent any (ANY!) money at all this week, and we've had home-cooked food for every meal so far. I cooked a big pot of beef and vegetable soup on Monday (my last day off), then have taken it to work for lunch every day since.  I set out pasta and sauce for Shayne to make for dinner last night, then today popped pork steaks with a mushroom and onion sauce into the crockpot for dinner.  I also have bread rising in the bread machine to go with the rest of the soup.

This has not been easy, but it's been easier than I thought it would be.  I just have to remember to take meat out of the freezer to thaw, so I'm working a day ahead of myself.  I'd like to eventually get to the point where we're planning our meals about 2 weeks in advance, but even thinking a few days in advance is big progress for me.  I will probably only need to cook one more meal to get us through the rest of my working days, then I'll have my days off to plan, shop, and cook.  My ultimate goal is to cook enough on my days off that I'll only need to cook one, maybe two, meals on my working days.  This should keep Shayne from feeling like he needs to eat out for dinner (which is obviously better for both him and Ethan), plus it will give me dinners to take to work and keep me from eating out.  I don't mind eating out one day a week, but it was getting a bit ridiculous.  Last month, we spent almost $900 on food.  $900!  We should be spending half that...  I knew we'd gotten off track, since we've been stressed and our kitchen has been a mess, but still...  It's time to get back on track.

Things to make my life easier

As Ethan has gotten busier (and busier!) and takes fewer/shorter naps, I've been feeling frazzled again in the morning.  Especially when I'm trying to get out the door, I feel like I'm in a huge rush and that I'm setting a poor example for him.  So I'm going to try a few things to be a little more structured and organized during my "me" time, hoping that it will allow me to be more flexible during the time I spend with Ethan.

When I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is make myself an iced raspberry mocha (Did I tell you I bought an espresso machine to save myself from my Starbucks addiction?  It totally deserves its own post, so I won't elaborate, but I am in LOVE!).  It doesn't take long at all, but trying to measure coffee while Ethan inevitably opens the refrigerator and begins to remove items (yogurt! milk! carrots!) usually results in misery when I remind him that he just ate breakfast and is probably full.  Please don't think I'm denying my little guy...  He's one of the rare toddlers that would eat all day, every day, until he got sick.  But if he doesn't open the fridge and see the food, he's completely content to play.  So I'm going to avoid it.  My mocha will be made the night before and refrigerated.  I get my coffee; kidlet stays out of the fridge, and a meltdown is averted.

The getting-out-the-door part is usually the hardest part of my day.  I always think about moving the carseat to my work car when Ethan is napping... and then I rarely do it.  I'm definitely going to make a concentrated effort to get this done, along with packing the diaper bag and taking my work "stuff" (lunch, laptop, etc) out to the car.  Then, even if I'm short on time, I won't be trying to throw things together while chasing the little one.  I usually end up getting frustrated and short-tempered, and I don't think that's a good example to be setting.

And something else that I've already started doing is to simply slow down.  I don't exactly have a busy schedule, but I don't like feeling like I'm rushing Ethan.  He's two; he doesn't get deadlines, or rigid schedules, or the pressure to go shopping, stop at the market, have lunch, and make it to work on time.  So I've decided not to live like that either.  If I don't make it to the store, or the market, or whatever other optional (though I know it doesn't always feel optional) errands and activities for the day...  I'll do it tomorrow.  Or the next day.  It's not worth rushing my little guy around.  I don't want him to grow up thinking we always have to be running from one thing to the next.  I don't want "hurry up!" to become a mantra.  I want to have time to let Ethan walk around the market - at his speed.  To play outside in the yard and not have to set a time limit on it.  To eat sitting at the table, not in his carseat.

So...  As I implement these little changes, I'm hoping that they will help me to slow down, relax, and go with the flow a bit more.  Life is too short for rushing through headlong.  I want my child to grow up knowing that there is always time to play.

New basement storage shelves

Shayne built me these wonderful shelves this afternoon.  They're obviously not fancy, just plywood on wall-mounted shelf brackets.  But I can store all the food on these that I previously had stored on 2 5-shelf units.  So we've freed up a bit of space in the basement, and we can rearrange so that things we use often are closer to the door to the storage area.

I eventually want to expand our food storage, so we'll need more space some day.  For now this is plenty, though, and it will help me stay organized.

Year in Review: Homestead Harvest

This was a bit of a rough year; between working full-time and keeping up with the kidlet, I didn't really have much spare time at all.  Next year should be more productive, since Ethan will be able to "help" with gardening and cooking a bit more.  I'm really looking forward to teaching him about growing food and raising animals.  But even though this wasn't the most productive homesteading year, it was still a blast, and I'm really enjoying being a mommy.

As far as homegrown foods...  All that really survived our hot summer was the tomatoes and green beans.  The broccoli fried in the heat, and the carrots never even sprouted.  I wanted to plant potatoes and onions, but it never happened.  Neither did the spinach or lettuce.  Oh well.

I did make lots of jam.  I canned 6 half-pints of cherry butter, 9 half-pints of raspberry jam, and 15 half-pints of strawberry jam.  There were also 6 half-pints of strawberry ice cream topping (also great to add to yogurt).  And I still have a bunch of raspberries frozen in the freezer waiting for me to make them into jam.

The tomatoes were a big success.  I only planted Romas, and I canned 12 quarts of sauce using only my tomatoes.  I'm definitely planting more next year.

Frozen veggies...  Didn't happen.  I wanted to at least freeze some corn, but the harvest came and went before I even had a chance.  Oh well.

I've started on applesauce, and canned 6 quarts so far.  I plan on buying another bushel of apples at the market soon.  A yellow delicious and Empire blend seems to yield the tastiest sauce, in my opinion, but I might pick up some "mixed seconds" as well.  My goal is 18 - 20 quarts.

The best part of this year, and what makes up for the lack of productivity elsewhere, is the fact that we got chickens.  Even better is that they now lay eggs!  I got our cute little balls of fluff on May 4, and on October 11 my Wyandotte laid her first egg.  One of the Australorps started on October 22, and the buff Orpington looks like she'll be laying any day now.  The other Australorp seems to be a bit of a later bloomer.  But her wattles have gotten a little bigger, and her comb a bit pinker, so I'm hoping she'll get started soon as well.  Still, even 2 eggs per day is nice, and it's enough for me to share with others.  I'm not keeping track, even though I probably should, but I've gotten at least 4 dozen eggs so far. 

Chickens are so, SO easy.  All I have to do is shut the coop door at night, open it in the morning, and check to make sure they have food and water.  They pretty much feed themselves by free-ranging around the neighborhood, and eveny night they come home and put themselves to bed.  They require about as much upkeep as a gerbil, but with the bonus of producing food.  Can't beat that!

I'm thinking of adding 2 Easter Egger chickens if I can find some.  The only thing more fun than yard fresh eggs is blue or green yard fresh eggs!

I'm already getting excited for next year!  I want to order from seed catalogues instead of buying hybrid seeds from the garden centers around here.  I'll probably get seed potatoes locally, but that's it.  Time to start browsing the web to decide on varieties!

Making butter (in a blender!)

 Add this one to the list of things I never thought I'd do...!  But it was very easy, and I'm thinking that this will probaby turn out to be a bi-weekly thing.  Or maybe I'll do it every week to get up a freezer stash for winter baking... 

Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Use a turkey baster or ladle to remove the cream from the top of the milk.  Put into separate container and leave out on the counter for about 12 hrs.  This allows the cream to sour slightly and will give the butter a more "buttery" flavor.

Step 2: Pour cream into the blender and mix on medium for several minutes.  You will notice the consistency start to change and become thicker.  The little curds of butter will rise to the top when you stop the blender.

Step 3: Use a spoon to scoop out the butter curds and place them into a separate bowl.  Using the spoon, squeeze all the buttermilk out of the butter. 

Step 4: Rinse with cold water, then work the water out of the butter. Rinse until the water runs clear.  

Below is a comparison shot.  My butter is on the left, Meijer organic butter is on the right.  I'm guessing that the beta carotene from the cows eating grass accounts for the brighter yellow color in my butter.

I used about 16 oz of cream and ended up with around half to two-thirds cup of butter.  Now I've got to figure out what to do with my buttermilk...  Pancakes anyone?

Real milk!!

I got my first "delivery" of milk today!  It came out of the cow yesterday morning, and I picked it up today at the farmer's market.  I'm pretty excited about this whole "real" milk thing. The idea of being able to make my own butter, yogurt, and cheese seems sort of incredible. But by simply buying non-homogenized, un-skimmed milk, it's opened up a huge realm of possibilities.

Even though the picture was taken on my cell phone, you can still see that there's a good 1"+ of cream at the top of each jar.  Time to learn to make butter!

Real milk!!

One of the things I've been wanting to do for a while (about 2 years or so...) is to find a local source for milk and dairy products.  I visited a few cow share programs, and even bought goat milk for a while, but just wasn't satisfied.  I eventually want to buy and milk my own goats, where we are now, that's just not practical.  The county government requires agricultural zoning or 5+ acres for "farm animals".  And while we obviously fudged on that to keep the chickens, I wouldn't want to risk goats.  Maybe if this was going to be our forever home I would give it a go, but I can't imagine trying to sell this house with a goat shack in the backyard.  I just don't see that being a selling point.

So I went back to the Walkerton Dairy Herd Association.  I've known about them since I first started looking into "raw" milk, but the first time I visited, their pasture was only in its first year, and they were supplementing with alfalfa hay.  And the milk tasted like alfalfa.  Big time.  Now the association is in its 3rd year, and their pasture is bigger and better.  I know the milk will probably still taste alfalfa-y in the winter when there is less grass, but I can deal with it for a short time.  And, after drinking some super-goaty goat's milk, I think a little alfalfa will be fine.  (Regarding goaty-tasting milk: males and females were kept together at this particular farm, which gives the milk a strong "goat" flavor.  Good goat milk, though, is nearly indistinguisable from cow's milk.  I found some locally, but at $10/gallon, it was a bit too pricy for me!)

After visiting again today, I'm now the proud owner of 1/20 of a dairy cow!  I should get about 5 quarts of milk per week, which is more than enough for me.  Shayne isn't big on milk that has a slight grassy flavor...  Depending on how much I drink, I think it'll be enough to make some butter and maybe yogurt - at least in the summer.  Milk production seriously tapers off during the winter, so I might even have to freeze some to make sure I have enough for year-round consumption.

So, until I can get my own goats, at least I have a safe, local source of fresh, organic, grass-fed milk!

Food for thought

Life was certainly much easier before I started worrying and thinking so much about food.  I read This Organic Life by Joan Dye Gussow a few years ago, and that's what kind of started me tipping this way. I thought it was a book about organic gardening, which I was thinking about trying.  Instead, it was an eye-opening look at the food industry.  It was about gardening, but more "why" than "how".  Her book talks about how supermarket produce is shipped across the nation from mega-farms where it can be grown "cheaply".  So at my local Meijer I can find Idaho potatoes, Washington apples, Georgia peaches, and Vermont maple syrup, just to name a few.  Never mind that the climate in Michigan allows for all the same produce to be grown within 50 miles of here.  And because there's no cross-country shipping, the environmental costs are much lower.  Plus, smaller farmers tend to use more ecologically sound practices  like crop rotation and composting, and they use much less synthetic fertilizers and pesticides because of it.

And now that Ethan has come along, I haven't really been able to work on the house or even really get out of the house.  So I've been reading.  About food.  Since December, I've read Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preparation, The Backyard Homestead, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Real Food: What to Eat and Why, and I'm now into The End of Food.  And the more I read, the worse it gets.

I've never really been passionate about a cause before.  I'm pretty much a libertarian, so I believe in people's right to do as they please (excepting criminal activity, of course) with little or no government intervention.  But I'm convinced, more than ever, that we are really screwing up.  We've come from a country of small, local farmers who grow food for everyone to a system of monoculture and imports.  Here in Indiana, all you see are fields of corn or soy.  None of which is actually fit to eat as is.  The corn is grown as food for cows or to be processed into various chemicals, including, but not limited to: baking powder, caramel, corn flour, corn starch, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, dextrin, maltodextrin, mono- and di-glycerides, monosodium glutamate (MSG), sorbitol, food starch, modified food starch, xanthan gum, vegetable oil, vegetable protein, hydrolized vegetable protein, vegetable shortening, lecithin, malt syrup, malt extract, and aspartame.  Take a look at any box of supermarket food, and you'll likely see more than one of these chemicals in the list of ingredients.  Considering that I don't really know what most of these things are or what chemicals were involved in extracting them from a kernel of corn makes me really not want to eat them or feed them to my child...

But millions of Americans do just that.  I'm not saying that it's the end of the world if not every meal you eat isn't homecooked.  I eat storebought cereal, crackers, pizza, and more.  And I usually enjoy it.  But I don't think that people really know that most of what you buy at the supermarket isn't real food!  If it had been left alone, it would probably be healthy.  But by the time they're done making it shelf-stable, or adding back colors, flavors, and nutrients that were lost during processing, it's not the same thing anymore.

For example, did you know that lowfat milk contains powdered milk?  The milk is so watery after removing the fat that they need to make it resemble milk again.  So they add powdered milk or "milk solids".  I was grossed out enough by that, bit then I learned that the process they use for drying the milk causes damage (oxidization) to its cholesterol, making it more likely to cause blockages in your arteries.  Plus, your body needs the fat in milk in order to absorb the calcium and protein.  The manufacturers don't have to list the powdered milk in the ingredients, since it's still considered milk.  Nice, huh?  Guess who switched to whole milk (which really only contains about 3% fat.  So 2% isn't really as "low fat" as they'd have you believe)...  And from what I've been reading, saturated fat, which comprise most of the fats in meat and dairy products, isn't terrible for you. 

I've pretty much concluded, totally unscientifically, that people need to eat food the way God gave it to us.  Somewhere along the way (starting in the 1920s and accelerating from there), scientists decided that they knew what was better for people to eat and that what we'd been eating throughout history was bad for us.  For example, in the '40s and '50s, doctors were telling people that cow's milk was better for infants than breast milk.  How could an educated person possibly believe that a cow would produce something healthier for babies than what their natural mothers could provide (assuming a decent diet, of course)?  People would think you were crazy if you suggested that kittens should be raised on human breast milk! 

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.  Maybe the weather will start to improve, my cold will go away, and I can spend some time outside doing more and reading less...!

This year's harvest and next year's plans

Since I started my journey last year to become more self-sufficient, I've learned a lot about how to process and store various foods.  Learning almost completely from internet sources, I froze beans, peas, corn, carrots, peppers, and broccoli and canned peaches, applesauce, and spaghetti sauce.  The produce put up in the summer and fall lasted nearly til the next growing season, and I had to buy very few veggies from Meijer or other stores. 

This year I did even more.  While I am in no way close to being as food self-sufficient as I eventually want to be, I've made a lot of progress (especially considering that I was pregnant).  Starting in the spring, I planted a small 4x8' garden with broccoli, two types of tomatoes, and yellow peppers.  Some of the broccoli I started from seeds, but the rest were started plants from a local nursery.  I've never had a vegetable garden before, and I am amazed at how well everything grew with very little care.  I had a decent broccoli harvest, LOADS of tomatoes, and a few peppers. 

I also learned how to make jam.  I bought strawberries from the farmers market, but harvested my own mulberries (from my backyard, no less) and raspberries.  All of the jams turned out well, but raspberry was everyone's favorite.  That one was made kind of spur of the moment, after a friend mentioned that he had a bunch of wild black raspberry bushes on his property.  He let my mom and I pick (and brought me a big container that he had picked himself), and I made the jam with the last berries of the season. 

I picked blueberries for the first time, which is loads of fun when you're gigantically pregnant...!  I ended up with almost 10 lbs.  I dehydrated some and they turned out like little blueberry rocks, but they softened up after being in storage for a little while.  The rest are in the freezer for pancakes, muffins, bread, and maybe pie.

I dehydrated cherries from the market to use in my homemade granola bars or in salad.

I froze the same veggies as last year, minus carrots which are always available locally, but refined my technique a bit.  I've learned to let broccoli dry a bit so that it doesn't get soggy, plus I steamed it instead of blanching.  Last year's was only suitable for stir-fry since it was so mushy.  I bought a Reynolds Handi-Vac system, which is basically a cheap vacuum sealer, and used it for all my freezer veggies.  Hopefully it will work to prevent freezer burn, since last year's veggies ended up very frosty after a few months.

I canned corn and peaches.  Peaches are a major pain in the butt to can, but they taste like a little bit of summer when you open a jar in the middle of winter.  The corn was because the frozen corn starts to taste like the freezer after about 6 months...  So hopefully that canned corn will get us through once the frozen runs out.

I learned how to make basil pesto and froze some of that for later. 

My spaghetti sauce turned out WAY better this year than last year's.  I found a great recipe online, then tweaked it to my taste.  Even my mom likes it.  :)  Most of the tomatoes were bought from the market, but I got about 5-7 lbs off my plants that were tossed in as well.  There's really nothing better than making something edible from something you grew!

Then came applesauce...  I bought mixed seconds from the market instead of using just golden delicious and fuji.  I don't know that it tastes any better, but it was loads cheaper.  I also bought an apple peeler/corer/slicer which sped things up a lot.

On Saturday I bought another half-bushel of seconds and made apple butter.  It turned out well, but not seasoned enough, so this morning I dumped out my jars, added more spices, and cooked it more.  I ended up with 8 oz less than I had, but the flavor is much improved.  Thankfully apples don't require a long processing time, otherwise I would have just had to live with it.

As an experiment I boiled a chicken, froze the stock, and canned the meat.  I haven't yet tried the canned chicken, but it'll be very convenient to have on hand for stir-fry and other recipes.

In addition to learning to store more foods, I also learned how to cook more.  I've found awesome recipes for beef stew, chicken pot pie, roasted red pepper cream sauce, basil cream sauce, no-knead bread, and quite a few others.  It may not sound like much, but until a few years ago I never really bothered with cooking from scratch.  I had a few staples that I'd make (sloppy joes, some crockpot meals, steak, stir-fry), but wasn't interested in learning more. I still don't have as much time to cook as I would like, but I'm getting there.

Next year we are definitely going to have a bigger garden.  Shayne is going to make me more raised beds, and we'll remake the existing one so that it's deeper (and nicer looking!).  I'm going to stick to the 4x8' size, since it makes organization easy and I can reach across the beds without having to step onto the soil.  I'm going to plant a full bed of roma tomatoes (16 plants), red and yellow peppers, broccoli, potatoes, onions, and maybe some corn, squash, and carrots.

We're also going to build more shelves in the basement for more storage space.  As I learn more about canning and storing food, I'm finding that our existing pantry and shelving just aren't cutting it.  Plus, most ready-made shelving has a large area between shelves.  If I'm storing canned goods, I only need a 12 to 16" between shelves.  So I'm wasting a lot of space.

And, I'd really like to get those chickens.  We've been taking about it for 2 years.  I bought coop plans last spring.  Maybe next spring or summer we can get 2 or 3 hens and see how it goes.

Stocking up for winter

Living with the seasons has been such a fulfilling experience for me.  Now that we've been doing it for a little over a year, it's amazing to me that already certain times just seem to have certain homemaking activities attached to them.  I'm sure it would be much more intense with a big garden or a farm, but even the little pseudo-homesteading that I do adds purpose and meaning to the seasons. 

This year I've felt a lot of pressure to "bring in the harvest".  I know a lot of this has to do with expecting a baby and wanting everything to be as ready as it can be.  Since I put up my own fresh produce last year, I had a much better idea of how much food we really need to make it through to the next season...  And it was WAY more than I anticipated.  You don't really realize how much you go through until you want it all ready in advance.  So this year I tried to prepare better. 

My mom brought me a third quarter bushel of Romas from the market on Tuesday, then yesterday I took a half day and we made more pasta sauce.  I'm now up to 18 quarts made.  I gave a few away, and might give a few more, but this should get us through til next summer.  We don't eat spaghetti much when the weather is warm, so it only needs to last til around May.

We still need to finish up the applesauce.  I can't believe how much we eat when it's homemade, since we didn't eat any storebought.  Shayne loves it, and it makes a good gift.

I also need to freeze a few more peppers.  We use them in stir-fry, on pizza, in omlettes, and a few other things.

Today I stopped at Jaworski's Market and got a bulk package of meat.  I was hoping to buy grassfed beef from a local farmer, but just ran out of time to track him down (know where he lives, but no contact info).  At least everything from Jaworski's is all-natural and hormone-free.  For $130, I got:
7lb (2 - 3½lb) whole chicken

3lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
6lb (3 - 2lb) ground beef
3lb (4 - 12oz) New York strip steaks
3lb sirloin tip steaks
3lb chuck roast
4lb (2 -2lb) butterfly pork chops
5lb (2 - 2½) pork steaks
2lb polish sausage
2 lb Italian sausage
2lb bacon
3lb breakfast sausage
 
Which breaks down to a little over $3/lb for 43 lbs of meat.  Plus I already bought extra chickens and have about 7 lbs of ground venison from a friend.
 
I'm happy.  The freezer is stuffed.  The shelves are nearly full.  And I won't need to buy meat or any veggies except onions, potatoes, and fresh greens for at least 8 months.  I really wonder what that will do to our grocery bill, since I've been consistently spending about $100/week.  Withouth meat or fresh produce, I'm betting it'll be under $50.

More fall food: Beef and barley stew

In the spirit of fall, I made some beef and barley stew this morning to put in the freezer for after baby arrives (assuming he ever does...).  We're trying to get several meals stored so that we don't end up eating Chinese take-out or pizza every night.  I'm sure I won't feel much like cooking for the first couple of weeks.  So far we have stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, shepherd's pie, and crab corn chowder stashed in there.  Plus a few "emergency" microwave meals.  All-in-all we have 8-10 days worth of homemade dinners, but I'm somehow worried we're going to starve.  I guess because I have no idea what top expect or what I'll be up for in the days following the baby's arrival, it's making me a little edgy.  So I'm making more food!

I found a basic recipe on the internet, then added and fudged a bit to my own tastes.  It turned out really well, and I wish I wouldn't have eaten lunch so I could have had a nice, big bowl. 

1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups cubed potatoes (I used redskins, since they hold their shape better)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced celery
2 cloves garlic cloves, minced
1 cup sliced baby portobello mushrooms
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, including liquid
2 cups beef broth
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup uncooked medium pearl barley
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar


In a thick-bottomed pot, brown beef in olive oil. Add the carrots, onion, celery, potatoes and garlic; cook for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, stewed tomatoes, broth, and seasonings.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 90 minutes. Add barley; cover and simmer 45-60 minutes longer or until barley and meat are tender.  Remove bay leaves and add balsamic vinegar.  Serve!

Makes approximately 2 quarts (8 small servings).
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And now I'm off to make some chicken pot pie...

Making applesauce

Fall is here!! Shayne and I went to the farmers market yesterday morning and were amazed at how quickly the harvest went from "summer" to "fall". There were corn stalks, pumpkins, and mums everywhere. And apples. We bought a half bushel of "mixed seconds" to make applesauce, then got fresh cinnamon-sugar doughnuts and apple cider. Mmmm....!

I love spring and summer, but I think fall is my favorite season. I love the changing leaves, the cool mornings and warm days, seeing Orion in the southern sky, and the rush to put up the last of the fresh produce. I also love fall food; we start making the switch to heartier fare like beef stew, shepherd's pie, mashed potatoes, and thick soups. And, of course, there's applesauce.

Poor Shayne has been waiting since spring. I didn't make anywhere near enough applesauce last year, and we ran out around March or April. I caved and offered to buy apples out-of-season from Meijer, but then we both agreed that making and eating certain foods in-season just makes them more special. So we've been waiting. And waiting.

I bought an apple peeler-corer-slicer from Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday, and Shayne tested it out on the first few apples. What a nifty little invention!! I still peel the top and bottom of the apple first, and you have to properly align the apple on the spikes in order for it to get the entire core... But what a time-saver! Definitely worth the $15 I spent on it.

And by noon we had our first batch of applesauce in the canner. I got 4.5 quarts and only used about half of the apples. For a cost comparison, my applesauce costs about $1.33/quart to make. Musselman's is $1.96/quart. And while I haven't ever tried Musselman's, I can tell you for sure that my homemade version blows Meijer's organic applesauce out of the water. And mine is certainly nothing special, just apples, a teeny bit of water, and cinnamon. Cook, smush, mix, serve. Doesn't get any easier than that.

If I haven't had a baby by next Saturday I'll definitely be buying more "mixed seconds" for more sauce and apple butter...

Spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes: Take two

Last year on a whim I bought a Roma food mill and made my own spaghetti sauce from fresh roma tomatoes.  While the sauce was decent, it wasn't anywhere near as wonderful as I'd hoped.  The food mill performed much better than I ever expected though, and it's become one of my favorite appliances.  How neat is is to plop whole tomatoes (or cut in half if they're big) into the hopper, turn a crank, and the tomato pulp and juice are quickly separated from the skin and seeds.  I was skeptical that it would work as advertised, but it really is that easy.  Definitely the best $45 I ever spent on a kitchen item.

This year, armed with an actual recipe instead of trying to fake my way through, I bought 10 lbs of tomatoes and tried again.

My results were WAY better.  My sauce is still not as thick as I would like, but the flavor is excellent.  I probably should have added an extra can of tomato paste, but I was afraid to because I liked the flavor and didn't want to ruin it.

Here's my recipe:

10 lbs of ripe roma (paste) tomatoes
1-2 16 oz can of tomato paste (or more if desired)
1 medium-large yellow onion
1 medium red pepper
3/4 head of garlic
1/2 c olive oil
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp dried basil
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

You can add other veggies if you choose, but no cheese if you plan to water bath can.

Process tomatoes in a food mill to remove seeds, skin, and stems.  Cook puree and juice on a low boil for 3 hrs. 
After 3 hrs, add tomato paste until desired consistency is reached.  Stir in brown and white sugar, olive oil, spices, and salt and pepper.  Add finely chopped peppers, onions, and garlic.  Cook an additional 30 - 60 minutes, stirring and tasting often.  Adjust spices and veggies to desired taste.

Once sauce is finished, pour into canning cars, seal, and process.  Water bath 15 minutes for pints, 25 minutes for quarts.  Yields approximately 5 quarts of sauce.

Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches...

Gonna can a lot of peaches, more like.  I bought almost a half bushel at the market yesterday, just for canning.  Peaches are the only thing I don't like to can.  Cutting them up is a pain, even when they're freestone it seems like only about half separate easily.  Peeling them sucks (I've tried dipping them in boiling water, which didn't work for me, so I'm stuck peeling by hand).  They're slimy and difficult to handle.  And they taste SO much better than store-bought that I can't make myself eat anything else.

My mom helped me yesterday, for which I am eternally grateful.  She seems to have better luck peeling than I do, and I did better with cutting them up, so we made a good team.  I knew I only wanted to can 12 pints, so we stopped about 2/3 of the way through the basket so we wouldn't have too much.  I got 7 pints out of the first batch, so I had to finish up with the rest this morning.  I got 11 pints total, with 3 peaches leftover to eat.  With peaches a little smaller than my fist, I seem to use about 4 peaches per pint, meaning that we only peeled and cut up maybe 4 dozen.  It felt like a LOT more.  Oh well.  I'm done now, and I'll have yummy tasting peaches to eat all winter!

As far as cost goes...  Meijer sells a case of peaches (12 - 15 oz cans) for $16.76, or $1.40 per can.  I paid $10 for my almost-half-bushel and would have gotten 12 pints if I hadn't saved some to eat.  That's $0.83 per can.  If you add in the pain-in-the-ass factor, I'm sure mine are more expensive, but they are much firmer and tastier, so I suppose it's worth it.

Next up is tomato sauce, then applesauce and apple butter.  I'm considering potatoes, too.

A bushel of corn

I went a little crazy at the farmer's market yesterday...  Sweet corn started coming in a couple weeks ago, and I obviously needed to get some to put up.  Last weekend I bought a dozen ears, planning to continue the dozen-a-week trend over the next few weeks since cleaning, blanching, and cutting up the corn is rather tedious.  Except one farmer had a "sale" on extra sweet bi-color corn; a whole bushel (approx. 4 dozen ears or 35 lbs) was only $10.

So I spent a few hours today cleaning, blanching, cutting, and canning/freezing corn.  I ended up with 12 pints canned and ~24 cups in the freezer. 

 

  

 

 
The Reynolds Handi-Vac got mixed reviews on Amazon, but I love mine.  I've had a little trouble getting bags to seal if they have powdery stuff in them (like flour), but they're awesome for freezing veggies.  With the corn, I put it in the bags loosely, and tomorrow I'll vacuum the air out.  That will keep the corn from sticking together too much, I hope.

I decided to can about half of the corn because last year's freezer corn lost some of its taste around March.  It started tasting more like the freezer and less like corn, even though the texture was still good.  Plus, by March, I'm less likely to be able to save my freezer food in case of a power outage.  In the winter I can just toss everything outside to keep it cold in an emergency.  This way I've diversified my storage a bit and gave myself some insurance.

As for cost of home canned vs. store bought...  A 16 oz can of Del Monte corn (purchased by the case, which is cheaper) costs $.95.  A pint or 16 oz of frozen corn cost me $.41 to make, and tastes WAY better.  Plus it came from a local farmer and I know there are no preservatives, chemicals, or sodium in it.  Cheaper and better.  Can't beat that!

One year of eating fresh/local

A little over a year ago, I made my first real shopping trip to the South Bend Farmers Market.  The market has been around pretty much forever, but I'd never really considered doing my shopping there until I realized how much better it is, for me, the economy, and the environment, to buy local produce.  Since then, with very few exceptions, I've bought my chicken and produce exclusively from local farmers.  I've also learned to can and freeze my own produce, cook more from scratch, and make my own jams and sauces.  This year I started gardening and just harvested my first "crop" of broccoli.  My next project is to learn to make my own pasta.

I've come a long way from the Lean Cuisine entrees I used to live on.  Now there isn't a single frozen dinner in my house.  Not many processed foods, either.  I wonder what the cashiers at Meijer think when I go through the checkout with a few gallons of milk, yogurt, butter, cheese, some baking staples, and a few boxes of cereal.

Most of the time I love buying only fresh/local produce, but right now I would really like to go take a nap.  Instead, I'm heating water to blanch a dozen ears of corn for canning and freezing.  Then I'll have to clean the chicken I baked.  And I bought more black raspberries, since they were on sale at the market; those need to be made into jam.  Since I have so many fresh veggies on hand, maybe I'll make a stir-fry for dinner...  So much for the lazy days of summer.  Lots of fresh produce + weekend = BUSY!

And I just realized that the reason my water was taking forever to boil is because I had the wrong burner turned on.  Duh.  This is why I need a gas stove, people.

My first harvest

This afternoon, I harvested my first-ever homegrown crop: broccoli!!

There are actually 4 heads, but the other one was already chopped up and in the pot.  The heads were each about 7-8" in diameter, which I thought was a very good size.  I had contemplated cutting them a few days ago, but now I'm glad I waited.  They seem to have grown a lot in such a short time, maybe because of the recent rain.  I was a little disappointed that it didn't taste better than store-bought broccoli, but I suppose it's something that they were so much bigger.  At least it didn't taste worse!

I'm really happy that it grew without any pesticides or fertilizers.  I used organic manure compost and organic potting soil in my raised beds, then put grass clippings on top to keep the weeds out.  It seems to have worked well.

It was very fulfilling to eat something for dinner that I had grown myself.  I think this homesteading stuff could get addictive...!