Do you have any plans for this Saturday, September 11? If not, plan to be at the 4th annual Heritage Harvest Festival, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the West Lawn at Monticello.
Organized by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and by the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, this celebration of local food, heirloom plants, and sustainable gardening will continue Jefferson’s legacy of vegetable cuisine, plant experimentation, and sustainable agriculture.
Last year, more than 2,700 people attended the family-friendly event. The 2010 festival will again feature tastings, workshops, hands-on demonstrations, children’s activities, and more. Attendees will also be able to meet local farmers, while local vendors will provide meals and snacks, as well as seeds, plants, and garden supplies.
For more information, see the Heritage Harvest Festival website.
As I mentioned last week, I’ve been busy filling my freezer for the fall and winter. Actually, it’s not just for the cold months — school starts today and my husband’s and my work schedules kick back up from their easier summer schedules, so life in general gets busier for our family. Having lots of food options on hand makes it easier for those week nights when life is just flat-out crazy.
Something else I did this past weekend was stock up at the farmers’ market — I visited my favorite beef farmer and bought enough pot roasts, stew meat, ground beef, etc. to last us for a few months. Then I did the same thing with a different farmer who sells chicken. We don’t eat that much beef and chicken in general — usually chicken once a week and beef every other week — but it’s nice to have plenty in the freezer.
I’m also planning a trip to Mona Lisa Pasta soon to stock up on raviolis and a couple of lasagnas. Again, this is a combination of a need to have some easy things for quick meals and a desire to fill our pantry and freezer in preparation for winter.
Every year around this time, my husband starts to tease me about my Little House on the Prairie mindset — it’s like I’m Ma Ingalls and I’m preparing for the Long Winter. While I do tend to go a little overboard, I think this past winter showed us just how much that Mother Nature can dish out. Luckily, we knew in advance that the big snows were coming, but in every case, I was ready. Instead of dashing out to the grocery store to get milk and eggs and things to feed my family, I instead went to the bookstore for reading material and then to Main Street Market for special treats — cheeses and breads for snacking on while we all read on the sofa, some chocolates from Gearharts, and so forth.
In the next couple of months, I’ll continue stocking up — I’ll make applesauce and other apple-y delights, pumpkin puree for muffins and pies, and more. When I cook chicken, I’ll make broth afterward with the bones. As I use vegetables, I’ll save the scraps to make veggie broth. It’s not all that much extra work, but it will pay big reward down the road.
I’m curious… Is it just me or do other people get ready for the fall and winter too?
My garden is going gangbusters this month. But then again, isn’t everyone’s? Like Susan’s garden, I have tomatoes coming out of my ears, but I’m not complaining. Instead, I’m whipping up quick batches of tomato sauce and freezing them for the cold months.
I planted a number of varieties of tomatoes last May — including Romas, Better Boys, Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, Mr. Stripey, and my favorite Yellow Pear. For a while there, it felt like we’d never have enough tomatoes, but now we have plenty.
To make tomato sauce, I chop whatever tomatoes I have on hand, simmer them in a pot for a little while, run everything through a food mill to remove skins and seeds, pour the results into freezer-safe containers, and then freeze. I don’t add anything else and instead wait until later on when I’m cooking.
I’m actually filling my freezer with a lot of August’s bounty. I’ve already made loads of basil paste for future pestos, sauces, casseroles, and pizzas and will be making it up until the first frost in October, when I’ll do one final mega harvest of that particular herb. I have plenty of edamame, as well as well as grated zucchini, which I’ll sneak into soups and casseroles and hope my kids won’t notice. I’ve even frozen fresh corn on the cob — I just shucked the ears, blanched them, and then put them in freezer bags.
There have been some days when I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen dealing with some vegetable or the other and it feels like I’ll never get to the bottom of the pile. But I always do and in a few months, I’ll be glad I did all this now.
I found a great blog post on this, and thought I would share. I think that for many of us, this is obvious – but for others it means a complete shift in thinking. Please share your resources on this topic – I would love to collect them in one place!
Check it out: Why Buy Local Foods?
This past week we harvested more than 60 purple calabash tomatoes, all grown from seed (purchased from the Monticello Garden Shop!). Who knew that in my tiny suburban townhome back yard I could have such abundance? Remember when I was starting out (see post here). Well, they ended up growing like crazy.
Being that I have a small family, I decided to stew and freeze them so that we can enjoy our bounty this winter. Here is what I did:
- Add tomatoes to rapidly boiling water for 5 minutes
- Immediately immerse in ice water for 5 minutes
- Pull the skins off (when you boil then chill, they come off easily!)
- Add garlic, salt and herbs if you like
- Pack in freezer containers and freeze!
I guess you can also can these, but I have never done that before. I am sure there are resources on the web and in bookstores that explain how. I will leave that for next summer.
If you have resources to share on how to harvest and store your home-grown harvest – please share!
A small portion of the edamame in my garden this year. I planted more than ever, but will reap the rewards this winter.
Back in the early spring, I planted edamame. A LOT of edamame, in fact — a pound of seeds, which took up 25% of the space in my garden and even then I still had to find other places to plant. I ended up putting extra seeds in every available nook and cranny, including around the blueberry bushes and in a flower bed.
The payoff on all that time spent on my hands and knees is all the beans I’ll be harvesting in the next few weeks. In fact, my family returned from a vacation last week and an hour after we pulled into the garage, I was out in the garden picking edamame pods for that night’s dinner.
Obviously, we won’t be able to eat all that edamame at once, so what I’ll be doing is blanching the pods with the beans still in them, then shelling the beans after they’ve cooled off a bit. I’ll freeze all the edamame and have lots of yummy beans this fall and winter. I’m cautiously estimating that I’ll put at least five pounds of shelled beans in the freezer. My family is delighted, because edamame is one of our favorite vegetables and something that my girls will actually snack on after school.
Yes, I could just buy frozen edamame at the grocery store (and I do) butI discovered last year that virtually all of the edamame in grocery stores was grown in China. Considering how many hundreds of acres of land in Virginia alone is given over to growing soybeans (the crops are used to replenish the soil in corn fields and the beans are given to livestock), I am appalled that grocery stores are importing food from thousands of miles away. In addition to having concerns about any food coming out of China — even those foods that are labeled organic — I don’t like the food miles associated with foods coming from the other side of the globe. That’s just not acceptable to me, which is why grow as much as I do.
In addition, edamame is also good for my garden. It adds nitrogen back to the soil and helps replenish nutrients depleted by heavy feeders like corn and tomatoes. I rotate where I plant everything, so in 2011, I’ll put edamame where the tomatoes were in 2010.
If you get a chance to grow edamame next year, I encourage you to plant some. It’s incredibly easy — you just stick the seeds in the ground in the spring and then walk away for two months. It requires absolutely no work at all and will add a lot to your dinners.
Photo credit: Yahoo Images
It’s hard to believe that the 4th of July is this weekend. Where did June go?
Continuing our theme of eating local foods for the holidays, here are my thoughts on a locally-sourced Independence Day cookout:
For the main dish, I personally am partial to burgers and will get the beef from Wolf Creek Farm when they’re at the farmers’ market this weekend. The buns will come from one of the local bakeries. For condiments, I still haven’t found local ketchup and mustard, so I’ll just get the organic versions from an organic grocery store.
For vegetarians, I love the idea of pasta from Mona Lisa Pasta or Pasta Valente tossed with a little olive oil, toasted walnuts, and chunks of grilled zucchini.
For veggies, wandering around the farmers’ market this time of year is so fun, as there is just so much available. In addition, my own garden is producing food like crazy. So my holiday cookout is going to include corn on the cob, zucchini, and lots of other veggies.
Since I just dug up Yukon Gold potatoes from my garden, I’ll make fries to go with the burgers. Home fries are super easy — just chop potatoes into wedges, toss with olive oil and salt, and bake at 400 degrees until done, about 40 minutes.
And of course, there are tomatoes. Ahhhh, glorious tomatoes. I’ve been waiting for months and now they’re here. For the burgers, I’ll just slice the tomatoes to layer in with the cheese and condiments. For the pasta, I’d probably keep things simple and make a side dish of chopped tomatoes, fresh mozzarella chunks, and fresh basil tossed together and then drizzled with a little olive oil.
Since there’s so much fruit available, I’ll definitely have some sort of fruit salad or even just plain fresh fruit, such as mixed berries or sliced peaches.
As for dessert, there are so many possibilities. Maybe I’ll make angel food cake and vanilla ice cream topped with berries. Or if I don’t feel like making dessert, I’ll get some festive cupcakes from Cappellino’s. Frank and Dotty are sure to have cupcakes decorated with wee flags, patriotic edible glitter, and more.
For drinks, I’ll serve Starr Hill beer, wines from one of the many local vineyards, and frozen blueberry lemonade for everyone to enjoy.
These are just my ideas, based on what my family likes and what I’m in the mood for. Luckily, this time of year, there’s just so much to choose from! What are your favorite things to eat on the 4th of July?
The author is not employed by any of the businesses mentioned.
Early lettuces in my garden last year. I like to plant a lot of lettuce in the fall, as it's so easy to grow.
Even though it’s hot as heck outside and you’re not yet sick to death of zucchini, if you want cool weather veggies, you need to start planning now, as most of your fall garden needs to be started in June and July. Plants like lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, endive, kale, spinach, carrots, beets, and chard are just some of the veggies you can grow without too much effort and, even better, there tend to be fewer pests around to wreak havoc on your edibles.
And, if you have a cold frame or use hoops with row covers, you should be able to continue growing some of your fall crops well past the first frost. One of my neighbors gardens in raised beds and she simply covers one of them with an old glass window and then harvests lettuce well past Thanksgiving and into December.
Even though I’m usually exhausted with gardening by the time fall rolls around, I really enjoy gardening in September and October because it’s just so much easier and less intense. I plant lettuces and greens and then enjoy them well past the first frost. Since my tomatoes are still growing well into October, I’ll enjoy some pretty amazing salads as the days turn cooler. Best of all, since apples will b e coming in, I’ll make a lot of salads that consist of lettuce, chopped apples, some toasted walnuts, and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette. Delish.
What are some of your favorite fall veggies?
One thing that is a challenge for a lot of parents is getting their children to eat vegetables and try new foods and generally eat healthier. It’s the rare child that does not prefer Oreos over blueberries, so getting kids to make good choices can be a challenge.
Here in my house, the resident children are 9 and 11. One of the girls is a very picky eater and also has some food allergies. The other girl is less picky, but just enough so to make me sigh in frustration. All that said, the girls do try new foods regularly and are enthusiastic shoppers at the farmers’ market and cooks in our kitchen.
If you are looking for ways to get your children on board with eating healthier foods and cutting back on McCrap, as well as trying new things, here’s how we do it in our house.
- First of all, we talk to our children about food. We’ve explained that McCrap is loaded with chemicals and other surprise ingredients that they don’t want to eat. That doesn’t mean that my girls don’t still want fast food, but they understand that it’s a rare occurrence and not a regular thing. And now that they know what’s in those edible food-like products, they don’t really want them.
- We talk about what’s in processed foods in general and that we don’t want to eat, for example, food with high fructose corn syrup. Again, the girls aren’t deprived, but there’s not a lot out there that they really want. Twinkies are one example, so they get one a couple times a year.
- We mostly cook from scratch and that includes things like ice cream, cookies, and most other desserts. When I do buy prepackaged foods, it’s either because it’s something that I’m not inclined to make myself (e.g. crackers) or a special treat (Newman-O’s).
- We have a large garden and my children are part of my gardening team. Yes, I do most of the work out there, but I have the girls assist on occasion. Both of my girls help me plant and, later on in the season, they help with picking — whether it’s a bowl of English peas to go with dinner or larger-scale harvesting, such as the vast amounts of edamame we plant every year. (We love the stuff and eat it with dinner once or twice a week, as well as for snacks.)
- My girls often cook with me. This includes not only fixing meals, but also baking with their friends when they come over. Several weeks ago, both girls had a friend over for a sleepover — the 5th graders made ice cream while the 4th graders made brownies.
- Finally, whatever I make for dinner is what everyone eats, even if they don’t like it. I don’t run a diner, so there are no alternate meals for kids. I make sure that each meal includes things that everyone will like so that if they don’t like something else, they won’t starve. Everyone has at least two bites of every thing, but I don’t insist on clean plates.
Like I said before, one of my girls is a really picky eater and I recently had a lengthy conversation with our pediatrician about this, but she approved the methods we’re using and said for us to stay the course. The doctor also told my daughter to be more open-minded about food and to try new things with the idea that she might actually like them. And, the doctor encouraged us to branch out even more and try foods — particularly fruits and veggies — that are totally new to us all. With any luck, my daughter will outgrow all this soon enough and will be a more adventurous eater.
So those are my recommendations. What are some other ways you get your kids to eat better?
Hands down, basil is my favorite herb.
One of the great things about gardening is having an herb garden just a few steps from my back door. I have a dedicated area that is 4′ x 10′ where I grow all the standards — rosemary, oregano, thyme, chives, sage, and more.
What you don’t see on that list is basil. I actually grow a lot of basil, but where I grow it changes every year. I always plant basil with tomatoes — usually 6-8 basil plants intermingled with two dozen tomato plants, along with dozens of marigolds. This type of companion planting is important, as it is an organic way to cut down on pests in the garden. And the triumvirate of tomatoes, basil, and marigolds thrive when planted together.
Basil is incredibly easy to grow. You just stick it in the ground, water it occasionally, and harvest when you’re hungry.
The reason I plant so much basil is that I preserve most of it for the cold months. Oh sure, I could buy basil at the grocery store, but I think that dried basil is an inferior substitute and I flat-out refuse to spend $5 or more on a small bunch of fresh basil when I grow it myself with almost no effort. So every year I plant lots of basil and literally reap the benefits for three or four months.
How do I preserve basil? By making basil paste — here’s how:
- Cut back your basil plants. Don’t be afraid to be aggressive; they’ll rebound.
- Wash the leaves thoroughly and remove stems and any insect friends that came along for the ride.
- Put up to four cups of leaves in your food processor, along with a tablespoon or two of good quality olive oil.
- Pulse until the leaves are chopped to the consistency of pesto.
- Spoon into small containers or an ice cube tray and freeze.
- Once frozen, store the basil paste in heavy duty freezer container.
- When ready to use, defrost and add to your favorite dishes.
I use basil paste in tomato sauces, on pasta, to make pesto, in soups, and more. While it’s not as good as fresh basil in the summer, it’s a pretty good substitute.
It’s not too late to plant some basil for this summer. Just make sure to water it well the first few weeks so that it can get established.
And just think of the rewards! Right now, I’m hankering for a platter of fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes and fresh mozzarella interspersed with leaves of basil and drizzled with olive oil. Mmmmm. Now that is good eating!
Do you have any plans for this Saturday, September 11? If not, plan to be at the 4th annual Heritage Harvest Festival, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the West Lawn at Monticello.
