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.

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!

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.

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!

Photo credit: Amazon.com

I’ve mentioned here before that we here in my family are big fans of farmers’ markets.  Even though we have a good-sized garden just steps from our back door, we still like to head downtown on our bikes every Saturday and see what our local farmers have for us that week.  We invariably pick up lots of great foods — including fresh cheese, grass-fed beef, and plenty of veggies — to feast on for days.

While we usually buy our favorites, we also often come across new veggies that look interesting.  Last summer, for example, we were fascinated by blue potatoes and bought them several weeks in a row.  We then experimented with preparing them different ways and discovered that roasting them was great, but mashing them was bad, as the color leached out and they ended up looking gray and sickly.

But there have been some foods that we haven’t been quite sure what to do with or have wanted to try new ways of preparing some of our old favorites.  Thus it was that I was excited to read about Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from American’s Farmers’ Markets by Deborah Madison.  It’s a fascinating book — part history of farmers’ markets, part cookbook, and part coffee table book (the photos are gorgeous).  This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to eat locally and seasonally, as the author has sections on the different vegetables and fruits you’ll find at the farmers’ market throughout the growing season and then gives you a plethora of ideas of how to eat all that bounty.

So if you’re a fan of farmers’ markets or just a fan of eating seasonally, I encourage to you get your own copy of Local Flavors and start cooking!

Photo credit: Yahoo Images

With berry season upon us, now is the perfect opportunity to preserve some of the bounty for the cold months.  The easiest way to do this is by freezing.

Freezing is simple, simple, simple.  Wash the berries and let them dry.  Put them on a baking sheet and stick them in the freezer.  Later on, transfer the fruit to freezer-safe containers.  That’s it.  Next winter, you’ll have fruit galore to bake muffins and pies and add to your oatmeal and more.

Now is also the time to preserve cherries.  In Charlottesville, the pick-your-own places have cherries now (this is earlier than usual), but you should also be able to find cherries at the farmers’ market and other places.  C’ville Market has local cherries in stock now too.

Freezing cherries is almost as easy as berries — the only difference is that you’ll need to remove the pits first.  I worked through two pounds in about 30 minutes yesterday and will be doing more today.

Yes, this is a tiny bit of work — and yes cherries are a wee bit messy — but the pay-off will come several months from now on a chilly morning in October when I’ll make oatmeal and stir in cherries for a burst of flavor.  Mmmmmmmm…

Another way my family eats cherries is this simple cake recipe, which has been in the family for almost 50 years:

Cherry Cake

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teas. baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/8 teas. salt
• 1/2 teas. flavoring (almond or vanilla extract)
• cherries (1-2 cups frozen or one can of comstock)
• powdered sugar

Instructions

• Heat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.
• Grease 8 x 8″ pan.
• Mix all ingredients except cherries and powdered sugar.
• Pour battered into pan.
• Add cherries on top.
• Bake 30-35 minutes.
• Sift powdered sugar (to taste) on top and serve warm.

Enjoy!

My younger daughter got a fresh, homemade popsicle at the farmers' market last weekend. Mmmm...

Now that June’s heat is upon us, my thoughts have turned toward cold frozen treats.  I went to the grocery store recently and made the unpleasant discovery that a lot of the ice cream and popsicles available are loaded with high fructose corn syrup and other undesirable ingredients.

Luckily, I have an ice cream maker and I know how to use it.  Last weekend, we dusted it off and got busy.  Actually, one of my daughters and her friend made the ice cream while I supervised.  (Too bad they didn’t also clean up afterward…)  The ingredients for chocolate ice cream were wonderfully simple — cream, sugar, unsweetened chocolate, and a splash of vanilla.  No HFCS or other unpronounceable chemical concoctions.  Making ice cream is incredibly easy — mix up the ingredients, put them in the ice cream maker, and turn it on.

All ice cream makers come with recipes, but over the years we’ve learned that the best source for ice cream perfection is Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book.

Another thing my family likes to make is ice cream sandwiches.  We layer homemade cookies or graham crackers with ice cream and create absolutely divine desserts.  Some of our favorites are chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on chocolate chip cookies, cookies and cream ice cream on chocolate graham crackers, and coffee ice cream on ginger snaps.  (It sounds odd, but you have to try it.)  My husband normally doesn’t eat sweets, but even he will dive into our homemade ice cream sandwiches.

As for popsicles, you can use store-bought molds or you can simply use small cups as your molds.  This is a simple food project that doesn’t require a lot of fancy equipment.  You can simply freeze juice and fruit in the cups or get more elaborate and try some of these yummy recipes.  The important thing is that YOU can control the ingredients and don’t have to worry about the aforementioned chemical cocktails.  My younger daughter had a homemade strawberry popsicle at the farmer’s market last weekend and one thing that made it really stand out (besides the incredibly fresh ingredients) was chocolate shavings in the popsicle.  Yum.  We’ll definitely try that at home this summer.

So this summer, don’t automatically buy ice cream and popsicles when you’re at the store — try doing it yourself at home.  It’s easy and the results are worth the little bit of extra effort.

Photo credit: http://peanutbuttermilk.wordpress.cocm

One of the many great things about early May in Virginia is that it’s strawberry season.

Strawberries might just be one of Nature’s most perfect foods.  They’re at their best when they are grown organically and then eaten right after they’ve been picked.  Strawberries grown in California (or further afield) and then shipped to your grocery store in January just can’t compare.

Strawberries are easy to grow, but you do need to keep an eye on them so that they don’t take over your garden.  Or, you can keep them contained and grow them in a raised bed or pots on your patio.  For more information on growing berries, check out this article at Organic Gardening.

If you don’t have a garden, I suggest that you get yourself to your local farmers’ market or a nearby strawberry farm to get some berries.  One of the wonderful things about strawberries is that they freeze well, so you can save Spring’s bounty for future eating.  And, of course, there’s always strawberry jam…

Some of you may not know this, but the best way to store strawberries is NOT in the fridge.  Yes, strawberries last longer when kept chilled, but they lose flavor rapidly.  Instead, leave them unwashed and unsliced at room temperature until you’re ready to eat them.  Be advised that they will only last a couple days this way, so be prepared to dig in soon.

What is my favorite way to eat strawberries?  With this amazing fruit, simplicity is the way to go:

• Strawberries taste amazing with plain or vanilla yogurt.
• Angel food and pound cakes are also quite wonderful when topped with fresh strawberries.
• Strawberries dipped in chocolate!

Strawberry season always seems too short to me and then  I have to wait patiently for it to roll around again the next year.  Luckily, blueberries and raspberries are right around the corner!

Home-canned pickles. Photo credit: firefly64's Flickr photostream

I’ve been gardening for about 15 years now, but didn’t really have much of a kitchen garden until a couple of years ago.  Last year, my family moved into a new house with a blank slate for a yard, which gave me the opportunity to imagine all the possibilities and just how big my kitchen garden could get.

As of this spring, I have about 400 square feet dedicated to food, which is my largest garden yet. I created all this space, as well as my surrounding flower beds myself, most of it last year after we moved in.  Needless to say, I have invested hundreds of hours in creating this little botanical utopia.  I’m not even going to stop and calculate how much money I’ve spent on seeds, plants, dirt, mulch, and more.

I love gardening.  I believe in gardening and its positive impact on my health, my family’s health, and our environment.  Nothing pleases me more than to walk outside on a July afternoon and pick veggies and herbs for our dinner.  Once October rolls around and my  garden stops producing, I miss having fresh tomatoes and basil and more.

My husband is on board with all this too — he benefits from all the great produce, but also from having less yard to mow, and he believes in gardening for the same reasons I do.  Like me, he loves having a freezer and pantry full of last summer’s bounty.  However, last week, he said something that stopped me in my tracks and which I have been thinking about ever since.

I was telling my husband about my plans for something in the garden — canning pickles this summer — and he commented, “Why bother?  It’s less expensive to just buy them at the store.”

Why bother? That really stuck with me and I’ve been pondering it for days, wondering if what I’m doing is really worth the time and effort.

The answer is a resounding YES.  Growing my own food and eating locally and seasonally IS worth the effort.  Cooking from scratch and preserving the bounty of my garden means that my family eats better throughout the year.  Our food doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup and other additives, plus home-cooked food using fresh ingredients just tastes better.

As for those pickles, it costs me almost nothing to plant the cucumbers, dill, and garlic I’ll need for dill pickles.  Vinegar is cheap too.  One day in July or August, I’ll find that I have too many cucumbers on hand, so I’ll pull out some jars, various ingredients, and my canner and I’ll whip up a batch of pickles, which should cover all the cook-outs and barbecue dinners my family will have in the next year.

When I can my own pickles — or make spaghetti sauce or chicken broth or bread crumbs — I control what ingredients are used.  I know that my food doesn’t contain crap that I don’t want my family to eat.  I know that my cucumbers, garlic, and dill will be organic, because that’s how I garden.  I know that my pickles won’t contain any ingredients that I don’t want in them.

Yes, there is a cost to my time to make the pickles and preserve, but that doesn’t concern me because I’m making them because I want to — because I want to bite into one next winter and remember the bounty of Summer 2010.