Blackberries and Beets

After a very busy weekend, I had a rare Sunday afternoon of down time.  Instead of taking a much needed nap I decided to dive into making some more of the fermented recipes I have been itching to experiment with.  I can't get enough of making these lacto-fermented foods.  They are just so yummy and easy!  Not to mention beneficial for our digestion.  So after a stroll around the orchard, some deep inhales-exhales, and a visit to the garden, I came back to the house with a big bowl of warm juicy blackberries, a whole bunch of mint (several kinds) and one gigantic red beet.  Did I say gigantic?
And yes, I usually do have better things to do than take pictures of over sized vegetables but I needed proof.  I've never seen a beet this big before. 

So in to the kitchen I go to begin my experimentation...

...which resulted in five pint jars of raw beet kraut (click here for basic kraut recipe) and two gallons of fermented soda, one blackberry and one green tea/mint.  Yummmm!  You really do have to try these...

Fermented Blackberry Soda
about 6 cups of blackberries (freshly picked or frozen)
1 gallon filtered water
2 cups whey
1 cup agave or sugar (haven't had very good results with honey)

Wash berries if fresh and add to pot with 1/2 gallon of water.  Add sweetener and simmer until sweet and berries are pretty much broken down, about 15 minutes.  Taste for sweetness.
(If not sweet enough either simmer longer or add more sweetener.)
Pour berry syrup into gallon glass jar and let cool.  Add whey and rest of water until jar is full.  Stir well, cap and let sit in a warm place for a couple of days.  Taste after a day and a half to monitor the fermentation process.  The soda should become bubbly.  I have found that 2 days tends to be plenty in warm weather, I monitor mine closely because I don't want my soda to turn alcoholic. 
Once the bubbles form, strain the soda, put into bottles and refrigerate.  Enjoy chilled on hot days.

Moroccan Mint and Green Tea Soda (adapted from suddenly sauer)
A huge handful of fresh mint (about 1/2 lb)
1 gallon filtered water
2 tbls. green tea (preferably gunpowder but I have used sencha too)
1 cup agave
2 cups whey

Wash mint.  Bring water to a boil, add sweetener, then add fresh mint and green tea.  Remove from heat, stir, cover, and let steep for 20 minutes.  Pour into a gallon glass jar (leaving room for the whey) and let cool.  Cap and let sit for a couple of days to a week in a warm place until bubbles start to form.  Strain and bottle then refrigerate.

Digging in the Dirt

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance,

 the wise grows it under his feet."
-  James Oppenheim

Lately we've been eating LOTS of potatoes.  So versatile, comforting, and nutritious, these red potatoes were harvested a few days ago.  We had planted only one pound but the harvest was a full milk crate, I think I could have even left them in the ground a bit longer. 

My favorite way to use potatoes these days is to make a crust with them-for quiche, fritata or any savory pie. To do this, thinly slice several potatoes, add a generous amout of olive oil to a pie plate and arrange the slices in an overlapping spiral covering the whole dish.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper then bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes while you assemble other ingredients.  (This crust is also tasty made with yams.)

For a yummy, summer, vegetable pie:
1.  chop and saute any fresh garden vegi  (chard, zucchini, etc.)
2.  grate or crumble your favorite cheese over the browned potato crust (my favorite is feta)
3.  add sauted vegis on top 
4.  in a seperate bowl combine 4 eggs with 1.5 cups of half and half, whisking together.  Season egg mixture with your favorite seasoning and pour over the cheese and vegis
5.  if you're a cheese lover like mysef, grate a little more cheese on top and bake for 10 minutes in a 425 degree oven, then reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean
Serve with a salad and enjoy an easy, delicious meal.

harvesting the goods

Magic of Many Hands

"The softest thing in the universe overcomes

the hardest thing in the universe."

-Tao Te Ching

This week we had a little garden work party.  Only our second but I am still amazed at how fast work gets done with more help.  A few friends built raised beds in the former location of the chicken coop with hog fencing, filling them with composted manure, straw and soil.  Meanwhile many little hands (about 8 kidos) weeded the garden, thinned carrots, and played hide and seek.  We concluded with a meal and lots of laughter.  What can be better than that?  Thanks again you guys!

The pumpkin patch is now complete, we just have to decide what to plant in the new beds.  More potatoes?

A Fabulous Year!

 July 1, 2011 marked our one year anniversary at Soul Flower Farm.  Wow...a year of sweat, laughter, aching muscles, amazing discoveries, hours and hours of digging, dreams realized, lots of bruises, bee stings, breathtaking views, uncountable cups of tea, wonderful neighbors, goat and chicken love, so much learning, and above all GRATITUDE!  Here are some pictures of our blessed first year as aspiring farmers...

a classic:  Yasir on his 1947 tractor

site of medicine wheel, before

medicine wheel in full bloom

Following are some pictures of the evolution of our south facing hillside.  From waist high weeds to shoulder high grains. 

 after scarification, before planting



sheet mulching, first steps



finished sheet mulched beds



Some of the beds were then double dug, some we planted into the sheet mulch.  We tried out a variety of crops to see what would grow well in our soil.

red, orange, and green amaranth, quinoa on the right

cucumbers

sweet  and popping corn

watermelon

early pumpkin patch

Now:  zucchini, pumpkins, pink banana squash, kabocha squash and tomatoes

Original front yard turned into a perennial kitchen garden.



tree collards in kitchen garden

Lima bean tepee



lavender, mint and perennial vegis



What a year.  Much love to all of you who helped and supported us.  All the new friends, advice, and company are greatly appreciated.  We are praying for and working toward another year of growth and learning. 

Krauts and Pickles

Making lacto-fermented mixtures or pickling is an easy and extremely healthy way to use your extra vegis.  You can really use any vegetable mixture but it is important to use the best quality organic vegis, pure sea salt, and filtered water.  My favorite traditional sauerkraut is made with green or purple cabbage.  I also recently tried this sea kraut variation for my seaweed loving children.  Begin by rinsing your cabbage.  Remove the outer leaves and set aside, then slice the cabbage thinly.

Use any type of edible sea vegetable,  I happened to have this huge bag of wild Japanese wakame

(I purchased pre-nuclear meltdown) in my pantry that needs to get used up.  If you can harvest your own even better!

Add to your chopped cabbage one tbls. sea salt and as much sea weed as you like, I added about one cup.  (Remember the dried sea weed will rehydrate and become much larger.)

Now mix and smash with your hands, a pestle, or a potato masher.  Whatever method, you just want to pulverize the cabbage mixture until it is wilted and the juices are released.  The volume of the mixture will decrease significantly. 

Fill a clean glass jar with the kraut leaving about an inch space at the top, the vegetables and their juices will expand slightly during fermentation.  You can pack it in but not too tightly.  If there is not enough liquid to cover the kraut then make a brine with one quart filtered water and one tbls. salt.  I usually boil a cup of water and dissolve the salt in that then add the other 3 cups of room temperature water so I don't have to wait for the whole thing to cool.  (Do not add hot liquid to the jar.)  Pour the brine into the jar until it is covering the kraut.  

 Now you can take the extra cabbage leaf and carefully push the sides down into the jar to cover the kraut and keep it submerged under the brine.  You may have to push gently to get it to all fit in there.  Everything should be submerged under the brine to prevent molding. 

Seal your jars tightly and leave in room temperature place of about 72 degrees for a few days to a week.  More time is needed if it is colder and less if it is warm.  After 2-4 days at room temperature it needs to be stored in a cool dark place-about 40 degrees. 

Next I tried some fermented greens.  There really is no end to what combinations you can make.  I had a lot of dinosaur kale in the garden.  It looked like the aphids were beginning to move in so I decided to harvest. 

After washing thoroughly I chopped them finely, adding some sliced leeks.

Then using the same process as above, I salted and pressed them.  Put them in the jars and added the brine.  I'm excited to see how they turn out.  Use these krauts as condiments on your dinner table, add to salads, or just eat plain in small amounts. 

One more recipe we tried recently that turned out well was a zucchini pickle from Recipes For Living In Big Sur, by The Big Sur Historical Society (a really great book, by the way, if you are interested in California history).  I made mention in an earlier post of a certain excess of zucchini these days.  This recipe can be made with any surplus garden vegi. 

2 lb zucchini sliced

2 medium onions, sliced

1/4 cup salt

1 pint white vinegar

1 cup sugar

1 tsp celery salt

1 tsp turmeric

1.4 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp mustard seed

Slice zucchini lengthwise.  Cut slices in quarters if zucchini is large.  Cover zucchini, onions, and salt with water.  Let stand 1 hour, then drain.  Mix remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Pour over zucchini and onions.  Let stand 1 hour.  Then boil 3 minutes.  Pour into hot jars and seal.  (Makes about 3 pints).

Note:  I changed the recipe a bit and added ginger and curry pwd as my spices instead of celery, turmeric, and mustard.  It turned out really yummy but I will definitely use way less sugar next time.  (I like sour pickles better than sweet.)  Enjoy!

Strawberry Picking

strawberry field with ocean view

Our family has a tradition that, for me, signifies the arrival of summer.  Driving down the coast to Davenport and picking ripe, red strawberries.  The destination:  Swanton Berry Farm, a little north of Santa Cruz, is an organic farm with fields that span up and down highway 1.  Depending on the time of year you can pick olallieberries, strawberries, or kiwis. 

moving through the rows looking for, and tasting the best specimens

You will love this place, the view is amazing and to make a day of it we usually visit both the strawberry and olallieberry fields and then hit the beach.  On the way home...the Flying Fish Grill in Half Moon Bay has the some of the best fish tacos ever!



Picking all of those berries was a good reminder of how privileged we are.  It is hard work bending over all of the plants, that type of work definitely leaves you with a backache.  All the while we were picking, the field to the left full of migrant workers striping plants of their fruit.  It is very humbling to remember that it is a privilege to be there for fun and not to have to be working to for wages. 

With all of this beautiful fruit we came home and made jam,  (of course, we also had to make strawberry shortcake!)  To make jam, wash and chop fresh strawberries, as many as you like. 

Add strawberries to a clean stock pot along with the sweetener of your choice (organic sugar, agave, honey, etc.).  I don't usually measure I just add sweetener then taste.  Simmer on medium heat until the liquid begins to release from the fruit.  Do not add water.  Turn heat down to medium low and simmer for awhile with lid off, stirring occasionally until the jam becomes thick and fruit is less chunky. 

Once the mixture begins to thicken a bit you can add a packet of fruit pectin or one tbls. per pint of liquid of kosher gelatin.  Stir well until all dissolved, when the jam is nice and thick pour into clean, sterilized glass jars.  At this point you can let it cool and refrigerate or freeze, or can your jam and store in your pantry.  If the jam turns out a bit runnier then store bought jam, don't fret.  Spoon over hot pancakes or french toast.  It is heavenly that way!  Enjoy...