The outdoor kitchen stove:

I find it completely satisfying to take split tomatoes from the garden and can a batch of tomato puree for winter use. Its a bit like taking lemons and making lemonade. Sour turns sweet. Split tomatoes or tomato bounty hanging on the vine, you are going to have waste. But add some hard work and you have tomato puree. Wait, its not hard work, but its focused and time-consuming. I’m getting into the zen of canning this month. I think after a few years of it, its an easy process for me. I don’t have to pour over the Ball Book anymore, getting overwhelmed by the choices, the step-by-step details of canning, and the fear paragraphs about germs and botulism. Which, by the way, you can’t taste or see or smell, but enjoy your canning experience, you’ll be fine…

I’ve tried a variety of techniques and products over the past few years, and now I know what I like to do. I like to make tomato puree, a straight tomato base. It can be a soup base. It can simmer longer on the stovetop and become pizza sauce or ketchup. It can be thickened with garlic and onions and other veggies for a pasta sauce or lasagna sauce. I keep it pure and simple when I can it, and then I can add all those goodies later when I’m cooking. Did you know tomatoes are on the edge of acidity? 4.0-4.6, and 4.6 is the limit to safe water-bath canning. Add some lemon juice and you throw it over the edge into higher acidity, where botulism can’t thrive. Add anything else to tomatoes–like herbs and vegetables–and you  could throw it over the other edge, where botulism can survive. So I play it safe, and keep my tomatoes as plain puree. (I know tons of people who add things and continue to live, just sayin’)

I don’t mess around with peeling tomatoes. That process drives me crazy. I quarter them unpeeled, and stew them a bit in a big pot. Then I pour off the water from the tomatoes. This  saves hours of evaporation time during thickening. The stewed, drained-off tomatoes go to Victoria, and come out a bit watery. It takes more simmer time to thicken this way (improved by pouring off the water) but I just saved loads of time and patience by not peeling tomatoes.  So I don’t mind simmer-time. One day I made my puree and left it simmering on the stove (with Phil home to monitor) and I went to yoga. Came home in a couple hours to a nice thick puree ready to can. [Of course, if I don’t have time to thicken it, I’ll can it anyway. It takes more cans and is much more watery, but it’ll still be useful. I’ve also skipped the Victoria and blended the stewed quartered and poured-off tomatoes with skins and all, with an immersion blender. That works too. ]

Meet Victoria (Victoria Mill, that is). She helps us squash tomatoes into juice and puree, spitting out the skins and such.

Elaine and Victoria.

The Super Canner: this baby can fit almost 20 jars at a time. Simply constructed with cinder blocks, a half-barrel (that’s not what its called?) and a blow torch. I need to credit our friends the Horsts at Jehovah-Jireh Farm with this idea. Phil dug a hole to set the blow torch in, the Horsts put an elbow on theirs to shoot it upward, I believe. And they had a sink base. Different ways to do it.

Thirty minutes boiling in Super Canner, and we’re done. Phil’s taking out jars with the Jar Taker Outer. (ok, tongs)

Let those jars rest for a day, so as not to bump them (dare I say…jar them?) before they cool and seal.  Gaze at them. Revel with them. Label them and put them in a pantry or other dark ideally cool-ish space.

The kids are getting geared up to check in on the bees and collect a little honey. We sure didn’t expect a speck of honey, so this is a real treat. We left plenty of full honeycomb in the hive to feed the bees through the winter.

Steve and one of the frameless combs. The bees made their comb without any foundation comb, isn’t it beautiful? That means we can eat the honey right in the comb, my absolute favorite taste sensation of all time.

Look at my brave kids! They are so interested and Steve is so patient.

Jonah gently brushes the bees off the comb we are collecting.

Here is Steve, enjoying some bee-gold in the comb with us, right in the garden. What an incredible treat. Thank you, Steve!

Here’s Donna helping to hang the garlic. I like that she wore overalls for the occasion.

Here’s what its like to eat your lunch in the garlic barn:

Sneak preview

http://csagourmet.blogspot.com/

Check out CSA Gourmet blog, the creation of House in the Woods CSA member, Elizabeth DeRose! Its a great new resource for local, seasonal, fresh from the CSA share recipes and ideas. And she’ll answer all your cooking questions, so comment on her blog and ask away.

A Simple Thought

And another CSA-inspired blog, A Simple Thought, by our summer intern, Lisa Curcuruto. Check it out, ask her questions about her experiences on the farm, and enjoy the good read. I really want to try out her kale recipe. And I like that new members can relate to her entries, because this summer is a first-time farm experience for Lisa.

I even like how it plants. You plant it in the fall (not in the busy spring planting season) and harvest “between solstice and fourth of July” (in the words of my farmer friend Eric from Country Pleasures Farm). Oh my, how we have harvested. Thank goodness Phil likes to think outside the box and used his plow to dig under the garlic row. We used to pitchfork every bulb! And stab some. He only sliced a few with the plow. After the row is plowed, its collecting and bringing to the barn in the pickup truck. Pitchforks, lay still. Saved Phil’s back and tons of time. The barn chairs are full of garlic bundles instead of concert-goers. Phil says the bundles are not watching a concert, they are awaiting trial. Who shall be hung (in the barn to cure) and buried in the fall? Who shall be eaten alive by CSA members and Common Market shoppers? But I prefer the vision of a spicy concert. Before I send you a photo of the garlic harvest, I need to share the scape photos I took last month.

OK, I love garlic scapes too. They are a fun and loopy byproduct of the garlic plant. Its the seed pod, and since you don’t even grow garlic from its seed (you plant its cloves from the bulb), you can snap off these seed pods. i love that they are edible. They have a garlicy juice that stays on my hands for a day or two. Chop em up and scapes are wonderful in stir-fries or roasted or baked.

Here are some scape models:

One of our goats, Hazelnut, arrived this week [early May] with her sister, who is just visiting, and I already have a dozen farm stories to share. OK, Hazelnut is a companion goat. A “companion” goat, you may ask, with a smirk? Yes, indeed. The milk goat arrives later in the week, and Hazelnut will be her little friend. And who’s the twin over there? That’s Hazelnut’s sister, Apricot. Another nice little goat, she is. She is just visiting until the milkgoat arrives. Oh dear, the companion to the companion goat.

Animals make the best story fodder. Noah and I took to reading a chapter book to the goats in the morning. I set up a blanket seat for us and we read James Herriot Dog Stories to the goats all this week.

They are a little playful at the beginning and want Noah to put out his hand for a hand-headbutt. They eat and enjoy our company. Then they settle in and lay down near us, listening to the stories. One morning, when I paused from reading, Hazelnut looked up at me with an expression like “Keep reading”. Eventually, they nap.

Noah and I laugh that we are like Fern in Charlotte’s Web, reading to the animals in the barn. We watch the cows come in to listen across the fence (wondering if we’re passing out some grain). The chickens stroll in to see if there are any chickens in the story, some of them crossing into the goat paddock to check out the grain bucket. Now a good laugh, because today, I was surprised when Tigger the cat peeked out from an opening under the shed wall next to me and joined the crew. There are cats in some of the stories, so no wonder.

Sitka is there too, laying patiently on the other side of the gate, wondering if he’ll ever be invited into the goat house. For now, he waits patiently, and listens for his favorite dog in the stories, Gyp the sheepdog. Sometimes he gets excited and barks at the goats, and I have to stop reading and tell him to lay down again.

Today [later in the week] was exciting. Our milk goat Avanell arrived and it was time for my first try at milking. She seemed to get along with the other two just fine, gently letting Hazelnut play headbutt with her. She followed to the goat milkstand and jumped right up to eat. She finished eating well before we finished milking and she patiently waited. Such a good goat! So patient with our beginner hands doing the pinch and squeeze over and over. Yes,”we”. Jonah needed to try, and Phil needed to help. And when we were finally done, she jumped down and just walked over to her gate. At first, my left hand wanted nothing to do with this party, and I was slow. But it only took about four days to coordinate and not long before it was easy. Welcome, Hazelnut and Avanell!

I think the bok choi won my prize for most beautiful offering in the share.

Yes! Real dirt on vegetables!  Straight from the garden.

These Oasis white turnips are so sweet and mild. I like them best in a salad or thinly sliced and marinated in a dressing all by themselves.

Kohlrabi is the alien purple thing. Nobody comes into the CSA familiar with it, but kohlrabi is easy to make friends with. I like it best peeled and sliced raw, like carrots. I gave out samplesall weekend, so that nobody gets scared of the purple alien. Its docile.

Yep, that’s a big super cabbage.

Jackie actually brought her clay pot and we planted her herbs right at the sale display.

Our new (as of last year) veggie shed. Needs a better name than that. Any suggestions?

U-Pick herb garden.

House in the Woods Organic Heirloom Plant Sale

One of the most delicious tastes of summer is the heirloom tomato. These old-time varieties are bred for their taste and unique characteristics, unlike hybrids developed for a thick skin to withstand shipment to the grocery store. They are also indeterminate plants which means they flower continuously so you get a longer harvest. Heirloom varieties are bred for backyard gardens with a priority on taste–find out for yourself in your garden.

Sale Hours —

MAY 2-8:

Sunday May 2, 10am-5pm

Tuesday-Thursday (May 4th-6th) from 4-7pm

Friday May 7th, 10am-5pm

Saturday May 8th, 10am-5pm

2104 Mt Ephraim Rd, Adamstown, MD 21710
Contact ilene@houseinthewoods.com or 301-607-4048 for directions and appointments off-hours.

$4 per tomato plant, $3.50 for others, plus 6% sales tax. Ask about other plants for sale. We have another dozen heirloom tomato varieties beyond this list!

Bring a box for your plants. Return pots to our mailbox, we’ll re-use them!

May 2-8, 2010. More info–ilene@houseinthewoods.com    301-607-4048

REDS AND PINKS————————————

____ Black Krim–Dark red beefsteak with rich sweet taste from Black Sea of Russia

____ Brandywine–Pinkish red, most popular heirloom originated in 1889. 

____ Cherokee Purple—A favorite, from Tennessee cultivated by the Cherokee Tribe.        Plants loaded with beefsteak tomatoes. Deep red interior flesh, rich, complex flavor.

____ Arkansas Traveler—flavorful perfect rose-pink heirloom, 100 years old from the south. Tolerant of high heat, humidity, drought. Resistant to splitting.

UNIQUE COLORS————————————-

____ Old German—a mild sweet tomato, with red-yellow streaks to skin and flesh.  Low acid, as are most yellow, orange and green tomatoes.

____ Persimmon–Rose-orange like a persimmon, big, sweet. Fruit up to 2 pounds!

Vigorous and prolific plants.

____ Green Zebra–A magic tomato, green with dark green stripes, skin blushes

yellow when ripe. Green salsa or even green sauce! A hit for contrast on a potluck platter. Also have some Cherokee Green.

PASTES for cooking and saucing————————————————

____ Speckled Roma–Paste tomato, Red with a hint of orange and wavy yellow

streaks, a beauty! And sweet, you’ll want to cut some for the salad too.

____ Purple Calabash—rich red tomato good for saucing. Squatty shape.

____ Orange Banana –another unique paste, this one is orange!

CHERRIES————————————————

____ Matt’s Wild Cherry–Mini red wild cherry tomatoes, prolific. Cute little stems

with six bite-size tomatoes on each. Kids love ‘em!

____ Sungold Cherry–Orange, super sweet mini tomato. A rare exception to our

heirloom rule in our tomato collection, this hybrid is worth it. Our CSA members

eat them all up on the car-ride home.

PEPPERS and EGGPLANT——————————————————

____ Marconi—heirloom long green bell pepper that ripens to red

____ Purple Beauty—beautiful purple skin, green inside like a regular bell pepper

____ Pimento—Ripens to red quickly, tangy but mild, ideal for cooking or roasting

____ New Ace—a boxy hybrid green bell pepper that ripens quickly to red

____ Jalapeno—the medium-hot salsa pepper, prolific

____ Nadia Italian Eggplant—beautiful shiny standard Italian eggplant

____ Japanese Eggplant—long skinny Asian eggplant, great sliced for cooking.

PERENNIAL HERBS—————————————————-

____ Chamomile—beautiful little daisy-like flowers, dry them for tea

____ Sage, Thyme, Oregano—great culinary herbs for any herb garden.

____ Basil and Parsley too–most popular herbs in the garden

Chicken feathers can be really beautiful, take a look.

This one is named “Around the World” and I must admit that I have grown fond of sitting with this chick. It relaxes and sleeps in my hands. Some of them chirp all upset until you put them back with their friends. Not “Around the World”, not in my hands. This chick actually holds back from jumping out of my hands back to the rest, like it wants to stay with me. I think I’ll make it a little sack to carry along with me on my chores. I think it will be my special chicken friend. UH OH…next thing you know, I’ll have a kitchen goat.

A diverse motley crew, they are.