Can It!

This post is long overdue but hey, better late than never. In July I attended a canning workshop at my most favourite organic farm, Everdale. I have taken a bee keeping course there, a soap making course and now I can add canning to my list. I have been canning at home for a few years now but wanted to take the course to pick up a few pointers I might not have already known. This water bath canning course is a pre-requisite for the Pressure Canning workshop they are offering in November so it's a win-win.







During the day we canned Garlic Scapes. I have never tried these before, hadn't even heard of them before and I must admit I am a little scared to try them. They look lovely in the jar though. The process of these is similar to pickles, with raw food going in the jars and then adding a brine.



We also made rhubarb strawberry jam which tasted de-lish during our end of session taste testing, so I can not wait to open the jar I was allowed to take home.







The workshop was exactly what I needed to jump start my canning season and get me back into my canning. I am gearing up to do some tomatoes before we leave on our vacation in a week. I am headed to the States for a writers retreat which we have tacked on a family vacation. I am fairly busy right now with writing critiques and working on my novel. I hadn't accomplished as much canning as I would have liked and I have sadly neglected my garden beds. There is always next year.

Me on a diet

No, I'm not actually on a diet, just changed my diet. You may remember a few posts ago where I explained my new raw food kick. It's been nearly two months now and I have to say I am feeling pretty good about myself. I have more energy than every before. I sleep better. I perform household tasks with more interest. I have never felt so good, so energetic, so alive.



I have pretty much been able to avoid wheat, a stance which has morphed into avoiding gluten. Sugar as well, though this is harder to avoid for a chocoholic like me. The hardest part of my dietary change is visiting others. I never know what is going to be available to eat and it's been a challenge to remember to bring my own sustenance. For instance, I went to a child's birthday party recently and heard the dinner was to be take out pizza. Red flags went off in my brain. I knew if I ate the pizza, even a single slice that I would be passed out on the couch either sleeping or in complete agony with my stomach rolling and turning. I was able to run out and grab a store prepared salad but I felt awkward, different, maybe even a bit like a "difficult person". No one wants to be difficult. I certainly don't but I also don't want to keep gaining weight like I have been or be in constant agony because of wheat.



After learning I had lost 11 lbs a friend asked what I eat because from her stance wheat is in everything. And she's right... well almost everything.



I have a smoothie for breakfast most mornings and have been known to whip one up and take it with me in a travel mug if I need to be out the door in a hurry. These smoothies are pure energy with four servings of fruit and sometimes yogurt. I don't drink coffee, or tea. Ever. I had cereal once a few weeks ago to try to break up my routine which had turned into a rut and I will never do that again. My stomach does not like it and my blood sugar gets all goofy so I learned my lesson quick. I guess I had been so use to the pain and discomfort when I eat wheat every day that now that I am off wheat I can really notice how my body responds.



For lunch I will have a baked potato, or leftovers from the night before. I am always snacking on carrots, grapes, cheese, milk as the day goes on that some days I don't eat a lunch. For dinner we'll have burgers (no bun for me) and a salad, or rice pasta with salad. I can have shepard's pie, chicken ceasar salad, chicken and rice etc. With the cold weather coming we will have more soups and chilies. After dinner I might have ice cream, or popcorn, or rice cakes or fruit.



That's pretty much it. I try to walk or do some physical activity in the garden every day. Now that I feel like I have my energy back it is easy for me to accomplish my task lists whereas before it felt like I had lead in my feet. I can't express to you the difference I have felt. I no longer feel lethargic or sleepy. I feel good for the first time in years. Next I want to lower my consumption of meat but in the meantime I am content with changing one aspect of my diet, that way I don't overwhelm myself with too much change.

Corn on the Cob

Nothing beats fresh from the farm corn on the cob but blanching and freezing that corn is a good second best. I started blanching and freezing locally grown corn a few summers ago. Once I figured out the technique I was blanching everything I could find.



Blanching is like semi-cooking food, halting enzyme production which ultimately spoil food over the long run. It is a better technique than just washing vegetables and throwing them in the freezer. Blanching creates a nicer texture while simply freezing vegetables can make them stringy, too soft and just not palatable.







So here's what I do:



De-husk corn and remove silks. Wash and set aside.



Boil a large pot of water on the stove. Once at a rolling boil add as many corn as you can fit. Let corn sit in the boiling water for 2 minutes, no more. Then immediately removed and plunge in ice cold water to stop the cooking process.







Now you may cut the corn into niblets or leave on cobs and freeze whole. I use to use individual bags but found it very wasteful so now I use larger freezer bags.







These two bags equal approximately 18 cobs of corn. I did the math last summer and found this to be very cost effective vs the frozen corn purchased from a store.

When Good Tomatoes Go Bad: Round Two

I have made an unpleasant discovery among my tomato plants this week. The ones which turned orange first have an unmistakable rotting spot on the bottom. I picked nearly an entire basket of rotten tomatoes from my 30 plants and just about cried. I still have more ripening as I type and upon inspection they all seem to be doing fine, so what the heck happened to this first round of tomatoes.







Apparently I have a crop suffering from Blossom Rot, which is a condition brought about by lack of calcium in the plant and surrounding soil. This can also be an issue for plants experiencing a higher than normal dry spell because moisture helps the plant soak up calcium.



I don't think my problem was the soil, more than likely the root of the cause (no pun intended) was the three week period when we had a municipally imposed watering ban. For nearly four weeks in July we experienced less than 2 inches of rain fall. This would not have been an issue had I installed rain barrels but as it is, rain barrels are on my extremely long list of household needs and I simply had not gotten there yet.



As I was canning pickles and jams, I let my canning "bath water" cool before spreading it over my plants. I did whatever I could to keep them alive and prayed for rain lest I loose my whole crop. It seemed to work because the plants are alive but the fruit is lacking calcium.



A suggested cure is sprinkling Epsom salts while planting next spring. Another source suggested egg shells. I shall have to try this in the future and see how my tomatoes fair. For now I shall watch and wait, hoping I get enough to can whole or even mix in to make salsa. Only time will tell.



In other news I harvested some more goodies from the garden; a cantaloupe (musk melon), three green peppers and some more onions hiding in the dirt. Not all is lost. It's still been a great year.

Thrifty Find

I bought this lovely soft yellow stock pot at Goodwill last week during the 50 per cent off sale. This had got to be the most beautiful pot I have ever seen. I have been using it to cook and blanch corn but I also plan to use it as a secondary canning pot. It cost me $5.









The wooden spoons were also a nice find at fifty cents. They are decorative since I am not sure they are food grade but they will fit in nicely with my primitive decorating scheme.

My Cats

We have four cats...they were all strays at one point and either showed up at our door or begged us to take them home with us. They have been a great source of entertainment all these years. I love them dearly.



Augutus "Sneezer"




Ember



10 foot drop...this is his favourite hang out.




Mortal enemies. Ember behind the chair, Theadora sleeping unaware...this can not turn out well.




"No cats on the table!"..."I'm not on the table. I'm in the basket!"

Garden of Eatin'

I am amazed at how much food my garden has provided me this summer. I spent a number of hours in the spring building raised beds, hauling soil and planting but after that, harvesting is the easy part.



This is a basket I brought to my sister with homegrown potatoes, onions, and carrots. I included some jars of homegrown, home canned pickles and jams.

Last week I harvested my onions. The tops fell over signalling their finished state. I let them dry on my deck at first but then brought them inside because of threatening rain.













The tomatoes are almost ready and the melons too. Corn is nice and tall but I think I planted them too close together so next year I will spread them out more.



Pumpkins

cantaloupe

The potatoes have finished as well. I waited for them to flower but they never did. The green tops just fell over so I dug them up. They are very tasty and ever so easy! I am definitely planting more next year.





I also found a fully grown apple tree in my backyard. This was a delight to find. We planted three trees in the front (and two pear trees) but currently we only have two apples on one of the trees. They will take a while to produce. This one in the backyard is bending under the weight of the apples. The apples are small and I think the tree needs to be pruned but it's still a young tree, no more than 7 years so I should be able to bring it back to life.



All in all, my new garden at my new house is doing excellent!