Kitchen Days

These are the kitchen days - days where we turn on the fan, heat up the oven, get out the food processor, the canning rig, the jam pot, the pickling salt.

Every extra moment filled with processing and cooking. Tomatoes into puree, salsa, paste. Peppers roasted and into the freezer.

Basil blended with garlic, walnuts, salt, parmesan, and olive oil. Pesto in little jars, into the freezer.

Cucumbers, picked when small, fermented into half-sour dills, or sliced and canned for bread n’ butter pickles.

Warm squishy berries picked in the hot sun, then cooked down with sugar into jam.

It’s hot work, and it’s persistent work. But our winter selves will thank us for doing it. Our stores are filling up! And tomorrow there will be more to pick….

Planning for Preserving

Yesterday morning, I ate the last of the frozen tomato 'sauce.' My current favorite way to eat it is in Shakshouka, or at least my version of it. Shakshouka is a Persian dish made of eggs poached in a rich tomato, pepper, onion, and cumin-y sauce; mine was simpler, as I just heated up my 'sauce' (roasted tomatoes, basil, olive oil, and garlic) and then poached the eggs in the middle. Simply delicious. Fast, easy, healthy. But no more shakshouka for me, as the frozen tomatoes are now gone.

Tomato mixture ready to go in the oven last year

The frozen tomatoes did last longer this year, which means I made almost enough of them. Which started me thinking about how much I need to freeze and can, to get us through the winter? I've always sort of estimated this, but I think it's time now to really dial it in. So I started making notes, looking at what's left on the canning shelf, and talking to my family (especially the pickle eaters), to figure it out for sure.

salsa, summer 2017

Here are the non-negotiable canned goods we go through:

         Jam (any flavor): 18 half-pints

         Pickles: 12 pints

         Crushed tomatoes: 12-18 quarts

         Tomato sauce (pureed): 8-12 pints

         Salsa: 6-8 pints

         Hot sauce (any kind): 8 quarter-pints

We could really preserve twice this amount, for giving away and having extra.

And here are the non-negotiable frozen goods we go through:

         Roasted sweet peppers: 12 pints

        Tomato 'sauce': 24 pints

         Pesto: 12 pints

         Romesco sauce: 4 half-pints

         Sliced jalapenos: 2 half-pints

         Tomato Paste (cubed): at least 2 dozen

         Lemon juice (winter): 4 pints

Again, we could freeze twice this amount, probably.

And then there are the extra things we will preserve if we have enough:

          Apple Pie Filling

          Dried fruits (plums, peaches, apples, berries, tomatoes)

          Dried herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, bay, dill)

          Canned or frozen fruits (peaches, berries)

          Canned or frozen veg (beans, peas, corn)

          Sweet and hot pickle relish

          Dried hot peppers for chili flakes

          Seeds for cooking - dill, coriander, fennel

Crushed tomatoes

So this year, I'm going to try to preserve even more of what we grow. I felt like we did an excellent job last summer bringing the harvest in, and I want to maximize production this year too. Now that I have a pressure canner and a dehydrator, as well as my water-bath canning rig, it should be easier to preserve more, but there are growing limitations that might make it hard to preserve as much as we like. For instance, I'm only growing 32 tomato plants this year, and I'm planning to plant densely and prune heavily to maximize space; this might mean limited harvest. We have a small space and want to grow as much diversity as possible, so there is only so much we can produce. Plus, our overarching goal this year is to improve the soil. That means growing not just for us, but for the creatures that live beneath our plants. And, we have to have plenty to eat fresh out of the garden!

Still, it's an interesting exercise to take an honest look at the pantry and decide what we would ideally like to have there. There's nothing to stop me from visiting the Farmers' Market in August and filling in the corners with local produce that I just couldn't manage to grow.

How do you plan and grow for your preserving projects? I'd love to know.

June Planting List

Welcome June, and welcome summer! Oh, I know it's not official yet, but June is summer in spirit from the very beginning of the month. The end of school is nigh, the start of camps around the corner, the coast calls, vacations must be planned! (Yes I know I'm a little late in the planning department!)

Here is your June to-do list. I would add: Keep seeding flowers! Deadhead those that have bloomed, unless you want them to go to seed, and continue to add lots of new seeds or transplants to keep the flowers going all summer long. 

Also, sow more basil. I've been seeding it every two weeks, to have a constant supply. I also need to get some more cilantro in the ground so we'll have some for salsa when the tomatoes and peppers come ripe. I also just seeded winter squash - a kabocha variety - a little late, maybe, but I had some room and wanted to give it a shot.

An acquaintance who hasn't started anything yet asked me what she could do in containers - and I told her, go ahead and plant everything now! You could still seed cucumbers and summer squash, beans and herbs, and even lettuces if you have a cooler spot. And you could start determinate tomatoes from seedlings now, plus peppers - I mean, the hot summer weather is yet in front of us!

And while you're at it, it would be a good time to check your canning equipment. Make sure you have labels, rings and lids, and more jars if you need them. Where's the huge pot and the magnetic lid lifter? Do you have large ziplocs for the freezer? Time to get all that stuff ready to go. My first project (Tom's already made jam) will likely be pectin from the windfall apples. Next come the peaches, and we'll make jam and also pack some plain for the new pressure canner. If we're lucky, we'll get enough blueberries to freeze some for muffins and pancakes over the winter. And then the tomatoes will roll in....

Happy Planting!