Tomato Season!

Yup it's tomato season. I have a glut of basil in my garden (mmmm) and got a basket of tomatoes from my grandfathers garden today (mmm). What did I do?  Easiest recipe ever!

Cut up tomato, mini bocconcini, ripped up basil, a pinch of salt, fresh cracked pepper, extra virgin olive oil.  YUM!!

Apple Butter–Part 3!

In finally getting to can the apple butter, I washed some small jars, heated up my big canning pot about 1/4 full with water, boiled my jars for 10 minutes, then put them aside on a cutting board (using the super fun jar lifter) to fill hem with goodness!  

I had reheated my apple butter in a pan to not shock the glass into breaking (cold butter+hot jar=danger) and boiled my lids in a small jar for 10 minutes. I grabbed the funnel that came with my canning kit to spoon the butter into the sterilized jars and poked it with the back of the nifty little headspace measuring device to release any air bubbles that might come to the surface when processing.  I made sure each jar had 1/4 inch of headspace to the rim, wiped the rim down of any butter that may have caught the rim, and used the nifty magnet stick to put a sterilized lid onto each jar.  I lightly screwed on a ring to each jar and processed them in the hot water bath for 10 minutes.  Out they came and voila!! Deliciousness canned!

The beautiful final product!!

Kind of unbelievable that that many apples made this little apple butter.....  Granted, one jar did break in the hot water bath :(, I gave some butter to my mum before processing, and I ate a bit of apple sauce when it was sauce but STILL.  Super concentrated apple sweetness! And the spices make it taste like pie!!!  A new favourite!

Apple Butter–Step 2

Step 2–Apple BUTTER from the apple sauce!

So my apple sauce looked a bit like this after cooking and I needed to get out all the peel before simmering further.  Apple skin has it's own pectin so apple butter doesn't need it–pretty nifty! But skins, not so tasty when everything else is mush....

I don't have a "food mill" (still not quite sure what that is...) but some makeshift ladle mushing action in a sieve worked pretty efficiently.
I simmered it down with "some" sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger.  My recipes work by dumping and tasting....  Who measures?! Putting the stove on medium heat made the apples bubble like mad and shoot burning hot apple sauce at me...  It wasn't nice....  I eventually figured out how to lift the lid like a shield and stir with a LONG HANDLED SPOON.  In the recipe I found it said kids were great to do the constant stirring. I see how things used to be. Apple butter must have been punishment for not doing their chores! In any case, I didn't stir consistantly, just every once in a while and I didn't have anything stick.  Frankly I simmered in batches, turning the stove of occasionally when I had to go run an errand/have singing practice. I finished cooking it down when if I scooped up a spoonful and tilted the spoon, it didn't drop for a moment.  I'm letting it cool overnight to put in the fridge in the morning to can tomorrow!  Baby steps!

Apple Butter–Part 1

After my Not Far From the Tree apple pick, I haven't had a big chunk of time to make apple butter so I have to do it in steps!! I found this recipe which I'm going to follow in the way that I follow most recipes... Not very well, haha
http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/fruits/r/applebutter.htm
Today was step one–apple sauce

I washed my apples in the sink with some apple cider vinegar. What a beautiful sight!

It's been a few days since I picked and it's been pretty humid so this has started happening...  Needless to say I spend some time cutting out all the mush and worms and cores.

I cooked the whole pot of these down with 3 mason jars of water until it looked like apple sauce–voila! Free apple sauce! Step 2 to come...

Powdery Mildew

So this happened to my squash plants....  Apparently its a very common problem caused by too much moisture and lack of sun to dry off the leaves. It is some sort of fungus and can be treated with various fungicides. Not sure what I'll do... But the best solution is, of course, prevention. SO next year I'm going to move the squash at my house to where there's more sun and CERTAINLY not in my other plot where I'm pretty sure it spread from another persons plot to mine!  Spores fly!  Poop!

Building Up a Food Pantry, Bit by Bit

I love this sight..  New jars of saved dill seed, calendula petals, borage flowers and leaves, radish seeds, and mint... I have a shelf in my bedroom growing and making me feel somehow safe.... Somehow right.... Fascinating

"I see the time coming where people fill their stomachs and are starving"

Rudolf Steiner was a smart man.
Pfennings farm sounds like a fantastic place too!  Who knew they have been at this since 1965!  I just see it everywhere without thinking to look into who Pfennings are. A wonderful little clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG41w1ZgDnI