Putting Up or Putting By- Canning & Dehydrating

The worst part about the "putting up" season is that it is usually the hottest time of the year and slaving over a hot water bath isn't the greatest of pleasures, but the product is. I'm sure that if I thought about all the time I put into making something, like salsa, it alone would not be worth the cost versus going to Walmart and buying a jar of it, but since I'm paid nothing it ends up being cheaper to make my own. Then there are things to consider: the migrant farmers who get paid crap, while being sprayed with pesticides, the picking of unripe fruit to travel across the country to my local store where someone with E. coli touches the fruit and it spreads all over everything, etc. Even if none of this were true I'd still want to make my own because 1) it's better 2) I did it all by myself (which has pretty much been my mantra since I took my first breath (by myself).

So it is that time and I'm happy to say after a grueling summer we are in the low 80's and I've never been in more of a mood to put by some food. Today started with dehydrating some green beans, which were past their prime and a load of Thai Basil. I LOVE thai basil and I can only get it fresh in the winter at Jay International grocery in St Louis, which I don't get to enough since leaving my job in the city. Oh well. Dried is pretty decent. Since my tomato crop is dismal I had to BUY (ugh) tomatoes at the local farm. Oh well, they are local at least. So, salsa is going to be a smidge more expensive this year. I figured it ran me $1.07 per jar. 8 quarts of tomatoes, 6 red onions and 28 Fish peppers yielded 12 pints and 2 quarts. I followed a new recipe this year, which called for ground cumin seed, but I put it in whole. I'm always on a quest for a better canned salsa recipe. But nothing beats fresh. I also am trying a new hot sauce recipe, which calls for a mash of chilies to be fermented for 4-5 weeks. It better work, because I cleaned the garden and put every chili I had into it and including some sweet varieties: Bulgarian Carrot, Fish, Mustard Habanero, Corno di toro, Hot Portugal, Sweet Cherries, Jimmy Nardello frying peppers, Pasillas. Ground them all up and salted the heck out of them and put them in under glass to ferment. I'm using the directions in the August/September issue of Mother Earth News. I'm not sure if a link is up yet, so here's a pic of the recipe:

Chilies pre-chop.

Chilies chopped, salted, covered with cheesecloth and weighted with a plate to ferment.

The latest canned salsa recipe said to salt and allow to drain the tomatoes, which sounded like a good idea since my canned salsas tend to come out to watery. The salt drained away with the juice so I ended up having to add more to the recipe. Here are the maters salted and draining and stuff dehydrating. This is what 8 quarts of chopped roma tomatoes looks like. You need a large stock pot to cook this in.

I hired this small migrant worker to pick the Fish peppers for the salsa. The recipe called for a pound of chilies, but knowing that I would be feeding it to said migrant worker I only used 28, which I figured would be about 2 chilies per jar. It is between mild and medium hot. 

Here are the gorgeous Fish peppers. The plant is variegated and the chilies are a rainbow of striped colors. I just love the way they look.

End product:

The small migrant worker has requested lunch made from home this school year so I'm making lots of peach jam, as I figure PB and Jam are going to be my go-to quick sandwich many of days. A 1/2 peck of peaches yielded 11 jars of jam or 59 cents per jar. I decided to cover my butt I'll make another batch. 

Since we're talking food, I struggle with this idea of cost of food, food stamps, eating poor in poor communities, lack of access to healthy food, etc. I'm just not totally convinced that you can't find a way to get healthier food and I AM convinced that eating cheap food will make you pay for expensive medicine later. Some people in urban areas are using abandoned lots to grow gardens. You can grow a tomato in a bucket you find on the side of the road. I have. This is what $25.00 in fresh, locally grown food looks like: 

Making and eating salsa is an unnecessary pleasure, but I could have easily used some of the same ingredients and made pasta sauce and at a cost of $1.07 per jar that beats any dollar store. It would have cost pennies if my own tomatoes had produced better. My jam costs under $1.00 per jar too. Neither are high in protein, but that is where peanut butter steps in. It's a cheap protein or I could use my salsa to add to beans and rice, which make a complete protein. It isn't a stretch for me to eat cheap. I think more people could do it. 

Taming the Wild

I put a lot of thought into my garden and I think at least 30% of it has failed me this season. All of this loss makes me wonder what successes I have had. What should I repeat and learn from? One of the things I thought about was growing greens all summer long. I've tried a lot of knew things. The amaranth, while successful in germination, ended up being devoured by bugs. A few made it (survival of the fittest), but then I didn't eat it because I want to collect the seed, which is fine, because it is pretty and I want the ones with the "good" genes anyway. The climbing spinach worked, although it was choked out by the other climbers I planted with it. I had a few Perpetual Spinach germinate and look ok, but I think they are waiting for cooler times to step it up. Stepping back and taking in the panoramic of the garden what I see is these gigantic lamb's quarter shrubs that I didn't plant. They are loaded with healthy greens. As a matter of fact they are healthier than most of the plants I purposefully planted. There is barely any bug damage and they can be harvested perpetually throughout the summer. Hmmmm. Think I could learn something from this plant that has spent a couple hundred of years adapting to this environment? Insert big duh here. I love lamb's quarter. I eat it whenever I can. I never plant it. It requires no water, fertilizer or pesticide. DUH! My latest take on lamb's quarter is the taming of it in phyllo dough triangles. I sauteed a huge bowl of it with a shallot, some garlic and salt and pepper and tossed it in a blender to chop. I mixed in a little Bulgarian Feta and folded these little pockets up and baked at 350 for about 18 minutes. Yum. They were even good for breakfast this morning!

My mom, brother and I often debate the "healthiest" food. I'm convinced this should be the winner. Check out the nutrient content here.  It has a low glycemic index, high anti-inflammatory properties, high protein value, high nutrient balance, over 1,000% Vitamin K, 281% Vitamin A and other vitamins and is high in calcium and other minerals. How can you go wrong? I love it more than spinach. In fact, it blows my mind that this isn't a mainstream crop. Just look at how easy it is to grow and it wouldn't have to be shipped in from outside of the midwest! Incredible. Not only will I let this go to seed I think I will collect it and grow more of it next year. Another noteworthy comment is that it grows in nearly all of Europe, where my closest ancestors likely ate it too. If they survived and ate this wild crop, surely there is a reason to continue eating it (not that I will be passing along my genes to anyone).

Another success of the year: tomatillos. They thrived while my tomatoes suffered. 

Into the blender with a chili and some onion. Raw Salsa Verde.

And...

But even better was when I roasted the ingredients and then blended them together for Salsa Verde #2. Tomas impart a somewhat gelatinous texture to the salsa, like a thickener. It was good and different. I would grow them again. Now, I need a canned recipe to put some up for winter.

So what else- any surprise that a native fruit is more successful than ANY other fruit I've ever purchased and planted? Ya, so the orchard has had so many failures that I'm giving up on things. I'm not replanting. Any tree that dies isn't getting replaced. I will simple put in raised beds and fill it with something useful. I've been collected Wild Plums from trees I planted when I moved in about 10yrs ago. The produce loads of sour-skinned little fruits that I traditionally do nothing with. The bees of many sorts love the flowers and the butterflies come to the dropped fruits. This year I am collecting, seeding and freezing them until I have enough stored to make WINE! Yes, wine. My newest of hobbies. The fruit doesn't all drop at once, which is why I'm freezing it. I've also read that it takes 3 years to develop the best flavor. Wow. I certainly hope I don't F it up!

These are about the size of bing cherries.

My paltry tomato crop has yielded this much in canned tomato sauce:

Made of mostly Orange Icicle and Juane Flamme tomatoes.

Things that have failed or done lousy include: zucchini and yellow squash, cantaloupe and the tomatoes look like crap. I need to take this in and look to nature. What do I need to change? Obviously native plants or weeds are successful. Will I keep trying? Of course, but I have started the chopping block this year. Time to stop investing in an uphill battle and plant high-producing, dependable and self-sufficient crops. Look to a native plant to answer my questions:                Native Hibiscus

Grow where you are planted.