Monthly Archives: September 2009

You Say Catsup, I say Ketsup

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 12 Comments

Either way you put it it’s tomato time. I picked up my 25 pounds of romas today and set to work tonight after the littlest one was in bed. I ended up using about 18 pounds worth to make ketsup since my pot could only hold 2 gallons of liquid at a time. From this I got 3.5 quarts of glorious ketsup – not too sweet which makes it the perfect base for bbq sauce without the long simmer time since that has already happened.

The remaining tomatoes will probably become either tomato juice, roasted tomato soup or red chili sauce to can.

Have you ever seen a roma mill? It’s a magical creation with a large hopper into which you stuff all kinds of softened things like steamed apples, grapes or tomatoes. You turn the crank and the wonderful part of the fruit that you want comes out a strainer and into your bowl. The part you don’t want – the seeds and the skin head out the other end into a separate bowl. It’s pure genius.

I quickly washed & halved the tomatoes then threw them in the hopper and let my six year old take it from there. In no time flat we had 2 gallons of tomato puree simmering on the stove. You can also do this without a roma food mill but if you cook things like tomato sauce or applesauce it’s worth it’s weight in gold. Just imagine making applesauce and not having to peel or core the apples!

If you don’t have a roma you can simply cut up the tomatoes and cook them for about 45 minutes with the onions then run everything through a food mill or force it through a sieve with the back of a wooden spoon. Return the juice to the pan and cook with the spices, sugar & vinegar until it’s the thickness you want.

Homemade Tomato Ketsup

  • 16 pounds organic saucing tomatoes such as Romas
  • 2 large onions, peeled and chopped
  • 1 clove garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 cups evaporated cane juice
  • 2 cups Rockridge Orchard cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1/8 teaspoon whole cloves
  • 1 pinch allspice
  • pinch crushed red pepper
  • 1 pinch celery seeds

Simmer for several hours until desired thickness (mine took about 4.) You may want to put the spices in a spice bag so that you can take them out during cooking if you decide the flavors are getting too strong. In fact, I recommend not adding them until your ketsup is starting to get thick because the spices can get way too strong as the volume reduces and then the sauce can tend to get bitter. If you have an immersion blender you can give it a good whiz to be sure any onions are broken down and make the texture nice and smooth. One other thing I considered doing but didn’t – if you want super thick ketsup you can add a little pectin to it. I use pomonas pection that you can buy from PCC and that will thicken it up and redice the simmer time. I wanted to be sure mine would pour out of a bottle so I didn’t do that this time. Ladle into jars and process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

This ketsup will be going into a large batch of maple baked beans that I plan on making next week when the weather switches from freak summer to early winter. I am already dreaming of stuffed cabbage rolls smothered in ketsup sauce and ketsup glazed meatloafs. The flavors of winter sound so good as I face taking out the last of the summer fruits this weekend!

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Plum Done

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 5 Comments

I still am not back on my desktop with the photo software so no photos unfortunately.

The rats are back and onto the tomatoes like never before. In one hour 6 of my largest Cherokee Purple were ruined as well as countless sauceys. I finally took the netting off the eggplants, picked the last 2 eggplants and covered the Cherokee Purple. Hopefully it will slow them down a little even though I know they could dig under if they were really determined. Blasted rats.

This weekend I’ll take out the last of the tomato plants and make ketsup & barbecue sauce to can. I’ll also take out the last watermelon vine which still has a new melon quickly ripening on it. There is still one last butternut squash ripening and the zucchini vines have came back from powdery mildew and are producing once more. I trimmed them back hard and sprayed them with sulphur and now we have a whole new round.

I’ve been waiting to plant my rutabagas and turnips in that spot to help break up the clay a little more for next summer but the zucchini aren’t quite through yet. This succession of seasonal plantings is one huge dance with a small urban yard. There is clearly no way I can rotate all my crops for 3 years if I plant year round. I’ve already resigned myself to buying tomatoes next summer because of the blight. That also means potatoes can’t go anywhere the tomatoes were and that will make it hard because I want to do lots more potatoes next year.

I’ve been busy this week making applesauce with the last of the boxes of apples I bought. I decided the Akane are my favorite saucing apple. They are crisp and sweet-tart with a pink skin that turns the applesauce pink. The sauce stayed that bright pink open in the fridge all week and they have the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity that I didn’t feel the need to add any extra sugar. Next year I will buy Akane exclusively and I plan to take out one of my current apple trees and one or both plum trees to put in a pear and another apple.

Apples are easy to can, make great pectin to use for other jams, and can be juiced or sauced as well as stored into winter. That makes them the #1 tight space fruit crop in my book. I need to research Akane a little bit more to be sure they are disease resistant and do well in the city but if that turns up ok I will be getting one or two of that variety. My new favorite apple!

I’m currently making plum jam from fruit off the neighbor’s tree. I had no idea so many Seattle-ites had plum trees. Many of them sadly just leave the fruit to rot. I plan on doing my part next year in preventing that!

I also have a fridge drawer full of Asian pears from the neighbor. I’ve never had those before and have fallen in love with them. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll make a pear tartin and can the extras. We’ll see because tomorrow afternoon I pick up 25 pounds of romas from Eastern Washington to start my ketsup & barbecue sauce weekend…

I’ll put up a final tally of harvest preserved but for now I’ve posted a new page just below the banner showing the food I have a vague memory of planting, growing, eating or otherwise buying from farmers and preparing this year. It’s pretty amazing to me that this much food can come from a small amount of space formerly lawn that was never even used. We’re using it now!

In fact, when I started this journey my fear was that the blog would read like the last pages of Shackleton’s diary…ate the last potato chip and staring at the kids…no food growing yet…kids looking tasty…My yard and my efforts have surpassed my expectations. Take a quick look at the harvest tally and you’ll see what I mean. It’s quite staggering. Hopefully the girls will start laying soon and next year we can add honey bees, meat chickens and rabbits to the list. Did you know you can have a goat in the city? I’m still working on my husband there, he hasn’t quite embraced the chickens yet but he’s making great strides.

How about you? Do you still have unused lawn? Hopefully this will convince you to start dreaming this winter just how much you can sow come spring.

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Posted in Growing Groceries - Plants, Seeds and Growing Tips, Preserving Food

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Plum Crazy

Posted on September 20, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 8 Comments

Hopefully sometime next week I’ll get my desktop restored and be able to download photos again. Until then just imagine amazing plumness.

I’m winding down the plums in my kitchen unless I can convince my kids to come pick plums with me tomorrow from a neighbor’s tree. That’s assuming today’s blustery weather didn’t knock them all to the ground.

In the last 3 weeks I’ve had my share of plums. The neighbor who showed up with probably 30 pounds of plums started me down the path. Within days I had canned or dried them all and emailed the neighborhood for more so that I could send them to preschool with my little guy. He attends a wonderful montisorri but the snack food is atrocious. It’s generally saltines and graham crackers so this year I’ve made it my mission to supply their snack at least once a week.

It won’t be easy to beat a graham cracker in a three year old’s eyes – especially one who never gets them! But I’m putting my thinking cap on and hopefully it will serve me well.

Back to the plums.

This has been a bumper year for them it seems so I’m listing how I’ve preserved or served them in my household. There are many, many more ways.

Mostly I’ve dehydrated them. When you do it yourself they taste nothing like what you buy in the store. The sugars are almost carmelized and you can take them out a little early while they are still soft. This retains much of the fresh flavor but most of the water has evaporated out so they take up about 1/8 of their original space. I save them in glass jars in the freezer since I didn’t dehydrate all the moisture out (which is why they are so yummy).

Once they are dried like this you can simply soak them in warm liquid for about 10 minutes to rehydrate them. You can put them into muffins, quick breads or bake them as you would fresh plums. To dry them simply wash them, halve and pit them then lay them on dehydrator screens skin down until no juice comes out when you squeeze them.

I’ve also made plum chutney. I love to use this chutney as a glaze or sauce for pork or any rich smoky meat like smoked duck. It also makes a great base for salad dressing for a beet and gorgonzola spinach salad. The measurements are very fluid – add until it’s to your liking and it’s so high in sugar from the plums and vinegar that it will still be safe to process in a water bath.

Plum Chutney

About 15-20 plums, chopped skin on
1 onion, chopped
1 cup raisins or dried currents
1/2 cup evaporated cane juice or honey
1 cup Rockridge Orchard apple cider vinegar

Simmer for 30 – 60 minutes until you achieve the thickness you like
Bottle and water bath process for 10 minutes, or freeze

Lemon Verbena Plum Compote

30 plums, seeded and chopped with skin on
1 cup evaporated cane juice
1 cup filtered water
1 handful lemon verbena leaves
2 Tablespoons honey
Warm the water and sugar in a pan with the lemon verbena leaves, crushing the leaves with the back of the spoon. Stir the sugar until dissolved then turn the heat off and let the lemon verbena steep for 10 minutes.
Remove the lemon verbena leaves and add the honey, stirring until dissolved.
Add the plums and cook gently over medium heat for 2-5 minutes until they soften slightly. Can using a water bath for 10 minutes. These are great with yogurt and granola or with pound cake and whipped cream for a quick dessert, or just to eat plain in the middle of winter when you really want fruit that tastes fresh and not dried or stewed.

Plum Cobbler

Any cobbler, crisp or crumble topping recipe
Enough quartered plums to fill your casserole dish
2 Tablespoons of instant tapioca or cornstarch
Quarter plums and add sugar and cinnamon to taste, then add tapioca or cornstarch. Cover with topping and bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven until the filling bubbles. Serve with Snickerdoodle ice cream or cinnamon whipped cream.

Some other great ways to use plums:

Plum Butter
Plum Jam
Plum Clafoutis
Plum Tartin
Spiced Plums
Brandied Plums
Plums in Port
Upside Down Plum Cake

How about you? What are your favorite ways to use plums?

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Dear Seattle Public School District, I want my week back!

Posted on September 19, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 1 Comment

I have no idea where this week went but it’s been bar none the longest week of my life. OK I may be conveniently forgetting the weeks around the birth of my two kids but it’s been pretty darn long!

Besides working to restore computer files and software programs on a laptop that was only meant to be a convenient email muse while my kids laughingly play together (haha) I’ve been filling out piles of paperwork in duplicate and triplicate for two schools, rushing to get the kindergartener to school then rushing to get the three year old to montisorri then rushing to pick up the three year old, prep dinner, rushing to pick up the kindergartener and get them to after school functions of soccer, legos and swimming.

I’m trying to spend quality time with them in the hours after school since they are gone where before I was content to neglect them encourage their independence while I was in the kitchen.

Now my evenings consist of cleaning the kitchen, preserving food, getting them read to and in bed, again cleaning the kitchen, filling orders for my online reflux and colic store, loading the dehydrator one last time before bed, preparing lunches for the next day or getting things out for breakfasts (as in the grain grinder, salt and baking powder, not as in breakfast cereal.) There was even one complete night in there given up to meeting other parents and teachers.

Getting kids into school is more stressful then trying to keep them entertained while gardening or cooking! I’m sure we’ll fall into a routine shortly but for now I’m feeling very overwhelmed, still not fully functioning on the computer and not yet done with the harvest. Doesn’t the school district know that early September is not the end of the harvest???

I’m hoping at some point to finally restore all the files off the desktop so that I (meaning my husband) can clean it out and start over with it since this little toy laptop just isn’t going to cut running the beefy software I use for editing photos or working on the graphics or html for my website. I have to photoshop Santa into my living room somehow, don’t I?

While I’m ranting about non-food items I wanted to share some of the insipirational blogs I’ve seen lately:

  • ModernVictory Garden – This one takes the cake. Calendar, how-tos, images with great daily descriptions of how much, where and what she grows. This garden maven has a full time job and manages to grow most of her family’s intake over on the peninsula and actually gave me a meme. My gardening idol!
  • Chiots Run
  • Sicilian Sisters Grow
  • Path to Freedom
  • Hendrick Homestead, a seemingly abandoned blog with a fabulous list of 2008 preservation efforts.
  • 10 Year Challenge

    • I wish I could be so cool as to post my total harvest and food saving efforts but alas I have no scale. I tend to obsess over things and decided at one point to throw it out. I’m so happy I did! It opened my eyes to how my clothes fit me and how my body feels and less about the daily numbers.

    And now I need to get to bed so I can get up early to make morning glory muffins while the morning is still glorious, somewhere before the farmer’s market starts and swim lessons begin…

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    Viruses and Canning

    Posted on September 15, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 9 Comments

    My computer came down with a cough last week in the form of blue screen of death and then finally flashed virus warnings like crazy so I’ve been busy installing my life onto a laptop I had fortunately ordered merely weeks ago.

    It’s amazing the number of software applications I need to run my daily life! So I’ve been busy to say the least. Since I still don’t have any photo software on here I have no photos but wanted to post that I’m alive and haven’t given up the blog.

    My preschooler started class last week and their snack is saltines so I emailed the neighborhood and asked if anyone had extra fruit to give. It turns out quite a few folks have plum trees and this was a banner year for plums so I’ve been busy picking, drying and canning them for the school.

    I finally managed to mix some things together for the chickens and got that out of the dining room – lentils, split yellow peas, flax, oat groats, sunflower seeds and wheat. I’ve added that to their feed crumbles to help reduce the amount of soy they get. I’m still experimenting with making my own chicken food and that will definitely be a future post. The feed I have been buying is organic but full of corn and soy which I go to great lengths to get out of our diets so why would I want my layers eating that?

    I’ve got a big crock of cucumbers fermenting on my kitchen counter right now. When they are done I may can some of them just to put them up but of course that destroys the great friendly bacteria that helps us rebuild our gut flora and improves our immunity systems against REAL viruses.

    I’ve canned roasted tomato soup, roasted tomato chutney and plum chutney this week and will post those recipes once I have a camera again. The roasted tomato chutney is especially great with roast chicken (or to quickly poach chicken breasts in) and pasta, and the plum chutney is great with rich, smoked meats like duck breast or pork. They’ll both help me quickly get something in the oven this winter.

    I’ve been picking beans like crazy and have huge bags waiting for me – ones that are too large for pickling but I will run a needle and thread through the top of each one and hang them to dry for seed or dried beans to slow cook this winter – ones that are bigger then I like to eat them for dinner so I’ll pickle them for my sour patch guy – and ones that are just right to steam.

    Last night we had barbecued chicken with my yukon gold potatoes steamed till fluffy, cherry tomatoes and green beans in a garlic vinegraitte. It’s always such a joy to have the majority of your meal come from your own garden!

    I haven’t seen any signs of the rats this week but I know they are still there so I’ve been diligently picking blushing tomatoes daily and bringing them inside where they are just happy to ripen.

    And I’ve been dehydrating like crazy. Tonight I took a few dehydrated tomatoes and threw them into the food processor with some garlic that I had previously roasted and froze (my alternative to buying those jars of minced garlic) with a splash of balsamic & olive oil. It made the most amazing tomato pesto that would have been phenomenal spread on a sandwich, thrown on pizza, or on little tiny toasts. You could also mix it with cream cheese as a spread or dip. I chose to use it as a salad dressing for some garden fresh greens including lots of basil. Some squeaky cheese finished the salad.

    Despite the fact that I’ve been processing tomatoes for what feels like months now I realize that I don’t have enough. Sustainable Greenlake is actually trying to get a truck together directly from the farmer delivered this weekend. It’s $1 per pound for saucing tomatoes and $2 per pound for slicers. If you are interested you can email Christian at crusby@gmail.com. I plan on getting more myself so look for an upcoming tomato post with all my favorite tomato preservation techniques – it should be a big one!

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