Ron came home with some pumpkins a few weeks ago and I decided that I would actually do something with them this year. While Ron is focused on Tiny House Farm, I am looking toward the holidays and getting ready for them. Homemade pumpkin butter would be a lovely thing to share with family and friends. I cut two pumpkins in half so I could roast them in the oven. Lots of reading on subject led me to use an ice cream scoop to both get the seeds and “guts” out of the way but to also get the cooked flesh away from the skin.
I ran this all through the food processor and then into a plastic bag for freezing. I didn’t know what specific variety pumpkin I was working with so I planned to get a few more of the pie pumpkins. Just to be sure I got the right combination of texture and flavor.
The next week we headed over to Ole McMarley Apple Farm in Clinton, NY to pick up more cider and apples. They had the pumpkins I was looking for and I came home with a bag of them.
More scooping and roasting, scooping again and I was ready to try making pumpkin butter in my crockpot. I did remember to get the frozen pumpkin puree out of the freezer too. Again internet overload. There are so many recipes and so much advice about this project. I decided to go with maple syrup as the sweetener and cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves for the spices. This was going to be a smaller batch just to see how it turned out. I ran the flesh through the food processor and then filled bags with 15 ounces of the puree.
This I will stash in the freezer and can use to make pumpkin cookies, muffins and bread.
Nice thing about crockpot cooking is that you don’t have to fuss over it. The occasional stir and taste is all it needs.
Several hours later I ended up with a lovely pumpkin butter. Ron, being my taste tester said it that was pretty good. Just the right amount of sweetness. I filled and froze one half pint jar and then two one cup containers. The rest I stashed in frig. I needed to take it to work for more taste testing. I was surprised to find out just how many people don’t like pumpkin. But I found enough friends willing to give it a taste. All in all, I got a huge thumps up from all but one person. They will remain nameless.
Once Halloween is over, I plan to get more pumpkins and get going on another batch or two. I do so love it when a plan comes together. Next I will try pumpkin soup. Taste testers always needed.
Category Archives: Food
I think Ron has watched too many cooking shows
Saturday was another low key day at THF. My favorite kind of day. All we planned to get done was tilling the compost in and then using the edging attachment to finalize the three beds for our garlic. Is it just me, or does this look like a great set up for Halloween?
It was apparent right away that we needed some more practice with the edging. Lucky for us, Ron is on a 10 year plan. But we got the beds laid out and all was ready for planting on Monday. All three of us have that day off, so the work should go faster. Besides, we have experience in garlic planting.
Ron and I headed out to check on the mushrooms. Me, I was hoping that we wouldn’t find many. It is getting closer to the holidays and I have a long list of things to get done. Finding takers for our mushrooms has no place on that list. Shiitakes; we picked eight of them. Easily handled. Bagged them up and set them aside to pick up on our way back through. Then we headed to check on the wine caps. There we found an explosion of growth. Do you see the one coming out from under the bed rail?
We had forgotten to bring paper bags with us. I had left one in the Transit but we already used that for the Shiitakes. Now we had to come with another plan. Ron had a couple of plastic crates out there and a couple of empty garbage bags. Bag stuffed inside the crate did the trick and we headed back to the Transit. We had to hook the trailer back up as Ron would need that for the straw bales he had to buy. That will go over the garlic to protect it from frost heave. As we were already out, I suggested we get them before we went home. We headed back toward Rome and stopped at local farm to buy 6 bales. The whole time we were trying to think of someone, anyone we could get in touch with that would like to some red wine cap mushrooms. Tried calling a few friends, but nobody was home. 
Back at the house, we started unloading while still trying to come up with a plan. We were so desperate to reduce the pile we had that we snagged a neighbor walking her dog and got her to take a bag. Our next door neighbor came out at the right time and he got some too. Not a big dent, but it helped. Ron sat on front porch cleaning mushrooms while I made another call. And success. Jan said she would by later and get some from us. Ron finished up and decided that he would try grilling some wine caps. His previous attempt had been; well, lackluster is a good word. We had done some research and found mention of grilling. They don’t recommend sautéing but say they can be used as any other mushroom. They are less meaty and slightly sweet. Ron chose smaller ones and cut them in half. I got him some wooden skewers while he started up the grill. Olive oil, salt and fresh cracked pepper and he was ready to go. Having never done this before, he started with indirect heat for the first minutes, then dropped them onto the grill in order to get those nice grill marks. While he was doing all this, I was busy slicing the rest of the mushrooms in order to dehydrate them. Plans are to try adding them to a barley soup.
Ron pulled the wine caps off the grill and tried a bite. A few minutes thought and he was pleased. But he decided that a dollop of my freshly made hummus (with our own organically grown garlic, of course) would send it over the top. That was good, but he wanted to try adding some heat to it. A good sized splash of his favorite habanero pepper sauce and Ron was a happy man. He will have to plan better next time. We either have to buy some metal skewers or he has to start the process sooner and get the wooden ones soaked. They do tend to burst into flames when used dry.
Have I lost my mind?
Yesterday was Labor Day. It was 89 degrees when the average for Sept 8 is 70. Guess what we did….that’s right, we went out to THF and picked more rocks. Left the house at 7 am in vain attempt to beat the heat. Ron was in charge of the tiller again but he made two passes on each row and then stopped to help me with the rock picking. We drank lots of water and took breaks in the shade but the heat baked into the ground. There was a welcome break when Ron’s cousins Bill and Chuck stopped by. They were exploring to see how the deer hunting will be come fall. We talked for a bit and then they headed out and we got back to picking. By 10:30 I called it quits. We are just too old to be working so hard in that heat. We took the last load of rocks out to the gully and packed up.
I told Ron he had to stop at North Star Orchards in Westmoreland so I could get myself some of their yummy apple cider cake. I have a thing about cake and really deserved a piece after the last two days.
Our day was not over yet. Three years ago Ron had a large bounty of cherry tomatoes and he smoked them and then I dehydrated them. We stored them in the freezer and he would toss of few pieces into his lunch time salad. They would soften in the salad dressing and gave him a pop of flavor. The last couple of years we had not had much luck with the tomatoes, ending up with just enough for him and to share with friends. This year, in spite of the deer attack, we unexpectedly had enough to make another attempt.
Ron got the smoker started and once we were such it smoking properly, it was tomato picking time. We washed them and the Ron cut them in half. I got the job of sliding them all onto skewers, 17 halves on each one. That would make it easier to handle when they were done.
We had 3 trays of 13 skewers each.
Once they were safely in the smoker, it was all in Ron’s hands. He kept watch on the wood chips to make sure they were still smoking. Unfortunately, he forgot to keep an eye on the tomatoes themselves.
It was 8 pm and I was dead on my feet. But not as dead as this tray of tomatoes. Best laid plans and all that stuff. Even when you know what you are doing, you have to pay attention. This is going into the garbage.
The other two trays were looking good. Ron assured me that the last time we left them on the skewers when we started the dehydrating. I wasn’t so sure, but was too tired to think much about it.
This morning we pulled the trays out of the dehydrator and I realized I should have gone with my instinct. It was a major struggle to get the tomatoes slices off those blasted sticks. They did smell good. Makes me sad that I just don’t like tomatoes.
As I write this they are still in the dehydrator, Ron says they need more time. Still too sticky. Will see how they are in the morning.
One good thing about the heat again today, Ron decided it was too hot for us to go rock picking. Thank you Mother Nature. I needed a day off.
Dehydrating obsession
I just spent 30 minutes chopping a small watermelon into chunks so I could try dehydrating it. I have been pondering this for a couple of years, but just ever got to it. Come home from family get together with a left over watermelon and that was that.
I have been in love with our dehydrator ever since Ron talked me into buying it 4 years ago. It was a hard sell as his reading told him that the Excalibur dehydrator was the one we needed. Not cheap by any means, but he is not a man to buy second rate just to save a few bucks. At that time he was reading a lot about being prepared. We live in Upstate NY and one of these days we are going to get a nasty winter storm. He had read so much about the best way to store food long term and decided that we needed to give dehydrating a try.
Apples slices were our first project. One of his friends from work, Ruthie told him about her favorite local cider mill, Old McMarley’s Apple Farm in Clinton, NY. First he came home with some of the cider. It was fabulous. Then he came home with a box of apples and one of those contraptions that peels, cores and slices an apple. I borrowed another snazzy hand crank apple peeler from Josi and we got to work. With the three of us working together we filled all 9 trays and set it up for the night. 24 hours later we had yummy dried apples slices. We weren’t sure the best way to store them, so I food savered some and then stored others in mason jars. I also took some to work and shared with friends there. A smashing success, if I do say so myself. We ate some as a snack but mostly toss them into our steel cut oatmeal each morning. Take my word for it, a food saver is great for lots of things, but not for storing dehydrated apples. We have done apples again every year since then.
Since then I have dehydrated garlic, onion, beets, garlic scapes, carrots, leeks, corn, peas, lima beans, kale, cucumbers, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, pineapple and hot peppers. Ron’s favorite thing was the cherry tomatoes that he cut in half, slid onto a skewer and smoked for hours. Then we put them into the dehydrator. When they were done, we stashed them in the freezer. When Ron made his salads he would pull a few out and chop them into bits. They gave him a blast of flavor that he just loved. But that was a one shot deal. He grew the same tomatoes the next year but didn’t get enough tomatoes. The following year he could not longer get the seeds. Hasn’t been able to find another one that gives him the same size, taste and yield. We had hoped that this year we would be able to try again. Blasted deer has ruined that.
I especially like having the leeks stored in a jar for me to use in a favorite soup. So much easier to buy some nice leeks at the local farmer’s market, chop up a good bunch, wash them good and dehydrate them. Then just have to toss a couple handfuls and the rest of the veggies into your pot. We store everything in glass jars. Learned quickly that we need to put labels on right away. Everything we have gotten involved in has been a learning process, but I have to say the dehydrating has been my favorite thing. Cannot wait to see how the watermelon turns out.
And here is the end result. One watermelon reduced down to under one quart jar of bits. They aren’t crispy but chewy and sweet. Taking them to work today to get opinions from my taste testing crew.
Introduction to Juneberries
Rainy day here in upstate NY, perfect for a long drive to the Finger Lakes region to check out juneberries. This is another one of Ron’s “wild thoughts”. Having a 3 acre field full of garlic apparently is a bit too much so he is trying to come up with other ideas.
His research led him to The Cornell University’s Small Farms program site which mentioned the berries and it piqued his interest. Here we go again. On June 12 he attended their Juneberry Production workshop in Ovid NY. A regional expect, Jim Ochterski explained the basics of growing these berries. Then they took a tour of Guy Lister’s Juneberry Farm. Sadly the berries did not cooperate and were not ripe that week so Ron did not come home with any samples to share. But he was interested enough to keep researching it and to keep in touch with Guy through his Facebook page. The berries were finally ripe and plans made for the last Sunday of June.
Juneberries are also known as serviceberries or Saskatoon berries and are native to North America. They are sometimes mistaken for blueberries but taste more like sweet black cherries, with a hint of apple thrown in. They are rich in iron and antioxidants. Being not so fickle about soil conditions, they grow where blueberries won’t. Already popular in Canada, they are considered uncommon here.
We left the house at 7 am so that we would arrive in Ovid about 9 am. Poured rain all last night and then off and on during our drive. But by the time we got to Guy’s place the rain had stopped. First to greet us his great big dog named Kibbles. Ron remembered her from his previous visit. She just loves people. We spent the next two hours picking berries and talking with Guy about berries. And plans and hopes for the future. He was so willing to share his knowledge and experience. He told us what has worked and what has gone wrong. Gave advice about varieties, which he thought tasted the best and which grew better. Bemoaned the deer and rain troubles he has had.
Guy not only grows juneberries, but chokeberries, strawberries, gooseberries, black currents and garlic. And has plans to grow goji berries, swearing that they are best fresh. We probably would have spent the rest of the day with him but we had another stop to make and did have to make it home again before dark. Ron has highs hopes that Guy will make it down our way and stop by the Tiny House Farm for a visit.
We managed to pull ourselves away and headed to Bundschuh’s Greenhouses in Macedon NY. They were one of the sponsors of the Small Farm Program juneberry workshop. They offer a good selection of bushes for sale. Ron wanted to talk with them about ordering procedures and delivery schedules. And any tips on growing. Again they were most willing to share their knowledge.
All in all another good day. We met some great people, enjoyed quality family time, learned a lot about these tasty berries and made it home safely. I call it a success. For those who are lucky enough our really good friends – there will be samples tomorrow.
The great g’scape
Wednesday I got home from work, changed clothes, pulled Jo away from her computer and headed out to harvest our garlic scapes. When you grow what is called hard neck garlic there is a yummy bonus. Ron calls it a Two-ferer. The scapes are a flower stem that garlic plants produce before the bulbs mature. They can be used in so many ways, even eaten raw if you get them young enough. We are still trying to figure out exactly when we should harvest them. Some say before they start to curl, but other sites show them all curled up. That is one of the problems with the internet. Everyone has their own opinion and does things differently. Sometimes it is information overload.
Ron had left instructions that now was the week to get them all picked. Before they straightened out and became too tough to use. He, of course was nowhere to be found when it came to getting this done. He is the one who ordered the garlic last fall and ended up with enough for four beds of the stuff. Since the day we dropped all those cloves into the dirt and covered it all with straw, all he has done is the occasional weed pulling. Jo and I spent just over an hour actual harvesting, but we also had to chop them into small pieces. Since our plan is to make lots of pesto and freeze it, we chopped up 10 scapes at a time and bowled them up.
This weekend will be pesto making time. Our first attempt at pesto was 3 years ago and that was interesting. I didn’t have a actual food processor and tried using the tiny food processor thingy Mom gave me years ago. So did not work. Ended up with a very chunky but tasty spread. But not really pesto. That was the final push I needed to get myself a proper food processor. We have to buy some spinach and basil before I can get going. While we do like the pesto made with just scapes, adding herbs or other greens gives it a whole new flavor. Ron tried growing spinach the first two years but did not have much luck. It bolted so fast. And my attempts at basil have not been good either. No matter how early I get it started inside, once it is planted outside things don’t go so well. This year we had a hard frost and even though I covered everything up, I still took a hit. Will have to figure it out eventually as Ron has long term plans for us to make and sell organic frozen pesto. Remember, he sold this farm idea to me with much talk of growing garlic. Such a liar.