who? what? when? how? why?

I had never eaten homemade sauerkraut until I started to make it last year.

I can’t say that I really like the store-bought canned stuff - but I really like a Reuben sandwich, and you do need sauerkraut for that.

In my quest for more local homegrown or homemade food and in learning new (to me) ways of preserving food (and prompted by a post of Food in Jar on Home-Made Sauerkraut), I decided to give homemade sauerkraut a try and turned some of my spring cabbages into sauerkraut in early July last year. I used whey to kick-start the process as my research indicated fast fermenting was needed in warm temperature.The whey was supposed to introduce lactic acid right away to help fermentation takes over before spoilage happens.. I made several small batches experimenting with the amount of salt and the spices used. Some were so-so, some were OK, and a couple were darn good. The big surprise though was fermented spicy ginger carrots. THAT was terrific, and hooked me onto fermented vegetables. I decided I would try again come fall. Read more »

This is Swiss Chard in the garden today, unprotected, after weeks of cold weather, night in the teens (F/- 7 C to -12 C) and days of bone-chilling howling winds with gusts at 50 miles/ h (80 km). Not pretty, right? Certainly not much to harvest…

This is Swiss Chard (and more) in the unheated hoop tunnel. Need I say more?

A few hours of labor, $100 in materials (some second hand), one layer of greenhouse plastic - and we moved at least one zone south, maybe 2 . Not bad for January, eh?

2 feet of snow last week-end, temperatures in the lower teens (F/ about -12 C). I have not been in the hoophouse for about a week, and frankly I was not sure how it was going to be in there. Would I have mush? It after all, got cold quite suddenly after a long mild fall, and I was not sure the plants had a chance to harden off.

But it all looks good when I went in today to harvest a big bouquet of cilantro and leaf celery for a Vietnamese-inspired rice and goose. In winter, I often do a version of my basic “Chicken Soup with a Twist” varying the vegetable and the meat.

Since we had a roasted goose for Christmas (I needed after all to replenish my store of goose-fat), I simmered the carcass and the bones with some aromatics for a dark rich fragrant broth. Sautéed some carrots, shallots, lots of ginger. Added a handful of already cooked rice, some chopped goose meat, a little fish sauce, and some braised cabbage to the pot. Covered with goose broth, simmered for 15 minutes, added handful of chopped cilantro and leaf celery, some hot sauce, and voila, a very tasty and warming lunch!

Cornmeal is simply not used enough in sweets.

There, I said it: eat more cornmeal.

I like soft polenta (mush) and hard polenta (either - like oatmeal - taste sooo much better when made with milk instead of water). I like cheesy grits and creamy polenta. I like it with bits of smoky bacon and fried fresh sage leaves too. I like upside-down cranberry cornmeal cake and cornmeal cranberry loaf - actually anything with cornmeal & cranberries. As in those cookies. Read more »

I have to confess that I do not have the proper respect for Thanksgiving.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that food-centric holiday. It’s just that - not having grown with it - I am not enough imbued with its traditions, and I am trying to make it… well… gasp! too… French. You see, many of the French holidays end up being a celebration of food, but in the US, only Thanksgiving - distantly followed by Christmas - really gets the family around the table.

When I cook the Thanksgiving dinner, I always end up with multiple courses served not all at once but in succession - to stretch the fun of eating and the dinner. That’s a no-no: Thanksgiving is meant to have many many dishes all served at once (except desserts). Thanksgiving means that the table is groaning under the sheer quantity of the dishes. Read more »

Belle Meade Farm - October 2009

The chicken have moved to their winter quarters.

We’ve taken the wire fence from the summer garden down; moved the electric net fence to enclose the new chicken area; relocated the coop inside the old summer garden, and built a little dome shelter - complete with perches - so the chicken can be outside the coop and dry on wet days - like today.

The idea is to harness “chicken power” in helping to prepare next year summer garden. We’ll give them the run of the area through late April, with the hope that they will eat the bugs, control weeds, aerate the soil and incorporate organic matter - including their droppings - in the top soil (since I am also piling leaves, old straw, and other organic debris in there). Besides providing us with tasty eggs, those girls (and one boy) are playing a big role in the cycle of the garden.

Come April, they’ll be moved to another area that I want them to help clear. We hope to rotate them every 6 months, with the idea that, at all time, one area will be under chicken patrol, one area will be fallow (with cover crop) and one area cultivated.

Meanwhile, this winter, we have work to do moving the stones around to change the perimeter of the summer garden. One can see on the picture low stone “walls” outlining the perimeter of the initial summer garden - about 28 feet square. We saw way too small when we first did it two years ago. Of course, at the time, it looked big, and picking and moving the stones from the to-be-planted area to the perimeter was no small task. Fields grow stones, around here! Prospectives have changed. Funny how that happen. I now have grand plans for extensive plantings of beans, corn & squash for next year, so the summer garden is likely to be 3 to 4 times bigger by the time we are done.

A girl can dream.

The stones will have to be moved.

I love fresh oysters. When we lived in the city, we used to go to the wharf for Christmas and New Year, get fresh oysters in their shell, mud from the Chesapeake bay still clinging to them. Later that day, Keith would scrub them clean, open them and arrange them on trays of ice. A squeeze of lemon, a little bread with good butter, a glass of champagne, more oysters, and that would New Year Dinner. They were a treat. Still are.

The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the US, provided ideal conditions for oyster to thrive - at least until the 20th century. Indian populations as well as colonists greatly enjoyed them, or - so we think -  based on the shell middens found in archaeological digs.

When I first encountered shucked oysters sold in a jar, I was shocked. I had no idea they were eaten, let alone sold, not in their shell. Eventually I got accustomed to the idea and have actually used such oyster for creamy stews.

And then at a rural cafe years ago, I saw “fried oysters” on the menu. Another moment of incredulity … promptly followed by an order of fried oysters. mmm… I was not impressed. Wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either. And that was pretty much it until last year.

That’s when - another shock! - I realized how much people loved oysters around here. A lot. Except not raw. Fried. That was also rather surprising, but I will admit that there are good fried oyster and there are bad fried oysters. I have had both and some so-so (as in my first experience). And I have learned how to make good fried oysters from Danny at the Fire Hall.

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Last evening I saw the man in the moon. In the incredible Hunter’s Moon that hanged, powerful and enormous, for a short while. As I was driving home, the sun sinking behind the mountains at my back , the majestic Moon was rising in the Eastern sky, capturing and reflecting the dying light from the sun. I was moon-struck. You don’t get to see such moons very often.

It’s the moon that give the hunters light to finish their task, even as the sun sinks down. It can also be used by the harvesters to finish gathering the crops (although they got their own harvest moon, 28 days ago).

In between those moons, we’ve been harvesting.

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