Sustainable Food Thread

[Finnegans Wake]

Yeah, asparagus needs to just settle the first year.

Try these guys:

http://www.noursefarms.com/catalog/Product...%20Passion.aspx

I got the purple asparagus to save space, but other varieties may be of interest.  Excellent plants.

I love asparagus.  We froze 15 servings (about a pint each) and I think we should have put up more.  Have a lot of frozen veggies up so far this year, and will start canning sauce soon.  Does Ma Jonzr do canning?  

Would like to learn charcuterie (making sausage, cured meats, etc.).  

[jonzr]

Neither of us knows how to can but both have elder resources to tap when the time comes.  

Would like to learn charcuterie (making sausage, cured meats, etc.).

Mmmm.  Gopher sausage.  Smoked gopher.  Roadkill links.  You need a smokehouse, finny.
 

[Finnegans Wake]

Making bacon sounds pretty easy.  Get some pig stomachs, brine with with flavor elements, then let age.  Smoke, slice.  

Mmmmmm, bacon...

And no nitrates!

[Finnegans Wake]

Still haven't gotten more beef, and literally pulled the last few items out of the freezer, some ground beef and a chuck roast.  Probably make a Mexican pot roast (very spicy, think chili with big honkin chunks of chuck, less sauce... you can pull off pieces and make carne asates, or eat as is).

We've frozen ~100 pints of veggies and berries: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, rhubarb, cherries, peas, beans, broccoli, corn...  Berries are simple.  Wash 'em off, dry 'em, put 'em on a cookie sheet or pan lined with wax paper in the freezer, then the next day bag them.  (Doing it this way cuts down on moisture in the bag, as I found out after we bagged asparagus.)  Peas are a pain in the ass, hulling.  But I was we had done way more of them.

Minuses: don't know that we're saving any money.  Some stuff, if you don't process it in time, goes to the composter.  

Pluses: everything is picked at the height of freshness, and travels about 5 miles from field to freezer, thus cutting down our oil footprint in the food we eat.  

Figure the last of our CSA and orchard goodies is done in November...  This has to last us about 5-6 months, or about 20-24 weeks.  Figure we'll get some canning and freezing done before all is said and done, but 100 pints (about 2 servings, usually, give or take), yields about 5 fruit and veggie servings per week.  Man, how the hell did the pioneer folk do it?

We're behind the ball on canning spaghetti sauce.  Last year did about 20 quarts, which takes time, but it beats anything store-bought.

I have one large container of sauerkraut done.  We don't can or freeze that.  Just let it ferment, and allow lacto-bacillus to do its work (as opposed to using vinegar).  Made some this way last year: different but excellent flavor.  Supposedly, lacto-fermented foods are even better than probiotics like Activia and commercial yogurt.  Also made pickles last year that were darned tasty, and want to jar up some sours this year.  (The old time barrel pickles used to all be fermented cukes.)   If you slice and ferment beets in juice, it makes something that tastes like V-8, kinda, but is fresh, full of minerals, and aforementioned good enzymes from fermentation.  

I'd also like to ferment up some mixed veggies, another batch of kraut, and maybe some korean kraut (kimchi), since I like hot stuff.

Which gets me thinking... the Koreans just bury their kimchi and let it go for a few months.  You don't want to freeze your lacto-fermented foods, because it kills the good enzymes.  So why not bury extra kraut, etc., so that it stays just above ffreezing point?  Kind of like the old root cellar idea.  

Finny's rotten foods...

One of these days, I'm gonna learn to brew beer and wine and cider...

[otismalibu]

I did a search at Getty for "Finny's Kitchen" and found this.

Notice that the hired help wears aprons that seem to be cut from the same cloth as a certain dinner jacket.

I fully expect The Bastard to live to be 100.

[jonzr]

My lasagna garden is getting ready.  I never did get around to planting anything for the fall but still might look around for something.

The tomatoes never did jack this season but the poblano and jalapeno peppers are producing.  And as always the herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, chives) just go nuts.  This must be the perfect zone for those.

[Finnegans Wake]

Finnaly cleaned out some freezer space and went over to Bob's for some fresh beef.  Couldn't go last week because he was literally sold out, so my beef was eating grass about a week ago...

Got about 32# of hamburger and a bunch of roasts and steaks, plus soup bones.  Took the dog, which was amusing: all-black dog eyeing these enormous cows coming towards him, curiously chewing. 

CSA box is still going strong.  We never canned much tomato sauce, so that's a negative, but freezer is full of good veggies now.

Setting up a space in the garage for "Finny's Fermentorium," to make hard cider and ferment kraut and whatever else.

[Big Virgil]

That's awesome Finny.  I probably asked you this before, but how much "cow" do you buy?  Do you have to buy at least 1/4?  1/2 sounds like it would be way too much for one freezer already loaded with veggies.

[Finnegans Wake]

You can buy 1/2, 1/4, or a la carte, which is what I do.  Mrs. F. does not eat red meat, so 1/4 cow would be a lot for me unless I got someone to split it.    I do know people who buy a 1/2 cow, but not grass-fed, despite my ongoing preaching on the subject.  I have gotten Mrs. F's folks to take some ground beef, which they love, and the price isn't that much more than grocery store ground.  The steaks and roasts are a little more, but it's a relative value thing. 

I got about 20# of ground beef, some chuck roasts, rump roast, sirloin roast, Delmonico steaks, NY strip steaks, a pair of filets mignon, some stew meat, and some soup/dog bones.  I wanted to smoke a brisket, but his abbatoir added the brisket to the ground meat.

A whole cow is about $2000; half is $1000; 1/4 is $500; my order was about $300.  Plus Bob always throws me a freebie, so I got another roast, different cut.  Not sure how much more a 1/4 would be over what I get a la carte, but would probably include some flank steaks, London broil, etc.

[Big Virgil]

Mmmmm, steak . . .

When I was a teenager, my family went in on a 1/2 cow with another family and it was plenty O meat.

I prefer to only eat cows that exercise.