Pillow Road

The taste of cucumbers from the vine has faded to a memory during mid-winter. I had so many cucumbers I juiced and froze several jars last summer. For some reason I remembered to pull one out last Sunday and added lemonade and sparkling water. It hit the spot.

When I advocate juicing in the summer, many are unmotivated because the produce is abundant. But the big payoff comes in winter when juice is as close to vine-ripened as we are going to get.

The small jars seen below hold benedictine cheese made from pureed cucumber with cream cheese and a dash of onion/garlic salts.  The garlic and onions were grown on the farm as well, chopped finely and combined with Kosher salt.  After roasting for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, the combo goes through a coffee grinder and lasts indefinitely.  So easy to use in a pinch!

So this summer think of juicing and freezing from your garden produce and you will thank me next January.

Cucumber Juice in hybernation

1/3 each suits my taste

“Harvard Magazine” contributor Elizabeth Gudrias highlights the importance of artisanal cheeses in American culture. The dual definition of culture (cheese) and community identity inspires us to preserve and appreciate the importance of both.

Choose American artisanal cheeses

Ms Gudrias passes on information from Cowgirl Creamery, in Point Reyes Station, California, offering one typical message on its website: “In buying farmstead cheese rather than industrially produced cheese, you will support the fine art of farmstead cheesemaking,…help to ensure jobs in rural areas, and contribute to protecting farmlands from development.”

“This is one of the observations Heather Paxson, a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, intends to present in the book she is writing this year (tentatively titled “Cheese Cultures”). Paxson—an associate professor of anthropology at MIT and the author of a 2004 book on Greek women’s changing attitudes toward family planning—specializes in the anthropology of the everyday: how individuals connect themselves to a web of social norms through their actions, and how those actions, en masse, shape the norms.”

Watch for Ms Paxson’s book in the future and here is a link to the article highlighting the importance of our American cheese cultures.

http://harvardmagazine.com/2010/01/anthropology-of-american-artisanal-cheese

Creamy yogurt with berries, finger food

How can yogurt be finger food without refrigeration for up to 5 days?  First make Greek yogurt from organic, whole milk then take the next step to make berry yogurt bites.

Did you know Greek yogurt is made with any kind of milk and simply drained of whey liquid after it sets?  I thought Greek meant goats milk yogurt like feta cheese.  I learned to make yogurt last Fall to organically penny pinch and found it was surprisingly easy.  I am a reluctant culinary adventurer.  The result cannot be matched by supermarket brands in my biased opinion.

Thanks to detailed instructions and cultures obtained from Steve at thecheesemaker.com, it takes no time to heat milk, let it cool and add culture.  I add 1 tsp of flavor in extract form and 1/4 cup of xylitol for sweetness at this point.  You need to incubate the yogurt for 6-12 hours at about 110 degrees.  More about an incubator/dehydrator later.  You will love the creamy thick yogurt from whole or 2% milk, even chocolate milk if you prefer.  Like sourdough you can make future batches using the same culture reserved from the initial batch.  Very economical.

Yogurt Going Greek

As gently as possible, transfer the finished yogurt into cheesecloth while the whey drains for 15-20 minutes.  Help it along by hanging the bag tied to a dowel over a pot.  Chill and you are ready to eat with berries, nuts or dehydrated persimmons as gathered at Pillow Road. If you fail to devour it all, you may go on to the dehydration phase and make yogurt bites.

Below you can see 2″ tart rings (or silicone cupcake liners) hold pureed fruit with yogurt spread on top.  Don’t puree fruit to liquid or it will run when you remove the ring.  You may use frozen berries in a chopper and they’ll be firm enough not to run.

Berry yogurt bites, ready for dehydrator

The Excalibur brand small dehydrator shown below incubates yogurt, makes jerky, dries herbs, tomatoes, fruits and makes fruit leathers.  These foods provide optimum nutrition as warm air drying preserves probiotics, vitamins and enzymes usually lost to traditional cooking.

This dehydrator costs around $120 shipped via internet.  I use it much more than I thought I would.  You might think about adding this handy, healthful item to your kitchen.  Caution:  round ones can’t make yogurt because the containers won’t fit inside.  My inventive friend set the container wrapped in a towel on a heating pad set on medium-high.  This works just fine in lieu of contraptions. Monitor with a food thermometer the first few times to determine a setting that yields the 110 degree target range since a high temperature will kill your culture before it can make the yogurt.

Shelves of yogurt bites inside dehydrator

4-8 hours later you have mini-cheesecake (like) treats that are refined-sugar free registering LOW on the glycemic index. Although rich tasting they are low in calories, high in probiotics, anti-oxidants and vitamins.  They are appealing chilled but like all dehydrated food, no longer require refrigeration.  Plastic wrap separately as they will stick together.  Yogurt bites are mess-free finger food providing nutritious snacks and dessert.

A great advantage of dehydration is preventing spoilage of pricey organic produce.  By dropping extras or leftovers in the blender, resulting purees store much longer sealed in jars and refrigerated or frozen. When I get time I can pour the purees for dehydrating and 8-12 hours later have fruit leathers.  The leathers last 4-5 days at room temp, up to a month refrigerated and one year frozen.  I can post some ideas for making fruit leathers another day.  First you can get started on homemade yogurt whether Greek, plain, chocolate, lemon or vanilla – it’s great.

After sampling Pillow Road dried persimmon and apple slices, we are ordering stock from Trees of Antiquity. We have planted only evergreens from Tennessee up to this point. So we compared notes with Parker Mountain and together ordered apple, peach, almond, walnut and Izu persimmon trees to arrive mid-March. We also ordered blackberry and red raspberry vines from Indiana Berry Company to include in an orchard area. Now we are wondering how to keep the deer from getting our bounty. Will climb that fence when we come to it!

Last week’s below-freezing temperatures hit a number of plants. The temperature fell as low as 22 degrees. The photo below shows how the freeze affected some but not all of the fava bean plants. The leaves looks spinach after is has been cooked. All across the yard, there are plants that have been literally flattened.

In Brooklyn recently, I stopped by the storefront window of a hardware store and I wondered why it caught my eye. Its rather random collection of items and the absence of brand-name advertising were a refreshing combination. I knew this display was created by an amateur, a local business owner who featured things s/he was selling, without a lot of concern for merchandising or messaging. It was quite simply a window saying plainly: here are some things. It allowed the things themselves do the talking.

I planted Concord grapes this year and it will take a couple of years before they become productive. I bought four pounds of Concord grapes and made jelly — because I couldn’t wait until next year. The flavor is so sweet and satisfying.

I processed the grapes in a food mill, the same one I’m using to process tomatoes and applesauce. Then I made the jam from the juice, which I let sit overnight. I followed the traditional recipe for liquid pectin and it worked. I’m always tempted to try making jelly without pectin or without pectin, but it seldom turns out right. I have found that a failed jelly can be turned into a nice glazed sauce for chicken or pork.

I put about eight half-pint jars of grape jelly in the pantry.

We’re still picking strawberries. The warmer it is the juicier they are. It’s been a good year for berries, including raspberries and boysenberries, but strawberries are the best. We’ve been freezing them in batches for use later on.

I took this short video with my iPhone. It doesn’t quite capture the sound of so many bees buzzing in the lavendar but it does give a ground-level sense of what’s happening among the lavender this time of year.

This beautiful flower is known as a walking Iris. It blooms for one day only and I happened to be walking through a friend’s West County garden on this one day. It’s called a walking iris, supposedly, because the blossom is followed by the growth of a shoot that spreads out.

In other words, this beauty develops into a potential tripping hazard.