Growing Micro Greens and Health

Beet and Kale Microgreens, Photo Borrowed from Johnny's Selected Seeds

One of the things I've discovered during my declining health is what my diet is missing from salads. During the summer, I eat enough fresh vegetables (including tomatoes) that I don't notice any deficit, but it has become more apparent lately.

When I was first diagnosed with liver disease, they put me through 6 months of testing all parts of my body to determine if I was healthy enough for a liver transplant. During that time, they pulled all my teeth except 6 teeth in the lower front. Tooth decay had been a life-long problem for me despite throwing many thousands of dollars into my mouth for root canals, crowns and bridges and still losing the teeth.

Medicare will not pay for dentures and I haven't had an extra $5-6,000 sitting around to pay for them myself, but I get by except for the few things I cannot chew easily, notably a steak and most salad greens. I can manage romaine but not the baby greens I so love, and eating only romaine in salads gets old.

Micro greens turn out to be a great alternative that I can actually chew, and interestingly enough, they contain more nutrition than those same greens grown to full size! Over the course of this past summer I have been buying micro greens at the farmer's market but now they are closed for the winter so I ordered seeds and trays to grow my own, inside on a bookshelf under a windowsill.

To start off, I bought a quarter pound each of 2 mixes from Johnny's, one spicy (red and green mustards with various textures) and one a mild mix (Mizuna, Cabbage, Kale, and Kohlrabi). When I get the hang of growing them, I can buy the specific micro greens I prefer (and there are oodles of choices), but I thought this was a good way to start.

After 4 Days

My first try was to sow just a few rows of each in one tray just to see how they grow, although my ordered pack of trays was for 6 trays. I only have enough windowsill for 2 trays, leaving room enough for my cat to lounge in the sun's scant rays.

The first seeds (uncovered) sprouted in 4-5 days and the instructions said 10-15 days to maturity (cutting). I think the first sowing will barely make 1 salad with other additions, so I should get 2-3 servings per full tray and will do continuous sowing as I use them.

After 6-7 Days

I should be able to cut them in another week. 

Update, Dec 23. My micro greens are languishing for lack of enough light on the window sills. They don't even have a true set of leaves yet and are very leggy. My after-Christmas chore will be to hang a grow light (a fluorescent light with one cool-white bulb and one warm-light bulb) over that windowsill before I sow another batch. I have the light fixture, just need bulbs but I'm NOT braving the last-minute Christmas shoppers for them.

Eggs... whole or just whites?

For several months (or maybe more) fast food chains like McD's and Subway have been pushing breakfast items that contain egg whites without any yolks.

I know the egg whites contain protein, but what is in the yolks making them omit them?

Our brains run on fats, but not just any fats. Not canola oil, not corn oil, not soy oil, and not most other processed oils. Our brains need what's in animal fats such as egg yolks and free-range meats. Free-range eggs are a good and inexpensive source of those needed fats.

So, my questions are what's in it for those food chains (and who sold them on that idea, anyway)? Are they trying to dumb us down even more? It has to be a "follow the money" thing. Equally important to me is WHAT are they doing with all those egg yolks they don't use?? Must be millions a week just for McD's.  (Have you ever seen a chicken lay an egg without a yolk?)

Inquiring minds want to know.

I Cooked a Rabbit!

New Zealand White Rabbit, photo courtesy of laugh45

For a couple of years I have considered raising meat chickens, ducks, or rabbits for a protein food supply. I don't have enough flatish land for larger livestock like a cow or a pig. Rabbits, of course, require the smallest amount of space so they are high on the list.

However, I hadn't any recollection of ever eating rabbit, although I'm fairly sure I must have when I was a young kid. Finding a domestic rabbit and cooking it to check the list became important, and finally I found frozen rabbit about 3 weeks ago in a grocery store in a nearby town.

This was a VERY small rabbit, just a tad under 1.5 pounds, whereas an average young fryer dresses out at 3 pounds or more. Still, I thought it would be enough meat to give it a try, and not much wasted expense in the event I didn't like the taste.

Top of the photo are the belly pieces and the rib cage, which went into the freezer for stock later. Lower on the photo are the skinny forelegs, fatter back legs, and the backbone cut into 2 pieces.

First, I needed to cut up the rabbit, and found several photo tutorials online. There is very little meat anywhere but the hind legs, although I cooked the backbone section and the front legs as well. I'm sure a larger sized rabbit would have more meat on the backbone and front quarters. The "belly" was very thin, and it went into a freezer bag with the rib cage to make stock when I have enough bones, using a mix of rabbit and chicken.

I'm told rabbit fat is as un-palatable as venison fat, so it got trimmed away. (There wasn't much of it anyway.) Most of the outer silverskin had already been trimmed before it was frozen, but after my disjointing there was still a little more to trim.

It actually does taste a lot like chicken, although I thought it had a bit more flavor than commercial chicken. I fried it without any seasoning except salt and pepper so that any added herbs or spices wouldn't mask the rabbit flavor. I just dipped it in milk and rolled it in flour with a little salt and pepper.

My neighbor / friend Buster used to raise meat rabbits and I'm sure he will offer advice and help when I'm ready. If I decide to try raising rabbits, it will only be on a small scale. Timing depends on my health over the next few months, and whether I can stomach the butchering process. (I think I can, but I have to do it to be sure.)

Growing Yuppie Chow

 Photo By ilovebutter

Photo by Phillie Casablanca

Yep, I guess I'm guilty of growing "Yuppie Chow".

Yuppie Chow is that stuff Foodies buy from upscale natural foods stores and farmer's markets, such as heirloom slicing tomatoes, garlic scapes, mesclun salad mixes, baby carrots and tiny squash, haricot verts, bok choy and such -- you know, expensive things, but not the bulk of one's calories. Yuppie Chow.

I'm currently rethinking what I can grow because if there's a food crisis, I don't grow enough to feed myself adequately without outside additions. In an extended crisis there will be NO food on the grocery shelves, and perhaps no gas to get there anyway. I'm open to growing food suggestions if you have any! 

Of course, Yuppie Chow is not all I grow. The heirloom tomatoes, various herbs, asparagus, and bulbing fennel are considered Yuppie Chow, but I also grow enough garlic, shallots, leeks, onions, and long-keeping winter squash to last through winter. The winter squash, of course, provide lots of calories. The other things simply add more flavor than calories. I hate insipid-tasting food.

I don't raise any meat animals or have chickens for eggs, so I'd be low on protein. My few small nut trees wouldn't produce 2 ounces of oils even if I could press them, so I'd be short on the essential fatty acids that come from meats and oils. Tubers don't do well for me here (other than Jerusalem artichokes), too many tunneling rodents that get to them first.

I'm looking to grow things that can flesh out my pantry in an extended crisis, both perennials, and annuals where I can save seeds for the next year. Currently, I only plant a few things where I save seed, like tomatoes and beans. I need to learn how to save seed from things like summer squash and cole crops because in an extended crisis, there may be no available seeds.

My fruit trees are small and won't bear for a few more years so I only have some perishable berries for fruits right now.

I'm thinking to try growing oyster mushrooms because they contain around 15% protein, as well as adding complex flavors to cooked foods, but I guess that might be considered more Yuppie Chow...

Permaculture??

Bill Mollison and his student (at the time) David Holmgren did a great thing when they developed philosophy of Permaculture in the 1970's. It's a topic that greatly interests me because it's as much about us, and how we treat each other and our planet, as it is about growing things. The more I learn about gardening, the more I realize how my garden is connected to everything (just like my self and my body), and how we/it all has to work together to succeed and survive.

But really, what IS Permaculture? For years I have heard that word, and read a smattering about it online here and there, but not enough to make any real sense to me until I read Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden last year. That book gave me a basis for understanding permaculture, at least in a general way, and I'm now firmly convinced that permaculture is the very best, and perhaps the only way to get us out of the mess we've gotten ourselves into.

Albert Einstein said, "We cannot solve the significant problems we face at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

"Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour; of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system."
~ Bill Mollison (from the permaculture.net website)

This definition of permaculture expresses a basic concept in permaculture - examining and following nature's patterns. Permaculture advocates designing human systems based on natural ecosystems. Permaculture draws from several other disciplines including organic farming, agroforestry, sustainable development, and applied ecology.  But, there are many other definitions of permaculture, just as there are many definitions of sustainable living.

The actual term permaculture is a contraction of the words "permanent," "agriculture,” and “culture.” Although the original focus of permaculture was geared towards sustainable food production, the philosophy of permaculture has expanded over time to encompass economic and social systems. It is a dynamic movement that is still evolving. For example, some practitioners are integrating spirituality and personal growth work into the framework of permaculture.

At the very core of premaculture are Ethics, sadly lacking in today's BigAg in my opinion.

The three philosophical ethics of permaculture (in simple form) are:

1. Care of the earth means that our number one priority is taking care of the earth, making sure we don't damage its natural systems so all life systems can continue and multiply.

2. Care of the people means meeting people's needs (having equal access to resources) so that people's lives can be sustained and have a good quality of life as well, but without damaging the earth.

3. Accepting (or setting) limits to population and consumption is realizing that as a human species we cannot continue to increase and also sustain the planet. By governing our own needs, we can set aside resources for the 2 principles above.

I think those are some really exacting standards... but as we begin to embrace them, some wonderful things happen even on a small scale.

"Care of the Earth" happens in both big and small ways, and not just in growing things. I like Hemenway's distinction of horticulture vs. agriculture. He points out that the etymology of  horticulture is the Latin hortus, meaning garden, while the etymology of agriculture is the Latin ager, meaning field. The big difference in planting huge fields and planting gardens could be considered as a part of permaculture.

I remember when I was reading The Celestine Prophecy back in the early 1990's, how one of the Insights was what happened to the plants when he talked to them. They flourished! That's just a tiny personal bit of "care of the earth" although permaculture goes much deeper. What happens when we give plants the real food they need, rather than a chemical soup which ends up harming our ecosystems like our soils and waterways? What happens when we put plants in nifty little plant communities with many diverse neighbors, and each plant contributes something to the success of the whole?

"Care of the Earth" is about what products we use and discard like trash. I fight daily to get my family here to consider the effects of all the cleaning chemicals they use, when hydrogen peroxide and baking soda would suffice. We live on a now almost-dead creek (from pollution); our creek waters flow down to the Holston River where they eventually join up with the French Broad River near Knoxville; there they become the beginning of the Tennessee River... and then they travel together along to the Ohio River and finally join and mingle with the Mighty Mississippi near Cairo, Illinois, and eventually end up in New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico with the massive floating dead zones created by the polluted rivers. Every individual along the many miles of this creek, and all the rivers downstream, could change some of the dying creeks and rivers by simple "Care of the Earth".

Another biggie is what we allow commercial enterprises do to our Earth... fracking, strip mining, mountaintop removal, nuclear power plant waste products that are hazardous for 10,000+ years... and GMO's. (A bit of scientific research about GMO's show that they reduce sperm count from the get-go; lab tests in rats show GMO's render complete sterility in 3 generations... if you think about it, that's really population control, without consent.)

"Care of the Earth"  is also how we manage our finite resources (oil, natural gas, the metals we mine, water, and the topsoil we wash away) so that we can continue to exist, and still leave some resources for our children and grandchildren. (We should all work on becoming more realistic about what our basic "needs"  vs. "wants" really are.)

Then there is BigAg, with their/our dependence on the rapidly depleting supplies of fossil fuels. The majority of the food we eat world-wide is produced by BigAg, unless we somehow manage to supplement it with a fruit-nut-veggie patch in our yards or our neighborhoods. Having a garden, even if it's just potted tomatoes on a balcony, IS one way we can start to make changes, and assure some nutritionally good foods in our households as we do. (There are many other ways, but a garden is a good one.) Permaculture can be a pathway because it can teach us, among other things, how to increase yield while eliminating dependence on man-made chemical fertilizers. We just have to learn to do as Nature does!

 "Care of the People" is a vast challenge, and is more than just not making war on them, or even just feeding them. Most of us mentally divide "us" and "them", and we weep and gnash our teeth at problems that happen within our immediate family and those we know and care about, whether it's a health problem, an auto accident, or job loss. Of course, we also lament the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives in a catastrophe half way around the world, but it is a detached kind of lament and doesn't really touch us, deep down on some emotional level, like those at home do.

So, when we move manufacturing (sweatshops?) to foreign countries out of our view, we can act detached from the abuses. We prohibit DDT here in the US but sell it overseas, and we can pretend we have eliminated that particular toxin, even though it comes back to us in/on imported foods.

Here's a very simplistic "care of the people" test just in your own personal surroundings... If you work in a large office or plant, very likely there is a person you pass often, with just a cursory nod or "Hello". The next time you pass that person, stop and make a personal comment to them, something like "that color looks good on you"... or "hey, that's a great tie/tattoo/haircut"... just anything more personal than the previous impersonal nods. Watch the reaction... the whole energy pattern changes for the better.

"Accepting Limits to population and consumption"... Years ago, the Chinese limited the number and gender of live children a couple could have. It brought fierce turmoil to their people. But I think we all really KNOW in our hearts the world cannot continue to sustain the projected increase in world population. A big question for everyone is: are you willing to limit your number of children/grandchildren? Or is that just the responsibility of "others" in poorer nations?

But it's NOT just limiting population; it's about limiting resources so everyone has a fair share.

I personally believe that the principles of permaculture could cure the planet from the all the damage conventional chemical agriculture has wrought, and maybe save us from extinction.

The permaculture ideas I know about are wonderful, and I have adopted some of the food forest ideas, which are partially from the Permaculture crowd and partially from others... and they all pretty much follow the Wiki definition, "Permaculture is a theory of ecological design which seeks to develop sustainable human settlements and agricultural horticultural systems, by attempting to model them on natural ecosystems." 

I'd love to take a PDC but it is not likely; the charges for the PDC course vary considerably with location. Here in Virginia and nearby North Carolina, the going rate is well in excess of $1,000... while a friend in upstate New York can find the same PDC certificate course for under $300. I think the design concepts are important, especially the ecological ones, but I want lots of practical information applicable to my situation, too.

I must say, though, that if I had the opportunity (and the money) to take a PDC course from one of the established Permaculture giants like Geoff Lawton or Toby Hemenway, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

If money is an issue, as it is for me, there are some good alternatives to learning about permaculture other than taking a PDC. Unfortunatey for us in the US, much of the available information is for tropical climates, but that is beginning to change as the concepts are becoming more widely known across the US and Canada. There are some permaculture forums on the internet, and several blogs that focus on various aspects of permaculture.

If you learn easily from books, you can buy  Bill Mollison's Permaculture: A Designer's Manual; it sells for around $110. It is the definitive Permaculture design manual in print since 1988, and it is the text book and curriculum for the 72-hour Certificate course in Permaculture Design (PDC). Written for teachers, students and designers, it follows on and greatly enlarges on the initial introductory texts, Permaculture One (1978) and Permaculture Two (1979, currently OOP) both of which are still in demand over twenty years after publication. Very little of the material found in the Designer's Manual is reproduced from the former texts. It covers design methodologies and strategies for both urban and rural applications describing property design and natural farming techniques.

An excellent book if you are just starting out is Gaia's Garden (by Toby Hemenway) for around $20.

Another alternative is to investigate the work of Sepp Holzer, an Austrian man who has done some remarkable things in Natural Farming, much like the great natural farming pioneer, Masanobu Fukuoka. The Holzer Permaculture is a branch of permaculture developed by Sepp independently from the mainstream Permaculture. It is particularly noteworthy because it grew out of practical application and absolutely detached from the scientific community.

By the way, there has been lots of contention over who if anyone controls the legal rights to the word "Permaculture", meaning is it trademarked or copyrighted, and if so, who holds the legal rights to the use of the word. For a long time Bill Mollison claimed to have copyrighted the word permaculture, and his books reflected that on the copyright page, saying "The contents of this book and the word PERMACULTURE are copyright." These statements were largely accepted at face-value within the permaculture community. However, copyright law does not protect names, ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something; it only protects the expression or the description of an idea, not the idea itself. Eventually Mollison acknowledged that he was mistaken and that no copyright protection existed for the word "permaculture". Source

Mmmmm, good! Bacon Jam!

For several years I've been reading about Bacon Jam all over a slew of blogs, and I finally decided to make some to see what all the fuss was about. Well, let me tell you it's one of the tastiest things I've had in years!!!

My kitchen had the most enticing smells coming from it for several hours as I was making this recipe, and it will surpass anything you can buy in a jar. YUM!

I tripled the recipe, using 3 pounds of thick-sliced applewood smoked but uncured bacon, cut into 1" pieces and fried until just curling at the edges. You want them still soft in the middle. Remove the bacon and drain.

Then leave just a tablespoon (or 3 tablespoons since I tripled the recipe) of bacon fat in the pan, add the brown sugar and sliced onions. Cook over low heat until the onions are slightly caramelized.

Add the spices, cook for about 5 minutes, then add the liquid ingredients and the bacon. Cook at a low simmer for a couple of hours, until somewhat thickened. Cool it enough to handle and then run the cooked "stew" through a food processor until it is the consistency you like. After 2.5 hours, mine was still on the thinish side, so after I processed it to a jam consistency, I added a half a tablespoon of Knox gelatin dissolved in a bit of water... then heated it up for the gelatin to "set" before putting it in jars to refrigerate.

I suppose you could can it in a pressure canner, but frankly I think it will be eaten in short order so I just refrigerated it.

Here is the basic recipe I used; the only changes were to add some finely chopped crystalized ginger, and to reduce the hot sauce and chile powders a bit. It still has a 'bite' but not an eye-burning bite. Oh, since I was tripling the recipe, I cut down on the apple cider vinegar, starting with ¼ cup and then adding more to taste as it cooked down. (You can always add more but you cannot take it out once it's added.) I ended up with a nice sweet/sour balance.

Ingredients
1 pound thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch fresh grated nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
½ teaspoon dry chipotle powder [I used ancho which isn't as hot but it's what I had]
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ cup strong brewed coffee
¼ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup good quality bourbon
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon hot sauce

Recipe Steps
In a Dutch oven or large skillet cook the bacon over medium high heat until it begins to crisp up at the edges - the pieces should still be soft in the center. Drain on paper towels and retain one tablespoon of bacon grease in the pan.

Lower the heat to medium low and cook the onion and brown sugar until soft and caramelized (20 minutes or more).

Add the garlic and spices and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add the liquid ingredients and the bacon to the pan. At medium heat, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and barely simmer for about 2 hours. Check every 30 minutes to make sure that the mixture does not dry out. If it does, just add a few tablespoons water. The final mixture should be moist and sticky.

Let cool slightly and add to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it reaches the consistency you like - slightly chunky to showcase the bacon or smoother.

Make 1½ cups.

Recipe source: kayb @ eGullet

ps, this is my second attempt. The first time I used a Smithfield hickory smoked, thick-cut bacon without cooking a piece of the bacon first to check the taste. It was terrible tasting, and I should have known better. What a waste of money and ingredients! Usually I make my own bacon, but sometimes I'll buy bacon at a natural foods store if I don't have access to fresh pork belly to make my own bacon.

pps... I'll be out of pocket and able to approve comments until the morning of Nov. 21

Do you have a garden?

This is a quick, unplanned post... I read just this morning some statistics about the increasing prices of food in the last year. The data is from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Producer Price List for March 2010, and the data (by month) spans a whole year. Here's a break-down:

Fresh and dry vegetables, up 56.1%
Fresh Fruits and melons, up 28.8%
Eggs for fresh use, up 33.6%
Pork, up 19.1%
Beef and veal, up 10.7%
Dairy products, up 9.7%

There are now 39.4 million Americans on Food Stamps, up 22.4% from one year ago. The US Government is now paying out more to Americans in benefits that it collects in taxes.

(Rising food and gasoline prices accounted to 58% of February's year-over-year increase in retail sales. Maybe the economy is recovering less than posted due to just price increases??)

I am glad I have a garden started, and plenty of seeds. Sure wish I already had the chickens I plan, and a milking goat or two.

BTW, The UAE (United Arab Emirates) cabinet on Sunday approved a plan to build up three-month stocks of rice, flour and other staples to boost food security following the European travel chaos that disrupted supplies. It is always good to be prepared because you never know when something unforeseen will strike.

My Thyroid Condition, and Soy

Photo from jeffreyw's photostream

Just a quick post. My Endocrine Doctor from UVa just called; she is putting me on thyroid medications. My thyroid is functioning, but only putting out low amounts, and she's not sure why, yet.

Coincidentally, I am currently researching antinutrients for some upcoming posts. One thing I have been against for many years is soy as a food. (I will write/post about that later.) Then right after my doctor called, I came across a notation that soy is in most supermarket foods. That comment didn't concern me as I read it because I don't eat soy products unless they have a long, slow fermentation like true tamari or soy sauce.

However, then I further read that almost all supermarket breads, rolls, muffins, etc. contains soy. Huh? I never see that on the label. I read labels. Always. Often I see 'isoflavones' on a label, and really hadn't thought much about it. Well, Duh! Isoflavones are generally made from beans. Soybeans. Almost all artificial flavorings, flavor enhancers, preservatives, synthetic nutrients and sweeteners are made with Soy Protein Isolate, SPI.

So what does that have to do with my thyroid? Soy contains goitrogens, which are substances that depress thyroid function!

Oh, there is much more to say about soy and its negative effects on our bodies, but that's for another day...

Still some Good Guys in Corporate America!

Photo from chefanden's photostream

Although not what I call 'mainstream' Corporate America (the big guns like automakers and pharmaceuticals), Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods has impacted the corporate news recently in a very good way.

If you are not familiar with this company, it has an interesting history. Bob Moore, founder of Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods was an engineer who fell in love with the old stone-grinding mills. About the time he retired, his wife began sharing what she was learning about the nutritional value of whole grains. By chance, a walk past a closed old mill site ignited his interest and soon his wife and sons joined him in their first mill operation (then located in California).

In my family genealogy research I have come across quite a few men who were millers in the 1800's. Those old mills were powered by a huge water wheel which turned the grinding stones to crush (mill) the kernels of wheat, corn or what ever grain they had. The advantage of stone milling is that there is no heat generated by friction, which can destroy the nutritional properties of the grain. Although I'm pretty sure Bob's Red Mill is not water powered, the stone-grinding would still preserve the nutritional values of the grain.

Today Bob's Red Mill operation occupies a 15 acre site in Milwaukee, and the company and reputation keeps growing. One portion of their business offers certified gluten-free products for people suffering from celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and wheat allergies. They also produce over 50 different certified organic products, including Steel Cut Oats, Whole Wheat Flour, Cornmeal, and Flaxseed Meal.

Although I have only used Bob's Red Mill flours and not mixes, I have read several comments (both on baking blogs and from friends) praising their bread mixes. Most of them say you cannot tell it was a mix rather than made from scratch. Right now I have some of their graham flour (for homemade graham crackers) in the freezer... probably other flours too but I could not name them without doing an inventory.

Last week Bob Moore announced that he is giving his company to the employees even though he has had many purchase offers for the company. Details are still being worked out and Bob, who just turned 81, will remain at the helm. Preliminary plans show every one of the 209 employees with at least 3 years tenure will be fully vested in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

Bob declined to state the net value of the company but a business publication estimated 2009's sales at more than $24 million. Bob's company shows an annual growth rate at 20-30%. That doesn't surprise me, because I have found any of their products I have used to be of exceptional quality.

Currently, the company offers over 400 products of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes.

BTW, an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) like Bob's Red Mill works as a retirement plan. The stock of a company goes into the plan and is held in trust for the benefit of the employees. The employees do not own the stock directly. If I remember correctly, that's basically what Lowe's (Lowe's Home Improvement, not Lowe's Foods) did quite a few years back, but with different parameters for vesting.

Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day

Photo from orsorama's photostream, used by permission

Welcome to the day before Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras!!

For some of us, all Tuesdays are Fat, but the holiday known as Fat Tuesday (the English translation of the French 'Mardi Gras') is a special day of over-indulgence and celebration which has spread in popularity regardless of religion. Fat Tuesday is the last day of eating rich foods before the ritual Christian Lenten fasting season which begins the next day, Ash Wednesday.

The traditional purpose of Lent was to prepare the Believer for the celebration of the Resurrection by means of self-denial, penitence and prayer for 40 days before Easter. The traditional 40 days excludes Sundays which were/are mini-feast days, and early Catholics followed the church rules closely.

Fasting rules were originally very strict. Today, the fasting during Lent varies. Some people fast all day and eat only a simple evening meal without meat or alcohol. Certain Orthodox Churches restrict all animal foods like meat, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy. And some folks just eliminate ('give up') certain things for Lent, like chocolate or a favorite pastime.

The pre-Lenten celebrations have grown in popularity worldwide, largely due to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, but the carnival atmosphere is pagan in origin. (I'll cover Mardi Gras in another post.)

Some believe the pre-Lenten celebrations may have originally had practical purposes too, as food stored for the winter was subject to spoilage after a time. To consume what was in danger of spoiling, they held big feasts prior to moving into the lean days before new crops could be grown and harvested.

Fat Tuesday is also called Shrove Tuesday, and Pancake Day. (The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and doing penance.) The custom of pancakes came about as a means of using up the rich foods like eggs, milk and sugar before Lent; many cultures around the world have their own rendition of sweet delights for Fat Tuesday.

Photo from adactio's photostream, used by permission

I think I'll make my pancakes as Chicken and Mushroom Crepes.

For a filling, slice some chicken breasts and sauté them in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned (but cooked thoroughly, please). Remove from the skillet and add some sliced mushrooms, cooking until they are well wilted and golden in color. Throw a couple tablespoons of flour in the pan to make a roux. You can thin the roux with chicken broth, white wine, or even cream to make a delectable sauce. Season with your favorite herbs (I like basil, thyme or tarragon) and a generous grind of black pepper.

Add the chicken back to the pan, heat thoroughly, and ladle some into a crepe. Fold it over or roll it, and dress with more of the sauce. Serve with a fresh green salad and steamed broccoli with a splash of lemon. Voila! Pancakes!!

New Year's Celebrations

We celebrate this holiday world-wide, and the most famous tradition is the dropping of the ball in Times Square. This tradition began over 100 years ago in 1907; the first ball was made of iron and wood. The traditional ball has been made of Waterford Crystal, and it was 6 feet in diameter, weighing over 1,000 pounds. The 2010 ball is twice that size, and very colorful. The descent takes exactly one minute, arriving at the base at exactly midnight.



All over the world the tune (and sometimes all the words) of Auld Lang Syne is heard, played, and/or sung. The lyrics are from Bobbie Burns' poetic update of an old folk tale talking about old times. However, the popularity of the tune belongs to bandleader Guy Lombardo. He first heard it in his hometown in Ontario sung by Scottish immigrants.

When Guy and his brothers formed their famous dance band (Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians) it became one of their standards. They first played the song at midnight at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC in 1929, and a tradition was born. After that, Lombardo's version was played at the Waldorf Astoria from the 1930's until 1976, broadcast first on the radio and later on television.

The Tournament of Roses Parade dates back to 1886, long before a football game became part of the celebration. The first parade was members of the Valley Hunt Club who decorated their carriages with flowers to celebrate the ripening of the orange crop in California.

In much of the US, the New Year's celebration isn't complete with just the Times Square Ball, Auld Lang Syne, and the Rose Bowl and parade... it takes specific foods to complete the picture. In the south, it's black-eyed peas and collard greens, representing coins and dollar bills. In Little Havana (Miami) it is 12 peeled grapes, one for good luck in each of the upcoming months, a tradition that originated in Spain and Portugal.

Pork or ham is traditional in many nationalities. The tradition stems from catching wild boar in the forests and butchering them on the first day of the new year. New Englanders may choose pork and sauerkraut (cabbage leaves are associated with paper money), and some nationalities choose herring served in a cream sauce, or pickled.

In some places fish is the lucky food, like salmon in the Pacific northwest. In other places, a special cake baked with a coin tucked inside is traditional.

Thousands of miles away, the Japanese may choose the long toshikoshi soba (sending out the old year) buckwheat noodle.

Whatever your food traditions, they are important to continue to celebrate as part of the individual and unique heritage of each of us, lest we all wind up celebrating at McDonald's in the future.

Another tradition in this country is partying, and champagne at midnight; if you choose this tradition, please appoint a Designated Driver, and arrive safely in the New Year.

Ox Tail Stew

The ox tails cooked down nicely! I chilled them overnight, removed the fat layer from the top, and pulled the meat off the bones.

Since it has been damp and chilly, I decided on a carrot and barley stew with the flavorful oxtail base. What you see in the photo doesn't look very soupy but that's because it was chilled again, and the gelatin in the broth was still thick before it was re-heated to serve.

No real recipe, I just simmered about 2/3 cup of pearled barley in the broth, added several chunked carrots, a pinch of sea salt and a generous grind of fresh black pepper. Eat with a chunk of a freshly baked hearty bread, and maybe grind a tad of Parmesan over the bowl. YUM!

(For some reason, the colors in my photos look bright when I'm editing them, but washed out when I post them. Sorry.)

Ox Tails

Ox tails used to be common in the butcher shops, and often were the fare of a poor man's dinner despite being very tasty. Think braised beef short ribs but with much more flavor. Today's supermarkets seldom carry ox tails so I was pleased to find some a few days ago in the freezer section of a natural foods market.

As I'm writing this, I have the oxtails browning in a cast iron pot on top of my wood stove. When they are browned all over, I'll add a mirepoix and then some homemade stock and let them simmer.

Oxtails are cut from a steer's tail, which is a muscle, so they need a long, slow cooking for several hours to be tender. Because the segments are vertebrae, they have lots of iron-rich marrow. I like to simmer them several hours (a crock pot is good for this), then chill overnight so I can remove the excess fat.

I haven't decided for sure what I'll make with the braised oxtails, but probably a carrot and barley stew. There are many, many good recipes for oxtails. I'll post tomorrow when I make the final dish.

Waldorf Salad

I finally realized what I missed the most about a big Thanksgiving Dinner this year, besides the camaraderie. It's the Waldorf Salad!

For as many years as I can remember, my family always had a Waldorf Salad on the table at Thanksgiving. It's an easy salad, and like all dressed salads, it doesn't keep well.

If you aren't familiar with this salad, it was created at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York in the 1890's. The original recipe was just diced red-skinned apples, celery and mayonnaise. Later, chopped lightly toasted walnuts were added to this now American classic. Some folks add sliced grapes and use yogurt in place of some or all of the mayo, but I'm a traditionalist.

I generally use both sweet red-skinned apples, and green-skinned Granny Smith apples, for color diversity.

Waldorf Salad Recipe

1/2 cup celery, thinly sliced
1 sweet apple, cored and chopped
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Lettuce
Optional: 1/2 cup red seedless grapes, sliced (or a 1/4 cup of raisins)

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise (or yogurt) and the lemon juice. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper. Mix in the apple, celery, grapes, and walnuts. Serve on a bed of fresh lettuce. (I like Bibb, or Boston, it looks pretty.)

Serves 2.

Keep this recipe in mind, it's a great winter salad!

Heritage Turkeys

Last year I ordered a small organic Heritage Turkey (locally from my Farmer's Market) to cook for Thanksgiving dinner. I must say it was the most flavorful turkey I've ever eaten, quite different that the standard 'butterball' type turkey. You can see my photos and story about it here.

I had intended to do a repeat performance this year but I'm "On Strike", refusing to use the kitchen here. Most of you know I love to cook, and it takes great restraint to refrain from making a daily issue of the nasty kitchen here. (I refuse to clean up after 2 grown women, capable of doing it themselves.)

Slowly (very slowly) I'm getting set up to cook in my end of the house, but that won't provide a Thanksgiving Dinner this year. The important thing, however, is that I am Thankful for lots! What I will miss the most is sharing the day with friends, but you are always just on the other side of my computer screen.

I am invited several places to share the holiday weekend but I'd rather not travel on holidays. Nor will I feel lonely. In fact I hope to help deliver holiday meals to some who are shut-ins.

Wishing all of you a very pleasant Thanksgiving, early before all the kitchen work sets in!

Genealogy, Nutrition and Longevity

I have had quite a bit of time lately to just ponder, and one persistent thought has to do with the genealogy I've been doing. In tracking one man and his descendants from 1706, several things have become apparent.

Before the mid-1800's and the time of the Civil War, they bred like rabbits. Almost all of them married, and if a wife died in childbirth, the husband just married a spinster or widowed sister to take care of the brood and perhaps add to it. A family of more than 10-15 children was not uncommon, nor was living a 100 years or more.

After the Civil War, all those numbers changed dramatically. WHY?

We know that before the war, the majority of most household's food was home-grown. If a man grew grain, he took it as needed to a local mill to be stone-ground for bread. If a man didn't grow grain for his family, he probably pitched in with several neighbors in his community for grain. In all cases, they ate whole grains because mass-milling and de-germed grains were not heard of at the time.

They ate locally grown food and humanely-raised chicken, eggs and meat. Fresh, full-bodied milk was available daily, and clean, potable water. Everyone had a garden on land that was teeming with microbial life and had not been over-worked. They knew to let alternate fields lay fallow to replenish the soil.

It was a lot of hard work, and I'm not surprised how easily newly-invented machinery became 'essential'. A team with a wide row of plows could do more work than a man with a single mule and plow. Imagine how much more they could do with machine-drawn equipment!

The local stone mill had a limited capacity, although usually adequate for their community. As men were able to grow larger amounts of grain, the need arose to mass-mill it... then they discovered milled grains soon grew rancid from the exposure of the germ and oils to oxygen. So they de-germed it. I doubt most folks realized the change in nutritional value of de-germed wheat bread, and once bread itself was available from a merchant, I'm sure the over-worked housewife was delighted.

So I believe nutrition was an important factor in the overall decline of longevity. Of course, nutrition is much more than just local availability. The land itself is the contributing factor. As a man could farm more land, he also unintentionally destroyed the viability of that land by removing (within the crops themselves) some essential elements that were not replaced. After all, the tractor didn't produce tons of manure to put back on the fields and it would have been impossible to compost a thousand acres. Chemical fertilizers didn't come along until after WWI when they needed to make money from old munitions factories.

I remember my grandfather, who had been a Kansas county ag agent, talking about growing food in the rich muck of south Florida when he moved his family there about 1920. The muck was so rich that vegetables grew rapidly, to the point of splitting and spoiling in the field. (Muck is the soil made up primarily of humus from drained swampland, easily blown away when dry, and also burns easily.) Fortunately, we no longer destroy as much of our wetlands by draining, for they are a valuable wildlife habitat in the natural cycle of life.

Another thing I notice is after the Civil War, many men married much later in life, and had fewer children. Many men and women did not marry at all, and I doubt availability of a spouse was the big factor. So what was?

Was there a mass PTSD across the land? Or some kind of evolutionary switch that controlled the population rate?

In my research, my solitary ancestor of 1706 had generated over 6,000 people in my database by 1900, 46% of whom bear his surname, and with no more than a generation or two traced who do not bear the name. (i.e. Hardesty women who married into a different surname.) What if all the men had lived, and had offspring at the rate the earlier families did?

The estimated death toll of the Civil War is around 600,000-700,000. More than a million Americans died in WWI, and nearly half a million American servicemen numbered among the 60 million total deaths from WWII.

I am still convinced nutrition was the big factor in the decline of longevity. I just wish I had a better understanding of all the factors in the reproduction rate... not that we need more people to feed, but just that I wonder why?

Roasted Chestnuts

Well, I roasted a bunch of the chestnut hoard Buster gave me, and most of the first batch got moldy before I could get them peeled and processed. I suppose I didn't roast them long enough to fully dry out the nutmeats.

Here's another batch. Those suckers are hard to peel even with the "X's" put in the shell before roasting. I think they will go in the freezer for a project on another day later in winter.

Meanwhile, thanks for all who posted about my friend Buster's son. Today is Day 16 or 17 in a coma and on life support. They almost lost him at least twice, perhaps 3 times this past week, and had to do CPR once. Finally he seems to be stabilizing, and he is now on dialysis. They hope (if there's some small improvements in his stability) to put in a Trache tube next week and get the ventilator tubing out of his mouth. I don't know about the feeding tube.

Fresh Chestnuts!

My neighbor gave me some chestnuts, quite a lot of them as you can see from the photo! I don't know what they sell for or the open market but when I lived in Asheville, a street vendor sold fresh hot roasted chestnuts every fall, 6 for $1.50.

Chestnuts are very good nutritionally, being lower in fats and calories than most nuts. (Most nuts have nearly 50% fat; chestnuts only about 1%.) They don't keep the way most nuts do, so they need to have some processing or they will mold and spoil in just a few days.

Chestnuts are best known as roasted, because that brings out the sweetness. However, back in the days before the chestnut blight, they were used in a variety of dishes from a vegetable side-dish, or boiled and mashed, to puddings, stuffing ingredient, and even roasted and ground for flour. You can roast, peel and freeze them but since I'm out of freezer space, I'm looking at alternatives.

I have several ideas in mind for their use. Certainly, I shall roast and grind some (as soon as I can afford a grain grinder). I plan to puree some for use in combination with some kind of fruit for a leather roll-up, and I want to make a batch of chestnut biscotti.

I'll post pics and recipes when I make something with them.

Great Potato Experiment Results

Results are discouraging, but not a total failure... and I learned some lessons that will be helpful in the future, plus gained a small pile of fingerlings to eat!

When I started the Great Potato Experiment, I had no room to plant fingerlings, so I planted them in tires. Two things I did wrong: One, I put the tires over weed-cloth because the area was just grass. Secondly, I used straw and grass clippings, no dirt.

The weed-cloth prevented any roots from penetrating deeply in a search for water, and the fill material of straw and grass clippings did not hold enough water to create a growing medium.

When the plants died off and I dug the fingerlings (Rose Finn Apple Fingerlings) I found 50 or more small tubers the size of a nickel. I think if they had been in a better growing medium, they would have grown larger and the experiment would have been a success, even with the weed-cloth. The original tubers I planted were still intact, and had not decomposed much to make roots for new tubers to grow.

More "Putting Food By"...

As the garden languishes in the last throes of warm weather, I have been drying more of my produce since it takes up much less space (and energy) to store.

I had lots of pole beans, and the ones that didn't get picked while still tender were allowed to stay on the vines. However, with the wet and cooler weather, I was afraid they would mold rather than dry so I picked a bunch. Put them on low in the dehydrator for a couple of hours until they were dry enough to shell easily. What you see in the photo is only a portion, now drying since I shelled them.

These beans are Kentucky Wonder, and probably not the best bean to dry as a staple. However, they can be ground into a flour to add nutrition to a number of dishes like stews and meat loaf. They make a great thickener!

Besides that, any whole dry beans that aren't eaten over winter will still be viable for planting next spring.




Then I dried some corn. Blanched it about 2 minutes, cut it off the cob and spread on the dryer shelves. I wanted to make some old-timey parched corn, which is kinda like corn nuts only not as greasy or salty. Turns out you need to dry the corn ON the cob so you have whole kernels to parch. It makes a great snack, and my neighbor has a few ears drying now on his stalks for me.