"Seven Foods Experts Won't Eat"

I was passed an interesting article that I wanted to share- some of the things I knew, some I didn't... it surely gave me a great reason to continue to can my own tomatoes!!

The title doesn't make much sense to me.... "Seven Foods so Unsafe Even Farmers Won't Eat Them"?? Seems like farmers would be the first ones to avoid stuff like this, not the last... maybe they should have dropped the "Even"?

I learned all about #2 (corn fed beef) from watching the AWESOME movie Food Inc. - If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.

See the article from Planet Green here.

Winter Farming... Sort Of.

So we haven't had much of a garden since the end of the Fall, it was so rainy at the end of last year we never got a chance to put in cold weather crops.

I must admit that some of us have still been farming though - just virtually, on "Farmville." I was definitely a skeptic at first, teasing my friends about it, but when I finally started playing around with it found it to be pretty fun. Nothing like real farming, but a fun diversion.

Seed catalogs are starting to show up in the mailbox, so hopefully I will be back to digging in the REAL dirt again soon! :)

The Omlet Eglu

Can you imagine having fresh eggs whenever you want? Eggs that don't travel hundreds of miles, that don't come from cage-kept chickens?

Check out the Omlet Eglu and the Eglu Cube.

Soooo cool!

Summer '09 / My Addiction to Home Canning

So the Fall is upon us now, and we have had a wonderful Summer... it went by so quickly!

The one thing that has become obvious as the year progresses is that I have developed a serious problem- I can't stop putting things in jars.

So far this year I've made / preserved:

Pickles

Pickled Beans (twice)

Pickled Peppers (three times)

Pickled Okra

Peaches (canned, frozen and dried)

Zucchini Chips (dried)

Tomatoes (dried)

Fig Preserves

Green Tomato Salsa

Regular Salsa (twice)

Cream Corn (frozen)

Pepper Jelly (twice)

Muscadine Jelly (twice)

Vegetable Soup (twice, frozen)

French Onion Soup (frozen)

Beef Stew (in a new pressure-canner)

Only a couple things needed to be added here and there that we did not grow, like spices or some carrots, etc., but for the most part, every ingredient was fresh from the field. (Peaches and figs were not from our farm, but right off the tree and into the jars the day they were picked.)

Here are some pics from the foolishness:

Peaches ready for the freezer.

Jars of pickles and peaches.

Dehydrator stacked with tomatoes, zucchini, and bell peppers... bell peppers DID NOT work!

My friends the Gordons' fig tree!! It is HUGE!

Figs I picked and preserved.

Tomato bounty!

SALSAA!

Muscadines right off the vine.

Crushed...

Cooking them down...

Jelly!

Fresh veggie soup!! Almost EVERYTHING from the garden!

Ready for the freezer, and my belly!

Peppers!

Must wear gloves... hot stuff!

Pepper Jelly... mmmmm!

Pickled peppers and beans.

Stringing peppers to dry.

Pepper sauce.

Group shot (all in one week!)

Beef stew!

Stew in the pressure canner.

Another group shot...

We have loved eating and sharing all of our summer bounty from the garden, it is so wonderful to have all winter long!

Georgia Peach!

Boy 'o boy does summer mean delicious peaches, especially in GA. In the last month, I've canned peaches, dried peaches, frozen peaches AND made peach ice cream!!

The peach ice cream was first- for my friend Jill's birthday... here are some pics from that process:

Yummm!

A few weeks later, my mom wanted to can fresh GA Peaches with me, so she picked some up in South GA and we set to work:

It was quite a process, but the peaches turned out more delicious than you can imagine, and will last through till next Summer! (Plus, I always love canning with my mom.) :)

Baby Beets

About a month ago, as we were clearing the last of the spring veggies out of the garden, I pulled all the beets I could find, large or small. Sadly, most were small (so far we haven't had a lot of luck with beets) but I decided to try roasting them anyway.

When I was a child, I couldn't stand the thought of eating a beet- to me, they tasted just like dirt. Ironically, that is part of what I like about them today- their earthy flavor seems like the closest I can get to the soil somehow. Plus, beets brought Michael and I together, so they are my #1 favorite.

I planted three types of seeds for the beets, "Detroit Dark Red", "Golden", and "Chioggia." "Chioggia" was clearly more successful than the other two- it is a mild beet, that has concentric rings inside when sliced.

So, anyway, I decided to show the process of roasting beets, in case you've never tried it! I love them this way- it isn't a speedy process, but worth the time in my opinion. (Again, these were tiny baby beets, I think ones a little larger have a better flavor in general.)

Cut off the tops,

Rinse,

Trim and scrub,

Wrap in a tin foil pouch with olive oil, kosher salt and rosemary,

Roast until knife tender (usually at least 45 min), then peel- (the skins will slip off easily, but be careful, the beets will be super hot out of the oven!)

Everything in this delicious salad was from the garden except the grilled chicken- lettuce, squash, peas and... chilled roasted beets!

Garden Update!

Here are a few updated pics of the produce...    several of these were taken a couple weeks ago already!