I realized this week how much more efficient and self-sufficient our family has become in the past year or so. I look around my kitchen, and I see dozens of jars of herbs and spices we've grown ourselves and dried for later use. On my countertop are two large crocks of home-brew vinegar that should provide us with enough yummy marinades and salad dressing for a whole year, plus a little to give away. If my winemaking efforts bear good fruit, I anticipate that we will buy very little wine in the coming year - maybe just a bottle or two of merlot for my hubby. We are beginning to brew our own beer as well. On the counter nearest the stove as I speak are two regular and two small loaves, plus six hoagie style rolls of whole grain homemade bread having its final, slow rise before baking. A jar of very yummy smelling sauerkraut is just about ready to open and taste - probably by this weekend.
We're buying a large part of our food these days in bulk from local sources - we have whole grains, beans, soybeans, rice and dried seasonings and milk in the storage room at all times now. We're using the dried milk to augment our storebought, as well as to make kefir, yogurt, cultured buttermilk and soft cheeses at home. Nearly all of one wall in the storeroom is lined with jars of home-canned fruits, fruit syrups, fruit sauces, condiments, pickles, applesauces and apple butter. I'm making plans right now to learn how to pressure can meats and beans, so we will soon have quick meals that we like ready in just a few minutes on our busier days. I'm about to have a go at learning to make home-made sausages, and I even made some home-made potato chips this weekend!
All of this does entail some extra work - but more than that, it requires a lifestyle and attitude change. I'm finding that the more we buy in bulk and the less time I spend at the grocery stores, the more we save in grocery money AND in time. All those highly processed convenience foods are not so convenient when you check the nutrition you're getting (or rather, not getting) and add in the extra money you have to earn to pay for them and the extra time you have to take to shop and bring them home.
Making things like wine and vinegar and bread doesn't take much real time out of my busy day, and it returns heaps of benefits for the time actually spent. It's also fun to watch them transform from ingredients to finished product. It's good to know that a lot of what we're eating these days didn't have to travel a thousand miles or more to get here. But, we're doing more than just learning to eat locally - we're trading in our high consumption, low quality lifestyle for a higher quality and more sustainable one. I think the key here for us is doing it slowly and deliberately - picking the things we can do or can learn to do and integrating them one at a time into our life and our daily routine before adding more. It's good to take back responsibility and accountability for at least some of what we put into our bodies, and to be able to know that we're getting more from what we do eat, but I definitely don't want to replace one high-stress situation with another!
We definitely still have a long way to go - but looking around me this past week - Thanksgiving week - I can definitely see that we're on the right road. And it feels good!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Last week of November and counting!
Well, we've still got the central heat in the house off - at least, it's not on automatic yet. We've had to turn it on for an hour or two a couple of mornings this week to take the edge off the morning chill in the house, but it's not running 24/7 yet. This house apparently has a fair bit of solar gain during the day and loses that gain very slowly at night due to being partly underground. So with luck we'll be able to eek another couple of weeks or more out of that and not have to actually turn the heating on for good for a while. I'm frankly amazed that we've been able to go this long - I suppose we could have gone this long in years past, but never knew to try. It will be interesting to compare our electricity and gas usage for this autumn with the previous three autumns and see if we've managed to cut that down.
Sauerkraut is coming along nicely - smells just as it should and we're planning to taste it soon. We're planning a second jar tomorrow, and perhaps more after that if I can get another good deal on cabbage. We're also going to try making some kimchee soon. I should make a corned beef so we can have Reuben samiches with the kraut. (Home made corned beef is super, super, super easy and much better for you than store bought - I'll post the recipe at the end of this note.) Wheat beer is in the fridge to cold stabilize in preparation for bottling, and the wines have finally begun slowing down a bit after that last racking. The vinegars are still making more "mother" so I'm leaving them to finish up a bit longer, although they probably could be used now as they are. I'm really looking forward to putting all these lovely things in bottles and setting them down in the store room to age! I've always wanted a storeroom like I have now, and I'm having a blast using it!
So, here's the corned beef recipe:
* Morton's TenderQuick salt - navy blue bag in the spice section, usually on the bottom shelf.
* Lean beef roast - that's the beauty of making your own - you can use *good* beef
* water - plain cold tap water is fine
* "Pickling spice" (or if you can't find that, mix peppercorns, red pepper flakes, crushed bay leaves, whole coriander and mustard seed in a combination that pleases you.)
Find a large, non metallic container with a lid. A gallon glass jar or a couple of half gallon canning jars with lids work well. Or you can use a small, clean, plastic food grade bucket, or even a large, deep ceramic or plastic bowl with a makeshift cover. Just remember that whatever you use, it has to be deep enough for the meat to stay submerged in brine, and the whole thing needs to be able to fit into your refrigerator.
Cut the meat into chunks, or leave it whole. Chunks 4 inches on a side or thereabouts cure faster than a whole roast, but it's up to you whether to cut the roast smaller or not. Rinse the meat in clean, cool water and put it into your clean non-metallic container. Mix enough brine in a 1:8 ratio of Morton's salt to water to fully cover the meat, and pour it in. Throw in a handful of spices, put the lid on, and set it in the fridge to cure. Chunks will be ready to eat in about 4 days, but larger pieces might take up to 10. Fish out what you want, cook it however you like, and leave the rest in the brine for later. Up to a point, it just keeps getting more flavorful.
That's it! Corned beef at home is so simple and fast there's no reason to pay exorbitant prices for fatty, low quality corned brisket packed in brine at the store. Making your own means you control how much fat is in the final product, and also how spicy it is. You don't even have to add spices if you don't like them, it's your choice and won't affect the curing at all. You can also use plain kosher or canning salt instead of the Morton's, but it won't look like, and may not taste like, the corned beef you've had in the past. But if you have a thing about nitrates, give it a try on a small scale and see how you like it.
.
Sauerkraut is coming along nicely - smells just as it should and we're planning to taste it soon. We're planning a second jar tomorrow, and perhaps more after that if I can get another good deal on cabbage. We're also going to try making some kimchee soon. I should make a corned beef so we can have Reuben samiches with the kraut. (Home made corned beef is super, super, super easy and much better for you than store bought - I'll post the recipe at the end of this note.) Wheat beer is in the fridge to cold stabilize in preparation for bottling, and the wines have finally begun slowing down a bit after that last racking. The vinegars are still making more "mother" so I'm leaving them to finish up a bit longer, although they probably could be used now as they are. I'm really looking forward to putting all these lovely things in bottles and setting them down in the store room to age! I've always wanted a storeroom like I have now, and I'm having a blast using it!
So, here's the corned beef recipe:
* Morton's TenderQuick salt - navy blue bag in the spice section, usually on the bottom shelf.
* Lean beef roast - that's the beauty of making your own - you can use *good* beef
* water - plain cold tap water is fine
* "Pickling spice" (or if you can't find that, mix peppercorns, red pepper flakes, crushed bay leaves, whole coriander and mustard seed in a combination that pleases you.)
Find a large, non metallic container with a lid. A gallon glass jar or a couple of half gallon canning jars with lids work well. Or you can use a small, clean, plastic food grade bucket, or even a large, deep ceramic or plastic bowl with a makeshift cover. Just remember that whatever you use, it has to be deep enough for the meat to stay submerged in brine, and the whole thing needs to be able to fit into your refrigerator.
Cut the meat into chunks, or leave it whole. Chunks 4 inches on a side or thereabouts cure faster than a whole roast, but it's up to you whether to cut the roast smaller or not. Rinse the meat in clean, cool water and put it into your clean non-metallic container. Mix enough brine in a 1:8 ratio of Morton's salt to water to fully cover the meat, and pour it in. Throw in a handful of spices, put the lid on, and set it in the fridge to cure. Chunks will be ready to eat in about 4 days, but larger pieces might take up to 10. Fish out what you want, cook it however you like, and leave the rest in the brine for later. Up to a point, it just keeps getting more flavorful.
That's it! Corned beef at home is so simple and fast there's no reason to pay exorbitant prices for fatty, low quality corned brisket packed in brine at the store. Making your own means you control how much fat is in the final product, and also how spicy it is. You don't even have to add spices if you don't like them, it's your choice and won't affect the curing at all. You can also use plain kosher or canning salt instead of the Morton's, but it won't look like, and may not taste like, the corned beef you've had in the past. But if you have a thing about nitrates, give it a try on a small scale and see how you like it.
.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Second Week of November, and Counting!
Yay! It's the second week of November, and we still haven't turned on our central heat. My grown son that lives with us has had the gas heating stove on a few times in the mornings (he lives in the finished basement area, and it's always colder there) but we have so far been able to avoid turning on the central heat for the rest of the house, in spite of an early cold snap and three early snowfalls. Our house is a split level with double paned windows, and a large greenroom/sunroom on the southeastern side - so between that and the sun, plus human activities like cooking, the house stays a very cozy 60-70 degrees.
We will have to turn the heat on eventually - our winters temps here can dip pretty low at times - sometimes into the minus teens. But for now, it feels good to eek yet another day out of the natural warmth of the earth and the sun. The next step for us is for me to conduct an "energy audit" of all the appliances and such in our home. I want to unplug things we aren't using, so they don't "vampire" power out of the system even when they aren't on. I plan to grab a few more power strips so I can plug things like the TV and DVD into that, and cut them all off from the power supply with the flip of just one switch.
I'm also learning how to live with fewer lights on during the day. If I want to read, for instance, instead of lighting up a dim interior room, I can go out into the sunroom where there is always plenty of light even on rainy days and a nice comfy couch to boot. Heck, reading out there with all the green stuff and the tiny goldfish pond isn't a hardship. Make a nice cuppa, bring a small table to put things on, and I'm all set for a lovely afternoon.
What's surprising to me is that instead of adding more stress to my already over-stressed life, doing more of the "home-y" things I've been doing lately (baking, making wine and vinegar and such) seem to be reducing my stress load. I'm not completely sure why this is so - but I suspect that it's concentrating my mental and physical energies into more productive things, giving me a greater sense of control over my destiny, and also giving me a sense of security and stability that helps override the stressy stuff. Whatever the reason for this change for the better, I'll take it!
We will have to turn the heat on eventually - our winters temps here can dip pretty low at times - sometimes into the minus teens. But for now, it feels good to eek yet another day out of the natural warmth of the earth and the sun. The next step for us is for me to conduct an "energy audit" of all the appliances and such in our home. I want to unplug things we aren't using, so they don't "vampire" power out of the system even when they aren't on. I plan to grab a few more power strips so I can plug things like the TV and DVD into that, and cut them all off from the power supply with the flip of just one switch.
I'm also learning how to live with fewer lights on during the day. If I want to read, for instance, instead of lighting up a dim interior room, I can go out into the sunroom where there is always plenty of light even on rainy days and a nice comfy couch to boot. Heck, reading out there with all the green stuff and the tiny goldfish pond isn't a hardship. Make a nice cuppa, bring a small table to put things on, and I'm all set for a lovely afternoon.
What's surprising to me is that instead of adding more stress to my already over-stressed life, doing more of the "home-y" things I've been doing lately (baking, making wine and vinegar and such) seem to be reducing my stress load. I'm not completely sure why this is so - but I suspect that it's concentrating my mental and physical energies into more productive things, giving me a greater sense of control over my destiny, and also giving me a sense of security and stability that helps override the stressy stuff. Whatever the reason for this change for the better, I'll take it!
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