A few steps forward, one step back...

A black krim, a roma and a buncha yellow pears!

Well if you live behind, beside or across from me, are related to me, have spoken to me in the last week, or even drove by my house at the right moment, you probably already know that we are in the middle of a full fledged TOMATO EMERGENCY here!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT complaining, (I'm actually bragging) I'm just making note that I gotsta do SOMETHING SOON with all these tomatoes! I have those HUGE black krims, plus 4 INSANE roma plants, 4 of those yellow pear tomatoes, PLUS a brandywine or two, (it's hard to tell at this point how many individual plants there are! Heaven help me!). I have been handing off a bunch to my neighbors, and eating them with every possible meal, but I guess I could start trying my hand at canning by next week!

A TINY wrench in my plans, I went and got myself a lil ol' part-time job, which immediately scheduled me to work every day for 11 straight days, so I have my hands completely full right now! It will ease up soon, but for the next week or so, it might be a little touch and go. I bet a few of you have been wondering if all this "local sustainable" eatin' is possible with a JOB too, and so have I, so I am interested to see what effects this has...

So my bread making is sailing right along now that I let the machine mix and knead the dough, then I take it out and let it rise and bake it myself. It has really been fantastic, the bread is coming out great, the mess is nothing, and the effort is absolutely minimal. Of course I still have to make 2 loaves a day, because of the ravenous hoardes here at my house. Don't even ASK about the amounts of peanut butter and jelly we are mowing through....

Oh and my mozzarella making!!! (pause for a moment as I clasp my hands together, smile angelically, and look up at the sky, then slowly close my eyes as I imagine my creamy, melty, stretchy, luscious cheese....)
HUH? What just happened?? Where am I??? Oh yeah, the mozzzzzz................
Ok, I am better now... all I can say is mozzarella making has been the BEST BEST BEST discovery of this whole experiment!!! Yes I love, nay: ADORE my tomatoes! I LOVE the banana peppers and zucchini. I really REALLY enjoy fresh homemade bread made with local sustainable stone ground whole wheat flour. I love grass-fed beef and pastured pork. But oh, the mozzarella!!!!

It starts out as milk, plain boring old milk (which btw I do not really see as that boring anymore, you can do SO MUCH with it!) and then stir stir, mix mix, put the lid on, wait 10 minutes WHAMMO! Cheese! Creamy scrumptious AMAZING! SOOOOOO easy!! From cold milk to literally eating the cheese it takes half an hour!!!! LOL can you even believe it??? I would never have believed it, but there it is! If you love mozzarella, it is seriously worth it to give making it a try!

The main thing you need is milk that is not 'ultra-pasteurized'. Other than that, you can buy the items you need online, I bought a kit from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. http://www.cheesemaking.com/ for beginners ( I have been making it twice a week for several weeks now, and if I can do it, YOU can do it!) that came with everything you need except milk, to make 30 batches. Yes THIRTY batches. The kit cost 25$ plus shipping, so about 30$ total, and I end up with about a pound each time. You can buy the things you need separately elsewhere, you just need rennet (I have NO CLUE what it is, look it up) and ummmm cheese salt (which I suspect is just coarse salt) a thermometer, oh and citric acid. Each of these items are a couple bucks or less; but the kit is nice because of the instructions, and everything including the thermometer is in there. You really cannot do it wrong! Actually, me and my kid messed up one batch, I'm still not exactly sure what we did, I think maybe my milk was too old (remember I am using raw milk, which doesn't keep beyond a few days), other than that ONE time, every batch has worked perfectly!

Ok, I will relax on the mozz tip... I will just mention that I make the MOST AMAZING grilled cheese sammitches out of it!!! Soooooo goooddddd..................
Ok, for real this time, I am done...
Here is some bruschetta I made with garden tomatoes and my fresh mozz yesterday:

Oh man, now I am drooolllliiingggggg.........

So I titled this post "A few steps forward, one step back", and i am now unfortunately going to relate our step backwards....
Sigh, this is hard to write, it really is. As you know, the lunch meat issue has been the most difficult part of this whole journey for my family. Yeah, snacks were/are tough, the creamer thing, I really miss avocados. But definitely lunch meat was the biggie for us.
Dave has to pack his lunches for work, and with nowhere to heat anything up, and not wanting to eat fast food, or even being near a place to get fast food, or any other food for that matter, when he needs to eat because of his job, sandwiches are a big deal to him. We tried several things, and he has been a real trooper. The last couple weeks we had been using leftovers from dinner to make his sandwiches, but there aren't always enough leftovers, or the type of leftovers that make a decent sandwich.
We discussed the options and issues AT LENGTH, I can assure you lol! But the bottom line is he made the decision to buy grocery store lunch meat for his sandwiches this week. He is a grown-ass man, and what he puts in his mouth/body is ultimately up to him. Honestly, the thought of lunch meat turkey pretty much turns my stomach at this point, but if it doesn't bother him, then he is free to do as he pleases. He did try other options, and is still on board with everything else we are doing. So there it is.

Do I think it could have been worked out some other way? Yes; but there definitely has to be a certain level of commitment to go exclusively local, and it is not something I can ask anyone else to do. And the truth is, I am NOT exclusively local either. I buy boxes of cheap cereal here and there for convenient snacking and breakfasting for the kids, and olive oil, and my cheesemaking kit, and salt and pepper, etc. So who am I to pick and choose which things HE should be ok or not ok with? And I am not upset with him about it; we each have our own journey. I am doing the best I can at what I think is best for me (and my poor defenseless children lol) and that is all I am responsible for.

So, many steps forward, and one backwards, and that is just like all the rest of life, and it is part of the pattern that is all of creation, and I am fine with that.

"Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end."
                                                            --Walter Pater

Who's the terkee NOW???

Oh man, I made the seitan turkey roast the other day! Wait, let me stick a pic in here:


Note the turkey-like shape!



Ok, now I will show you a pic of the bread i made the same night:

Lol see the similarity??? My husband called his terkee sandwich 'manage á bread' aka 'bread á trois' Hahahaha!! I had to admit, they looked an awful lot alike! He ate some though, what a trooper, but today said he doesn't want anymore sandwiches of it. Can't blame him, it does have a faint dog-foody smell (the brewer's yeast). Definitely a meaty texture, and he did at least try it. Plus it has been miserably hot the last few days, and who would want a dog-foody smelling 90 degree sammitch after working in the hot sun for hours?

But seriously folks, it wasn't AWFUL. It wasn't GREAT, but it wasn't awful. As usual, I would definitely tweak the recipe if I were to make it again. And I may try to make it again, as soon as this one is gone. Which may not be til Thanksgiving.... I used a recipe that made enough to feed an army of hungry vegans, I bet it weighed in at 10 lbs!
That was my first mistake. My second mistake was more or less following the recipe, even though my instincts were telling me it wouldn't be flavorful enough. Next time I will make a smaller batch, and WAY up the seasoning. Not terrible though for a first try, and if you know any hungry vegans....

That is todays haul of tomatoes, the big guys in the back are hierlooms called Black Krim and they are burgandy-ish green when ripe, and some of the ones still on the vine are HUGE! We are going to a family party tomorrow and I am taking a salad of my fresh home-made mozzarella and these garden fresh beauties (plus garlic, basil and olive oil, and maybe some bread)!

I need to take a pic of the garden right now, it is a tomato rainforest! I scoffed at planting them 3 feet apart and now they are a tangled, maniacally overgrown forest of deliciousness-to-be!
My neighbor's Roma tomatoes are ripening, I could see the orange-ish red from my side of the fence (visualize my pitiful face staring at his tomatoes through the chain link), but mine are just frankenstein-ian behomoths carelessly knocking aside their cages and running free! Actually, as predicted by- well, everyone who knew of my garden, the zucchinis and tomatoes are strangling out everything else. Well, there is a viney feisty cucumber determined to grow there as well, he is all tangled up with the zucchini next to him, and I can't tell sometimes who is who or what is what! Which reminds me, I did something delicious with cucumber the other day, but now I can't remember what it was? Oh yeah, I diced some really fine and added it to the salsa I was making, and it added a fresh crispiness I really liked! Plus used up some excessive cukes...

The strawberries are enjoying a second spring of production, boy are they alot of work! It is astounding how insanely fast and luxurious everything is growing!
Except everything in pots on the deck, they are all dead. It is my fault, I kept forgetting to water them, and it has just been so hot and dry the last month....excuses excuses! Forgetting to water things has definitely been a life-long problem for me; one of my kids, I forget which one, once asked me why the plants they gave me for Mother's Day always died. =/ Aw well, no one's perfect!

This is gonna have to be a 'quickie' I'm afraid, since me and my hubby are HOME ALONE tonight (wink wink) and he is in the bedroom and I am out here blogging LOL! I just wanted to get those pix up, oh and one other QUICK thing, farmer suggested I just use my bread machine for making the dough and the first rise, then taking it out and doing the second rise and baking myself, which will eliminate the kneading hook in the bread, the weird cube shaped loaf, and the sunken tops...DUH wish I had thought of that myself!
If you can't be smart yourself, it's good to know smart people!

Houston, we have tomatoes!

Yes they have finally started to ripen and they are delicious! Everyday there are more ready to be picked, my kid has eaten most of them right off the vine, but today there were so many, he couldn't finish them all lol!


The whole week has been a delightful produce extravaganza, I have spent most of my time in the kitchen!


Blueberry and blackberry buckles, tortillas, salsa, potatoes fried, baked, boiled, peppers stuffed with cheese, creamy mozzarella, bread, even a batch of cream cheese (don't ask how we did it, but somehow we did!) have all kept me busy this week!


I bought a bread machine at a yardsale on Saturday, and as expected, was slightly disappointing. The dough kneading blade gets baked into the bread, then when you cut it out, it leaves a big ol' hole in the bottom of the bread, making only the end few slices usable for sandwiches (ah sandwiches, the bane of my existence!), which seems like a bizarre engineering oversight!
Also of course all the recipes in the booklet call for bread flour, which I am not using, so I have been baking some experimental loaves trying to get the gluten/yeast/moisture combination right. I have made a couple decent loaves, but they are so small and cuboidal and then the big hole in the bottom, aye carumba!
After some online research of bread machine reviews, I think I am going to look around for a West Bend one, with the horizontal loaf shape and double kneading paddles. My mom offered to buy one for me, so I will make do with the $10 yard sale one til then. Overall I am glad I bought it, for experiemental reasons, and also because it doesn't use much flour (3 cups vs 10 cups for my handmade bread) and some of the bread is definitely usable, the best part is that I just have to put the ingredients in, and then 3 hrs later, it is ready with no foot-(hand)-work by me (or dirty floury bowls/countertops!)! So it will be fine until I find the one I want at a decent price.


It can also be used to just make dough, so I may give it a try with noodles and/or tortillas. Although today my kid made another scrumptious batch of those by hand, and they should last the week.


Oh man, I made a zucchini casserole yesterday that was like heaven! I made a crust for the bottom, sliced the zucchini horizontally, pretty thinly, then made an egg, homemade cream cheese, milk and swiss 'batter' to pour over the zucchini, then sprinkled the top with breadcrumbs (heaven knows I have plenty of those lol) and more cheese, and then baked it until the egg was set. mmmmmmmmmmmmm soooo good! Disclaimer: I LOVE zucchini, I can't think of any zucchini dish I have ever had that I didn't love. My husband wasn't wow-ed by it, although he ate it, but he is never really much of a zucchini fan (except for the primavera dish i make with the canned tomatoes, black olives and artichokes), but it was really good!

Today we had grilled mozzarella sandwiches with tomatoes, olive oil and basil (mine also had grilled zucchini!) for lunch- SCRUMPTCH!

Overall, easy week of local eating, lotsa good stuff from the farm and the garden, plus I am keeping up with breads and dairy products. I am finding it easier to just see what I have and then figure out what to make with it, rather than deciding what to make and then buying the ingredients for it. And I am getting much better at using things while they are fresh, instead of waiting for inspiration to strike. Some meals might seem a little disjointed, but that is just an error of perception. I am used to the 'grocery store way' of get whatever you want when you want it, but I am slowly adjusting to 'enjoy what you have while it is available'.

The only foods I bought from the grocery store this week are my beloved sugar-free french vanilla flavored non-dairy creamer, canned and dried beans, olives, vital wheat gluten, vinegar, mayo, bbq sauce, pnut butter, etc.
No produce (I even stopped buying avocados!), no dairy, definitely no meat, no baked goods. I have been buying a few 2 liters of diet soda for my husband's lunches, and a few bags of chips for the kids, oh and some popsicles, because they were on sale plus I had a coupon.

Definitely everyone is adjusting much better and overall the rebellion seems to have died down considerably.
Like everything in life, we are getting used to it, and the discomfort of change is going away.

But I assure you we are eating very well here! No one is going hungry, and we seem to be appreciating each bite a little more (well maybe just I am lol!) because food is more of a process now, does that make sense? Not just more work per se, but more planning maybe? Or more faith that the earth/universe will provide? I'm not sure, it is tough to explain. I just feel grateful for each bright yellow pear tomato I pull off the vine, and each pork chop and each loaf of bread. Every bite tastes like nourishment... I never noticed that before... I guess it has something to do with the mindfulness of eating this way, I imagine vegetarians must feel this too...

Ok I know I am rattling on!

Po-tay-toe Po-taw-toe, Toe-may-toe Toe-maw-toe

Ahhhhhhhhh another beautiful day!
Just came in from the garden. We dug up the first of the potatoes today; what a spectacular treat!!! We got soooo many! And we only dug around a few of the plants so more to come! It was seriously like digging for buried treasure: just digging around in the dirt with our fingers and suddenly GOLD!
It is 95 degrees at least out there, but I didn't even notice, and the gnats which usually drive me INSANE, didn't seem to exist. This whole garden thing has just been sublime, no exaggeration...
They are german fingerling potaotes, which i ordered as tubers from Burpee.com, so they are petite and elongated, with golden skin and flesh, BEAUTIFUL! We gave a bag to the generous neighbor who shared his bounty with us last summer (produce and advice) and have some drying out int he sun, and some on the counter for supper!


The peppers have continued to be plentiful as well, so I've been stuffing them and sauteing (sp?) them and such. But the TOMATOES! Oh the heartbreakingly SLOW ripening tomatoes!!!! The plants are COVERED, literally COVERED with tomatoes, gazillions of them! But none are ripe! They smell DIVINE! I go into the garden several times a day and check on them, feel them, smell them, just ADORE them! I tell them how lovely they are and how sweet, and beg them to ripen! I admit I think about them all day! (yes i may need counseling...)
And my obsession with the tomatoes hasn't been helped by the fact that I made the MOST INCREDIBLY CREAMY and DELICIOUS mozzarella on Sunday! Just like the fancy expensive kind from the store, the kind you make tomato and mozzarella salad out of, the kind that melts in your mouth WAAAAAA!!!!!


Used the same recipe and technique as before, but adjusted it for the fact that I am using raw milk, and wanted a super creamy texture, as opposed to the stringy dry kind that you buy already shredded in bags at the store. And don't get me wrong, I like that kind too, that is how our first batch turned out and it was good; it is just that I LOVE the creamy kind, LOVE IT, have a twisted romance with it, sometimes hide it from my kids kinda thing....sigh....


(For anyone interested in the adjustments i made: 1/4 tsp less citric acid, never heated above 88 degrees, and only stretched a couple of pulls, as soon as it was shiny I stopped stretching, and immediately cooled in ice water bath) (Oh and also I used the full fat milk, didn't skim it, and, gulp, doubled the salt to 2 tsp...)


I am praying nightly that by next weekend the tomatoes will begin ripening. If that is petty, my only defense is that I am surely not the only one to ever pray for something petty. =/


In the Packed Lunch Wars, we have reached an impasse. I verbalised my, "it's not all about what goes in your mouth, it is also about the process of getting it there" feelings, as well as my, "can't you just shut up and eat it?" feelings; but then I followed that up with my trump card, "Can't you just humor me???" and that seemed to help. So all last week he had left-over meats on his sandwiches. I found some great marinades for chuck roast, and made a couple different ones for meals last week, and that made good sandwich meat, and he seemed pretty happy with that. I think another important factor is the increase in produce. He feels better about the everything when he is getting amazing suppers every night! And he said, and I quote, "I am feeling alot healthier since we started doing this."


Let's keep this between ourselves here folks, but when he heads back to work this week, I am going to made a seitan 'turkey' roast and slice that sucker up, and pack it in his sandwiches, and see if he likes it! I am going to make the seitan myself, my mom made it last year for Thanksgiving for one of my sisters, who is vegan, and they both said it was really good, and so did my step-dad who is a notoriously picky eater. Apparently it is pretty easy to make, it is vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast (not the same as bread yeast) and then spices and stuff, and it ends up having a meaty texture and whatever flavor you put in it. So wish me luck!


Oh man and I made the BEST batch of tortillas EVER yesterday! So soft and slightly puffy and delicious! It seems like I am getting better at making stuff, just a little trial and error, and it gets better each time.


As the season progresses, it is definitely getting easier to find local foods, roadside farmstands are popping up, the variety at the farmers markets is getting better, and of course that all helps. I am worrying a bit already about the winter months, I know i thought I would have canned and frozen stuff to get me through, but honestly, except for maybe tomatoes, I doubt I will have enough of anything else to can or freeze (well, maybe zucchini). BUT I am not going to let it get me down yet, I know August will be crazy with produce, and by then I will be even better (through my super fun trial and error method lol!) at local eating, so maybe the outlook will not be as difficult as I worry it will be.


And my mom loaned me an amazing book about food gardening and it gave me a ton of new ideas for next year, and I will be far more efficient. And seriously, the thrill we got from digging up those potatoes will carry me through a few dark days this winter, I am SURE!


Well it is 7pm, and I have yet to start making supper, so I better get to it! (In actuality, I started those potatoes back in April, soooo....)

Tortillas, Turkeys, Blueberries & Broccoli

Well things have been rolling along here, a few bumps, some fun downhill slopes, just like life...

I will put the tortilla recipe on this post, I promise! First though, an update on the turkey rebellion!

Turns out humanely, sustainably raised turkey is not easy to get folks! Apparently they are hard guys to raise, and without chemicals and cages, even harder! Farmer tells me that they are very sensitive to weather and other factors, and require lots of work. She said of the 50 she tried to raise last year, only 10 made it to butchering (she didn't use antibiotics, hormones etc). This is an interesting lesson in sustainable eating, because imagine what it must take to produce those cheap, huge-breasted turkeys we all expect at Thanksgiving!!!! Farmer says those guys are horribly malformed, can't stand, much less walk, never see the light of day, are kept incredibly confined in tiny cages, and require massive amounts of chemicals to keep alive. Add in the transportation, and we can easily see how bad this industry must be for the environment, the animals and for our bodies! GREAT for the Big Food Industry executives' pockets though! Hmmmmm....rich unconscionable people gettting richer at the expense of the environment, innocent, helpless animals, and humanity...suddenly I am not even hungry...

SO! No turkey breast sammitches for my husband, poor guy... Oh, and order your sustainably raised holiday turkeys now folks! And be grateful, not annoyed, by their normal-sized breasts....

The packed lunch battle rages on...

BUT the good news is: we made mozzarella!!! From raw milk! In our kitchen! In about half an hour!!! WOOHOO!!! Boy that was exciting! So exciting that I am planning to do it again today!

Ok, so here is the recipe for the tortillas we have been making (remember my whole wheat flour is grown and ground in Duncannon!), and then a recipe for a blueberry dessert we have been making from all local stuff (except vanilla and suger):

Whole Wheat Tortillas

4 Cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
4 tablespoons cold butter (you can use lard for this, but not margarine)
1&1/2 Cups water

1. Whisk the flour, salt & baking powder together in a large bowl.
2. Mix in the butter with your fingers until no clumps of butter remain (about 3-5 minutes).
3. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together.
4. Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic (about 3-5 minutes).
5. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each into a ball (I make a flattened ball out of the dough, then cut it in half, then cut those halves in half, then cut each of those wedges into 3 wedges. This will make large tortillas, like burrito size. For smaller ones for tacos or for dipping in things, make 24 pieces).
6. Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes.
7. Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat (a heavy skillet works best for this, because it holds the heat better). While it preheats, roll out the first ball into a thin round circle (the thinner they are, the less flexible they seem to be, but you can still make them pretty big, about 8-10 inches across).
8. When pan is hot, spray it lightly with cooking spray (or brush with oil) and place the dough in the pan. Cook until it puffs up a bit. It won't take long, usually I roll out the next one while I wait, then flip it. Flip, and cook other side until light golden (again, not long, a couple minutes; it is important to cook them long enough though, otherwise they taste very floury).
9. Place cooked tortillas on a plate layered between damp, wrung out paper or cloth towels (one on plate, one on top of stack of tortillas, NOT an additional towel between each tortilla), and cover with an additional layer of dish towel (have the plate and damp towels ready before you start cooking them!).
10. Continue rolling and cooking remaining dough.
11. Eat one hot out of the pan!
When they are all cooked, I put them with a damp paper towel in a zip-top bag and put them in the fridge. If I don't use them that day, then I put them in the freezer. To reheat, wrap in a damp paper towel and microwave for 20-30 seconds, or heat in a hot pan lightly coated with cooking spray or oil.

And the delicious blueberry dessert:

1 Cup whole wheat flour
1 & 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla, divided
1/3 Cup milk
3 eggs
1 & 1/2 Cup blueberries (fresh or frozen, I have done both)
1/3 Cup powdered sugar
8 tablespoons whole milk ricotta cheese OR cream cheese (I have used both, turns out great either way!)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9X9 square baking pan (or spray with cooking spray).
1. Cream butter, granulated sugar, one egg, milk and 1 tsp vanilla in large bowl.
2. Mix in flour and baking powder.
3. Spread evenly in pan. Spread blueberries on top.
4. In a medium bowl, beat 2 eggs and ricotta OR cream cheese until smooth. Stir in powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Spread over blueberries.
5. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until cooked through. The top will be nice and brown and crispy!
Serve with ice cream or whipped cream if you have it! Yum!

In other news, the garden continues to flourish! We have been getting plenty of banana peppers and jalepeños; no ripe tomatoes yet, but the plants are COVERED in green ones!
My zucchini plants are enormous, but no zucchinis appear to be growing on them yet =( not sure what is up with that! Oh wait, not true, there is one teeny tiny one on the plant in a pot on the deck, but it hasn't grown AT ALL in a couple weeks, so again, a mystery....

We got fresh broccoli from the farm on Friday and it was SOOO SWEET AND DELICIOUS! My former mother-in-law had been telling me there was no comparison between store-bought and fresh from the garden broccoli, and boy was she right!

Well, if I don't get to studying in the next five minutes, I will absolutely FAIL my anatomy test tomorrow, so I gotta wrap this up. Until next time:  make tortillas! Google where to buy pastured meat locally! Go to a farmer's market, cuz they got some GOOOD stuff right now! Order a humanely, sustainably raised heritage turkey for Thanksgiving from a local farm! In fact, order 2, cuz you never know when your husband will want a turkey sammitch for lunch... =/