Homemade and Homegrown

Some of our friends have wondered why we spend so much time growing and making our own food and other things we need and use.

 Some have guessed that it is to save money, since it certainly does not save time. Others have surmised that we do what we do for the satisfaction of being self-sufficient. Still others have suggested that we are "health food nuts" and want to control what goes into our food.

To one degree or another, all these assumptions are accurate. Sometimes we save a little money by making our own. Take baking your own bread for example. You can buy pounds of quality grain or flour for the same price of a loaf of the best store-bought bread. Adding in the rest of the ingredients and the cost of baking the loaves, homemade bread is much less expensive (less than one dollar per loaf). It does take about 25 minutes of attention/work to make that loaf. If you value your time at say, $10 per hour, and you make only one loaf at a time (which is hardly ever the case), then you have a 5 dollar loaf. However, what value do you place on the satisfaction, the unbeatable taste of warm bread with butter, and the comforting aroma throughout the house?

We do want to control what goes into our food and into our immediate environment, our home, but we don't consider ourselves to be "health-food nuts" because we have not subscribed to any of the various food fads that come and go, but rather we prefer to go back to the diet and ways of preparing food that have endured for millennia.To put it simply, if we can't prepare the food or its ingredients in our own kitchen (or backyard), we don't want to eat it. Many ingredients (the ones that are difficult to pronounce) in our store-bought food not only are not able to be made at home, but also are not available to the public for purchase. What does that tell us? Does "toxic" come to mind?

Our neighbor, who came to the United States from the "Old Country" after World War II, put it this way: "If the farmer doesn't grow it, the farmer doesn't eat it." We don't have the room to grow everything we eat (though we are getting closer each year to that goal), so we make careful choices about the food we buy. (First question: Could we grow it or make it if we had the space and time?)

Here is a partial list of what we currently grow for ourselves on our quarter-acre--fruits (apricot, apple, peach, plum, blackberry, raspberry, kiwi, grape, lemon, orange, mandarin, lime, goji), nuts (pecan, almond), vegetables (mostly the usual favorites--tomato, squash, cucumber, eggplant, peppers, cabbage, beets, onions, garlic, chives, shallot, greens, carrots), herbs (too many to name), meat (poultry), eggs (chicken, duck), dairy (goats), and fish (tilapia).

If we can do it, so can you. We didn't start out big, we started small and added one or two things at a time.

Pickled Spicy Carrots

Spicy Pickled Carrots

Denise just recently made some "Pickled Spicy Carrots." These yummy, crunchy, tangy, and hot (from jalapeno peppers) treats are not made with vinegar. They are fermented (similar in process to making sauerkraut or kosher pickles), therefore they have the same probiotics (beneficial bacteria) as sauerkraut and yogurt, and maybe some extras.

We grew the onions and peppers in these jars, but we purchased the carrots. Time involved: the time it takes to cut up the veggies; put them in jars; add water, salt, optional herbs and spices, and if you have it, whey.  Two or three days days on the counter, two weeks in the fridge and these will be ready to enjoy.

The Recipe

 The veggies in this recipe should be organic. The goal is to grow the lacto-bacteria to ferment (pickle) the carrots, etc. These friendly bacteria are ever-present in and on the veggies. Pecticides and chemical fertilizers kill them, as does chlorinated water--so use filtered, unchlorinated water.

• 3 cups of peeled and sliced carrots (slice on the diagonal to increase surface area)
• half of a medium onion peeled, quartered and sliced
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper (whole, pierced with a fork; halved length-wise; or sliced--if you slice, only include the seeds of you want it really hot. Wear gloves)
• fresh cilantro (to taste)
• garlic cloves (to taste) whole, crushed, or sliced
• 1 tablespoon of sea salt
• 4 tablespoons of whey (see below how to make whey; if not available use an additional tablespoon of salt)
• 1/2 cup of filtered water

Mix the vegetables and pack them into a wide-mouthed quart mason jar. Mix water with salt and whey and pour over the vegetables adding more water if necessary to cover the carrot mixture. The top of the vegetables should be at least one inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to the fridge.

 

Making Whey

Use homemade yogurt or quality commercial yogurt--be sure the label says "live" or "active" cultures, or "cultured in the cup." Line a large strainer with a dish towel and set it over a bowl. Pour in a quart or more of yogurt and let stand at room temperature for several hours. The whey will run out of the yogurt into the bowl. What you have left in the strainer is thicker yogurt (Greek Style). If you tie up the towel (careful, don't squeeze the yogurt!) and suspend it over a container and let it continue to drip, soon you'll have something close to sour cream (we use it just like sour cream), if you let the bag drip until it stops dripping, you'll have cream cheese. In the fridge, the cheese will keep for a month and the whey will keep for six months. We always eat it up long before that.