Ah! Strawberries!

As much as I wanted to do strawberry picking earlier this season, especially since they came in early this year, life just wouldn't allow it.   So today, I literally had an hour and a half to squeeze a memorable moment of picking in.  I grabbed my two oldest helpers and headed over to Brad's Produce.  Strawberries are coming to an end at Brad's but we were still able to pick 5 quarts for $1.75 a pound in about an hour.  Lohrs, Harman's and Sunny Hill all still also have strawberries for pick you own.  So there are lots of options even if you are a late picker, like me.

I came home and made a quick batch of strawberry ice cream to enjoy after dinner.

The recipe I used was from the Cuisinart recipe book that came with the ice cream maker.

You can find it here.  This recipe contains lemon juice which adds a light, fresh note to the strawberry ice cream that I love. They actually say that you can add food coloring if you want a more pronounced pink color to the ice cream but there is truly no need for that.  It is a lovely delicate pink and very, very tasty!

After the kids went to bed, I set to making a double batch of strawberry freezer jam.  For all other jams and jellies I make them cooked but for some reason, maybe because my mom did it, I use the easy, freezer jam recipe for strawberries.  I think it maintains the bright strawberry flavor the best but that could be bias.  In any case it truly is easy to make but the process took about an hour.  I had picked 4 quarts of strawberries exactly for this purpose.  I washed and hulled them in a big bowl of water and with so many little, sweet berries, this step took longer than usual.

My preferred recipe is the low sugar Sure Gel recipe you can find here or inside the box of the low sugar Sure Gel pectin.  You use 3 c. of sugar per batch and since I made two batches that is 6 cups.  And yes, this is less sugar than the original version.  I find, again, that the strawberry flavors are more pronounced with using less sugar plus sugar is the most expensive ingredient in jam.  

For this recipe I used Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Sugar because it was what I already had in the house.  I do try to purchase things like tea, chocolate and sugar in their fair trade versions since they come from places that I can't personally ensure the farmer is being supported and well treated.  You can learn more about fair trade through research such as Wikipedia.org

Whenever making jams and jellies be sure to always measure carefully. I will double a recipe but that is it (never triple or more) you run the risk of ruining the food or it just won't set because not all recipes multiply well.

Now that these jams are finished, they will set on my counter for 24 hours and then store in the freezer for up to 1 year.  And with that my season of preserving has begun.

Asparagus Soup and Fresh Bread

I love that fantastic, healthy food does not have to be complex.  On a recent grocery store trip my littlest one had the choice between cookies and bananas.  She chose bananas.  We have them infrequently and they are treat.  Mostly, we don't keep them in the house because they are so coveted that my little one can plow through three large bananas in 1 day.  But what a wonderful testament to fantastic, healthy food when a young child chooses it over cookies  (I probably would have a hard time making the same choice!).  Now that spring is upon us and summer is just about to burst forth what wonderful simple snacks will you choose?  Strawberries, snap peas, fresh asparagus and dip?

Cooking for a family of five with young children in the house means that meals have to be quick and easy on most nights. Still we stay away from the prepackaged as much as possible and focus on in season local foods.  If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend that you look into joining a  CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) you can find out more on LocalHarvest.org  We are members of Sunny Hill's CSA for the summer and often join an early spring share with Brad's Produce.  Once you start looking you will find there are lots of options out there and more appearing each day.

As I said, I love simple, healthy meals.  So last night I made Quinoa Bread and Cream of Asparagus Soup.  It is always a toss up knowing whether the children will dig in or turn up their noses on any given night.  But last night, my eldest went back for thirds.  The quinoa bread came from   I have now baked 3 batches of bread from this book and it is really simple.  One day you mix the ingredients then another day you pull off enough dough to make a loaf.  As long as you have time for the rising and baking there is very little else you spend time on.   I found this tub today, which I purchased to make the storing of the dough easier but that is just because I wanted my soup pot back. 

For the cream of asparagus soup I chose a very simple recipe that I had used before from epicurious.com.  I skipped the step of making a garnish since that nicety would be lost on my wee ones and they gobbled it up anyway.

Every week I plan meals around the following main dishes: eggs, beans, beef, chicken, fish, pork and ... pizza?  Well, maybe eating out.  We often spend 1 night a week enjoying a meal with our neighbors or family so  for those we are either pitching in to a meal financially or with a side dish.  In the winter, one meal a week is soup based.  In the summer, one meal a week is salad based.  It just makes it easier to take advantage of the cooking styles and foods that are most available during a particular season. The children have not noticed we eat less meat and doing so allows us to afford the local, grass fed meats we prefer.

Tonight, I picked up half a pig that I ordered earlier this year from Rumbleway Farm and a fresh chicken that was processed on Friday.  I'll put an order in for a quarter cow soon.  You'll hear about the chicken tomorrow but once you go fresh...you can never go back!

Eat Well!

PS if you are looking for the books and products that I recommend check out my list here.

Spring Sprung a Little (LOT!) Early

This might just be a perfect moment.  The kids are outside playing.  It is a wet but not raining afternoon.  I have a pot of milk coming to a boil on the stove from Kilby Cream in Rising Sun and another pot with American Organic Brown Basmati Rice cooking.  I am planning to make Palek Paneer with the spinach I acquired today during the second week of our spring csa from Brad's Produce.  Many of the markets are already opened and have amazing fresh produce like STRAWBERRIES, spinach, asparagus, onions, herbs, flowers and lettuces.  The hens are ramping up egg production again so eggs are easy to come by and always there is milk.  There isn't much you couldn't by locally and I LOVE that!

Ok.  So the milk has come to a boil.  I added salt and vinegar to make the cheese and turned the burner off.  That will sit for a few minutes before I pour it into my cheese bag to strain it.  It still amazes me just how simple it is to make cheese.  I've always found that particular food a bit mysterious.

The oven is also heating up to receive a loaf of bread.  I started using the method of baking fresh bread in 5 min a day and found it to open up so many opportunities for bread.  You can check out the book I am using at http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/.

Just an FYI there are still openings at Sunny Hill Farm for their summer CSA program.  Check it out here.

So, that is all for now.  Let me know what you would like to hear about and I'll pick up writing again!

Locapour

Haford County is ripe with local wineries and growers.  I don't know but maybe we'll become the next Napa Valley :-)   We visited Harford Vineyard and Winery last weekend and had a wine tasting with pairings.  It was delicious.  I had LOTS of favorites and we of course came home with a few bottles.  The Cab Franc was the perfect addition to my Valentine's meal: porterhouse, scalloped potatoes, steamed green beans and for dessert chocolate truffles.

This weekend, we hit Mt. Felix.  My favorite table wine, O'Neill's Bravado, comes from Peter and Mary at Mt. Felix.  But the Black Jack was delicious, too.  They have a few specialty fruit wines: Cranberry, Cherry and Pumpkin that are fun especially with just the right meal.

For a while, I have considered myself a "locavore" but now I think I might have to add "locapour" into my culinary description of myself.  Here Washington Post writes all about it.

Sustainable Seafood

In an effort to make all around better food choices, we have been eating more sustainable seafood.  The tragedy of fishing our oceans is just too profound to start a post on tonight but one simple switch we have made is to eating .... sardines.  Yes they get a bad rap sometimes but I have found that if you use the boneless skinless kind you can pretty much substitute them for canned tuna.


So in planning our meals this week I wanted to try a new recipe that was meant for sardines and not one that I had concocted myself.  What I found was simple, cheap and tasty.  The link to the original recipe is here Pasta de Sardine.  The kids all ate it and so did the hubby.  Little J even said during dinner, "I don't like sardines, they are stinky, but I like tuna." and kept on eating.  I served the pasta with a side of steamed broccoli and the kids had a glass of Kilby's milk.  Dinner is done.


Be sure to avoid the mistake of purchasing sardines that are overfished.  The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch List says, "As a result of ineffective management and overfishing, consumers should “Avoid” Atlantic sardines from the Mediterranean. Instead, choose the relatively abundant and well-managed Pacific sardines from U.S. waters – a Seafood Watch "Best Choice."

Finding Balance

My thoughts today kept finding their way to a class I had in college on business ethics.  I minored in entrepreneurship and management.  In the class we read case studies and examined the choices that businesses made.  One case was for a major car manufacturer.  Do not quote me here because I am going from memory on this topic but the bottom line was that the car had problems and the fuel tank could explode causing an accident or potentially killing the occupants.   The car manufacturer was aware of these problems.  On one hand ethically speaking this company should have recalled all the cars because any risk to human life is too much.  But as black and white as it seems ethics should be they tend to be more like a murky grey.  From the company's perspective the chance of the car exploding was X%. The cost of recalling all the cars $Y and the cost of paying the families affected by the malfunctioning cars was $Z.    $Y was SOOOOO much greater than $Z and the chance of the car malfunctioning was low so they made a calculated decision and left the cars out on the road.  People died.

There were more factors that also played into the decision such as who would ultimately pay for the recall and such.  Muddying the decision even further.

On a separate thought, I was at the grocery store today examining juice drinks that would satisfy my new 'no apple juice concentrate from China' rule.  There were other rules to follow in my head too such as:
* no high fructose corn syrup
* organic
* environmentally friendly packaging
* made in the USA (even better: made locally)
* price
* 100% juice
* carbon footprint or carbon offset

And all that was outside of any flavor consideration.  Some of these criteria carried more weight than others and that rubric had to be worked out in my head before I could make my choice.  Honestly, water was sounding pretty darned good because there wasn't one juice that satisfied all my criteria even remotely well.  The best drink that I have found to satisfy these criteria is apple cider from Lohr's Orchard, which I can purchase locally, is made locally, contains no apple juice concentrate from China, is not organic but is from a small diverse farm, the price is right but as far as I know they do not do carbon offsetting and they do not use sustainable packaging.

It is a balance.  For each decision I make at the store regarding the food my family eats and the products we bring into our home, I have to find this balance.  The connection to the story I shared regarding the car manufacturer is that, to me, it is business ethics for my home.  I have to weigh the possibility, even if it is small, of slow poisoning by arsenic or possibly harming a family or endangered species in South America due to slash and burn agriculture.  The black and white decision is that all food should be absolutely safe and cause no harm to the environment.  But the reality is that it is a balancing act of risk and cost.  Some of that information is shared with us, the consumers, but I would say the majority is not and is left to the manufacturers to share with us as they feel it (or the government feels it) is relevant.

Going completely off-grid food-wise is one way to circumvent a number of these problems, but not all and it is mostly unrealistic for my family.  So we are back to balancing the risks versus the outcomes and costs.  No answers here tonight, just a thought process.  I would love to hear yours.

Arsenic in Apple Juice

Studies are showing that apple juice concentrate found in many foods is extremely high in arsenic.  Mostly, the problematic concentrate is from China but labeling makes it unclear where most juice concentrate is from.  Buying organic is apparently not a safe bet as some of the highest levels were found in organic juice.  Even small amounts of arsenic build up over time causing problems similar to lead poisoning especially in children.

I just threw out the juice that we have in the house that has apple juice concentrate.  The labels show it to be from either the US, Argentina or China.  I will be sending juice to school with my children so that they will have juice that I know is safe. 

Here are two studies you can refer to:

http://www.comingalongside.org/Apple_Juice.html

http://www.consumerreports.org/content/dam/cro/magazine-articles/January%202012/Consumer%20Reports%20Arsenic%20Test%20Results%20January%202012.pdf

Note that even juices that are not specifically 'apple juice' could have apple juice concentrate as the sweetener and the same problem applies. 

PLEASE share this with your friends, especially those that have children.  Just another reason to buy local from locally grown sources when possible!