A few weeks ago, our kind neighbor told us about the many wild black raspberry bushes growing in Riverside Park. Said neighbor had just received a new ice cream maker, and shared how he thought black raspberry frozen yogurt would be excellent. So the next day I gathered up the kids and an empty Chinese take-out box and the three of us filled it with those delicious berries. I must say it was kind of thrilling to be foraging in Riverside Park.
Went along Frog Island after and picked many mulberries too.
The frozen yogurt was delicious.
We've been back once more since then, so that we could have the berries with our pancakes.
The garden is doing well. Green beans are in right now. I love sauteed green beans with loads of garlic and topped with just the lightest shreds of some stinky cheese.
You forget what you haven't eaten in a while when you try to eat local.
We had little E's birthday party over the weekend. My mom tutted at me for not buying the kids cheap, doomed-for-landfill party favors. Turns out letting each of them pull up a carrot or two (granted, they're only 3-4 inches long right now) from the garden was the end-of-party treat. They loved it!
On Sunday we drove out to lovely Sumpter (Sumpter Rd. just south of Willis on west side of road for you local folks) to our favorite road-side stand. For a mere $20.50 I bought all the produce pictured in pics 3 and 4. 4 yellow squash, 3 green bell peppers, 6 enormous fresh onions, 5 green tomatoes, one cabbage, a dozen ear of corn, and a huge bushel basket of green beans.
It took me 3 hours to snap the ends off the beans, wash them, then blanch, chill, dry and put them in freezer bags. I ended up with a dozen quart-size bags of green beans.
We had green beans in our own garden, but not enough to store for winter. So this was great. I might go back for more.
My sweet husband went back to the same stand yesterday to get two more ginormous cabbages (they're only $1 each) so we could make our own sauerkraut.
I looked all over for a crock big enough. The guy at Bed, Bath and Beyond thought we were talking about crock pots when I asked for 1-gallon sized crocks. Then he led me to the "utensil crocks", those things that hold your utensils in a narrow, upright ceramic crock.
I ended up finding a large glass 2 gallon crock of sorts at Target for $13. Was told later that Ace hardware sells proper crocks, just like my old Polish grandmas used to have.
I've never made sauerkraut before. The recipe we used came from the book,
Root Cellaring. The recipes from my canning book include vinegar and heat processing.
Root Cellaring's recipe is the more old fashioned way that I've heard family talk about. Essentially, you finely shred loads of cabbage, add 1 tablespoon of salt for every 2 pounds shredded cabbage and have someone pound it until it's floating in its own juices. This took about 45 minutes of Greg pounding while I continued to shred, weigh and add to the pot. We covered it with two clean outer cabbage leaves, an inverted bowl, and a heavy (but scrubbed clean) rock from the garden. Oh, and the glass lid that came with the crock.
Apparently, now it should take about two weeks to bubble and ferment. When it stops bubbling, that means the process is done. Like kombucha, no?
You can either leave the sauerkraut in the crock for a month or so, or take it out and freeze it so that it lasts longer. We'll be freezing ours. Letting the cabbage ferment this way adds to the benefits of the good bacteria produced. If you heat process the kraut via canning, you lose a lot of that beneficial bacteria.
So fingers crossed that it works, that it tastes good, and that there's no bad bacteria in there!
