Not as Productive as I Should Be...

S & E trying to catch swimmy things at a local park. Not foraging. :)

Small batch of Dilly Beans. We looove Dilly Beans.

My favorite local farm stand is open for business and they're oh-so-affordable! A couple weekends ago the kids were with my MIL. G and I took the time to see the new Harry Potter movie, and the documentary Food, Inc (which was great, btw), and to buy two heaping bushels of green beans. We spent 3+ hours on the deck, kid-free and chatty as we snapped beans. How romantic! We ended up blanching and freezing most of them, and only doing a small batch of Dilly Beans. All in all, I estimated around 26 pounds of beans, once they were all processed.

Two thick batches of Yarrow bundled and ready to be hung to dry. Every year my sweet neighbor gives me what she cuts back. Dried Yarrow is amazing in a post partum herbal bath. Yarrow helps staunch bleeding and also helps to heal any tissue trauma or damage. It's hung up downstairs next to two fat bundles of Comfrey (which is also amazing on healing tissues).

This time last year I was the canning queen well into the season. This year, well...
there's a lot going on, mainly growing this baby and trying to take care of myself while working and being a mom and wife. It's been a stressful year financially. G works within the auto industry as I've said before. He had 5 straight weeks without work, which has rendered us without health insurance for 6 weeks. He started back on a 3 day work week last month, which will put us back with health insurance in a few days. He's always been the bread winner, with my income being necessary although supplemental. Ack. I hate being stressed about money. I can still count my blessings though as I know things could be far worse and we have a lot growing (and laying!) around us.
When I think about not preserving as much food as we have in the past, I try not to feel too bad about it. Normally we'd be strawberry picking, raspberry and blueberry picking, etc. I just couldn't make that a priority this year. Fruit seems so non-essential and dessert-like right now compared to food that plays a more major part in meals.
Ha! I must admit to buying two pounds of blueberries while the kids were away and eating all of them in less than 48 hours! Clearly worked out as a meal during that time... :)

Other Ways of Preserving...
In a fit of pregnancy nesting, I inventoried the kid's clothes to see the state of back-to-school possibilities and how many pairs of decent pants they each had. I was able to make a list of what they actually needed for the fall and winter and from there, landed at our local Once Upon a Child store. I love this store. Their by-line is something like, Clothing With Previous Experience. I like that. Everything is gently-used (or sometimes even new), good quality clothing at a decent price. I ended up buying E 2 pairs of pants, a new pair of cool European shoes, and a long-sleeved tee; S got 4 pairs of pants (two of them brand new), and 3 shirts...all for $44.
It feels good to not only save loads of money, but also to buy very decent used stuff and giving it all a longer life.
I'm not a Never-New saint though. We ended up at Target getting S a pair of much-wanted Chuck Taylors and getting Little E some new socks and underwear. This Mama also splurged and got herself a packet of lovely soft cotton underwear too. Nothing like the 3rd trimester to make you ditch your by-now dingy pre-pregnancy underpants in favor of something a little bigger and softer. Ahhh.

So there ya go. Not as many food updates as I'd like to give. My garden/food work list for the weekend goes as follows:
cilantro ice cubes
basil pesto
zucchini bread
shred and freeze extra zucchini
harvest and preserve turnips
freeze small tomatoes
make loaf of regular sandwich bread

We'll see what time, my kids, and pending babies have in store for me though.

What are your food rules?

Check out this article from the New york Times back in March. Michael Pollan, author of, In Defense of Food, wants to know your personal food rules.
He points out the importance of how a culture views food and reacts to it.

Michael Pollan writes:

I’d like your help gathering some rules for eating well. My premise is that culture has a lot to teach us about how to choose, prepare and eat food, and that this wisdom is worth collecting and preserving before it disappears.

I love this. The comments section is amazing.

One of my favorites on there by a Mr. Daniel Freedman:

Food shouldn’t CONTAIN ingredients; food should BE ingredients.

I agree!

Here are some of the food rules we try to stick to and teach our children. Granted, we're not perfect, but here's some general issues of importance to our family:

• Eat simply and know where your food came from (hopefully as close to home as possible).

• Eat lots of whole grains and legumes.

• Grow as much of your own food as possible, even if it's only a pot of herbs on the windowsill.

• Stock up for the winter by preserving what you can during the abundant summer months. You can do this without having a garden! Buy in bulk from your local farmers and can or freeze or dehydrate!

• Eat fermented foods.

• Know where your meat/eggs/dairy comes from if you eat those things. Make sure those animals are treated well and eat the food they're SUPPOSED to eat. Cows should be grass-fed and allowed to pasture. Chickens should be able to walk and forage for grubby things. Pigs should be allowed to root and eat all the crazy things they love to eat! Etc! Avoid stockyard meat and factory farming.
  

• Support local brewers if you drink beer and wine.

• Many, many people go without food the world over. Be thankful for every morsel of food that goes into your mouth and teach your children to do the same.

• Support fair trade.

Turnips Thursday

It's Food Roots Thursday! Go to nourishingdays.com to learn more!

Today, my daughter and I set out to pick the last of the peas. Most of them were well dried, but we did find a handful of plump green ones. We also realized the turnips had really plumped up in the last couple weeks, so we harvested those as well. There are still a lot more out there. S helped me out tons by watering the garden. As she did, she found two more cukes!

A family friend has been buying eggs from us. This week he bartered two big yellow squash and two cucumbers in exchange for a dozen eggs from the Ladies.

Here's little E who spends quite a bit of time each evening hanging out in the garden by himself. He likes to wait for the lightening bugs to come out, but his cranky mama can't stand the mosquitoes. E was the first to find this summer's first cucumbers a few nights ago. He was so excited. This is the time of year to get the kids outside to "hunt" for veggies as if they were Easter eggs!

So for dinner this evening, I will make a turnip, potato, garlic (from our garden) soup with rosemary chicken broth (from last fall's meat birds) soup with a salad made from cucumbers and matchstick turnips in a vinaigrette dressing. I'm trying to resist stealing any early harvest from the potato plants. They're doing well out there, but they're supposed to be for winter storage.

And that is where our food has come from today.

Illinois Prisoners Sick from Soy

Amazing... check out this post from Nourished Kitchen. It's an article detailing how the Illinois government has been feeding their prisoners up to 100 grams of soy daily because it's cheaper and stretches farther than real food. As a result of this insane amount of soy, the prisoners not surprisingly, became afflicted with a number of health issues.
Also not surprisingly, this came about largely due to politicians and money lining pockets. Check it out, it's a great post.

Another View

My sweet neighbor took this from her upstairs window. It's two of our 5 garden areas. We have a small bit on the other side of the garage, the small plot in the other neighbor's yard, and a small raised bed in the front. I like how it encompasses the hops, the coop, and the gardens. It's so cool to see your regular view from someone else's perspective.

The tomato plants are huge and jungle-like now. All the rain we've had made them pop up. They're loaded with tomatoes, but at this time, they're still all green.

Cucumber plants just starting to flower now that we've had more consistent hot weather. There are wee little cukes just beginning to grow.

I'm a bad, bad blogger these days. :) I'm a bit more tired and cranky these days by the time my time rolls around to be on the computer. Also busy with the pregnant ladies, and try to get into bed by 9pm in case I get called out at 2am. The garden is doing well all the same. I made my first batch of basil pesto tonight for freezing. Got two good-sized quart bags of the stuff. I adore basil. So nice to eat in the dead of winter, reminds me of fresh, summery herbs.

Finding a Use for Turnips and Radishes

Thanks to the good book, Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich, I found a kimchi type of fermenting for turnips.
It's Korean name is Sunmukimchi, or brined turnips. I added a few bigger radishes to make it a full pound as needed.

Peeled, sliced, and sitting in pickling salt for 3 hours.

Processed the turnip greens to use later.

Water, more salt, lots of garlic, a little sugar and hot pepper and a week of waiting for them to ferment. We'll see if any of us like them! They already smell lovely and vinegary after one day of sitting in the pantry. Will let you know the end results!