300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds

Another great short video from Youtube.

Back To The Start

You're probably going to see this commercial from Chipolte hitting a lot of the sustainable living blogs.    It's perfectly eloquent!

Coldplay's haunting classic 'The Scientist' is performed by country music legend Willie Nelson for the soundtrack of the short film entitled, "Back to the Start." The film, by film-maker Johnny Kelly, depicts the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Both the film and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle to emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system.  Chipolte is known for purchasing sustainable and locally produced food for their stores.

The Chickens Get One More Day

I had planned to butcher a bunch of chickens today, but the forecast calls for scattered thundershowers and looking outside I can see it keeps getting darker and darker.  I think I'll wait until tomorrow when the forecast is better! 

It's a good day for harvesting and processing vegetables.

 

More Tomato Canning

I recently made a bunch of quarts of finished spaghetti sauce and I'm canning more tomato sauce today.  My family will sure be getting their lycopene this winter!

I'm still in love with my very handy Squeezo Strainer.  Mine is hand cranked.  You can buy motorized versions, but I just like the old-timey-ness of hand cranking.  

Today I'm cooking and canning a BIG pot of sauce!

And the pigs get the squeezin's (which they squeal for!)

This afternoon we're picking beans for blanching and freezing and I'm going to dehydrate some grated zucchini. 

Anyone who has a library and a garden wants for nothing.

~ Cicero

Other than family, friends, and health, how very, very true....

  

Mountain Mustard

What to do with an overabundance of Hungarian Wax Peppers or Banana Peppers?

Make Mountain Mustard!

The description for what is called Hot Pepper Mustard on allrecipes.com (but known as Mountain Mustard here in Potter County), says it's "A sweet and tangy pepper mustard that is delicious on hot dogs, pretzels and lots more.  A great way to use up an abundance of hot banana-type peppers grown in the garden."  

Mountain Mustard

adapted from Allrecipes.com

40 banana peppers (5 inches long), stems removed

4 cups yellow prepared mustard

5 cups white sugar

1 cup honey

4 cups apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon salt

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup water

Remove the seeds from the banana peppers and place the peppers in a blender or food processor.  Process until smooth.  Pour into a large pot and stir in the mustard, sugar, honey, apple cider vinegar and salt.  Bring to a boil, so that it's boiling so hard it cannot be stirred down. 

 I found that you'll want to use an extra large pot because it foams up a lot and mine boiled over a bit.  The smell of this cooking really clears your sinuses!  

Stir together the flour and water until smooth.  Pour into the boiling mixture.  

This is where I adapted the recipe because friends who made this told me that if you follow the recipe on this you'll end up with chunky bits of flour in your mustard.  I put the flour and water in the food processor and mixed it (it formed a paste).  Then I added about four or five ladles of the hot mustard mixture to the flour paste -  mixing after each addition of hot mustard.  I then added the hot, thinned-out flour and mustard mixture from the food processor to the to the pot of hot mustard sauce and stirred hard.  

Continue to boil, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.  Pour into sterile pint jars and seal with new lids and rings.  Process in a boiling water bath for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on your altitude (I usually go for the longer time and err on the side of safety).

This mustard tasted yummy on spread on the tortillas of last night's sausage fajitas.  It's a little bit sweet, but tangy too!  I like to experiment, and I think that next time I make it I'll replace some of the hot peppers with jalapenos or some other really hot pepper for a spicy version. 

Won't this make some great Christmas gifts!?!

P.S.  Don't forget to hop over to the Homestead Revival Barn Hop!

Yellow Transparent Apples

At yesterday's Farmer's Market, one of the other farmers, Mile's Farm Produce, brought a wonderful crop of Yellow Transparent apples and their own local peaches.  The fruit is smaller this year due to the late spring and the long, painful drought, but it still tastes very, very good and is all the more precious!  When I talked to the older folks that came to my stand, they told me that yellow transparent apples make a wonderful applesauce.  Of course I had to give it a try.   

I wanted to get some history on this pale beauty.  According to vintagevirginiaapples.com, "Yellow Transparent originated in Russia or one of the Baltic States and was introduced into Europe in the early 1800s, and into the United States in 1870.  The white flesh is crisp and juicy with an acid flavor. Refreshing, well-flavored, soft, pale-cream flesh, whose acidity can make it too sharp for some tastes.  It will store for only a few weeks, and ripens in late June and early July over a 3 to 4 week period (here in north-central PA, we're just seeing these apples riping in mid-August!)."  

Credit

There's nothing easier to make than a pot of applesauce - peel and core the apples, cut them up, throw them in the pot, heat and mash them.  You'll end up with chunky applesauce that tastes 1000% better than anything that comes in a jar.  

If you like to flavor your applesauce, or if you like it a bit sweeter, you can add cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, or a little brown sugar.  An added bonus to making applesauce is that the cooking apples make your house smell delicious!

What did I think of the yellow transparent applesauce?  Let me put down the spoon so I can let you know...

No, seriously, the sauce from yellow transparent apples was not as sweet as I've made from MacIntosh or Yellow Delicious apples, but the fresh apple taste came through beautifully.  If you're used to a sweeter sauce then you might want to add a dab of sugar.   

"An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away"

Derived from the old English saying . . . "Ate an apfel avore gwain to bed, make the doctor beg his bread," the original author of this most popular apple saying has been lost to history.

Color - full!

I was in love with the range of colors coming out of my garden for the Farmer's Market this week!  

Summer squashes of yellow, green and striped, red cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, dill, chives, heirloom tomatoes, and basil!  There are even purple and yellow beans!   Mmmmm.