Sorry for the hiatus folks. I have been swept up by the urgency of my colleagues to start my winter pantry. I have never before prepared a pantry for the winter, and realistically, I will not be creating an extensive one this year as I will only need to be able to feed myself for about two months before heading off to South America. Nevertheless, the concept and the skills I am learning to forage and hoard for the winter months is quite exhilirating.
This week for example I have picked three buckets of organic cherries. I am drying most of my cherries to use later in baked goods, granolas or cereals. Picking the cherries is about 20 - 30 minutes a bucket, pitting the cherries is about 60 minutes a buckets, and drying the cherries takes about two days in the dryer I am using. (We currently have four dehydrators running 24-7 in our house!)
Though this process is time involved, when you are not making any money and know you are going to want to have something sweet and wholesome come January or February, the time is totally worth it. Also to put it into perspective cost wise, organic cherries sell for about $6.00/lb. Each of my buckets is conservatively 8 lbs, which means that I picked just under $150.00 worth of fruit in about 1.5 hrs. However, if I were a cherry picker picking the fruit for someone else to sell, I would only get $2.50 a bucket. Unless you are very fast and very skilled at cherry picking, I don't think it is a very financially fruitful endeavour.
The other items I have dehydrated recently are zucchini slices to use as chips with nut butters, pates and the humus I make; pureed apricots to make apricot fruit leather; and diced apple pieces to use in baking and granola as well. I am hoping to start dehydrating some vegetables later in the season to use later to make soup and stews. The amount of space one saves (and the weight too) by dehydrating is impressive to say the least. I certainly look forward to owning my own dehydrator when I settle down.
The girls in my appartment area also busy drying every herb and flower they can get their little hands on. Manon for example has become a real chipmunk - she can barely walk anywhere without stuffing her pockets full of plant leaves, flowers, seeds or roots. In fact I have had to remind her pockets are not the best place to carry all things, as she broke two eggs in her pockets in one day! Silly girl.
I will shortly be starting to collect the herbs and flowers as my tea supply has run out and my spices too need to be improved. Currently I am looking forward to collecting mustard seeds, coriander, mint, oregano and camomille.
The nice thing about being in the presence of people who are actually preparing a full winter pantry, is you get to see all the possibilities of what can be made and how easily it can be done. For example, last Saturday night I went to our neighbour's with Manon to watch them make currant jelly.
And last, the concept of letting nothing go to waste is ever present in the 'conservation' process. For example, I have kept all of the cherry pits I have removed from my cherries to make a heat pack to ease my aching muscles.
Showing posts with label cherries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cherries. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Country Living: Cherry Pie; Fishing; Friends; and Apricot Jam
In order to supplement my frugal living, I decided to buy a freshwater fishing license this year. After weeks of being indecisive about which rod to purchase, I finally just opted for the cheapest rod I could get at the local hardware store in the hopes that I will be able to make back all the money I spent to 'save money' on fish by the end of the season.
Yesterday was my first day out, and we caught a fish! I went up to Yellow Lake with some friends after work and we all took a shot at trying to catch dinner (literally at the time.) We are still having some troubles with flotation and the weights on the line, but regardless, we pulled in a fish. We had crafted a makeshift float out of a stick on the line, which kept the line just a little bit higher in the depths of the water. The lucky catcher was my roomate Manon - of course it was her first time fishing and only her second cast! The fish we caught was a nice sized Brook Trout which we have since eaten for lunch.
My friend Adam made it to our farm on Sunday night. He had asked to take part in the farm work on Monday, and was even convinced by everyone to stay a second day. It was really neat having Adam around, because I was already able to see how much I had learned in eight weeks as well as how much my values have changed. For example, Adam felt it was very quiet in our town, whereas I feel like it is bustling with people now that all the pickers are hanging around and tourist season has begun.
Adam was also amazed how much he learned in such a short time. He had never really considered how intimate organic farmers are with their food, and he says he now fully appreciates the cost and the quality behind the organic name. This too led into discussions that had not previously been brought up on the farm, which was how many of the more 'intimate' jobs, such as pruning, desuckering, thinning and picking get done on industrial farms. We were surmising that being in such close proximity to plants that would have been sprayed with toxins incessantly, could not be very good for a persons health. This is when we started to hear horror stories.
Cherries. It is currently the beginning of the cherry season. I have learned, that some pickers will not take contracts at certain farms because of the chemicals they use. Effects on the pickers often include skin aggrivation, nausea and laboured breathing at the end of a day picking sprayed fruit. I have even learned that some farmers will give their pickers tips on how to minimize (not avoid) any adverse affects from working on their farms; these include wrapping their finger tips in electrical tape so as not to come in contact with the chemicals on the cherries and keeping their clothes outside their tents at the end of the day so as not to fumigate their living spaces. Keep in mind, THIS IS FOR FOOD WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE EATING!
I was seriously shocked to hear these stories. I for some reason had it in my mind that if chemicals were used on a farm, essentially all the labour was done mechanically including harvesting, thinning and desuckering. I now realize how naive this thought was, and the impact of realizing that the current food system is seriously threatening the health of the people that are enabling it to exist as it does is not very reassuring.
At least at our farm we have a few rogue organic cherry trees from which we have started to pick the cherries so we do not have to worry about chemical covered fruit - Manon even made cherry pie this week!
Today I also learned how to do a new task - process apricots to make apricot jam. In Annamarie's kitchen, we sanitized the work area then set up four stations: 1) apricot chopping and measuring, 2) apricot boiling and stirring, 3) jam jarring and 4) jar sealing. Annamarie has definitely built her kitchen to accomodate mass production. She says if she is going to take 2-4 hrs to make jam, she wants to make a lot of jam in that time, and so she has it down to a science.
We were chopping the apricots from frozen. Tip for jam from frozen fruit: If you cut them and cook them right away while still frozen, they will not oxidize and turn brown. We had three big boiling pots going: two could take 40 cups of apricots and 1 could take 32 cups of apricots. The ratio of apricot, to apple juice (from the farm), to pectin is as follows:
4 cups of apricots
1 cup of apple juice
.11 grams of pectin
The jam we make doesn't contain any sugar at all and it is still so sweet. We are fortunate that we grow all our own fruit for the jam as this is normally the most expensive ingredient. Though I had seen the jams at market, now that I realize how healthy (comparatively) they are for you, I think I might have to add the jam to my list of farm favourites.
One of the nice tools that Annamarie has too is a steam oven. Instead of having to submerge her jars into boiling water or a canning pot, she is able to seal them in the steam oven in 10 minutes on its 'canning' setting. Though you will pay a penny or two for this appliance, it totally seems worth it.
Tips for making sure that your jam seals are to heat the jars in the oven (which can be reused from year to year), boil the lids in a pot (which cannot be reused), whipe the rims of the jars before putting on the lid, steam the hot jar, hot lid and hot jam for 10 minutes to seal.
Tomorrow I am off to another music festival with some friends to have a mini-vacation from the farm. I am already sad that I might be missing the first harvest of our apricots which could potentially be ready for the weekend.
This week in our meeting we discussed the practice of fruit picking. One of the girls here used to be a picker. She and Annamarie shared that you have to think of picking as a sport, always anticipating the next step, your next position, your comparative advantage to your competitors. This conversation came up in response to one of the newer girls who shared that it was nice to 'zone out' in the field. The feeling was however, when you zone out, there is no way you can be effective at the work at hand, especially when picking. The trick is to be utlra-present and constantly thinking where you are going to put your hand next to save time; know whih fruit you are going to pull off five steps ahead and how you are going to get there. I am eager to give this 'competitive athletic picking' a try.
(Sorry my camera is not uploading photos today. I do have some good ones I will share as soon as I can get them loaded.)
Yesterday was my first day out, and we caught a fish! I went up to Yellow Lake with some friends after work and we all took a shot at trying to catch dinner (literally at the time.) We are still having some troubles with flotation and the weights on the line, but regardless, we pulled in a fish. We had crafted a makeshift float out of a stick on the line, which kept the line just a little bit higher in the depths of the water. The lucky catcher was my roomate Manon - of course it was her first time fishing and only her second cast! The fish we caught was a nice sized Brook Trout which we have since eaten for lunch.
My friend Adam made it to our farm on Sunday night. He had asked to take part in the farm work on Monday, and was even convinced by everyone to stay a second day. It was really neat having Adam around, because I was already able to see how much I had learned in eight weeks as well as how much my values have changed. For example, Adam felt it was very quiet in our town, whereas I feel like it is bustling with people now that all the pickers are hanging around and tourist season has begun.
Adam was also amazed how much he learned in such a short time. He had never really considered how intimate organic farmers are with their food, and he says he now fully appreciates the cost and the quality behind the organic name. This too led into discussions that had not previously been brought up on the farm, which was how many of the more 'intimate' jobs, such as pruning, desuckering, thinning and picking get done on industrial farms. We were surmising that being in such close proximity to plants that would have been sprayed with toxins incessantly, could not be very good for a persons health. This is when we started to hear horror stories.
Cherries. It is currently the beginning of the cherry season. I have learned, that some pickers will not take contracts at certain farms because of the chemicals they use. Effects on the pickers often include skin aggrivation, nausea and laboured breathing at the end of a day picking sprayed fruit. I have even learned that some farmers will give their pickers tips on how to minimize (not avoid) any adverse affects from working on their farms; these include wrapping their finger tips in electrical tape so as not to come in contact with the chemicals on the cherries and keeping their clothes outside their tents at the end of the day so as not to fumigate their living spaces. Keep in mind, THIS IS FOR FOOD WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE EATING!
I was seriously shocked to hear these stories. I for some reason had it in my mind that if chemicals were used on a farm, essentially all the labour was done mechanically including harvesting, thinning and desuckering. I now realize how naive this thought was, and the impact of realizing that the current food system is seriously threatening the health of the people that are enabling it to exist as it does is not very reassuring.
At least at our farm we have a few rogue organic cherry trees from which we have started to pick the cherries so we do not have to worry about chemical covered fruit - Manon even made cherry pie this week!
Today I also learned how to do a new task - process apricots to make apricot jam. In Annamarie's kitchen, we sanitized the work area then set up four stations: 1) apricot chopping and measuring, 2) apricot boiling and stirring, 3) jam jarring and 4) jar sealing. Annamarie has definitely built her kitchen to accomodate mass production. She says if she is going to take 2-4 hrs to make jam, she wants to make a lot of jam in that time, and so she has it down to a science.
We were chopping the apricots from frozen. Tip for jam from frozen fruit: If you cut them and cook them right away while still frozen, they will not oxidize and turn brown. We had three big boiling pots going: two could take 40 cups of apricots and 1 could take 32 cups of apricots. The ratio of apricot, to apple juice (from the farm), to pectin is as follows:
4 cups of apricots
1 cup of apple juice
.11 grams of pectin
The jam we make doesn't contain any sugar at all and it is still so sweet. We are fortunate that we grow all our own fruit for the jam as this is normally the most expensive ingredient. Though I had seen the jams at market, now that I realize how healthy (comparatively) they are for you, I think I might have to add the jam to my list of farm favourites.
One of the nice tools that Annamarie has too is a steam oven. Instead of having to submerge her jars into boiling water or a canning pot, she is able to seal them in the steam oven in 10 minutes on its 'canning' setting. Though you will pay a penny or two for this appliance, it totally seems worth it.
Tips for making sure that your jam seals are to heat the jars in the oven (which can be reused from year to year), boil the lids in a pot (which cannot be reused), whipe the rims of the jars before putting on the lid, steam the hot jar, hot lid and hot jam for 10 minutes to seal.
Tomorrow I am off to another music festival with some friends to have a mini-vacation from the farm. I am already sad that I might be missing the first harvest of our apricots which could potentially be ready for the weekend.
This week in our meeting we discussed the practice of fruit picking. One of the girls here used to be a picker. She and Annamarie shared that you have to think of picking as a sport, always anticipating the next step, your next position, your comparative advantage to your competitors. This conversation came up in response to one of the newer girls who shared that it was nice to 'zone out' in the field. The feeling was however, when you zone out, there is no way you can be effective at the work at hand, especially when picking. The trick is to be utlra-present and constantly thinking where you are going to put your hand next to save time; know whih fruit you are going to pull off five steps ahead and how you are going to get there. I am eager to give this 'competitive athletic picking' a try.
(Sorry my camera is not uploading photos today. I do have some good ones I will share as soon as I can get them loaded.)
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Cherries, Strawberries, Peaches, Apricots and Turnip
Cherries! Before living in Cawston, I would not have been able to identify what a cherry tree looked like. Though we are not officially growing cherries at Klippers this year, we do have a few cherry trees on the property which the other apprentices and I are eagerly waiting to harvest. Though we have been warned that we should be prepared to consume our cherries with added protein if you will - the reason that Klippers did not continue their cherry block lease this year is because cherries in BC are being heavily hit by a fruit fly that spreads its eggs into the fruit. The problem bad that in the industrial agricultural sector, if I understand this correctly, a new bylaw has been passed that allows farmers to spray the cherries with a protective pesticide up to 3 days prior to harvest. Previously, the spray was only allowed to be dispersed up to 7 days prior to harvest. This same bug caused cherries to go extinct in Japan.Still knowing what I do, the cherry trees are beautiful. The red and yellow of the fruit is in beautiful contrast to our clear blue skies and the rich green leaves under which they are growing. Plus, the other apprentices and I have come up with a great solution - chocolate covered bug filled cherries. If chocolate covered cherries and chocoloate covered insects are both good, we might as well just combine them all at once!
The strawberries have also started to ripen. These little delicious burst of flavour have always been very exciting to me. Living in Vancouver, I used to do day trips to Surrey to go to the u-picks at the end of the strawberry season to take advantage of the fact that the price was $1.00/lb. I have learned I can pick a lot of strawberries. We have been happy to send strawberries to market this week and also put them in our large CSA shares.
I am glad to report on the growth of some of our tree fruit as well. Though we are still busy thinning apples, which we will hopefully finish this week, the peaches and apricots have been left to grow under the warm sun. Above you can see the fuzzy peaches about the size of golf balls now, and below the apricots of similar size. I am unsure when both will be ready to harvest, but am definitely looking forward to it. Hopefully not too long now for the apricots.
Last, I was asked to harvest turnip this week for market. Glad to have a new vegetable to pull out of the ground, I started the endeavour of pulling these roots and getting them ready to bunch. However, much to my dismay, every turnip I pulled up had been eaten by worms! Now there is currently a discussion going on about weather the worms are wire worm or root maggot and I hope to get clarification this week. If the little pest is one of these two, he will only eat turnip, however if he is the other and we pull out all the turnip, he will migrate to carrots or beets which we obviously want to avoid.
Regardless, as you can see the turnip we have pulled are being consumed and the tiny worms just cut out. When I was assigned the task of cultivating the turnip, I honestly had to stop and ask if we really couldn't sell any of them - I figured that people have to realize that organic means that there are pests, so maybe consumers ok if there is only one worm? At the Penticton farmers' market this weekend, other farmers had gone about cutting out the worms and bagging the turnips together to sell. It seems turnip is just not meant to be grown in Cawston (sorry Mum).
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