February Food, Farm and Fiber

I am a big fan of the blog, Food in Jars and it seems that the rewards of preserving are being discovered and enjoyed by a growing number of people. I grew up putting food in jars -lots and lots of jars- and eating food from those same jars all year long. A child's hand will fit into a quart jar much easier than an adults, and before we had an automatic dishwasher on the ranch, I was assigned jar washing duties as soon as I could reach the sink. I don't have a dishwasher now -I'm opposed to owning one, much to my offspring's exasperated bewilderment. I have never really enjoyed washing jars, but it's an important part of the process of putting food in jars, and few things give me as much pleasure as the process of preserving food. The thing to remember is putting food in jars means eating food from jars. The irony of this coming from me, a woman who recently made Kiwi Jam when she's allergic to kiwis, and now is trying to figure out what to do with the kiwi jam she made and can't eat, is not lost on me. I know that if you don't empty the jars, you'll be buying LOTS more jars when preserving season rolls around, and then trying to figure out where you'll be stashing all your lovely food in jars...or be forced to refrain from preserving. Sometimes, we have STUFF that just doesn't get eaten. After several years those jars are eventually emptied and fed to the pig or chickens, but for the most part we do eat what we grow and preserve. On the rare occasions when I clean out the fridge, I find it's mostly filled with jars, and when washing the dishes there is usually one to five emptied canning jars included. Here is a list of what we've recently eaten from jars: Grape, currant and carrot homemade wines in the evenings while knitting; raspberry freezer jam on toast and ice cream; tuna; bread and butter pickles on tuna salad sandwiches and sweet pickles diced in same tuna salad; apricot-pineapple jam on toast, bread pudding and pineapple sherbet; corn as a vegetable side, and leftovers with ranch dressing as a salad; mango chutney with tandoori lamb; curried squash relish with 5-spice roast chicken and mustard rabbit; applesauce served with pork chops; Mexican pickled carrots, and pickled Apache jalapenos in burritos, and with chips and salsa; dilly beans; and Poppy Seed Salad Dressing (I love this dressing) -a rather quick 'in-the-jar/out-of-the-jar' food, but nevertheless, it was in a jar! It is useful this time of year to take stock of what we're actually eating, to help in deciding what we want to grow (and then preserve) for the coming year.



This is the time of year when kids goats are often born. Donna at Schoonover Farms, and Aimee at New to Farm Life have both posted new baby goat pictures recently. This is Virgo, our retired dairy goat who will not be having any more kids. I will skip all the sad and dreary details of the disease she carries (Johne's Disease), but it means we no longer breed or milk her. It is also why she is so skinny -not because she is inadequately cared for. Our family is divided about goats. There are the "I simply LOVE goats -they're so PERSONABLE" folks and the much quieter but no less adamant, "I hate goats -they're a pain in the ass" people. I am in both. I love the first three weeks of having baby goats but my enthusiasm doesn't last. When they are approaching 50 lbs and we play a little game called 'goat tossing' which involves them finding and slipping through a 6 inch gap in the fence, eating as quickly as possible the few things I really wish they wouldn't, me spotting them being OUT, catching the little f...riend and then 'tossing' them over the fence, back into where they are suppose to be. After the sixth time that day, I REALLY HATE GOATS -and am always shocked (a goat couldn't be going through THAT little hole could they?) to discover how they are getting out.



But goats are personable animal when they're not being a pain, and I also really liked making goat milk soap and cheeses. I made mozzarella, farmstead Cheddars, ricotta and chevres, and I miss the process of cheese making and eating the cheeses, which were pretty good. I don't miss the milking twice a day, EVERY DAY no matter what, and my husband and I do not need a gallon of full fat goat milk produced every day. We do not want to be milking a goat to predominately feed the pig and chickens, so we chose not to get another dairy goat. No milking schedule, no goat tossing -but no joyful kid goats and no cheeses.



This shawl I'm knitting seems a perfect metaphor for life -I knit three rows and take out two, knit five and take out three, knit two and keep looking for a mistake I can't find because I haven't actually made one lately. Looking back at the beginning of my shawl, I see a mistake I made very early on but couldn't see then, though it's glaringly apparent to me now. I'm leaving it in and going forward. I do not want to start all over -and accepting and owning one's mistakes keeps one humble.

Kid Goats

Misses Congeniality

Sheep go to Heaven, Goats go to Hell

"Sheep go to Heaven,

...Goats go to Hell." though not meant literally, fitting song lyrics of the group Cake. Capricious by nature (Caprine is Latin for goat), goats are a PAIN to deal with. They will climb on whatever they can (here our terrified quail's house), eat the few thing you wish they wouldn't (the dogwood tree and roses across the fence), and given the slightest opportunity, they are geniuses at escaping (and then eating things you REALLY wish they wouldn't). 'Charming' and 'full of personality ' are how those who like goats describe them -oh sure, they're cute- but they are SUCH a pain to deal with.

Apricot-Pineapple Jam

Apricots are a very soft fruit that is difficult to transport to markets, and they are not as popular as many other fruits available this time of year. As a result, many growers have stopped producing and selling them. I watch for the brief period when they show up at our Farmer's Market and when they do, I immediately buy some to make Apricot-Pineapple Jam.



We made this jam every year on the ranch when I was growing up there. The Farm Journal describes it as 'pure gold' and in the gray darkness of our winters here in the Pacific Northwest, we welcome this bright sunshine-gold jam on toast -or jam on pancakes and waffles European-style, rather than North American-style with maple syrup.



Despite anxieties and intimidating directions surrounding the process, making jam is really easy: Chop up the fruit, add sugar and cook it until its jam. "What they don't tell you is that when it has turned into jam, it looks like jam. It is thick and has the consistency of cold molasses" points out the immortal and always amusing Laurie Colwin in her essay 'Jam Anxiety.' It really is that easy.



Apricot-Pineapple Jam
Adapted from Farm Journal's Freezing and Canning Cookbook

Mix in heavy bottomed preserving pot:
8 c. (about 4 lbs) diced apricots
8 c. sugar
Bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes.

Add:
2-20 oz cans crushed pineapple, drained
Bring to a boil again. I often don't actually read these incredibly simple directions and then of course, forget and dump the undrained pineapple in with the apricots and sugar. I just cook it all for 30 minutes or "until it looks like jam" and it works out just fine.

Put jam in jars and seal. Leave undisturbed overnight. Label and store. Makes 6 pints.

Note: Use some slightly under ripe fruit. If all the apricots are dead ripe, the jam will have a softer set -not a bad thing if serving it on pancakes and waffles.



Apricot-Pineapple Jam mixed with an equal amount of soy sauce and a bit of white wine or rice vinegar makes a really great glaze to baste on grilled or roasted meats, and pork tenderloin and duck breast are especially good with this glaze. This is roasted goat I made last night for dinner.



Yesterday after I'd made this jam, we harvested our potatoes, and I was making pickled carrots and dill pickles and packaging goat meat. For dinner I put these vegetables in the roasting pan with a bit of water before adding the meat. Bake 350 for 1 1/2-2 hours covered, and add glaze last 15 minutes of cooking, without the cover. So easy and so good.

Little Bee

"I think I shall teach you the names of all the English flowers. This is fuchsia, and this is a rose, and this is honeysuckle. What? What are you smiling about?"

"There are no goats. That is why you have all these beautiful flowers."

"There were goats in your village."

"Yes, and they ate all the flowers."

"I'm sorry."

"Do not be sorry. We ate all the goats."

-From Little Bee by Chris Cleave. This is such a good book. It is a very touching story, often both funny as well as heartbreaking, centered around a 16 year old refuge girl from Nigeria, a British couple, their small son, and the unexpected intersection of their lives. From the book cover: "Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds."