Thanking Last Season

Today I was very mindful of how much food we were eating from last season. We had two nice meals, one of veggie burgers and roasted potatoes (with lots of condiments), the other was chapattis and a beany stew (again with lots of condiments). To make these meals happen I have been going down to the basement and taking out potatoes, parsnips and lots of mason jars of preserved food. Here is a little rundown of all the great things we grew and preserved last year (and are enjoying now):

• Dill pickles
• Pickled beans
• Mustard pickles
• Green tomato relish
• Sauerkraut (made from radish and turnips)
• Potatoes
• Parsnips
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Canned tomatoes
• Green tomato mincemeat
• Lots of various jams, syrups and applesauce
• Salsa
• Garlic
• Pickled garlic scapes
• Horseradish sauce
• We made kim chi a few weeks ago from overwintered cabbage, turnip greens, kale and Jerusalem artichokes
  

I really encourage everyone to get into fermenting and preserving. But you already knew that. Check out the great book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz.

Fall Scenes

I've been meaning to write this post for a while though now it's a bit outdated. Some friends visited from Hamilton at the end of October and we had a really nice time just before I moved down to the city. I wanted to share some photos of some of the things we got up to this fall: cider making, melon picking, pumpkin gathering and of course kraut making.

I'm going to do my best not to show anyone's face because some of my visitors were adamant that they don't want to be tracked by the authorities. Fair enough. I remember when I didn't want my details online. But pretty much everyone knows that this is my blog so what can you do? But at least I'm not on facebook.






This last one is all of us pushing a round bale up the driveway to the house where we could use it as mulch. Hard work but not if you have four friends!

In Praise of Oil etc.

Remember that big pile of wood that we had delivered? We finally got through it and piled up all the split wood. The big lesson that I learned from this exercise was the amazing power of oil. When you think about how much it can improve work and annual chores like blocking and splitting wood it's amazing. How much more energy would I have had to expend to do the same job as a chainsaw? Or the log splitter that we were lent? Watching both easily slice through wood, you can only be amazed.

The problem is that we don't use oil to improve on the everyday jobs. We don't make plans when it comes to oil, setting out priorities like home heating, public transit and delivering local food to markets. So in the end we spend this energy legacy on trinkets that are shipped in from China and break the day after they arrive in our homes. Not much thoughtful planning going on here.

If I was allocated a portion of all the remaining oil on earth, I would gladly save it for my annual wood splitting and cutting. But unfortunately that's not how it works.

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In fermentation news, mum just made a gallon of dandelion wine. It will actually take a whole year before it is ready to drink but when it comes, I'll toast planning for the future.

And in a nod to an amazing Korean food, I made some dandelion kimchi. Are you noticing a trend? If there's one thing we've got a lot of, it's dandelions. And they taste great and really are going to be our spring green of choice for I think the rest of our lives here. We're not wasting our money on mixed greens from California every few days and are eating just as healthily and locally. Even in the city, dandelions would make a great compliment to your healthy diet.

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And the hummingbirds have arrived. We had this feeder up for a while but it felt a little like we were dealing hummingbird crack so we took it down. But the junkies keep coming back, even though there is great food just a few metres away in the gardens.

Diametrically Different Diet

I've come to the realization, since moving here, that I'm eating much better than I ever did in Hamilton. Whereas in Hamilton, the grocery store always provided everything and I was tempted by perogies and soysages and salsa and super spirals, here the grocery store doesn't appeal. I guess that's half due to my frugality and desire to save money and half due to the limited selection. It's a long drive to an Ontario-scale grocery store (and I can't drive).

So I find myself eating relatively simple meals of beans, grains, sauerkraut and hot sauce (some things never change and at least it doesn't have any preservatives). I'm sprouting all the time and we eat sprouted salads and I make sprouted bean burgers often enough. I'm working on a recipe that will fool my sister into thinking it might actually be beef. I think I'll try using beet juice in the next batch.

But definitely the variety is lacking but really that's realistic in winter. If I live in Canada, I can't expect salads in February. Unless, I guess, I'm growing them indoors which we may do next year.

And I think my simple meals now will make the amazing variety of the summer all the better. Fresh salads. Steamed greens. Fresh berries. Excellent.

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In fermentation news:

My beer is carbonating nicely and I'm looking forward to trying some at Easter. I hope that it's good but I have another kit and I'm looking forward to starting it soon. It's a honey blond beer and I'm told it's a lot better tasting than my last batch will be.

We picked up some koji in Sydney yesterday. Our friend Mike is a Doctor of Chinese Medicine and has lots of interesting stuff. Koji, as far as I know, is moldy rice. Obviously though, not the kind of mould that's going to kill us. You use it to make many fermented East Asian foods like tamari. We're going to make a few gallons(!) of miso using it. Our organic soy beans are on the way too; they have to be organic since soy is one of the four major genetically modified foods (do you know the others?*). Miso will take a year to age properly so next spring we'll be up to our elbows in miso.

I've started making ginger beer. I remember my dad buying it for me when I was a little boy. I loved it, so strong and fizzy. Much better than pop, just harder to find. It's going to take a few weeks and I'm going to make it strong. I'll also have to plant some ginger and see if I can keep it going inside the house so I don't have to keep going to the store.

Last and definitely not least, I'm going to make injera, sour Ethiopian bread. The Bulk Barn actually sells teff flour which is the grain used in injera. I wonder if teff could be grown here in Cape Breton. We're going to have an Ethiopian Easter and surprise a friend who lived in Ethiopia once upon a time.

* Corn, soy, canola and cotton are the four major genetically modified foods. Take a look at your grocery cart, you'll find them in everything.

The Quiet Life

I've been asked a few times how I can stand living in the country, far from the excitement of a city. One friend told me he would go crazy in my shoes. My mum keeps saying how she's amazed that I'm still happy with my life in rural Cape Breton. But I am, by and large, happy and stimulated. I guess it's my personality to just accept things, let go of things, not have too high expectations. Maybe I'm lucky.

I think it's also my age. I think I'm looking to have some stability after close to a decade of wandering, moving house often, getting on airplanes and the rest. This stability shouldn't be equated with lots of possessions, which I've always avoided. Having said that I do find myself purchasing a lot more things than I ever did before. However, I'm trying to make sure they are all useful to me and my community. I'm just looking to finally build a home, deliberately and passionately.

And the promise of the summer to come keeps me happy too. This place is so beautiful now, I can't imagine how it will be in the summer. Then there's my allergies.

But let's talk about some projects. I'm making beer. Well actually I have very little to do with it. The yeast are making the beer. I bought a kit and mum helped me to mix everything together and seal it up in two of Dan's carboys (my carboy, found at a thrift store, is now full of Dan's apple or pear cider). I had to use two because they weren't large enough on their own to hold the amount, 23 litres that I was making. They are bubbling away under their air seals. I'm looking forward to drinking the beer in a few weeks; yes it's that fast. Kevin had a kit this summer and if I'd only known how straightforward it is, I would have pushed him to make it. It would have cut some of our beer costs at least.


Ultimately I want to be able to make beer from scratch. Make the malt, grow the hops (tall plants!). It's made with well water so that's nice. But if I can't do it myself or without the aid of a yeast package then it's probably unlikely to be a regular thing at our place. But if I think of hard cider or wine, I reaabout how easy it is in comparison to get the fermentation one desires. The yeast is already on the fruit when you mash it up into juice or cider. So you have your fermenting yeast already along for the ride, since many yeasts live in the air. So perhaps cider and wine are more realistic for someone who doesn't want to spend, and likely won't have the money to spend, on beer kits and yeast. Maybe beer will just be a treat.



And I finished my scarf this evening! I expect winter will hang on a bit longer so I'll have a chance to model it (and most importantly, keep warm) before next winter.