learning: back to basics
17 May 2012 1 Comment
in general posts Tags: farming, food, healthy cooking, organic, reading, resolutions
about a month ago, i came across this book; the back to basics handbook.
it was at costco (ironic?) and when we flipped through it, we were instantly interested.
my husband has a dream of owning a farm.
to be honest, i find this dream slightly hilarious, because as much as i love him, he’s never farmed a day in his life and doesn’t really have a green thumb or a lot of patience.
but, his life aspirations definitely culminate with a plot of land away from society.
for me, its not so cut and dry.
part of me loves that idea and part of me knows i would hate my life if i wasn’t close to the city.
so, i picture more of a centrally located moderately sized house with land to grow stuff on. and a lot of making my own food and endeavoring to cut out the grocery store.
so this book, i guess i you would call it life porn.
they cover EVERYTHING. from finding a plot of land (checking for natural sources of water, the proper slopes for crops ect) to building your own house from wood found on the land… and then raising various types of livestock, growing crops, cold storage of crops, preserving ect.
this book is absolutely fascinating to me.
it literally chronicles the “need to knows” for a dying lifestyle.
this is true sustainability.
naturally the front half of the book, about land and farming and raising animals isn’t really applicable to me at this stage in my life… but the second half of the book is all things that i could use today.
they call it “household skills and crafts”… its a mixture of some skills i know like canning and preserving, but also cheese & sausage making, preserving all kinds of food for long term storage without chemicals, making fermented foods…
and then basket weaving, candle making, tanning leather, natural dyes, soapmaking and more.
and what i love is that it really guides you from the start. like, for natural dyes, there’s a chart of plants, pictures of the plants and a guide on where to find them growing so you can forage for them.
at no point in reading this, do you scratch your head and think “where the heck do i find X?” because this book has already shown you how to grow it or make it from something else.
i have a huge soft spot for this kind of thing. clearly.
when i was a young girl, i was absolutely obsessed with laura ingalls wilder books. i had them all memorized by age 7 and read and reread them voraciously trying to fathom this lifestyle that she described so vividly.
my mom was a little helpful on the matter because she was born and raised in saskatchewan with no running water. so a lot of things could be explained by her. but i’ve never forgotten the descriptions of the mill used to grind wheat to flour or churning butter and the soaking of the salt beef. the things you just don’t see today.
this book made me nostalgic for my childhood visions of frontier life.
and while i’m still very firmly a city girl in many respects, i have an unabated interest in this simple country life where everyone worked their balls off just to keep alive.
maybe its just because i’m super stressed at work lately, and maybe its what happens as you get older… but i find myself dreaming of working hard. not for a paycheque at an office… but for my household. raising and growing my food, making my cheeses and soaps and whatever i could. running away from society and being self sufficient.
these days, that seems like bliss.
the supermarket seems like a scary place to me. full of poison masquerading as food.
stocked to the brim with faux-foods designed to deceive your body and re-write your natural rhythms.
sometimes i wander the aisles at the “heath food” store next to my office on my breaks. its row after row of pre-packaged foods and supplements and substitutes… there’s little to nothing that my brain naturally recognizes as actually being healthy. but yet, its what we accept as health food as a society.
to me, the farm market that sells only produce next door is the real health food store.
these are good reminders to myself. if a lifestyle of ultimate sustainability is my goal, then it has to be carried out in daily life. and i have much work to do.
it means that bag of cheesies or chocolate bar that i was craving needs to be forsaken. and that hangover meal of macaroni & cheese out of the box needs an overhaul.
its a slow process… tough to break a lifetime of addiction… but i’m working on it.
food: bacon chipotle meatloaf
27 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in food & cooking, paleo, wheat free Tags: beef, comfort food, gluten free, organic, paleo, recipes, whats for dinner, wheat free
on the weekend, my husband and i came across a fantastic deal for ground beef.
our local farm market where we buy our premium meats from was having a “case lot” sale of sorts with 10lbs of ground beef at a great price.
so we did the sensible thing and bought one.
we figured, hey, we’re coming up to burger season…
plus, high quality beef at a grocery store price can not be refused.
also the girl behind the counter had me sold at “you’ll have to wait a minute, they’re just grinding it now…”
okay.
but here’s the thing… when you’re brainstorming ground beef ideas, its easy to get in a rut.
there’s meatballs and spaghetti sauce and shepherds pie and of course burgers… but what else?
meatloaf of course.
delicious delicious meatloafs.
sooooo… we may have done a bit of other case-lot shopping this weekend…
like, i also have 5lbs of sweet onions… and 5 avocados… and 5lbs of potatoes…
so i’ve been in prep mode.
yesterday i thinly sliced 3 onions and caramelized them down and stowed them in the fridge for future use.
nothing in particular in mind, but i know my husband loves them, so i figured they’d be useful to have ready… and boy was i right.
if you’ve never put caramelized onions into a meatloaf, you should.
Bacon Chipotle Meatloaf with Caramelized Onions
- 1.5lbs of ground beef
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp chipotle seasoning (i use paul prudhomme’s)
- 1 tsp dried chipotle peppers
- 1/2 cup of caramelized onions
- salt & pepper
- 3 slices of bacon – par cooked (i microwaved for 1.5 minutes)
- some delicious bbq sauce for topping (i used House of Q Apple Butter BBQ sauce)
- preheat oven to 400
- mix beef, onions & seasoning. press into loaf pan – i line mine with parchment for easy removal
- top with bacon and slather with bbq sauce
- cook for about 20 minutes, drain fat off and cook for another 15 minutes or so or until internal temp reaches 145F
food & travel: O’o Farms, Maui
04 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in food & cooking, photography, travel Tags: farming, gluten free, hawaii, maui, organic, photography, travel, wheat free
one of my favourite parts of my trip to maui was O’o Farm.
I know, for a girl that lives mere minutes away from farmland, you’d think that seeing a farm wouldn’t be a high priority. but i’m oh-so glad that we made it one.
the farm itself was a marvel to me. existing only to service two high end restaurants with fresh organic produce, this is not really a “working farm”, but more a culinary indulgence of chef/owners. which i think makes for a really unique and special farm experience.
every single thing grown there exists because the chef has requested it for the menu or because it is a control plant to attract/detract pests or to add or remove nutrients to/from the soil. everything has a purpose here and nothing is wasted. in fact, there’s not even anything extra to sell. the restaurants and the farm tour use everything grown here.
even the fish carcasses from dinner service and coffee grounds make their way back to the farm to be composted. this was a beautiful working example of a sustainable farm.
i left here feeling inspired. this is the lifestyle of my dreams. to be in hawaii, growing the food that i serve at my restaurant? i don’t think they could have possibly pinpointed this better for me. so if i run away, this could very well be where i am.
okay, now on to the good stuff… we’ll start with the view. the farm is high up the crater with a spectacular view of kihei.
ya, pretty rough, hey? that could sooooo be my workplace view please.
first off, after intros and pleasantries, we went to the coffee plants. now, these plants are just starting to produce and they’re relatively new to this farm, so their beans aren’t being used yet in the restaurants, but they will be soon. until then, they use beans from a farm down the road that are roasted at O’o Farm by the cutie that was our guide for the tour. (seriously, this farm has everything. even dark curly haired gentlemen with strong jaw lines – aka “my type”, lol)
after sampling the berry of the coffee plant – you eat the red ones and spit out the beans. it’s really an interesting flavour… very sweet off the start with a tart finish. of course here there’s no waste, so they use the berry in cooking & garnishes in the restaurants and dry it to make tea from it (which i bought a bag of) and then they roast the beans inside.
we moved on to the orchards after our coffee plant lessons… first the citrus grove. literally, a few of everything was growing here… pink lemons, pomellos, limes, clementines and even buddah’s hand… which i’ve never actually seen growing before! so cool! (it’s basically a citrus made almost entirely of rind & pith, usually candied or preserved and used as a strong citrus flavour agent)
the stone fruit trees were done for the season (funny to hear about it being “winter” in hawaii) so we moved over to where we’d be dining and met the chef.
she told us a little about the food we’d be eating and where it came from (everything from the farm except the fish which was caught yesterday just off the maui coast and the tofu). she also shared her culinary journey and how she ended up cooking for the tours and such.
then we moved on to see the fields and pick our salad greens for lunch.
here’s a shot of my husband picking some yummy sorrel for lunch…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorrel
…and showing off our bounty of lunch greens and filling us in what each one is and how its grown…
…and grabbing a little more arugula.
this one is just a cool picture of a kale plant. because i dig kale.
then we ventured back to the “dining room” for our feast.
first up was the fresh avocados with citrus and the selection of root vegetables… candycane & watermelon radishes, fennel and kohlrabi for the salad…
and my plate all loaded up with the tofu, beet & chard dish, the mahi mahi in sweet maui onions & citrus and of course the fabulous salad. all wheat-free, and all absolutely delicious and bursting with freshness. everything from the farm had been in the ground mere hours ago.
after a plate (okay, maybe and seconds) we chatted with the people sitting around us… almost everyone had brought their own bottle of wine (ours white & refreshing) and we discussed the farm and our own personal reasons for being drawn to visit it.
there were lots of foodies that were fans of the restaurants associated with the farm… a lot of gardeners, both hobby & small business… and just generally people that loved this lifestyle of natural, sustainable living. it was very cool.
after a bit, the chef brought out a plate of chocolates that she had made and a big bowl of still-shelled macadamia nuts for us to crack & snack on and our guide invited us up to the “coffee house” where he had brewed us some coffee that he had roasted that morning.
my husband and i gladly trucked up the hill and had 3 cups of the coffee each, while chatting with our guide about the coffee, growing it, roasting it, varietals ect. we ended up buying $100 in premium coffee from him, including a batch that had just been roasted, but wasn’t even bagged yet for sale. we just got talking about it and so he ran down to the roasting house and pulled some out for us. people, you can not beat this.
honestly, if this kinda thing isn’t up your alley, then there’s nothing i can say to convince you… but if this kinda thing tweaks your fancy, then you MUST do O’o Farms tour in Maui. it was $50 well spent on an excellent and truly awesome experience. in fact, we decided that we would do this every trip, just to see what’s growing at different times of the year. and the restaurant is definitely on our “must eat” list for next trip too.
travel: maui foodie activities
07 Dec 2011 7 Comments
in food & cooking, travel Tags: farming, hawaii, maui, organic, travel
i’ve been on the lookout for something fun for the husband & i to do in maui. just the two of us. he’s really good with my family, but if after 12 days i’ll be going crazy, he’s going to actually murder someone.
so an “alone” activity needs to be planned.
i’d been looking at hikes and such, but i figure that can be more spur of the moment… we already have a luau booked as a family for dec 23rd… and we’re planning on getting in a boat & doing some whale watching & snorkeling… and i’d really like to watch the sunrise from the crater… but that’s “everybody inclusive”, right?
yesterday my friend sent me on facebook a link to some cool foodie related maui activities and i booked us into the O’o farm lunch & tour.
it’s a beautiful organic farm that exists mostly to supply their restaurants with organic produce. and i’m pretty excited to eat a freshly prepared meal right smack in the middle of the farm.
i’ve enquired, and yes, they are happy to accommodate me with a wheat-free meal. in fact, theeir food often doesn’t contain much wheat, since it’s all focused on being as farm fresh as possible. i’m pretty excited and i’m going to take 5000 pictures there, lol.
this whole experience is a good value, $50 per person plus tax & tip. but i’m getting a slight discount on account of my travel-agent-ness. still, the food served is akin to their higher end restaurant’s servings, so the price point is just fine. as well, they encourage you to bring your own bottle of wine. perfection.
www.oofarm.com
i did also consider the tour of the goat farm with cheese tasting, because i am a whore for goat cheese… but the tour & tasting weren’t really well received by reviewers on trip advisor. so i figured i’d skip it. it’s in the area of this farm, so we may drop in anyways.
food: ham and other pig products
12 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in food & cooking Tags: organic, pig, pork, recipes
as part of our pig bounty from the butchery class, we had a ham.
a raw, uncured, cut fresh off the carcass ham. so… more like a ham-shaped piece of pig than an actual ham.
task #1… figure out how to cure a ham and make it a ham.
we did loads of internet research and the results were… mixed, to say the least.
traditional methods involved using “pink salt” which is what gives commercial hams their pinky-hue. but it also apparently is a cocktail of chemicals, many of which are NOT good for you at all. its other function is to kill botulism.
now, this ham came off a fresh pig and straight into our freezer. i think it was handled appropriately and so scary food borne illness wasn’t something that i was particularly worried about.
so we decided to brine this guy for 3 days without the pink salt.
we created a brine based loosely on this recipe – http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/brined-fresh-ham-recipe/index.html
ours was more like this:
Brine:
- 1 cup kosher salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 bay leaves
- 1/4 cup fennel seeds
- 1/4 cup mustard seeds
- 2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
- 10 bruised garlic cloves
- 1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 gallon water
- 1 (3-pound) fresh ham
we let it hang out it the fridge – covered, with a dinner plate on top to sink it into the brine – for 3 whole days.
when it was done, it looked like this:
sadly, that’s the only picture i took. no finished results – food blogger fail.
so after brining, we rinsed it off, patted it dry and roasted it in the oven at 325 for about 2 hours.
i made a “glaze” of sorts with cola, maple syrup and some mustard, but the ham gave off so much liquid that it didn’t really glaze as i had pictured.
at the end of it all, we had a damn fine meal. it was kind of weird because it tasted like ham & had the right consistency, but it looked like a pork roast. it’s funny how we’re so conditioned into seeing that bright pink ham colour.
anyways, it was great and i definitely recommend trying this yourself. in fact, just taking the time to brine any meat makes a huge difference.
also on the pork note, we had a bunch of bones left over from our class as well that we’d been meaning to make stock from… and we finally got to it yesterday. we just did a basic stock, bones, water, an onion, some celery, bay leaves, peppercorns, salt & thyme. let it boil for a couple hours, then strain it and skim the fat off. cheesecloth was definitely necessary for this task… there was a decent amount of “scum” on the liquid.
when we had achieved beautiful tasty clear-ish stock, we cooked some dried white beans in it and added this ham hock that we smoked ourselves (also from the butchery class)
here’s a picture of it from the summer when we smoked it…
anyways, so into the stock went the hock, dried beans and leeks that had been sauteed in butter. we added a few things… spices and whatnot… and after an hour or two we shredded the meat off the hock and had a ridiculously rich and delicious ham soup. which i also do not have a picture of, lol.
the husband and i were pretty proud of our work… a complete meal, farm to table, as it were. the only things in the meal that i couldn’t place would be the dried beans… no idea where they came from. but the ham we knew and the leeks were from a local farm up the road.
the mileage that we’ve gotten out of our butchery class is impressive… but we’re down to the last bits. we have our 16lb bone in pork shoulder, which one day will make fabulous pulled pork… and a few odds & ends like jowl meat and pork belly. the fatty bits that i’m not super keen on. but the end is definitely near… might be time to start thinking about getting access to another pig soon. man, i need a deep freeze.
