It's "that" time of year again...

For the second year in a row, where my house smells overwhelmingly like tomatoes and my kitchen is stacked with bushels boxes! With help from my husband (read about the dangers of canning alone here), I've managed to "put up" two bushels of tomatoes in the form of sauce, and I've got to say, it's much yummier than last year! If you're like me and eccentric enough to take up the bizarre endeavour, then you probably want to check out the Bernardin website for the basic idea of canning and some recipes. I used their basic procedure for tomato sauce. You don't want to add any oils or fresh veggies since it alters the pH and apparently that can allow botulism to grow and potentially kill you and yours.

Last year, inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle book, I used her recipe for Family Secret Tomato Sauce. However, I didn't seed or peel. I admit, that haste does indeed make waste, and the sauce was too bitter. I also wasn't crazy about the hint of cinnamon and nutmeg and the huge amount of basil (Sorry Barbara!). This year, I bit the bullet and did the seeding. Much tastier! However, I did add (without measuring, just to taste...):

1/2 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp of garlic powder
2 tbsp of dried basil
2 tbsp of dried oregano
2 tbsp of ground pepper
2 tbsp of sea salt
(***don't forget 2 tbsp of lemon juice PER 1L jar to maintain acidity***)

Boiled down for about 2-3 hours to make a moderately thick sauce. Divine!

Tomorrow is the big day, TomatoFest 2011, my now annual canning party. We've got 5 women and 7 bushels of tomatoes. The plan is to make diced tomatoes and whole canned tomatoes. Hopefully we get it done before the wine takes effect!

Giving thanks for the humble pumpkin

It's Thanksgiving Day, and of course I'm thankful for the usual things. To shake things up at bit, we all had to say one frivolous thing that we were thankful for. Today, after an amazing discovery, I've got to say pumpkin! The happy orange of a field of pumpkins always makes me smile, and what other food can be carved into a Halloween decoration? Best of all, you can eat it!

Today we took the kids to Cooper's CSA (CSA being Community Supported Agriculture where you buy shares in the farmers crop and get a weekly box of seasonal veggies, thus offering the farmer stability and the non-farmer seasonal, healthy food). It was a great day, and much less tacky and jam-packed than some of the "agri-tainment" closer to the city. Besides, it's Local Food Plus certified, and that gives me confidence in it's sustainability. Long story short, we ended up carting home a van-load of pumpkins because I discovered earlier in the weekend the amazing versatility of the pumpkin!

Why didn't anyone tell me before that it can taste so good? I know, pumpkin pie's okay...but that didn't seem very connected to an actual pumpkin. In my mind it was like the connection between dill pickles and dill pickle potato chips -a loose association at best. I now realize, thanks to a wine soaked Friday night tutorial from a pie-master friend, that you can make pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin. Will wonders never cease? It got me thinking that if you can make pie from a real pumpkin, maybe you can make other things...which led me to this recipe for pumpkin bread. It is, to quote my mother-in-law, "to DIE for". It's similar to banana bread, only based on a local crop. You can substitute any type of squash, I tried a batch with butternut squash too- delish! Next step, pumpkin soup!

If interested, I played around with the recipe a bit, but this is more or less what I used:

1 1/2 cups flour (I used half white and half whole wheat)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup agave nectar (or just use 3/4 c of sugar and ignore the agave nectar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mashed up cooked pumpkin (apparently the little "pie pumpkins" are tastier...just cut it in half, bake it for about an hour at 350, discard seeds and mash up pulp)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix wet ingredients, mix dry ingredients, mix it all together. Bake in a buttered loaf pan at 350 for 50-60 mins. Enjoy fresh or freeze for later!

Sauce Rage

A few weeks ago, I made salsa and tomato sauce. I did it late at night after my kids were in bed. Some evenings I started this ridiculous endeavour at 9:30 pm only to collape exhausted into bed at 1 am. Let me explain that I am on summer holidays and my husband is not. His alarm goes off at 6am and I have learned to sleep right through it. So when I got it in my head to start a canning binge on a Sunday night, my husband, while supportive in theory, was not particularly enthusiastic. So I did it myself.

The first day was fine. I made a test batch of tomato sauce. No problem. But that didn't even make a tiny dent in the massive pile of tomatoes in my kitchen. So I got to work on salsa, diced tomatoes, roasted tomatoes. Over the course of the week (one that also included taking the kids swimming, to the zoo, the beach, the library, and making 3 meals a day), the nighttime canning experiment began to get ugly. I began to vent in my head, I started to bang pots and pans around, I took to angrily elbowing my snoring husband when I crawled into bed late at night. I recall at one point being reduced to screeching something to the effect of "I'll remember that this is NOT YOUR FOOD and won't serve you ANY! Jackass!" when he made a comment about the mess in the kitchen not being his idea. Or something like that.

Turns out, I was suffering from Sauce Rage. Seems it stems from anger at the futility of spending countless hours to make something that you don't really need to make. And, for me, from some deeply instilled feminist voices in the back of my head.

After my first week of canning was done, and my mountain of tomatoes reduced to a mere molehill, I was able to think again. I was able to use real words to express what had been eating at me. And that was, "6 years of university and two degrees and here I am toiling for hours over a hot stove to make food for us that I could just buy at the store with the money I can earn in less than an hour of work?" Indeed, in all this waxing poetic about the joys of the "old ways", there is certainly a tense undercurrent of "there is a reason women wanted out of the kitchen". I still can't quite wrap my head around the gender politics of this endeavour, but I certainly found some food for thought (sorry) in an article by Peggy Orenstein, The Femivore's Dilemma. Despite the unfortunate title (femivore=one who eats women?), I found the article both inspiring and cautionary. It made me glad that I said " Next time, let's do this together so I don't feel like a harried hausfrau" and we agreed to use weekends instead of evenings. My next batch involved spousal assistance in peeling, seeding and chopping. It was kind of fun, and overall left me blissfully free of the dreaded Sauce Rage. Moral of the story, don't sauce alone. You'll want to kill someone.

Bye Bye to Chinese Garlic

This summer I got my first delivery of fresh Ontario garlic from Mama Earth. I didn't recognize it...it tasted and smelled, well, fresh. It seemed barely related to the dry supermarket imposters (Product of China) I've been buying for years.
I started going out of my way to look for local garlic. It was nowhere to be found in supermarkets - the closest I found was Mexico, and that took some time. At my local farmers market there were plenty of choices, however, I had to be ready to pay up to $3.50 a head. Shocking to be sure...especially since I could fill my car with Chinese garlic for approximately the same price. But I bought it whenever I could find it. And now, I can't go back. Especially after stumbling across an article about how difficult it is for Ontario garlic growers to compete. How Ontario had 4000 acres devoted to commercial garlic production in 2001. Now there are less than 500. How Ontario garlic growers have been devastated by Chinese imports which flooded our market in 2001. But Canadians like me are beginning to get a taste of the fresh stuff, and we're excited to bring Ontario garlic back to the mainstream.
I just placed my order for 20 heads of organic "seed garlic". I belatedly discovered that you plant garlic in the fall (which explains why my spring planted garlic gave me cloves the size of TicTacs), let it "overwinter" and then harvest it the following summer. Fingers crossed, I'll have evil garlic breath this time next year. I ordered 4 different varieties from The Cutting Veg and can't wait till it arrives. It's going to get it's own bed! It's obvious now that I did not take the photo in this post, but I'm hoping it counts that it is my imagined harvest for next year...no? Photo credit here)
I also ramped up my weekly garlic order from 3 head to 15 heads of fresh organic Ontario garlic for next weekend's (hopefully) annual Tomato Stock. My backyard and kitchen will play host to a group of likeminded friends getting together to make tomato sauce and "put up" (haha..just testing out my new lingo) about 5 or 6 bushels of tomatoes. Since I've been experimenting this summer, I guess I'm the expert. Uh oh, I hope no one gets botulism.

The Elusive Organic Peach

All the markets and grocery stores are brimming with fresh, local peaches, so why not take a trip to an orchard and make a day of it? I got online to look for an organic peach orchard in the Toronto area. No such luck. I could find organic berry farms, organic spinach, broccoli and the like. But few tree fruits. My organics delivery box was even bringing me peaches from British Columbia. My grocery store's organic peaches came from the USA. Why?
I learned the answer at the East York Farmers' Market. For the first time, I saw a few baskets of relatively small organic peaches. Curiosity piqued, I asked the farmer. He said he's been experimenting with growing 5 acres of organic peaches because the demand is high. However, he explained that Southern Ontario's humidity makes the peaches very susceptible to disease. That's why almost nobody grows organic peaches. He said in the end, he's not sure if growing organic peaches is sustainable. Organic peaches are still sprayed, just with different stuff. And they require significantly more applications of the "different stuff" because of the climate. It was some food for thought. When asked which ones he'd choose to eat, he said he's perfectly happy with his conventional peaches. So, which to buy? I couldn't decide, so I bought some baskets of both and cut them up to freeze for those dreary winter days when summer fruit is a big treat. I'll let myself ponder the question of local conventional food vs. distant organic some other day.

How to freeze peaches: Peel, slice and lay out on a tray lined with parchment paper. Put them in the freeze until they are solid. Transfer to a freezer bag. If you just throw them in a bag without the tray step, you'll end up with one giant mass of peaches that you can't break apart!

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

My piles of tomatoes have been accumulating, and I've decided that the best, laziest, way to reduce the pile is to slow roast them. So easy.
Cut them in half, toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper. Sprinkle with chopped garlic if you want to (I do). Lay on parchment paper and roast at around 300F for 2 -3 hrs. Stick with 1.5 hours for cherry or grape tomatoes. They taste like sun-dried tomatoes, but jucier! Throw them in freezer bags or use them to make a sauce. No peeling, seeding, boiling required.
The only problem is that my husband had a bad episode of food poisoning years ago that he equates with sun-dried tomatoes (funny how he doesn't feel that way about the beer that was the more likely culprit) and won't eat them. More for me.

Old Lady Salsa

Okay, have you ever noticed that at every Farmer's Market, bazaar, fair etc, there is always at least one woman (usually old or old-ish), selling preserves? I've been suckered in before, partly because they are so nice, and their products have deceptively yummy sounding names. However, it seems that, with the exception of jam, regardless of what I choose (salsa, chili sauce, chutney, etc.) it all tastes the same. Part of my quest this summer was to find a recipe that tasted like my grocery store salsa. I looked up "Salsa" in my Bernardin Home Preserving Guide, and found recipes for things like "Summer Salsa" and "Pepper Pear Salsa". I spent hours peeling pears, chopping peppers and jalepenos. Duh! What was I thinking? I should have known it would taste like...sorry...Old Lady Salsa. That's because it's got vinegar and sugar instead of lime and cilantro. Unless you're over 70 (80?), don't do it. You'll be sorry.

I was relieved to read a post on the blog Seasonal Ontario Food where the author mentions her preference for salsas without vinegar. Ah hah! That was the problem. The salsa recipe I tried is incredibly tasty, very much like what I buy at the grocery store, and pretty easy. I won't say it's quick, but if I can do it, anyone can. I'll call it Chili Lime Salsa, and you can find step by step instructions here.

Grainstorm

Every time I bake cookies, I make the same variety. I don't even have a recipe anymore, I can make them from memory- my Grandma's famous "Cowboy Cookies". This week however, I mixed it up a bit and tried a yummy new concoction, with some help from Grainstorm.

My new food adventure has introduced me to alot of people doing amazing things, and the people at Grainstorm are no exception. As usual, I came across my new source for baking mixes by coincidence. I met Lark from Grainstorm while I was buying a train table for my son from her through Craigslist. She happened to live less than five minutes from me, and happened to have a van labeled "Grainstorm - fresh milled organic grains" (or something to that effect). I couldn't not ask about it, and of course we got to talking about "real" food. Turns out her business is organic baking mixes (muffins, cookies, pancakes) made from Ontario grown heritage grains like red fife and kamut. In the small world of local, organic grains, it turns out that Grainstorm buys their grains from Grassroots Organics, the same farmers who supply our weekly eggs and organic flour through Mama Earth.

This week I made the oatmeal cookies according to the basic recipe (add butter, oil, 2 eggs) and they were a big hit with me and my son (daughter and husband don't really eat cookies...yeah, weirdos). I took some cookies into work and they were given the universal thumbs up. I guess I should also admit that I ate the last 3 for breakfast before my son woke up yesterday. I didn't want to share...

If you're a reluctant baker, but want to eat some guilt-free but tasty cookies or muffins (or pancakes!), check out Grainstorm online or in store at various locations in Toronto.

Taking Stock and Taking a Blog Break

When I my kids ate 3 raw beets and 4 purple carrots after school for their snack one day, I knew something major had changed in our family. Since then I've had writer's block. Maybe because this blog has served it's original purpose for me. It has made me follow through on things I might never have done otherwise - and now I'm hooked, I don't need the cyberspace motivation anymore. Our progress has been beyond my wildest expectations. Thank you to those who have read the blog, commented, emailed or debated with us for the last several months.

In the last 4 months, our changes have focused on food, chemicals, and consumerism. But the more I learn, the more I confirm that all of these components are interconnected. As I change my food patterns, I discover community. As I change my shopping habits, I contribute to a more fair, sustainable economy. It's been eye opening, and surprisingly easy. It turns out that an average, somewhat lazy, but socially conscious mother can actually drastically change her habits in just a matter of months.

If you're interested, here's my inventory of changes:

• purging all processed foods from our diets, with a few exceptions that allow us to function socially!
• switching from about 10% organics to about 90% when it comes to fruits, vegetables, wine, baking supplies, oils, nuts, cosmetics and pretty much everything else except clothing (one of these days...cotton uses an insane amount of pesticides). We aim to choose local products where possible.
• switching to organic meats, with particular attention to grass fed beef and dairy (avoids feedlot agriculture, and provides a more healthy balance of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids) and cooking meals with smaller meat portions.
  
• eating more vegetarian meals with beans and lentils to make up for our expensive meat
  
• phasing out new toys for birthday parties and baby gifts (unless they are very needed). We recently gave an "e-charity gift" from Plan Canada. Our choice was a "Birthing Kit" (to be used for a woman with no access to clean medical facilities) to honour the birth of a friend's child. For the new big sister, we chose the gift of a year's worth of school supplies for a girl who would otherwise have no access to school.
• vowing to avoid loot bags and dollar store toys that don't last. Vowing to have gift free (or recycled gift, or charity gift) parties for our own kids, at least until they're old enough to really fight it.
  
• making way more foods from whole grains, and from scratch (ie. bread once or twice a week, muffins and cookies occasionally). We love our Ontario grown and milled Grassroots Organics flours. When we're stuck, we buy Stonemill wholegrain breads - they even bake with 100% green power!
  
• phasing out refined sugar and replacing it with agave nectar when possible
• choosing Fair Trade certified products when possible. Ten Thousand Villages makes a good shopping adventure for this, and stores are carrying certified goods more frequently than they used to.
  
• working towards homegrown food, even on our deck (and shared garden at my parents' place) where we're hoping to grow our own huge tomato crop so we can make our own tomato sauce, diced and stewed tomatoes to get us through the winter. We're also growing herbs, peas, beans, carrots, cukes, melons, and squash, some of which we will can, pickle or freeze for winter.
  
• teaching our kids about healthy foods, and watching them start to get excited about heirloom tomatoes, atomic red carrots, stripey beets, and kale chips (and actually eat these things!)
• avoiding canned foods (because the linings leach phthalates -endocrine disruptors)
• getting rid of most of our plastic containers in favour of glass
• buying less packaging (including finding products in refillable containers like Harmony milk in glass bottles and "NatureClean" laundry soap)
• replacing all of our chemical filled soaps, shampoos, and detergents with more natural ones. We're particularly avoiding parabens and phthalates. While I'm still not crazy about my natural shampoo, I'm trying different brands until the right one works for me. We've also avoided all fragranced products to reduce our exposure to phthalates.
  
• chucking my aluminum based anti-perspirant in favour of a crystal...even though I still sometimes get panic attacks about my aroma.
• reading more non fiction books (for fun) than I have in my life about organic gardening, container gardening, whole foods cookbooks, food industry critiques, politics of food, and the eye opening Anti-Cancer book. I've learned some really compelling reasons to follow through with our changes so far.

The result? We're all working harder and spending more time in the kitchen and the garden...but it feels like an adventure instead of like a chore for a change. The kids are being great about this, more and more adventurous with new foods each day. I feel like I'm finally doing my best to keep my family healthy, safe and socially conscious instead of using my old excuse about not having enough time or money for these changes.

So what's next? More of the same. My next project is to build some homemade test models of the Earth Box to see if they can help me produce even more food. And to continue to find more options for foods like kale, chard, fresh herbs and other veggies. And to learn how to can and pickle stuff. And to switch to baking soda and vinegar for cleaning. And to compost in the backyard...the list is endless, but the focus remains the same. I think I will need my blogging time this spring to tend to the garden, bake bread and soak beans. I'll post updates as things come along, but for now, I think I need a break!

Thanks for reading!

Making Connections

The blog led me on a rural adventure today. Allow me for a moment to illustrate the power of cyber space, and the smallness of the world:

Helen is my mother in law. She recently reconnected with Judi, a friend from elementary school. Helen forwarded a link to this blog to Judi who happens to have a neighbour who raises organic livestock. Judi invited me and the kids to her place to sample some "clean" breakfast meats, and offered to introduce me to her farmer friend, Scott. Turns out, Scott is a retired teacher, who (wait for it...) used to be my middle school art teacher. Okay, let me make it clear here, we don't all live down the street from each other. I don't live in a small town, nor have I ever. These connections are hundreds of kilometres and several decades apart. Often I think the world is small, and then some days it shrinks even more.

This bizarre series of connections led us to the hills of the Oak Ridges moraine today where we were spoiled with a delicious brunch complete with organic sausage and maple leaf shaped pancakes, a walk in a sugarbush to watch the sap flowing, a (re)introduction to my teacher/farmer, and an exhilarating moment for my son when he got to sit in a tractor. Scott gave me a full explanation of the life cycles of the animals he raises. He showed us around, invited to come back and take a hike with the cows. And I started to understand what people in the "food movement" mean when they say it makes a difference to really know who and where your food comes from.

What a day. Thanks to J for her incredible hospitality, and to Scott for his openness and for the work he does to provide people with good food. And to Helen for reading the blog and setting things in motion.

A Sprout of Fancy

My next step is pretty exciting for me. I've always been head over heels with the idea of growing food, but the sad truth of the matter is that I have a very dark black thumb. All my houseplants are cacti, since they're the only ones I haven't succeeded in neglecting to death. So the concept of growing food that doesn't require soil, weeding, watering, etc, is very appealing. Starting today, I'm growing my own "crunchy lentil sprout mix". I bought a little organic sprout starter kit with the best of intentions about a year ago. I found it in the cupboard today and thought, I can do this! You just put them in water overnight and then drain them and rinse them every day. Should be ready to eat in 3-4 days. This meets my need for instant gratification in a way that actual gardening simply can't do.
I'll let you know what happens in 3-4 days.

FoodShare

Ugly looking vegetable this celeriac. Who would have thought that you could mash it up with onion, carrot, parsley, thyme and anything else you like to make a delicious, light side dish. I wouldn't have known this had I not tasted the most delicious concoction ever made last week at FoodShare's "Recipe for Change" fundraising event. 26 chefs preparing tasting plates beyond expectations and imagination. My winner for the night was the glazed beach mushrooms with celery mash and beet/yellow pepper sauce from Calico Cafe, hubby was partial to the cornish hen and tarragon ravioli from Quince.

Thanks to FoodShare for a wonderful, well organized event, and for the great work they do all year round. If you haven't heard of it, FoodShare is a Toronto-based non-profit whose vision is "Good, Healthy Food for all". They work to connect people back to their food supply, teach kids about growing, making and eating healthy food, and get good food to vulnerable people.

The message certainly resonated with me since just that day, my 4 year old daughter wondered aloud why she always has to take a healthy snack to kindergarten while the kid who sits beside her gets to bring Smarties every day. Gives me an idea for a long term goal to work towards - implementing a kindergarten healthy snack program at the school. This might take awhile, but be patient with me, I'm still working on the small steps!

Links:
Calico Cafe -fresh, veg/vegan, near Bloor and Dufferin http://www.calicocafe.ca
Quince - Mediterranean food near Yonge and Eg http://www.quincerestaurant.ca
FoodShare - http://www.foodshare.net

Mmmmmeat?

This month I'm teaching about the economics of food and the issues of industrial agriculture. I have to put that out there so you know that I'm not just a glutton for punishment. I wouldn't have chosen "Frankensteer" as my Thursday viewing if I didn't need to preview it for work.
I eat meat. I like eating meat.

I tried vegetarianism for 4 years during university. I didn't eat meat but I didn't eat chickpeas or kidney beans or leafy greens either. I mostly ate cheese pizza. Even then, I had a real problem with Swiss Chalet chicken, the problem being I couldn't resist it. But the real breaking point of my flirtation with vegetarianism came when I met my carnivorous husband. It wasn't much of a challenge for him to break my habit. He easily wore me down by cooking bbq ribs and steak. I haven't really looked back. Until recently.

My Thursday night documentary is one you'll want to avoid. You probably already know that from its title. That is, unless you've got alot of money burning a hole in your pocket or a strong but latent urge to eat more lentils. Frankensteer is about growth hormones, antibiotics, carnivorous cows, feedlots, and feces. Having viewed it already, it's too late for me. As soon as it was done, I got onto the internet and found the shop not too far from here that sells meat from nearby Mennonite and Amish farms and immediately placed an order. No antibiotics, no hormones. No massive feedlots as far as the eye can see. You can check it out at http://freshfromthefarm.ca.

As with most of my small steps, this one is not cheap. But I've got a plan. Continue to eat meat, but only the clean stuff. And use way less of it. Tonight we had our drug free chicken souvlaki. It was delicious. We treated it like gold and couldn't afford to overeat. This week, in the interest of preventing bankruptcy, I'm going to cook meatless at least twice.
Fingers crossed that I'll get more creative than cheese pizza. Take pity on me and post your faves.

Oh, and if after all that you still want to watch the doc, you can find it at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4129902081038592146#

Wine and Butterflies

The "stay-cation" was great. We smell like chlorine, look like prunes, and have watched enough Treehouse to make up for all our cable-free living thus far. Great Wolf Lodge is everything I expected, the good and the bad. Certainly not the place for peace and quiet, but we managed to find that when we visited the Butterfly Conservatory. In my humble opinion it is an excellent antidote to the cheese of Niagara Falls. Very peaceful, well maintained, informative -heaven for geeks like me and my daughter. Husband and son were slightly glazed. After watching the required video introduction, my daughter suggested that we plant a butterfly garden this summer. I added it to my "to-do" list. Any gardeners out there with suggestions beyond "butterfly bush"? I guess I'll have to add "research butterfly garden" to the list as well.

Malivoire winery, definitely worth checking it out. Our "guide" explained all about their growing practices (all pesticide free, and quite alot of certified organic) and those of other Niagara wineries that are into sustainability. He suggested we check out Southbrook vineyards where they are using biodynamic farming (some sort of holistic farming method that "goes beyond organic"). That's for our next trip. As you can imagine, one wine tasting stop was one too many for kids all pumped up about heading to a waterpark. Anyway, all in all, we made it home with a case of local, pesticide free, and certified organic wines. Okay, a case minus a few bottles...

Cheers.