Tag: recipe

Homesteading Progress: Preserving Food and Saving on Grocery Costs

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday, we ate the second to the last jar of pears that I put up last fall. Last fall was my first time to can pears, and I was so nervous about doing it. But our two little trees made a bumper crop, and I had always wanted to can my own pears. I love canned pears. I like fresh pears, but I love canned pears.

I love them extra now because I now understand that the canned pears at the grocery store are a little too soggy and definitely too sweet for my taste. And that’s the best part about canning your own pears–you can make them as soft or crunchy as you like and as sweet or as not sweet as you like!

Of course, there are other best parts about canning your own pears. It’s just awesome to be able to preserve food yourself, and I love that there is almost no waste. I no longer have to throw away cans. These glass jars will be reused year after year, and only the lids will have to be replaced. And, once I make the switch the Weck jars for all of my canning, I won’t even throw away the lids because Weck jar use glass lids.

I certainly realize that I am not going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things because I am not throwing away cans (there is no longer recycling in my area and in many areas throughout the U.S.), but it does make me feel better–and that definitely counts for something, right?

But I do feel there is a bigger picture that these pears represent. These cans of pears represent a growing self sufficiency we have, and it has saved us financially as groceries have become so expensive. I follow food news quite a bit, and I read a lot of what farmers write. I think there are a couple of things causing the high costs of groceries–climate change and monopolies–and I don’t see either one of these issues being addressed at all. I expect groceries are, in general, going to stay very expensive, though I hope there will be some relief if families continue to struggle.

It was over 20 years ago that I watched a documentary on climate change that really stuck with me. The film showed what grocery costs would be like “in the future.” The future was 2025. I remember studying the program so carefully as the narrator spoke about how difficult it would be for people to afford fresh fruits and vegetables in the future, how everything would be more expensive due to crop failures and the rise in costs of fuel. I can’t remember the name of the program, but I guess the content really stuck with me. I watched that documentary in 2002, and 10 years later, I was trying to homestead and learning how to grow and put up food, much like my great grandparents did–only I have much to learn.

I’m working on it though. These pears represent my progress, and this year, I can see we need more pears. We planted two more pear trees this year, bu , of course, it will be a few years before those little trees bear fruit. In the meantime, my plan for this fall is find a u-pick orchard with pears and get some pears for cheap and add those to what we grow.

This is the time of year when we start to run out of food from last year’s harvest. We ran out of pears, so we need to make a plan for more this coming year. We also ran out of frozen blueberries like a month ago, so we have a pretty big gap there. We also ran out of broccoli, so that’s something we want to address this year. We are also just about out of pizza sauce, so I will have to be sure to process more tomatoes, peppers, and onions into pizza sauce this coming August and September. I want to take extra steps and do as much as I can because I know food costs are likely to just get worse.

What we do not or cannot grow ourselves, I have learned to track down in local farms. I have found that the best cost savings can be found on farms that specialize in what you need, let you pick the food yourself, and do not offer “experience” events or ice cream stands. I love those experience farms too, but when I need to save money, I know to look for something a bit different. If you are looking to save money on food, this is a plan that works.

First, grow as much as you can based on what you and your family will really eat. If you are working full time and can only grow a little, pick two or three crops that you know will serve you well and produce a lot of food–like green beans or potatoes.

Second, find the farmers, the ones that offer good prices if you get out there and pick the food yourself. Not only will this save you money, it’s quite fun to visit farms and pick food with your family. You will get sweaty and dirty, but it’s such good work. Plus, I have seen such beautiful parts of Maine doing this.

Third, start learning how to can foods. It’s easier than you think, and you can do a lot with simple water baths. I am able to put up fruits and sauces using water baths only, but I did finally get a pressure canner. When I first started learning to can, I didn’t have anyone to teach me. If you have someone willing to teach you in person, take the time to make that happen. I feel like hands on learning is so much easier, but if you are like me and do not have someone to teach you in person, I highly recommend The Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, and I learned the most from the following fantastic videos from Magnolia Workshops.

Water Bath Canning

Pressure Canning

I hope this post inspires you to take some steps toward self sufficiency this summer if you can. I think knowing how to preserve food is important, and I think it’s going to be one of those skills we will all be thankful for both right now and in the long run. Putting up your own food saves you money and gives you and your family easy access to real, good food. And I am convinced there is not much else more important than this. I hope to continue to write about our food and what we do. We have many gaps to fill, but I am proud of our progress. I think the key is to just take things one step at a time.

Start small and keep growing!

Food Is Medicine: Part I

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

I was in my 30s before I began to realize just how important the quality of food you eat is to your overall health. I grew up on boxed dinners, and when my children were very young, I bought frozen dinners and processed foods at the grocery store. I worked full time and thought I just didn’t have the time to cook. I trusted the American food system to ensure the food they were selling and I was feeding my family was safe. I was very wrong to trust in this system.

Our system is so broken, like in a devastating way. It’s so broken that I use it as a measure in my life. There are times when I question myself for being too far out of the “norm” for our society. “Am I crazy?” I ask Ron, but before he can answer, I remind myself that I cannot measure myself against a society that allows its food system to poison its citizens. “There’s arsenic and lead in our baby food and glyphosate in our Cheerios–that’s crazy,” I say.

I still work full time, so we do not always eat the way I am aiming for; however, we do really well. This has never been more evident to me than in the last couple of weeks as we have been sick with COVID. There is nothing that makes me feel better than our homemade food. In fact, I think part of the reason I got so, so sick and ended up at the hospital the second time was that my immune system was attacking my nervous system and impacting my ability to move my limbs and my mouth. I couldn’t eat very well. I struggled to eat and drink without choking during the worst of it all, so though I was hungry, I just couldn’t eat. This meant no whole grain breads, no fresh eggs, no frozen organic vegetables from our garden, and I think it made the toll of everything even worse.

In the first two days after I was out of the hospital, neither Ron nor I could cook, so we resorted to take out. We got the best take out we could find, but I noticed I didn’t start to really feel better until Ron rallied himself and cooked homemade fettuccini from scratch. He made egg noodles from our eggs and organic flour, homemade organic sauce, and he steamed frozen broccoli he grew last summer. When he sat a giant plate of noodles and broccoli in front of me, it was the most beautiful thing I think I had ever seen. I ate every single bite of that good food, and I immediately felt better. It was after that meal that I turned a corner for the better.

I am still struggling a bit and am very weak by the end of the day every day, but I am making really good progress. Tonight, I made minestrone using our homemade spaghetti sauce as a base. This sauce is made with tomatoes, onions, and peppers, all from our garden. We can it in the early fall each year, and tonight, it nourished me.

I thought I might write a little this week about how we eat and what we eat–and on the importance of eating organic and minimally-processed foods. It can’t save us from lead, but it can save us from glyphosate and dozens of other chemicals that are not good for us. Many common foods in our food system lower our IQs and may even (though I suspect most likely) lead to cancers.

Of course, it’s all a process. We didn’t just decide to change our eating habits and lifestyle and then, overnight, eat farm to table every night, but it’s a process that has helped me so much and may be able to help others. I’ll tell my story, and if I feel ambitious, I might tell other stories as well. We’ll see how I hold up.

Thankfully, there’s more minestrone for dinner tomorrow night.

photo credit: Ellie Ellien, Unsplash

Starry Night Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

~ Crystal Sands ~ 5 Comments

Day 212 of 365

by Crystal Sands

I have always wanted to love gingerbread cookies during the holidays, but I could never quite get there. The recipes for gingerbread cookies I found always seemed too crunchy, too bland, or too spicy. Then, I found a beautiful recipe called “Soft Glazed Gingerbread Cookies” from the wonderful site The View from Great Island. The author there had adapted this recipe from a different cookbook, and you will find many adaptations of this recipe on the internet. My personal adaptation takes out a bit of the hot and spicy, leaving you with a mildly spicy but sweet cookie that is more palatable for children’s tastebuds—and mine as well. 

Plus, they are so beautiful it’s like making cookie art. I made these for Christmas Eve one morning a few years ago, and my kiddo announced that it was the best Christmas Eve ever. So that’s a pretty good review. look

Ingredients and Materials

cookie sheet
parchment paper
Nordic Ware Starry Night Cookie Stamps (but any snowflake or starry cookie stamp will work)
1 and ¾ cups flour (heaping)
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter (softened)
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup + 2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 large egg yolk

for glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp butter (melted)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp warm water

Directions

Before you begin making your cookie dough, place your stamps in the freezer and let them chill while you work on the dough. 

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees
2. With an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and molasses—add the egg yolk at the end. 
3. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Sift them together, and then add the mixture gradually to the wet ingredients, running your mixer as you add. 
4. The dough will be stiff and a bit crumbly. It may feel dry, and that’s okay. 
5. Set the dough out on a clean surface and knead it just until it starts to stick together better. The dough should be stiff. If it isn’t, you can chill it in the fridge for a little bit (about half an hour). Then, roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thickness, maybe a little thicker if you like softer cookies, as I do. 
6. Using your cookie stamps, stamp down into the dough firmly. Then, grab a knife and, with the stamp still on the cookie dough, cut out the cookie using the stamp as your guide. 
7. When you lift the stamp, if you have a good impression from the stamp, then you are all set. If you do not, you can try again and just make sure you press harder. Do this until you have used all of your dough. 
8. Place your cookies into the lined cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes. I would start checking at 7 minutes, as you do not want hard cookies. Pull them before they start to change color. Pull them even if they seem a little under done. They will continue to cook a bit after you have pulled them from the oven. 
9. While your cookies bake, make your glaze. You want the glaze to be the consistency of honey. If it’s too thick, add a tiny bit of water. Too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. 
10. When the cookies are still slightly warm, transfer them to a cooling rack and brush them with the glaze. The glaze will dry in about half an hour. You are then ready to enjoy a beautiful and delicious winter holiday treat. 

*This recipe was originally published in the Farmer-ish Print Annual Volume I.

Easy Cranberry-Raisin Bread

~ Crystal Sands ~ 9 Comments

Day 192 of 365

Today is National Homemade Bread Day, which is kind of a big deal to me. We make from scratch every single bit of bread our family eats. Sandwich bread, bread for toast, hamburger buns, bread sticks, biscuits, tortillas–all are made from scratch from organic flours and most include flours we mill ourselves from whole grains.

Making all of our bread homemade didn’t happen overnight. It was a process, but we were highly motivated to switch from buying breads at the store for three reasons: First, Ron makes bread like a magician. His wheat loaves are so delicious, and his Challah is like a work of art. There is no bread I can buy at the store that can compare. Plus, I have become a fairly skilled at breads myself. Second, Ron was getting sick from eating store-bought breads or doughs of any kind. When we found out about the amount of glyphosate in wheat products, that became our third reason for making the change.

I love all breads way too much. One of the reasons I fell in love with Ron was I tasted a slice of his homemade bread fresh out of the oven–with honey. Yeah, that was it.

But one of my favorite breakfast or snack breads is cranberry-raisin bread. It’s a little crisp on the outside and chewy on the insides, and dried fruits in breads are my favorite. It’s such a cozy bread!

I am sharing a modified version of a recipe I originally found at The Kitchen Whisperer.

Easy Cranberry-Raisin Bread

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour or bread flour (I prefer about a 50-50 combination, but one or the other will do)
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup golden raisins
juice from one freshly-squeezed mandarin orange or about 2 Tablespoons orange juice
1 and 1/2 cups warm water (this amount may need to be adjusted, but 1 and 1/2 is usually where I land)

Materials

Dutch oven
parchment paper
spoon and spatula

Directions

Mix all ingredients minus the water and juice into a very large bowl (large enough to allow for a doubling in size of your dough). After you have mixed the dry ingredients (including the cranberries and raisins), add your orange juice and water. Mix everything together until all flour is combined and you have a “shaggy” dough.

Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and let your dough rise for about 12 hours. (I make the dough after dinner at night and then bake it in the morning for a delicious treat at breakfast).

After 12 hours, uncover your dough and use a spatula to scrape out the dough onto a floured surface. There is no kneading. Using floured hands, just form the dough in a ball and place it on parchment paper. Cover it with your plastic wrap once again and let it rest for 30 minutes.

While your dough is resting, heat your over to 425 degrees and put your Dutch oven right in the oven. When the 30 minutes is up, take out the very hot dutch oven, remove the plastic from your dough, use the parchment paper to carefully pick up your ball of dough, and place the dough wrapped in parchment paper into your Dutch oven.

Cover the with the lid and bake, covered, for about 25 minutes.After 25 minutes, remove the lid and bake for 5 to 8 minutes longer.

When your bread is browned on the top, it should be ready. Enjoy it fresh out of the oven with salted butter or store in a bread bag after it cools and warm it up later. Just be sure to use salted butter on it. The salted butter brings out the flavors so well.

I hope you enjoy! When I first served this bread on a Christmas Eve morning, my son said, “This is the best Christmas Eve ever.”

Marie’s Pear-Cranberry Crisp

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 155 of 365

This year, our little pear tree gave us some beautiful pears, really for the first time. We have had a few pears in the past, but this year, that little Asian pear tree gave us quite a few little treasures. They were, truly, the most beautiful things to me. We had some for gifts, some to treasure fresh, and then I had some left that I wanted to use to make something super special.

Our neighbor Marie is one of those humans you just admire from the moment you meet her, and after nearly 12 years of being her neighbor, I have come to admire her more and more with each passing year. She’s an organic master gardener, a retired preschool teacher, the mother of nine children, and a grandmother so devoted she is a marvel. She is also a fantastic cook, and just in time to do something marvelous with the beautiful pears our little pear tree gave us this year, from another kind neighbor, I received a copy of Marie’s recipe for Pear-Cranberry Crisp. I double checked with Marie to make sure it was okay to share this, and she granted permission. I am grateful, and if you are able to make this, you will be too.

I promise you this crisp is a dream. When I first tasted it, I actually said out loud, “I can’t believe how good this is.” Yeah, it’s that good. And it’s beautiful. Of course, anything with pears and cranberries is going to be beautiful. I hope you enjoy.

Marie’s Pear-Cranberry Crisp

Ingredients

4 1/2 to 5 cups sliced pears
2 1/2 cups cranberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter (cubed)
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds (optional)

Directions

Toss pears, cranberries, and white sugar into a 2 to 3 quart baking dish. Mix brown sugar, flour, butter cubes, oats, and almonds if you are adding them) together and spring on top of the pear-cranberry mixture. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.