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This looks like a great guide to composting – Hurry, these free downloads don’t last long

Composting Inside & Out:
The comprehensive guide to reusing trash, saving money
and enjoying the benefits of organic gardening
by Stephanie Davies

Rethink Your Refuse

Hundreds of millions of tons of solid waste are produced in the U.S. annually, and the landfills simply store it, not eliminate it. Recycling diverts significant amounts of waste, but the fact remains that the majority of landfill space is occupied by organic material. The good news is composting is a natural and beneficial way to eliminate this waste, and anyone can do it.

Whether you live on a farm, in the suburbs or a city apartment, composting is possible. Composting Inside and Out will introduce you to the essentials and explore various methods of indoor and outdoor composting to help you find the perfect fit for your lifestyle.

Inside you’ll find:

• A compete overview of the composting process
• Advice on finding the right equipment
• Step-by-step instruction for fourteen different composting methods
• Ideas for using the soil you produce
• Quick answers to common problems

Whether you create a compost heap, bury your scraps, ferment them, tumble them or feed them to the worms, you too can be successful with composting. Use the fruits of your labor on you houseplants, your lawn, your flowerbeds or your garden. Put your waste and your energy to good use. Reclaim the benefits of participating in the planet’s health through composting … its rewards are simply miraculous.

What a wonderful week

Saturday: Today, we went to the Music in May Festival at Pacific University. Our oldest was playing principal French Horn in the band. All of the groups; the band, the symphony, and the choir were fantastic and there kids have only been together as a group for 48 hours.

Sunday: I spent most of the day canning, cooking and prepping the produce that I was able to glean over the last several days.

I made 6 pints of canned corn,

5 pints of spaghetti sauce,

started a batch of strawberry jam, another batch of strawberry/rhubarb jam,

started fermenting strawberries for syrup, froze some guacamole,

and “dry-canned” several quarts of lettuce and greens.

I’m trying an experiment with the greens that I have.  I used butter lettuce, arugula, caesar mix, spring greens and italian blend.  The all have pull dates ranging from 5/24 – 5/26 and were vacuum sealed on 5/26.  The greens went straight from the bag to the jar and were sealed using the food saver jar attachment. I want to see what types of greens last the longest and how long I can hold them before use.  Some of the greens came in clam shells and some in bags.  I suspect the bags of greens will last longer  - I think they might pump nitrogen gas into the bags before sealing the to help to prevent browning.

* Update 5/28 – Caleb thought the butter lettuce “seems a little limp” until I told him that butter lettuce is usually pretty limp.  He liked the Cesar mix much better.

5/25
roses – 6 dozen, assorted bouquet – 1 large, curly willow – 2 bunches, slaw mix – 2 bags (for the chickens)

5/26
corn – 12 ears (6 pints canned and for chickens), salad mix – 5 bags, brussel sprouts – 3 containers, mixed veg – 3 bags, rhubarb 4 cups, eggplant – 1, tomatoes – 12 (canned sauce), marjoram – 3 containers (dried), sage – 3 containers (dried), rosemary – 3 containers (dried)

5/27
salad mixes – 13 containers, baby spinach – 3 containers, baby arugula – 5 containers, strawberries – (jam and syrup), rhubarb – 2.5 pounds (jam and crisp), corn – 7 ears, broccoli – 2 heads, zucchini – 4, parsnips -2, green pepper – 1, guacamole – 3 containers (freezer), mixed veg – 3 bags

Monday:  Things are starting our well today, I received an email from a fantastic blogger letting me know that I’d won a music CD and a book – more later when she posts the winner’s (mine) name.

It’s also a holiday so everyone is home today.  I have an outing planned for the Goodwill (to look for more pint jars), the gleaning spot, and perhaps Safeway for Joe’s free eggs with their new coupon program.

May 13-20: A house Returned

Amazing!  We finally have walls and cabinets back in our guest bathroom, laundry room and entry hall.  I just need to re-plumb the sink and finish the quarter round and caulking and it will be back to normal.

The picnic ham that we’ve been curing was ready after 21 days……

So I covered the exposed muscles with shortening and pepper (the tub of lard was too big, so I’m trying shortening.  The shortening is supposed to help the meat from drying too quickly and the pepper is supposed to help keep the bugs away.  It’s in the wine fridge so I don’t think there’s any bugs, but it’ll probably taste good…….

Then I wrapped it up in cotton cloth (fine cheese cloth) and tied it to keep everything neat.  Now it will just hang out for months, magically converting into either a delicious Italian treat or a rotting mess.

both canners were up and running on Saturday

This weekend I need  to make some things with the produce that we have gleaned this week.  I was able to make 8 pints of tomato sauce, 5 pints of pickled carrots, and 3 pints of pickled red onions.  I also made some vanilla ice cream this afternoon using 4 cups half-and-half, 1/2 cup egg beaters, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons of homemade vanilla.  The I froze it using the ice-cream maker.

tomato sauce

For the carrots, I boiled baby carrots for 5 minutes.  As they boiled I also make a pickling liquid with 2 cups of white vinegar, 2 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar and 2 Tablespoons of pickling spices.  The drained carrots go into wind mouth pint jars and get covered with the hot pickling liquid, leaving 1/2 inch head space.  The pints are processed for 20 minutes in the steam canner (15 minutes in a hot water bath).

Pickled Carrots

I used the same pickling liquid for the onions, adding it to thinly slice onions that had been blanched in hot water for 2 minutes.  The pints were processed in the steam canner for 15 minutes.

Pickled Onions

Percy just hung out, waited for anything to fall to the floor (doesn’t she know they’re vegetables) and offered the occasional critical comment. Thanks Percy.

April 29 – May 6

We finally hired someone to fix the walls!  He’s coming to start tomorrow.  He’s going to fix the walls, then in the summer, he’ll be back to paint the house and put a cover over the hot tub deck.  We think that’s going to be the next leaking disaster so we’re trying to head it off.

I’ve been busy today making jam and drying apples from some produce that we gleaned.  I turned the containers of blackberries, raspberries and strawberries into two pints of jam.

The apples (over 100) had some great apples to eat fresh, and a lot more to peel and slice for drying.

We also got zucchini, yellow squash, onions, lettuce, oranges, tomatoes and eggplant.  Tomorrow the tomatoes will become sauce and I need to figure out what to do with the eggplant. Hmmmmm???

Last Sunday we did another round of “Adventures in Meat Preservation”.  The Pancetta is looking pretty good…..

Pancetta 4/29:  Day 7

I picked up a few pounds of ground pork on clearance, so we got some casings and made fresh sausage.  Not too bad for a first try.

Italian and Moroccan Sausages

I also found a fresh picnic ham on clearance so I decided to try to dry-cure it.  I coated it in salt, pink salt, and brown sugar and will wait about three weeks before adding it to the cheese cave to cure.

Ham – Day 1

April 23-28 Cured Meats and Homemade Soap

It was a busy week here at the backyard farm with lots of projects winding up and new ones starting.

The soap had cured enough to finally trim and use.  I shaved off the white, powdery ash that had formed on one side (apparently from cooling too quickly) and they are ready to go.

On Tuesday night we finally had some time to smoke the bacon. Joe had soaked it on Sunday and it had been drying, uncovered, in the refrigerator waiting to smoke. He smoked it with Hickory for a couple of hours to an internal temperature of 150 degrees and then pulled it off to cool.

On Thursday evening, I borrow a meat slicer from my BFF, Stacy, and we spent an hour or so slicing it and packaging it into vacuum sealed bags for the freezer. It is rally delicious. Noach thinks it could be a little sweeter and a bit less salty. It was a fantasy first try.

Oops – I almost forgot.  On Wednesday when I went to the farm store to get a new hose nozzle, they had more chicks for half price so I picked up two bronze turkey chicks.  They are a little older so they were discounted – perfect of me.  I tried putting them in to the tub with the barred rock hens we picked up two weeks ago, but there was pecking and nobody wants that so I separated the turkey hens into a rabbit cage for now.

The Pancetta has also been curing in the wine fridge since Saturday afternoon and is doing quite well.
We rinsed it from the brine, rolled it tightly and tied it off. Then I added more crushed pepper to the outside and put it into “The cave” to dry.

Pancetta on Day 2

It’s now day four and there is no mold forming yet and it smells delicious.

Pancetta on Day 4

I almost forgot the two new turkey chicks I picked up at Wilco on the 25th. They are Bronze turkeys.

Spring Pruning of the Raspberries

We’ve had such a wet spring in the Pacific Northwest that I am really behind on all of my winter and spring pruning and gardening.  We finally had two days in a row in the seventies and when I walked by the garden I noticed the sad state of our raspberry bed.

The "Before"

When I got up there, it was even worse than I thought.  The golden raspberries are in pretty good shape, they just needed to have the dead stalks and the volunteers removed.  The red raspberries do not look good.  They have become very “viney”, long and straggly, curled and weak.  I headed them back and removed all of the dead canes.  When I finished pruning, I weeded to get it ready for a top dress of compost next weekend.  At least it looks better.

The "After"

Spring Pruning of the Grapes

I started some of the pruning this afternoon with the grape vines.  I might be too late, but I thought it would be better late than never.  I pruned each spur from the main runner back to two buds.   couple of times I sunk into the muck past my ankles but the grape looks much better.

Spring Cleaning – Part 1

Today I decided that it was the day to straighten up the freezers.  I started by taking everything out of Freezer #1 and laying it out on the pool table in the garage.  All was going well until I hit the bottom and the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.  Our drain had clogged and all of the defrost liquid was draining into the bottom of the freezer and freezing.  I got out the hammer and chipped away at the “berg” while Joe helped me quickly stuff everything from the table into Freezer #2 and a couple of ice chests.

Freezer #1

Freezer #1 defrosted pretty quickly once the sun came out and Joe sucked the dog fur mouse nest out from under it with the shop vac.  Then came the bad news……While Freezer #1 was defrosting, so apparently, was Freezer #2 which had not closed completely.  Ahhhhhhhhh.  Out everything came, into the now fairly cold Freezer #1, the refrigerator, and the ice chests.  After another stint in the sun, both freezers are plugged in and chugging away.  After everything is tucked neatly away, I will try to include photos of our accomplishments.

Freezer 2

Canadian Bacon

I found a couple of pork roasts on clearance and since we are curing and smoking a pork belly for bacon, I thought I’d try these for some Canadian bacon.  The only hitch might be that they were packaged in some odd, slimy, “gravy” that I washed off as well as I could.

I modified the recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s Blog post on Canadian Bacon

• 2 quarts of water
• 5 tablespoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons pink salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 5 cloves garlic – smashed
• 2 bay leaves (I left these out as they are trapped in our pantry)
• 1 bunch of dried sage
• 7 or 8 springs of thyme
• 1 lemon – halved

1. Combine the ingredients in a pot and bring it to a simmer, stir to dissolve the salt and sugar.
2. Remove it from the heat and chill it in the refrigerator.
3. Place the pork and the brine into a vacuum bag and refrigerate for about 72 hours.
4. Remove the pork from the brine, rinse it and pat it dry.
5. Refrigerate it uncovered for 4 – 24 hours.
6. For Canadian Bacon: hot smoke the loin to an internal temperature of 145 to 150 degrees.

In the end, the Canadian Bacon tastes really good and sliced just beautifully.

It’s in the fridge waiting for breakfast.

 

Boccone Dolce

I first had this dessert with my BFF on “girls day” at a local restaurant called Papa Hayden in Portland, Oregon.  It’s crunchy and creamy, light and fruity, and altogether delicious.  It looks so difficult to make, but when I found instructions online (thank you SubRosa) it didn’t look to bad to try.

This morning I started the meringue.

• 1 1/2 cup egg whites – about 10 eggs
• 2 cups white sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.
2. Beat the egg whites until stiff.
3. Gradually add the sugar (1-2 T at a time) to incorporate it. Continue beating until glossy.
4. Draw 3 8″ circles onto sheet of parchment – flip over and divide the meringue between them.  Spread it ou to the edges of the circle with a spatula
5. Bake until dry and crispy – about 2.5 hours

…….more to come

Filling – whip until fairly stiff cream

• 4 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 T vanilla

Put one layer of meringue onto the serving plate.  Add 1/3 of the whipped cream.  Layer on strawberries drizzle with melted chocolate (I used dark chocolate chips.  Add a second, then a third layer to complete the dessert.