Kitsap Farm to Fork

A couple weeks back farm girl friend Shannon and I took a little road trip to the mother ship (WSU Pullman) for a food safety adviser and preservation workshop.  Along with 33 other folks from all over the state we were the first group in almost 10 years to receive food preservation training from WSU.  We can now answer questions and share resources about food preservation so give our office a call (360-337-7026) if you need some help preserving the harvest!  But, I digress.  One thing that we did while we were there was practice canning, pickling and preserving!   My favorite recipe of the week?  Marinated mushrooms!!  So, this week I was at the local grocery store and they had beautiful button mushrooms on sale.  What is a girl going to do but buy FIVE pounds of mushrooms and pickle ‘em.

I cracked a jar and had some with steak on Sunday night and ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning.  I am thinking they would be divine with an antipasto plate.  Time for some fresh mozzarella!  Now, there are lots of variations on the web – but when canning it is important to use tested recipes from approved sources.  If it is an extension publication, published by the USDA or shows up in the Ball Blue Book you are good to go.  If your recipe is from a blog, just say “Whoa!”  It is crucial to have proper acidity and processing method and time for home-canned goods to be safe for your family.

Here is my recipe for Marinated Whole Mushrooms (from “So Easy to Preserve” from the University of Georgia)

• 5 pounds small whole mushrooms
• 1/2 cup bottled lemon juice
• 2 cups olive or salad oil (I used olive)
• 2 1/2 cups white vinegar (5%)
• 1 TBSP dried oregano
• 1 TBSP dried basil
• 1 TBSP salt (canning and pickling salt!)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup diced pimiento
• 2 cloves of garlic, cut into quarters
• 25 black peppercorns

The 2012 Dark Days Challenge is upon us.  Shannon, who is more motivated to participate in these sort of things than I, signed us up.  And then today, she had a dinner failure.  So, it falls to me to keep our end up.  Good thing that we had a decent dinner tonight.  Those Sundays when we eat left-overs, chips and salsa and scrambled eggs for dinner don’t really make for a very convincing blog about sustainable, local or organic meals….all winter long.

During late summer and early fall the blog world is full of folks posting about eating local, 100-mile diets, 100-foot meals…ad infinitum.  Now, I am not a complete zealot like the 100-mile folks.  I am not going to run down to Scenic Beach and dip water out of the Hood Canal to evaporate and make sea salt.  We grow and raise about 90% of what we eat and I cook from scratch much of the time – which upon reflection makes me sound sort of Amish which isn’t the case (the bonnet not withstanding) – but let’s just say we are less dependent upon the grocery store than the average family.

Frankly, during that time of year I am too busy canning, freezing, picking, weeding, feeding, milking, and mucking to blog about what we are eating.  I think about blogging a lot while I am doing those things!  But until they develop the technology for me to plug a USB port unto my ear and download all those great blog posts composed in my head it isn’t happening.  The really interesting thing about those days in the garden and nights canning and freezing is that I am doing all the time consuming and hard work associated with warm winter meals.  Beans frozen in August take minutes to heat for dinner in December.  Tomatoes blanched and canned in September make pasta dishes in minutes for mid-week meals – garlic harvested in July is Fettuccine Alfredo when I have  a yen for something rich and creamy.

So, as we kick off the “Dark Days Challenge” I thought it would be interesting to go back in time and take a look at the genesis of tonight’s dinner!

The menu -

• Pork Chops – the last of the chops from a hog butchered last spring.  We buy piglets from a neighbor, fatten them on extra milk and grain and butcher about twice a year.  We don’t buy any extra meat and eat out of our freezer all the time so we go through a whole hog, half a beef, 20 or so broilers and 10-15 stewing hens a year.
• Smashed red potatoes – from the garden with fresh cream and salt and pepper.
• Milk gravy – pan drippings, milk and Shepherd’s Grain Washington grown white flour!
• Sauerkraut with apples and onions – we had great plans to collaborate on the ‘kraut this summer but the day we were planning on doing it I got side-tracked so Shannon made it.  She jump-started the fermentation with whey from some homemade yogurt and it has a wonderful zing to it.  The King apples were picked at my mom’s house right before Thanksgiving and the onions were from the garden.  I season it with a bit of brown sugar, pepper and caraway and saute until caramelized.  Very tasty.
• Applesauce – from Mom’s apples.  I typically can 15-20 jars – need to get around to doing that.
• Pickles – dutch spears made from the abundant cucs we planted last spring.  This is a refrigerator pickle recipe that I got from The Joy of Pickling.  I only made a few because I didn’t know if we would like them.  Need to make more next year!  Sweet, tart and spicy!
• Green beans – from the garden.
• Milk – from Ellie
• Raspberry Juice – from the berry patch

And the best part about this meal?  It was a meal eaten around our family table with my husband and children, we were truly grateful for the bounty of our life, and were able to talk and laugh as we enjoyed the fruits of our labor.  Regardless of whether your food comes from 100 miles or 1000 miles from your home, if you are unable to eat with the people you love, they are dark days indeed!

Early this summer I posted about the busy-ness of farm life in the summer.  Now that we are in late fall there is much less going on but there is still some activity.  Here is a sampling of what happened this week on the farm.

We got a new rooster the other day.  Until now we have only had roosters on a temporary basis.  When you raise chickens straight-run (from eggs instead of buying them at the feed store) at least half of the flock will be roosters.  But, on our farm – when they crow, they go – straight into the freezer!  However, a good rooster takes care of the hens in his flock.  He will call them to tasty tidbits, send out the alarm when predators come around and for natural flock behavior hens need a rooster.  So when Shannon ended up with an extra roo this year we offered to take him.  Foggy (a nod to Foghorn Leghorn!) is a handsome fellow with golden plumage and a dark brown tail.  Perhaps we will have some chicks in the spring if we get a broody hen!

Time for once a day milking!  Alexis has been dried up for about a month now, Ellie is on her way.  We went out of town for Thanksgiving after morning milking so Ellie is now down to once a day milking.  She is still giving almost two gallons a day, most of which is going to Frank.  He is the bucket calf we got last summer after I had a moment of insanity and bought a second cow!  Originally the plan was to just graft him on to Alexis and let her raise him so I only had to milk one cow.  After two weeks of tying up a homicidal and unwilling mother cow twice a day while he nursed to make sure she didn’t kill him outright, I decided that I would rather spend 5 minutes milking her than 20 minutes watching her.  Frank took to the bucket like a champ and is growing nicely.  He is scheduled to go into the freezer with the hogs in a couple of weeks.  Everyone is appalled that I am going to process a veal calf because there has been so much press around animal welfare issues on veal but  Frank is not locked-in-a-box-in-the-dark veal.  He is running-around-the-pasture-drinking-milk-being-a-nuisance veal.  We also need to have fewer animals in our pasture during the winter to keep down the mud and because both cows are going to calve in March, Frank has to go.  Besides, by Christmas there will be no more milk.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with family.  My contribution was PIE.  I spent the last week making apple pie filling with Shannon.  I put 15 quarts in the canning pantry and I think she ended up with about 12 quarts.  I still need to do some apple sauce but that is it for canning for this year.  I called my sister-in-law all excited about the prospect of bringing an apple pie – only to have her say, “…and I will be making apple and pumpkin so how about you bring something else!”  So, I brought Pecan, lattice-topped Cherry, and Chocolate Silk Pies.  The chocolate silk pie was a last minute addition because I had extra pie crust and have been on a pudding binge lately.  When you have gallons of extra milk you get creative – and a batch of pudding uses 2 quarts of milk!  My recipe is adapted from one I found on Culinate for Creamy Chocolate Pudding.  I make a triple batch with whole Jersey milk and omit the butter (there is a limit to how much fat one needs!)  For pie filling I add a bit more corn starch than the recipe calls for and the resulting pudding is more like chocolate ganache than pudding.  It is dense, chocolatey, smooth and creamy.  Heaven!   I brought home leftovers of the pecan and cherry, but the chocolate was GONE!  Our turkey dinner will be either Sunday or Monday depending upon when my bird is defrosted.  Sooner would be better than later because it is taking up precious fridge space but I am willing to wait for turkey leftovers!

My mom’s firewood is finally done and in the woodshed.  After 40 years of heating with wood I keep thinking that she will give up and get a pellet stove.  After all, she will be 78 this year and doesn’t get around as well as she used to.  But, no!  Last year when her woodstove died she bought – you guessed it – another woodstove.  Because she has a small house she has a small stove – with a 14″ woodbox.  This means that we need to make sure that the wood is cut small enough and the pieces are well split.  Every year we put her wood up, and every year we wait until it starts raining.  This year was no exception.   But, the wood is in and she will be warm this winter.  My kids used to grumble about helping split and stack 3 cords of wood but now they are older and appreciate the chance to help their grandma.  It is gratifying to see my grown kids serving others and reaching out!

Our family is blessed by a bountiful life and at this time of year we are very conscious of our fortune.  We have a full pantry and freezer after a summer and fall of “putting up” from the farm and garden.  Our children are growing up to be generous and capable people.  We are part of a wonderful community of farm friends and others who enrich our life.  We have good health, a comfortable home and stable jobs in a time when many don’t have those blessings.

As we approach the holiday season, I try and keep in mind that the most important things in life aren’t really things at all.  We try and give experiences for gifts but if you are going to give this year, be farm-friendly.  Several local farms offer CSA’s or Farm Share programs and I can think of nothing better than the promise of fresh veggies during the depths of winter.  The local farmer’s markets have extended their season so you can still buy gifts from local vendors.  And for the kiddos on your list there are a couple books that are favorites around here and help children learn more about farm life.

• The Year at Maple Hill Farm
• Chicken Raising Tales: from the first three years of Bainbridge Island’s Tour de Coop
• Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm (my favorite children’s book!)
• To Market to Market
• Blueberries for Sal (an oldie but a goodie!)
• Christmas Day in the Morning (a wonderful short story by Pearl S. Buck)

Seems lately that most of the things I do happen by moonlight (or Moooo-nlight as the cows would say!)  As summer comes to and end and the days get shorter there just doesn’t seem to be enough daylight for me to accomplish all the things on the list.  Milking by moonlight has become a common affair, as well as doing the rest of the chores.  At our house evening chores consist of putting the chickens to bed, including rounding up the few that feel the need to roost on the apple trees in the orchard rather than in the safety of the coop.  Then, we milk and feed the cows, give the calf some milk and tend to the hogs.   Milking is fairly straight forward, taking about 5-7 minutes per cow on a good day, but it doesn’t take much to upset the girls and slow things down.  Cows are really creatures of habit; they thrive on constancy and change upsets them.  Elinor gets milked first, followed by Alexis.  They greedily race out of the field and into the milking shed in anticipation of the grain in the feeder – unless I have forgotten to toss the grain in, or if someone is visiting and decides to watch me milking, or if there is a wayward chicken in the feeder, or if a truck is running in the hay barn…and the list goes on.  Any of the aforementioned things can throw the cows into a tizzy resulting in them ducking out of the milking shed and ending up in the middle of the barnyard, sans lead rope and halter, while I frantically try to entice them back with a bucket of grain.  As you can imagine, this is much easier in the daylight.  Fewer shadows to spook the cows, and they are easier to see in the daylight as they run around the yard!  Fortunately, we have never had to chase them back from the road, and they are pretty easily coaxed back by their fundamental greed for grain.  After one of these merry chases, they will fuss and squirm during washing up and milking, taking forever to let milk down and dancing around during the process as well.  After all, they don’t get out much and a gallop around in the moonlight tends to get one all worked up – even if you are a cow!  After we are done milking we feed Frank(enfurter) the bucket calf and give the remaining milk to the hogs.  Frank was supposed to be grafted on to Alexis so I would only have to milk one cow, but apparently she has NO interest in being a foster parent, and after two weeks of trying to overcome her homicidal (bovicidal?) tendencies while he nursed, I gave up and he now drinks from the bucket.  This isn’t to say that he doesn’t persist in trying to nurse on the girls when he is out in the field with him, but they treat him like a very large, black and white spotted fly; they kick and swat at him until he goes away.  I don’t let him out with them very often because he is so annoying that they end up exhausted from running away from him.

Other late night activities at our house?  Snapping and blanching green beans, making freezer jam, canning pickles, processing peaches and tomatoes, and making salsa.  Seems that by the time you spend all day picking beans, berries and cucs and working on the farm, the only time left to preserve and process is after the sun goes down!  So, after all the outside chores are done, we clear off the kitchen table, dump a 5-gallon bucket of beans on it, turn on a good movie and the entire family snaps beans.  It is something I remember doing as a child, and I am sure my kids will have similar memories.   In talking to Shannon, apparently having a “family snap” wasn’t unique, though she remembers doing it while watching sports on TV!  Involving your kids in food preservation is a good way to start them off right eating seasonally and locally.

If you want to learn more about food preservation by moonlight (or even by daylight!) check out our newest series of classes.  We are partnering with the Kitsap YMCA to offer a fall canning series.  Follow this link for registration information.  If you want to learn more about sustainable farming (mostly during daylight hours!) WSU Kitsap Small Farms team is offering the Sustainable Farming and Ranching Class beginning on September 29th.  Information on this class is on the web at http://county.wsu.edu/kitsap/Documents/2011_Small%20Acreage%20Flier%20and%20Registration-%20Silverdale.pdf.  Learn what it takes to have a sustainable small acreage farm or ranch and take a realistic look at goals, resources needed and opportunities available. Guest farmers speak to the class and field trips are taken to local farms. Open to academic students and community members for continuing education units.

Shannon and I talk to people all over the county and beyond about what we do and everyone has advice for us about what classes we should offer (it is sort of like being pregnant actually!)  After looking at all the requests, and discarding some of the more unusual (do people REALLY want to learn how to make their own shoes??) we put together our summer/fall offering.  In keeping with the national trend toward sustainable lifestyles and looking back at cool skills that are still relevant today, we put together what we think represents a pretty cool offering!

So, grab a gal or guy friend and join the WSU Kitsap Small Farms Team this summer in a  six-week adventure exploring the tricks and techniques to living a more satisfying and sustainable lifestyle!  Whether you want to preserve the best of the berry season with jams and jellies, take your home brewing to the next level, conquer your fear of pressure canning, make creamy fresh cheeses, learn soap-making, or your mission is to preserve the crunchiest pickle, Hip Homesteading has something for you!

Thursday Classes  10 am—1 pm

• July 7th—Jammin’ ~ Make delicious jams and jellies
• July 21st— Cheesemaking ~ Fresh cow and goat milk cheeses
• July 28th—In a Pickle ~ Crisp and crunchy pickles and relishes
• August 4th— Soap Making ~ Sweet-scented delights for the bath and body
• August 11th- Under Pressure ~ Pressure canning and preserving low-acid foods

Fieldtrip:  Thursday, July 14th 6pm—9pm ~ Homebrewin’ @ the Slippery Pig Brewery with Brewmaster Dave Lambert

Monday Evening Classes  6pm—9pm

• July 11th— Cheesemaking ~ Fresh cow and goat milk cheeses
• July 25th—Jammin’ ~ Make delicious jams and jellies
• August 1st—In a Pickle ~ Crisp and crunchy pickles and relishes
• August 15th—Soap Making ~ Sweet-scented delights for the bath and body

All Classes are held at the Silverdale Community Center, except for Homebrewin’ which will be taught at: Slippery Pig Brewery, Finn Hill Rd, Poulsbo WA  98370.   Cost is just $35 per class, and as always 4H and FFA youth are FREE.

Register Online at: http://county.wsu.edu/kitsap/(click on “Calendar”) or by mail: WSU Extension Kitsap Small Farms Team, 345 Sixth Street, Ste. 550, Bremerton, WA 98337. For more information contact: Shannon Harkness at shannon.harkness@wsu.edu or (360) 337-7026.

The beginning of summer vacation certainly has been busy around here!  As my kids said goodbye to another year of school, I resumed classes for the summer session for college.  I am taking classes toward an Ag degree at Oregon State University.  Having been eleven years since completing an Associates degree, I have been pretty careful about the class-load and since Math is not a strong subject for me, I opted to make it my sole summer class.  Turns out, that was a wise choice.  Last week it was Euler and his formulas relating to circuits.  ((Gag))  This math class is a study of everyday math and I had already taken it once while studying in Hawaii.  Math is different in Hawaii, but that’s a whole ‘nother post.  Regardless, it didn’t transfer.

So, here’s me on my little farm running my clutch of little chicks on summer vacation to different activities wondering what in the world is “everyday” about Euler and his circuitry and graphs.  And then it dawned on me…perhaps I already know about Euler, but, I didn’t know that I knew!  Here’s where the farming comes into play…

A few weeks ago, Diane and I wrote about our daily lives living on a farm.  A lot of point A to point B and beyond.  And in order to get the maximum amount done, we have to be pretty efficient with our footsteps.  After all, we are pretty busy ladies. So, as I set out to do chores I think about what needs to happen to set my route.  Now, Euler was made famous for this when he solved a bridge problem (you should look it up, I can’t explain it very well) and companies who use an Euler circuit can save serious money!  So, if I use a  Euler circuit while doing farm chores, it will free up some time and energy to accomplish more important things, like Balsamic Vinegar Strawberry Jam!!!

And that leads me to the real point of my story.  It is finally strawberry time and we are on the cusp of raspberries, too!  Jams and jellies are a great way to explore food preservation and I would love to teach you how to do it!  Don’t worry, we won’t be discussing Euler’s circuitry.  My classes are FAR more interesting than that!  Plus, we will make a batch to share!  So, head on over to the WSU Kitsap Website and sign up for my class THIS Thursday!  This class will be from 10 am to 1 pm and is held at the Silverdale Community Center.  You will also notice that “Jammin” is a class from the Hip Homesteading summer series exploring everything from Jams, Pickles, Soap, Cheeses, Pressure Canning…there’s something for everyone!

If you are looking for local strawberries, Pheasant Fields Farm has them!  We spent an hour in her patch picking strawberries that she will sell at the Silverdale Farmers Market today!  These berries are the smaller more flavorful ones, perfect for a batch of delicious jam!

And as your going about your daily business, give Euler’s Theorum a thought…there just may be some time in your day to make some jam!

It has been a while since I blogged.  I have been keeping busy with the online writing course I am taking at Oregon State University for my degree.  It has left precious little time to write for fun and I am glad that Diane has taken the lead and given us wonderful blogs to read!  Of course, just because I wasn’t blogging, doesn’t mean that there weren’t wandering thoughts.  Here is teh potpourri of “What is Shannon thinking about?”.

Perfectly Pickled Pink

-PICKLIN-  I am so excited for class tomorrow because I love pickling!  We are going to be making a batch of sauerkraut and then pickled eggs!  A truckstop treat now comes to your refrigerator!  I haven’t decided which recipe I will go with yet, but it is sure to have beet juice in it.  There are still a few spots left…email me shannon.harkness@wsu.edu

-Weather-  What is up?  Freakishly cold and SNOW!  We are hungry down here, craving the goodness of local food!  I was wondering where my farmer has been, a little worried that I hadn’t seen her delightful face.  Andrea is growing here at our farm and I have been looking forward to microbrews with her after a long, tiring day of hard work.  So, the other day when she graced the farm with her presence, I went on a photo shoot.  All National Geographic – like.  I found her, intently listening to her ipod and grumbling at the irrigation pipe that I had been using (because I found a good deal on it).  So, I crept in for the shot.

Creeping up to the garden fence...

And the next shot didn’t turn out.  I was literally a foot away from her, when she noticed she wasn’t alone.  The picture was all-a-fuzz because I was RIGL (rolling in grass laughing).  I scared the jelly beans out of her!  She forgave me and then we transplanted rhubarb and talked “farm”.

- The Canning Bucket List – I stole this idea from Well Preserved, a blog I stalk.  This topic is so worthy of a grander post, but I wanted to let you in on it and give you some time to find us on facebook, “WSU Kitsap Small Farms”.  This will be the portal that we can use to take us into the Bucket List World where we talk about what’s in our pots.  Diane and I have been drooling over the pickled garlic scapes that we had at a KCAA potluck.  Which, by the way, is one of the best potlucks you will ever attend and it happens monthly (Third Monday).  Let me digress a little and say that this month the topic is Rain Gardens.

Well, that’s that.  That’s what I have been thinking about.  Randomness. 

**disclaimer** No farmers were hurt in the photo shooting process, scared – Yes, but not hurt.

Is there a pickle that tickles your tastebuds?  For me it is PICKLED ASPARAGUS!  I LOVE it!!  In late summer when I was inundated with cucumbers I put up about 20 quarts of baby dill pickles, sweet pickle chunks, and bread and butter pickles – I made saurkraut with cabbage from Pheasant Field Farm.  Frankly I pickled and preserved until I lost my will to can.  By the end of September I was calling Shannon and begging her to take my cucumbers because she has a passion for pickling.  Her pickles and canned good are amazing.  And even she was flagging a bit under the pressure to preserve every last bit of summer.

But, that was months ago!  Now that spring is (almost) upon us, the Farmers Markets are starting up and soon they will be bursting with local fruits and veggies, and a girl’s mind can’t help but turn to canning and preserving again!   It will be months before pickling cucs show up in markets but there is so much promise in spring vegetables!  Asparagus is starting to come up in my garden and what we don’t manage to eat fresh out of the garden (it can be hard to get enough to the house to serve for dinner!) I love to pickle.  It is a perfect accompaniment for summer suppers.  I would post a picture of my pickled asparagus – but we ate it all so you will have to be satisfied with a snapshot of asparagus in the garden from last year.  I think I ate it right after the picture was taken!

Spring is also when the chickens are laying eggs like crazy and it is so easy to make pickled eggs!  Do them in beet juice and they are colorful AND delish!  Think of them as Easter Eggs for adults!

Farmers Market season is upon us and soon they will be bursting with local veggies.  Get ready now and learn how to pickle and preserve the taste of spring for cold days to come.  Join Shannon for “In A Pickle” April 16, 1-4pm @ Silverdale Community Center and April 19, 6-9 @ the Fairgrounds President’s Hall Kitchen.  Cost: $35/ person or $50/ family. Register online: http://kitsap.wsu.edu/

So, the other night Shannon and I put on our name tags (since it makes us look so much more official!) and went out on the town!  The Kitsap Community and Agricultural Alliance monthly meeting was a Meet the Farmer / Farmers Market Preview event and Potluck!  I am not saying that we were the country mice, but it was nice to get out and chat with Farmer Friends.  We put the WSU board up with the rest of the farmer displays and tucked into some amazing local food.  My new favorite?  Pickled Garlic Scapes!  Spicy, beautiful to look at and very tasty!  I am thinking that is what my scapes are going to do this spring!  I can’t wait for them to come up so I can get picklin’.

The rest of the meal was pretty tasty as well.  I must confess to a bit of pride myself – I can hold my own at a potluck!  But there was some tough competition!  Lots of varieties of bread, deviled eggs (yummo!), spring greens, chicken curry and nan bread…all washed down with Hummingbird Hill soda.  If you have never been to a KCAA meeting be sure and come next month!  You will be fed — physically and mentally — because they always have interesting speakers and programs.  For a complete summary of the event check out Brandy Williams’ post over at Kitsap Cuisine

Here is a pix from the smart phone – which apparently is the WRONG model for the awesome camera!

Speaking of picklin’ — Shannon recently posted about her food storage efforts — and canning and preservation are a huge part of that.  “In a Pickle” is her April class — check it out and get ready for summer veggies!

Like Shannon, I also have a large pantry, full of jams and jellies, pickles and sauces, fruit and juices, pasta, rice, beans, flour, and spices.  In addition, there are three (!) freezers full of meat and frozen fruit, berries, and veggies.  Right now we have about half a beef left from last summer, 10 stewing hens, a couple fryers, and a hog that we added to the larder last week.  There is also 10# of rendered lard — because you just never know when you  might need to make a killer pie crust for that rhubarb pie!  And, until the middle of February we also had onions, potatoes, carrots and garlic.  We still have a bit of garlic left — but the last of the stored vegetables are gone.  March to July is rice and pasta time!

We don’t buy many groceries — but we also spend a lot of time putting up.  Why?  Well, it tastes good, it is good for you, we know where all that food came from so there is no question about whether it is safe or healthy for the family, and it is thrifty!  The trade-off for our grocery independence?  We spend lots of warm summer nights sitting around the kitchen table snapping beans, hours peeling and canning peaches and tomatoes, early mornings in the garden picking baby cucumbers, and more than a couple cold fall afternoons butchering chickens!  It never stops from jammin’ with the berries in June until mid-November, by which time you have lost your will to can and are very thankful to be done.  A constant stream of empty jars come upstairs and go back down full.  Then abruptly, the process reverses and a couple at a time the jars in the basement pantry march back upstairs.  Peach-Orange-Pineapple Jam to slather on warm bread on cold winter mornings, dill pickles to crunch on with tomato soup and grilled cheese for weekend lunches, peaches for cobbler with whipped cream (thanks to Alexis the Princess Cow!) after Sunday dinners of roast beef, mashed potatoes and Bread and Butter Pickles.  I “go shopping” in the pantry a couple times a week all winter long and the emptied jars pile up on the counter until there is no more space, then I grab a box and tote them back downstairs where they wait on the bottom shelf of the canning pantry for the process to begin again!   This annual “uncanning” is more than an exercise in nostalgia — now it is hip and sustainable.  People blog about it — there are facebook pages devoted to preservation — and people are getting back on the train.   So, join Shannon and I this year as we share opportunities to fill your pantry in our classes, offer tips and recipes, and laugh a little at our failures (because there will be some — trust me on this!)

Don’t know how to get started?  It all begins with planting some seeds!

Upcoming WSU Kitsap Extension Small Farms Team Classes!