A New Year's Resolution

If you do just one thing to improve your lifestyle eating habits in 2013, make a resolution to EAT LOCAL. What does this mean? Look at my personal food triangle, and you will see that I have tiers of food sourcing, based on my location. I try to utilize all these sources before buying the same items at the supermarket. I feel fortunate to have these options - look for similar choices in your location. Remember too that certified organic, non-GMO, wild harvested, free range, hormone-free, heirloom, antibiotic-free, and other means of raising our food in ethical, sustaining, and healthful ways should also be part of your criteria.

There are many benefits of eating foods which are grown and/or raised at or near where you live. Since fruits and vegetables peak nutritionally about the same time they ripen - and then begin to lose the nutrients almost immediately upon harvest - it is beneficial to eat them as soon after harvest as possible. Often the produce in supermarkets has travelled for days or weeks from far away. Eating locally grown fruits and vegetables also enables you to eat seasonally. Many studies document the health benefits of eating an in-season plant based diet.

Eating locally also helps the farmers who raise the crops, and keeps the money in the local economy. Look for farmer's markets, community-sponsored agriculture (CSA) programs, and pick-your-own growers. Often you can get more varieties if the foods are locally grown, and they are better tasting and more nutritional, since the growers don't need to make "shipping-ease" and "shelf-life" major factors in their choice of crops.

When you travel around the USA, seek the fresh produce from those places, like cherries from Montana, almonds from California, citrus from Florida, wild rice from Wisconsin, wild blueberries from Maine, hot chiles from New Mexico, peaches from Georgia, apples from Washington, and many many other choices. Treat yourself to these yummy local specialties.

Get in the habit of looking at the labels of fruit, veggies, fish, and other products you buy at supermarkets. Support "USA" and avoid buying from foreign sources where the growing conditions may include chemical pesticides and fertilizers banned in the USA, contaminated irrigation, toxic soil conditions, irradiation, ozone treatments, sulfites, and other harmful intrusions in the food chain. I've stopped buying fresh ginger root, since all the local markets carry is imported from China. Instead, I buy organically certified dry ginger root grown in Peru, from Mountain Rose Herbs. I don't buy pine nuts anymore, since I didn't like their sources, so I mostly just use hulled sunflower seeds in their place. Look for healthier alternatives to your favorites.

Happy and Healthy New Year!

Warning: Sinus Clearing Ahead

I was such a picky eater as a kid, no one would have predicted that I'd someday be a fan of hot, spicy, and strong flavored foods. Hot chile powder from New Mexico, wasabi paste with sushi, jalapenos - yum! Now I've up'd the bar, with my homegrown, homemade prepared horseradish.

One of those ugly dried roots in the grocery produce section caught my attention two years ago. I wondered if it would grow if I planted it in my veggie garden. I bought it, brought it home, dug a deep narrow hole, and buried the whole thick root in my spring garden soil. Boy, did it grow! Big, lush green foliage sprung up during the hot summer, first from the original root, then from the soil around the root. A little internet research told me that horseradish plants can be very invasive - oh no, I don't need a whole garden of horseradish! At the end of that first summer, I dug up the original plant and all the little baby plants it had sprouted. I replanted most of it, in an area I call my "excess" garden, where I allow invasive plants room to grow unrestricted (like mint). I kept some little roots, chopping fine and using with beef dishes. This was one potent horseradish!

I must add that I continued to pull up little horseradish volunteers in the vegetable garden during this past spring and summer. It wasn't hard to identify them - just break off a leaf and give it a whiff! The leaves are edible, by the way, and make a tasty addition to a salad, or an interesting flavor note in a stir-fry. By July, I stopped seeing any more horseradish greens, so I had cleared out all the invasive roots. In the excess garden where I had transplanted the horseradish the previous fall, the plants again grew vigorously. My November garden post pictures some roots I harvested this fall: horseradish, jerusalem artichokes, and beets.

Now, what to do with the horseradish roots? It wasn't difficult to find directions online for making my own prepared horseradish. I was warned by a friend that I should grind the roots outdoors, due to the very pungent horseradish "fumes" which would be released. If you are a fan of horseradish, you know the taste and smell will rush into your sinuses - a very different "hot" than with hot peppers. I had dug up several large pieces of root plus some long 1/2 inch diameter pieces, and I scrubbed them with a veggie brush, revealing beautiful white roots. It was good that I had harvested a sizable amount, since my Vitamix blender chops best when there is at least a cup of food in the container. (I reserved some horseradish chopped as thin slivers, to air-dehydrate and grind it into a powder, which worked out very well also). I read that freshly grated horseradish root can turn brown as it oxidizes, so I didn't cut it up until I was ready to use it.

So out to the porch table I went, ground the horseradish to a fine chop in the Vitamix - do not inhale when you open the lid! I added a touch of salt, then added a small amount of lemon juice (to keep it from discoloring) and vinegar. One recipe I read calls for 1/4 to 1/3 c vinegar, 1/2 to 1 tsp salt, and 2 cups of freshly grated horseradish. I wasn't so precise in my measurements; I watched the consistency as I blended, adding only as much liquid as needed to make it into a thick paste.

Viola! Extra-potent homemade horseradish! I made enough to fill 3 small jars, refrigerated one for immediate use, and froze two for future enjoyment. Cooking destroys the mustard oils which give horseradish its heat, so it's best to use uncooked, or add last to cooked dishes. Horseradish is traditional with roast beef, great with potato dishes, a good addition to sandwiches, and yummy in deviled eggs. Ask for a taste if you visit!

Quick & Easy Pickled Vegetables

Pickled edible pea pods are delicious!

Refrigerator pickles are basically just vegetables marinated in vinegar with herbs and spices. They are quick and easy to make. Since there is no cooking involved, the vegetables are crunchy and yummy. You don't need to do any canning or seal the lids; you just mix the ingredients, fill and cap the jar, and start eating a few days later. Unlike store-bought pickles, these have no food coloring, no preservatives, and no refined sugar.

Here is a very simple recipe for making one jar at a time, which I like to with my freshly picked garden harvest:

• 1 clean pint jar with a lid (a recycled peanut butter jar works fine)
• Approximately 2c fresh raw vegetables, such as small or sliced cucumbers, snap beans, pea pods, pearl onions, baby or cut carrots, small or sliced zucchini or yellow squash, radishes
• 1-1/2 t salt
• 1-1/2 t pickling spices*
• 1/2 c white vinegar
• water

Measure salt and spices into the jar. Fill the jar with your prepared vegetables, tightly packed, to 1/2" from the top. Pour vinegar into the jar. Fill the rest of the jar to 1/4 inch from the top with water. Cover tightly, shake to distribute the spices, and refrigerate. After 24 hours the vegetables will begin to season; bright green veggies will begin to turn more olive colored. It takes about 2 days to fully develop the flavor. Since these are not preserved, they should be eaten within 2 weeks.

* Pickling spices can be purchased premixed. One I've used includes mustard seed, peppercorns, dill seed, cardamon, cassia, ginger, coriander, allspice, chili pepper seeds, cloves, and bay leaf. If you make your own it's cheaper, and you can customize the ingredients. Here's a simple mixture I have used:

Pickling Spice Mix

• 1/2 t celery seed
• 1 T dill seed (easy to grow and harvest from your own herb garden!)
• 1 T mustard seed
• 1 t hot pepper flakes (I save my home-grown jalapeno seeds when I dehydrate them)

VARIATIONS: Experiment! Use all one vegetable or a mixture of several. Add sliced or whole cloves of fresh garlic or a whole jalapeno to each jar. Substitute apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice for all or some of the white vinegar. Add honey or a cinnamon stick for sweetness. Use fresh dill in place of dill seed. If you follow a low-sodium diet, use low-sodium salt or eliminate the salt all together. You can even pickle hard-boiled eggs instead of veggies. Customize to your own likes and these pickles will surely disappear before two weeks pass.

Four New Year's Resolution Suggestions

Seems like an appropriate time to share four simple ideas for improving your "Good Food" in 2011:

1. Grow something you like to eat
   There's nothing like eating a home-grown tomato, juicy and still warm from the sun. I just read "All New Square Foot Gardening" (by Mel Bartholomew) and I strongly recommend it as an easy to follow gardener guide. Even if you have only a tiny space, plant some food this year. Start small and you won't get discouraged or overwhelmed. Try planting just a few herbs; they are hardy, not likely to have insect problems, ready to harvest when you are ready to use them, and very tasty. Perhaps you'll be so successful, you'll add more the next year!
2. Pay attention to where your food comes from
   Read the signs and stickers on fruits and vegetables in the supermarket produce section, and buy USA grown foods. Not only will you be supporting our farmers, but you are possibly avoiding toxins, pesticides, and other contaminants.
3. Eat local
   Find your nearest Farmer's Market or farm stand, and make shopping there part of your weekly routine. Even if you have to pay more, it is worth it for so many reasons. Did you know the average distance travelled for food you eat is 1500 miles? Let's work together to change this.
4. Subscribe to my Good Food Blog
   There are several ways, all in the right column of the blog: you can sign up to get an email each time I post something new, get RSS feeds, add to your Google Reader, or follow in Facebook. Tell your friends too - I'd love to help others learn more about growing, buying, preparing and eating good food!

Thanks and Happy New Year,
Judy

Tomato Season!

I haven't done much posting to this blog lately since my discretionary time has largely been absorbed by gardening and all its related activities: harvesting, cooking, freezing, preserving, drying. The bounty from our vegetable and herb gardens, as well as from our fruit trees and berry bushes, has been great this year.

I decided to grow a lot of "roma" paste tomatoes so I could do some canning this year, as well as having plenty for fresh salsa. I've learned that it's not worth all the work of canning unless I have a big quantity to do at once. After reviewing recipes, I decided to "put up" marinara sauce instead of just canning whole tomatoes. Canning whole tomatoes called for boiling-blanching-peeling, and I figured that would be nearly as much work as making the sauce! I had purchased a food mill (Roma brand) two years ago and I've used it for wonderful tomato juice, apple sauce, pear sauce, grape juice, salsa, and other great foods. This year, I am using it for the tomato sauce and it has made my work so much easier... with delicious results. And you can also freeze the marinara sauce... if you don't just eat it all fresh!

To make the tomato sauce in the food mill, I simply cut up whole uncooked unpeeled tomatoes into quarters, fill the hopper, and let it churn. Out one slot comes pure tomato pulp and juice, out the other comes the seeds, core, and peel. The food mill comes with a hand crank which I used for my first big harvest of tomatoes and it took me two hours! Then I got smart and attached the optional electric motor and it cut the time way down. The waste goes into my compost pile - no wonder I get little tomato plants where ever I spread compost in the spring.

To the bowl of pure tomato puree, I add chopped garlic, loads of chopped fresh basil, chopped onion (all from my garden too), salt, and some of my jalapeno powder. (You can add other ingredients too, but I try to stick with recipes when hot water bath canning so I don't alter the pH. And adding meat requires pressure canning.) Then it all gets "cooked down" to about half the original volume, to thicken the sauce, which I do over medium low heat with the pot uncovered so the moisture can evaporate. It's so hot here that I hate to heat up the house with hot pots on the kitchen stove, so I use a portable gas cooking unit set up on the big porch. Great view of the mountains, so it's not too shabby! Works out great when I am doing a lot of canning too, using the outdoor dining table as my work station.

Caution: canning is LOTS of work! When you figure all your time and what you get out of it, you can only justify it with the fact that you are using wonderful freshly harvested food and your own good ingredients.

So try making your own tomato sauce. We'll be enjoying ours next winter when there are no fresh tomatoes around.

Storing Fresh Greens, Herbs, and Sprouts

A few years ago my friend Chris taught me a great way to keep leafy vegetables fresh. Take a piece of paper towel (I buy the "select-a-size" type so I can tear off half-sheets) and a plastic bag. After you've washed the lettuce, spinach, kale, basil or other greens - preferably picked fresh from your garden - spin, drain or pat them to dry. Place in the bag with the paper towel, seal, and store in the refrigerator. A small zipper bag works well for basil, and a larger wastebasket bag stores a head of romaine, with a few pieces of paper towel layered with the leaves. The vegetables stay fresh and crisp for a long time this way. I also use this method for the sprouts I grow, when they are ready to move from the countertop sprout jar into the fridge.

Sweet Ideas

A friend I exercise with said she wants to stop eating refined sugar. She's addicted to some peppermint candies, and feels lousy after she eats too many. I thought I'd share some tips on how I avoid eating refined sugar. These days, too many people eat way too much food laden with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other refined sweeteners, and way too many people (and children) are developing blood sugar problems.

The sweeteners I prefer to use are those which are natural, minimally refined, and contain nutrients. Honey, molasses, and maple syrup are condensed sweeteners, for sure, but they are preferable over white sugar. I find they have stronger taste and I can use less than comparable amounts of white sugar. Stevia is an herb grown in the mountains of Central and South America (I've grown it in my garden) which is 300 times the sweetness of sugar and has no calories or effect on blood sugar. I find it hard to substitute in recipes for sugar, but I use it for adding a little sweetness to things like smoothies and yogurt. You can use fresh or dried leaves; I buy it in white powdered form and mix a tiny amount with water in a recycled vinegar bottle with one of those plastic shaker lids, so I can just sprinkle a few drops at a time - that's all it takes. You can buy little packets to carry in your purse and add to coffee in place of sugar. I strongly advise avoiding artificial sweeteners, like Splenda and the others used in diet sodas. I believe they do more harm than white sugar.

There are also lots of non-sugar items which can add a sweet taste to your foods. Vanilla extract, cinnamon (which has positive affects on blood sugar), ginger root, and other spices and flavorings impart their own sweetness. Ripe fruit, with fructose as its form of natural sugar, is also sweet. Cooked fruit concentrates the sweetness - try snacking on a little cup of unsweetened applesauce. Drying fruit also concentrates the natural sugars, but it shrinks the fruit also so you need to be careful not to eat too much. My Favorite Gingerbread is a good example of using spices, fruit juice, raisins, and molasses as the sweeteners. Use over-ripened bananas in a recipe like my Banana Hermit Bread, or freeze them to use in a smoothie. Thawed frozen berries are terrific for mixing into yogurt because they release sweet juices. When you use chocolate in baking, use unsweetened cocao so you can control the sweetness, like in the recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Biscotti.

Teas are another help for satisfying sugar cravings. I love a cup of Yogi Tea Organic Chai Redbush with some fat free milk in late afternoon. Herbal fruit teas are great, hot or iced, as is peppermint tea. Replace sodas in your diet by switching to unflavored selters with a bit of 100% fruit juice added for sweet flavor.

Learn the various names for sugar (dextrose, maltodextrin, etc.) and read ingredients on the foods you buy. It's a challenge to find sugarless bottled salad dressings, cereals, pasta sauces and so many prepared foods which don't even need sweetness... that's why I make my own. The movie Food Inc documents the use of high fructose corn syrup in most of the foods on our store shelves. Last time I looked for frozen pea pods, I was shocked (and disgusted) to find they had added sugar.

I find a balanced diet and limited sugar intake also reduces cravings for sugar, and makes me more sensitive to the taste of added sweeteners. Knowledge helps motivate me, too, and learning how detrimental sugar is to my health was an eye-opener. Read the 1970's book Sugar Blues, and the more recent Sugar Busters to learn more.

I hope these ideas are helpful, and please add your own tips too.