Super foods do not have to be exotic, and blueberries are the perfect example. These sweet, nutritious and wildly popular berries are NATIVE TO NORTH AMERICA. Yay! They are low in calories and incredibly nutritious, and so convenient to eat by the handful. They are primarily a northern fruit, and as a northerner, I am pretty happy to lay claim on these hardy, dark blue berries.
The list of the health benefits of Blueberries is almost too good to be true. And far be it for anyone to exaggerate those kinds of things right? But a little research should help disperse the nonsense from the credible. You’d be surprised at how many credible and documented benefits there really are. We don’t need to exaggerate. For example, its been well documented for decades that blueberries are good for your eyes, and health periodicals have sang their praises my whole adult life. Nevertheless, I was a little surprised when my eye doctor advised me to eat 1/2 cup of blueberries a day as part of a preventative regime for two genetic eye diseases I am in line to inherit: macular degeneration and glaucoma. I believed it before, but it felt good to have her further testimony. And yes, I try to eat a few handfuls every single day.
But wait, there’s more! Blueberries help lower your cholesterol, reducing your risk of heart disease. Packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids, blueberries are high in potassium and vitamin C. They are also anti-inflammatory. Since inflammation is a key factor in all chronic diseases, blueberries can and should be your personal BFF (best friend forever).
Blueberries have been the subject of medical studies related to vision for over a century, and blueberry extract, (high in compounds called anthocyanosides), is found to slow down visual loss. (hence my doctor’s recommendation) The anti-oxidant properties prevent or delay all age related ocular problems like macular degeneration, cataract, myopia and hypermetropia, dryness and infections, particularly those pertaining to the retina. Imagine a superFOOD — not a drug — powerful enough to do that! Truly, “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.”
inside colour of a ripe blueberry
If you are among the few not familiar with the taste of blueberries, this is my best description: small, but juicy. Mild, slightly sweet with a tiny bit of acid. Unripe, they’ll be a little sour. And they aren’t actually a true blue, but rather more of a deep blue/purple, which is the colour of the antioxidant “anthocyanin” found especially plentiful in them. The inside however, is a light greenish yellow. A good rule of thumb is, the darker the berry skin, the richer the antioxidants.
So that brings us to their availability. Fresh, I can find them in local grocery stores in 10 pound boxes for about six weeks in the summer; and in the off season, they are often available trucked in, in smaller clam-shell containers. Kinda pricey in the winter, and if you know me at all, you know that I am a big proponent of seasonal eating (mostly for nutrition’s sake). Just because we can buy it, doesn’t mean we should. Personally I don’t buy ‘fresh’ blueberries in the winter. The use of the word ‘fresh’ in the off season, is misleading at best. Frozen blueberries are an excellent alternative, and are even more nutritious than produce section options in the off season. Why? Because produce destined for the freezer, are frozen QUICKLY, sealing in valuable nutrition. But as you know, frozen blueberries are not so convenient to consume. Who wants to eat them frozen? And worse, who wants to eat them thawed and soggy? I take it one step further, and buy only FREEZE DRIED BLUEBERRIES for those other ten months of the year.
How is that possible? Well, for one thing, the word “fresh” is a relative term. Fruits and vegetables begin to deteriorate in the hour they are harvested, so getting them from field-to-table as soon as possible is very important. By the time our “fresh” fruits and vegetables are picked, packed, shipped, distributed and shelved, several days have elapsed. Nobody’s fault. Its just part of the process that allows us the great privilege of food variety we enjoy. But, the reality is that it is no longer at its best by the time we see it. Then we buy it, and put it in our fridge for several more days. . . . . . . I think we get the picture.
Introducing FREEZE DRIED BLUEBERRIES
As it implies, freeze-drying is a two step process. It is flash frozen, then transferred to a facility where it can have all the remaining moisture removed through a vacuum-like process. While the two step process is pretty standard, producing a higher quality product, there are additional steps that can be taken to further ensure the highest quality result.
– It is critical that the fruits or vegetables be the highest quality to start out with. – It is critical that they be flash frozen quickly after picking. – It is also critical that those fruits and vegetables be picked ripe, with all the nutrients that nature designed present and fully developed.
The result? Beautiful crunchy blueberries! That can be eaten out of hand, over top cereal or yogurt, in smoothies, baked in pies or muffins, . . . . . . any way a fresh blueberry can be eaten. Any. Day. Of. The. Year! And get this: they have a shelf life of over 25 years! How is that even possible? Zero moisture, packed into a sealed zero oxygen container = no way to decompose. So not only is the nutritional value an unprecedented 95+% of the original freshly picked value, it has a completely stable shelf life. You can enjoy that kind of quality today, tomorrow, next year, in ten years, and so on. Once you open the can, simply keep a tight seal on it, and you can expect it to last a good year in most climates. (not that there will be any left in a year, but that’s not the point lol)
There is a North American company that stands out from the rest when it comes to the highest quality of freeze dried food. THRIVE LIFE operates by a self imposed list of requirements they call “The Nutrilock Promise“. By adhering to these requirements, they have raised the industry standard to new heights that no other company has been able to come close to. There are over 40 steps in the process, and compromises are never made.
Other Health Benefits of Blueberries:
– A bowl of blueberries can help in boosting immunity and can reduce the risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. – Consuming as little as 1/2 cup of blueberries daily helps strengthen your metabolism and prevent any kind of metabolic syndrome and deficiency. – It has been observed that daily intake of blueberries can help reduce hypertension, inflammation, high cholesterol, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. – Blueberries are also known for improving cognitive skills such as attention, memory, and information organization.
Where do they grow?
Blueberries typically grow in humid, northern climates that have cold winters and mild summers. They prefer slightly acidic soil. This makes them the perfect northern berry, and it is not surprising that they are native to North America. They are also successfully grown in the more temperate areas of North American, including coastal regions, and have been introduced to several European countries as early as 1940.
Canada is the world’s largest producer and exporter of both wild and cultivated Blueberries. The majority of Canadian blueberry production is in British Columbia, where water and soil seem to be perfectly suited. Most of that is exported. New Brunswick is Canada’s second largest blueberry producing province, accounting for 30% of the country’s total production.
in varying stages of ripeness
They grow on dwarf shrubs of the heath family, with small, whitish drooping flowers that turn into the beautiful dark blue berries we know and love so much. I grew up picking wild blueberries in the summer, and though those days are over for most of us, market-garden-blueberries are very available. Having said that, if you live in rural areas, wild blueberries can still be found in abandoned fields, along roadsides, in forests and on mountains. They spread through seeds and the development of rhizomes, (underground stems). They are becoming more available in garden centres for those adventurous gardeners who want to have them closer to home.
Ways to Use Blueberries
#1 is FRESH out-of-hand of course. When that is not possible, freeze dried out-of-hand is a very close second. A new favourite way for me to enjoy them in the winter time, was introduced to me by my friend Reese Wolsey. Blueberry tea. Simply pour boiling water over a handful of blueberries in your mug. Let steep for a few minutes and drink. SO good. And when the cup is drained, eat the blueberries. Blueberry preserves for pancake and waffle topping. I just add a little water and simmer gently, mashing with a potato masher. Add a little sugar if desired, but not necessary. If you want to make more of a syrup, add a little more water and thicken with cornstarch. Also great for ice cream topping. Fresh over top of cereal. Blueberries in your oatmeal. Blueberry cheesecake. Blueberry muffins. Blueberry pancakes or waffles. Blueberry pie. Blueberry cobbler. Blueberries in your coffee cake, and added to lots of other baking too. Blueberry yogurt bowl. Blueberry ice-cream. Blueberry jam. Blueberries in your green salad with a little crumbled feta. Oh my goodness, there is no end to the ways you can incorporate them.
Blueberries have been my husband’s favourite fruit for as long as I’ve been married to him, but up till recently we could only enjoy them for a relatively short time in the summer. Now that we can enjoy them ‘fresh’ in the summer, AND freeze dried (in most cases, fresher-than-fresh), all the rest of the year – they have become an important (and welcome) part of our household diet. They are the #1 Fave Snack of ALL our grandchildren, and I’m totally okay if some of their best childhood memories involve eating freeze dried blueberries at Gramma’s house. Even if I do have to limit them most of the time. Seriously, they inhale them if left unsupervised.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on blueberries. And different ways your household enjoys them.
Sauerkraut – literally translated, means “sour cabbage”, and that is exactly what it is. I’ve heard some refer to it as ‘pickled’ cabbage, but to be clear – it is fermented, not pickled. What’s the difference? Well, I’ll admit they may be similar in taste and features perhaps, but it is in the process by which that sour taste is achieved, that we find the difference. Pickling for example, is a method of preserving foods in acidic liquid like vinegar. One type of fermentation is the process of using naturally occurring good bacteria to produce lactic acid, which in turn breaks down the sugars or starches in a food turning them into acid. This is the fermentation used in common foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt and even sour dough bread.
sitting on the counter to ferment
Why do we care? Fermentation produces PRObiotics, which support the body in building and maintaining healthy bacteria and other helpful organisms in the intestinal tract. This beneficial bacteria promotes a healthy gut and good digestion, which ensures we get the best from the foods we consume. PREbiotics are a source of food for your gut’s healthy bacteria. Both are necessary for good health. It starts to get very complicated but the process of making sauerkraut is super easy, and since the benefit of eating fermented foods is good health, we really should try to add more of them to our diet.
Although one most often thinks of sauerkraut with eastern European foods like Ukrainian, Russian or German, the lactic acid process of fermentation actually originated in Asia with something very similar – Kimchi. When we (in my house), first made sauerkraut many years ago, we followed a process of layering finely shredded cabbage with pickling salt and pushing it down to produce liquid which the salt drew from the fresh cabbage. I have since learned that a little bit of patience mixed with the same ingredients, allows the salt to do its thing with a lot less manpower. And when we first made sauerkraut we did a big batch – like we did everything in those days. When you have a big family, big batches of everything becomes the habit. But as life went on and family dynamics have changed, I’ve fallen in love with small batch preserving when its to my benefit. Since cabbage is in season from late summer through early winter, it is easy to make up a single quart here and there. The key is ‘patience’. The #1 rule with sour dough is “don’t try to rush the sourdough“. And the same principle applies to fermentation of any type. Don’t try to rush it. Don’t forget about it, but don’t rush it.
Health Benefits
Fermentation multiplies nutrition and health benefits far beyond those of fresh cabbage. Cabbage is already a good source of vitamins C and K, but the fermentation which transforms it into sauerkraut increases the bioavailability of nutrients, making it even more nutritious than the original cabbage. Fermentation is a process during which microorganisms on the cabbage digest its natural sugars, converting them into carbon dioxide and organic acids. It starts when yeast and bacteria that are naturally present in the air, the cabbage itself, and even your clean hands, come into contact with the sugars in the cabbage. Sauerkraut fermentation creates conditions that promotes the growth of beneficial probiotics – good bacteria that provide powerful health benefits. Probiotics also help make foods more digestible, increasing your gut’s ability to absorb vitamins and minerals.
Maintaining healthy gut helps prevent the growth of harmful bacteria improving our immune system. Its a natural way of putting your body in the best position possible to fight disease.
It is a good source of calcium and magnesium and an excellent source of dietary fiber, folate, iron, potassium, copper and manganese. Although you can preserve it in a hot water canner, the heat damages the vitamin C and naturally occurring enzymes as well as the live lactobacilli. Since it will last months in the fridge – it is my preference to simply refrigerate it and use it throughout the winter.
Top reasons to eat Sauerkraut 1 – improves digestion by introducing healthy bacteria important to proper gut function 2- excellent source of vitamins and minerals including fragile ones like Vitamin C 3 – low in calories 4 – high in soluble fibre 5 – it tastes great and is very versatile to incorporate into meals
Store bought vs homemade: Now don’t get me wrong. I appreciate having healthy foods available commercially. And certainly, store bought versions are often the only way many people will get them. But, as with most things, store bought sauerkraut is considered to be less nutritious compared to homemade sauerkraut – mostly due to the necessary processing. Store bought sauerkraut has to be preserved somehow of course, and so must undergo a pasteurization during canning. This eliminates live probiotic content – which is one of its main benefits. Store bought benefits: availability, shelf stable, still low calorie, still a good source of soluble fibre and non water soluble vitamins and minerals. Tastes good. Homemade benefits: easy to make, will last in fridge for a long time, still low calorie, still a good source of soluble fibre and ALL original vitamins and minerals (including VC). Rich in antioxidants and live enzyme probiotics. Tastes better.
Eating sauerkraut played an important role in preventing scurvy in the early days of sea travel. Scurvy – the scourge of the seas in its day, resulted from an absence of vitamin C in the diet. Symptoms begin after a month, and the only prevention and cure for it is Vitamin C. It was the primary cause of deaths between 1500 and 1800 — on sailing ships around the world. Long before it was understood ‘why’, it was discovered that sauerkraut prevented scurvy. Scottish naval surgeon James Lind noticed that scurvy was linked to a diet which was severely limited. He began testing various foods and noted that citrus fruits provided the quickest and most effective cure for the disease. However, citrus fruits were not readily available in Europe, and it was impossible to keep fresh fruit on a sailing ship for months at a time.
Experiments using different types of food on sailing expeditions began in earnest, and famed Captain James Cook drew the lucky straw with sauerkraut in 1768. He was outfitted with almost 8000 pounds of the fermented cabbage, each man being rationed two pounds a week, and at the end of his three years’ journey, returned without a single death attributed to scurvy. An incredulous first! It literally changed the world! The number of lives that were saved with this discovery is unimaginable. A century later, during the American Civil War, physician John Jay Terrell began using sauerkraut to treat the same disease. In times when Vitamin C – the “fresh fruit vitamin”, is not so easy to come by, sauerkraut is a practical and healthful solution.
Let me just stop here for a moment and bask in the wonder of all this. It is amazing to me that ancient people could figure out how to harness the fermentation process and make it work for them. Without the knowledge of vitamins, bacteria or gut health, they came across a food that quite literally not only preserved their lives in winter times of no fresh fruits or vegetables, but preserved their health, enabling them to better digest foods, increasing their body’s ability to absorb important nutrients. And this, in a common farm house of illiterate people. If you are a believing person as I am, this is nothing short of a miracle – Evidence that a loving Father in Heaven cares intently about the affairs of his children.
making it
Making sauerkraut is embarrassingly easy, and I’m convinced when you discover just HOW easy it is, you’ll be making it frequently. It requires no special equipment. Yes, there are things traditionally used, like a crock and a wooden pounder, but you can also make it in a bowl with a potato masher, and stuff it into a glass jar with a lid. And yes, you can use a food processor, but I do not. I prefer to use a large knife and slice it thinly myself. Yes, if you make a lot, you might want to can it, but if you make less, you can store it for months in your fridge, so I prefer not to can mine – to take advantage of the full nutritional benefit. Its another example of how eating seasonally is best.
So equipment? Okay I lied. You do need some things. Get a large, sharp knife for slicing the cabbage. A cutting board on which to cut it. A large enough bowl to hold the shredded cabbage while you toss it. A container to store it in: wide mouth glass jar or a crock of some sort . . . . I prefer glass or pottery. EVERYTHING SHOULD BE VERY CLEAN OF COURSE. I do not sterilize everything I use, but it is very clean, and cleaned continually as needed, throughout the process.
1. necessary: cutting board, sharp knife, container to store – jar, corning are with lid, crock … 2. necessary: large bowl or tub to mix the cabbage with salt 3. optional but handy: some kind of tool to push cabbage down with, scraper to help transfer it from board to bowl, canning funnel to help put cabbage into jar
Ingredients: cabbage and salt. That’s it! Really. That’s it. If you’ve got a good sized head of cabbage – medium large (approximately 5 pounds), you’ll use 3 heaping tablespoons of salt. NOT table salt which contains iodine, but pickling salt, or sea salt. I prefer coarse salt. The SALT has a very important job – it draws the moisture out of the cabbage, helping to form the BRINE, it causes the cabbage to release fermentable sugars. Salt is also a natural preservative, inhibiting the growth of undesirable yeasts, molds, and bacteria. Through the miracle of nature, the bacteria needed for safe fermentation tolerates high concentrations of salt. Submerged in this brine for a week or more, the cabbage slowly ferments into the crunchy, delightfully sour – sauerkraut.
Some people add dill seed or caraway seed or even use purple cabbage. I think these are great ideas, and one day I might try a single jar of purple cabbage or even dill seed. But I hate caraway seed so that’s never gonna happen.
What causes this transformation called lacto-fermentation? There is beneficial bacteria naturally present on the surface of all fruits and vegetables. Lactobacillus is one of those bacteria, which bytheway, is the same bacteria found in yogurt. When submerged in a brine, the bacteria begins to convert sugars in the cabbage into lactic acid; this is a natural preservative that inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria.
Since this process is anaerobic – which means ‘without out oxygen‘, the cabbage much remain completely submerged in its liquid during fermentation. This is accomplished by packing it down firmly, and then placing some kind of weight on top. I have used a heavy rock (cleaned and in a plastic bag), plates, smaller glass jars . . . be creative. Find something that you can sufficiently clean, to set on top of your sauerkraut to keep it submerged. The cabbage near the surface wants to float, so I find it useful to place a large outer leaf of the cabbage over the surface to hold it down. Of course you want to ensure the jar or crock is covered at all times with a clean cloth. This allows airflow, and protects the surface.
the glass jars allow you to see the three layers beneath the weight: 1. tightly packed cabbage mixture on bottom 2. folded cabbage leaf to cover cabbage and prevent any from floating to surface 3. natural brine which is produced from pushing cabbage salt mixture 4. weight of some kind to keep everything safely below the surface 5. cover to protect from evaporation and contaminants, but not completely airtight
How long does it take?
It could take days or weeks – depends on you, your personal preference, and the temperature of the room you’re storing it in. The cooler the room, the longer the time. I suggest tasting it anytime after 4 or 5 days. When you like it, simply put it into the fridge. It will continue to ferment in the fridge too, but at a much slower rate.
In a glass jar, you may see bubbles, foam, or white scum on the surface of the sauerkraut. You won’t see them in a crock, but they’ll be there. All signs of normal, healthy fermentation. The white scum on top can be skimmed off as you see it, in both glass jar or crock. It’s possible that the brine might bubble over during the fermentation process, so best not to pack your containers too full, and have them sitting on a cloth to absorb excess moisture, or a plate to catch it. You should be checking the progress every couple of days anyway. This helps you trouble shoot. If you see white scum, remove it. Taste it frequently with a clean fork to test for doneness. NEVER RETURN THE FORK TO THE SAUERKRAUT ONCE YOU’VE PUT IT IN YOUR MOUTH. GET A CLEAN ONE. Ensure the cabbage continues to be covered by the brine.
image on left: 5 gallon crock free from cracks, filled 2/3 – 3/4 with tightly packed cabbage (approx 3 1/2 cabbages). Covered loosely with plastic wrap to reduce evaporation and clean cloth. image on the right: large stone in plastic bag weighing down plate. Beneath plate is cabbage leaves protecting the sauerkraut and preventing any from escaping to the surface.
We have in the past found mold growing on the surface of the sauerkraut. Don’t panic. This is not rare, as mold typically forms when the cabbage isn’t fully submerged. Simply remove the offending pieces and re-ensure the rest is submerged. The sauerkraut is still fine being preserved by the lactic acid. Be smart though. Yes, a little mold that you can easily remove is not bad news, but a lotta mold that is affecting an inch or two into your sauerkraut is bad news. That would only happen if you’ve run out of brine. Perhaps your container was too full, and the bubble-over, took away too much of the liquid to keep the cabbage completely covered. Or perhaps it’s evaporated. Be proactive, if you’re running out of liquid, better to remove some cabbage to allow the remaining cabbage be fully submerged. You can always use the mild sauerkraut you’ve removed. Better that, than to risk harm to the batch with reduced liquid.
Recipe:
1) Remove the ugly outer leaves and discard into the compost. Remove another leaf or two and set aside to use later. I begin by cutting the cabbage in half, then in half again. Remove the core from each quarter, and slice. Slice thinly as you would for coleslaw. Scoop all the sliced cabbage into a large bowl or kitchen tub.
1. choose a beautiful cabbage 2. chop it up 3. sprinkle pickling salt over top 4. toss to coat completely, then set aside
2) Sprinkle your salt over top and gently toss to fully incorporate. I use my hands, its just easier. I massage the cabbage with my hands for about five minutes. Salt: I use 3 heaping tablespoons for a medium large cabbage. It seems like it won’t be enough for that amount, but trust me, it is. As you toss the cabbage, you’ll see within the first minute that moisture is already beginning to be drawn out of the cabbage. Gently squeeze handfuls of cabbage as you’re massaging it.
pushing the shredded cabbage down with a pounder is very effective. You can watch the liquid rise.
3) At this point, you can cover the cabbage loosely with a cloth and set aside for about half an hour or more. This gives the salt time to work. When you come back, gently toss it by hand and again, and you’ll be surprised by how much liquid you’ll see.
4) Begin packing the cabbage into your jar (or other container) by the handful. I use a canning funnel to make this less messy. If you’re using a jar, this is when you’ll be glad you chose a wide mouth jar, because you’re may want to put your hand in to tamp down the cabbage with your fist. Pour whatever liquid was produced into the jar with the cabbage. If you have a wooden pounder (isn’t that a descriptive name?) it will come in handy now to pack the cabbage in easier. Don’t take the name literally and go pounding it. You’ll damage the cabbage. Treat it as gently with the wooden pounder as you would using your own hand. You’ll see more liquid start to form throughout this process. Keep it up till you’ve got at least an inch covering the cabbage. Don’t fill your jar too full. Give it plenty of room to bubble-up later. How much? I dunno. Depends on the size of your container. I’d say two to three inches in a jar, probably six to eight inches in a large crock. Whatever you choose will probably not be enough, but then you’ll learn for next time, right?
5) Take one of the outer leaves you’ve set aside, fold to fit into the jar, and place on top of the sauerkraut. This will help keep small pieces from floating to the surface and causing your grief later.
placing a tiny jar inside the wide mouth of your sauerkraut jar helps to keep the cabbage cover down, and cabbage submerged in brine
6) Put your weight on top. For a glass jar, consider using a rock (in a plastic bag) or marbles (in a plastic bag), or a small empty jar. For a crock, use a plate with a rock on top (in a plastic bag of course). In a large crock, we filled a plastic bag with water and placed on top to keep everything down. It worked well.
7) Cover with cloth to protect, and allow airflow. Secure.
It is important to keep everything clean throughout the process. Taste frequently over the next few days, up to a couple of weeks. Never return a used utensil back into the sauerkraut. When you decide its as sour as you want it, simply refrigerate. It should keep fine for three or four months in the fridge, ESPECIALLY as you ensure it stays clean. Never put a fork into your mouth and then back into the jar.
Enjoy.
I’d love to hear your sauerkraut experiences, and ways you use it.
The beginning of March 2020, we were in Mexico. While we were on the beach soaking up the vitamin D, the world at home tipped a little on its axis. We had heard about Covid before we left – from a distance. But it seemed to explode the week that we were gone. We arrived home March 11, and went through the usual immigration check points at the airport with nothing unusual. No one said anything to us about covid related precautions. Dan went back to work the next day, as per usual. My sister insisted we isolate ourselves, but I reasoned that the Canada border officer didn’t say a word about any such necessity. We had little reason to go out anyway, so we didn’t do a whole lot. Listening to the radio over the next few days we started to absorb some of the vibes, and on Saturday I told Mom that perhaps the responsible thing for us to do, was to lay low for awhile. After all, we had recently spent 6 hours in a plane breathing the same air as 200 other people. . . .
Truth be told, we didn’t need groceries anyway, even though we had very little in the fridge. I had picked up some perishables a couple of days after we got home, simply because I could, but I felt no urgency, nor compulsion to do so. I knew that we had in our pantry and home store, anything we could want or need for an extended period of time. And just as important, those pantry foods were ‘normal’ to our way of eating anyway. We hadn’t shopped in a grocery store for a couple of weeks before our trip, trying to clear out perishables. Rather than feel any of the stress that comes with the panic-buying we witnessed on news reports, we felt none. We hunkered down in our warm house. Mom sewed and I worked on some rugs. Dan still went to work every day.
We missed the kids of course, who normally would have all been over to say hello in the days after we returned. We missed our friends at church of course. But worry? There was none of that. Shortages? They didn’t seem to affect us. We wondered just like everyone else, how long it would go on. We were sad to read and hear reports of job loss, retail panic, even outright fear. But at home, life was pretty much what it always had been.
Without expecting a pandemic, we realized we had been preparing for this all our lives. Our home-store, (in no small way thanks to THRIVE LIFE freeze dried foods), had contributed greatly to our feelings of comfort, security, normalcy, and above all, peace of mind. We were grateful for the counsel we’d adhered to for decades, to have a food storage on hand, and to “STORE WHAT YOU EAT” and “EAT WHAT YOU STORE”. Of all the benefits we’d enjoyed over those years, the greatest was the current peace-of-mind we were then experiencing. There is no price on peace-of-mind.
So almost two years later, our society has learned a few things, we’ve developed a vaccine and many people have taken advantage of it. The vaccine is a very devisive subject, and has become a major source of contention among friends, families and society in general, with not too many people walking down the middle of the road. We’ve seen unbelievable upheaval in our society due to this pandemic – and not just our society, but the world over. Economical, emotional, physical, familial, educational, . . . everybody’s been affected. We became familiar with terms we’d never used before, like “supply chain” – which still affects us almost two years later, not just food, but in every other area we deal with: retail items of all sorts, construction, vehicle manufacturing and maintenance, medical supplies, . . . . areas that our affluent society previously believed we were immune to. So much for that.
It is late fall 2021, and in our province, we are leveling off our fourth wave. Who knew we’d still be here 21 months later? Yes, we are well aware of the world around us, and yes, we’ve been affected in our own way too. Life goes on and we’re all adjusting, and mourning some losses, and reaching out to serve and assist in the best ways we know how. There’s nothing convenient about a pandemic. Everything and every one has been affected. Its been hard. Hard enough without having to worry about food and debt. One of the biggest blessings in our home, is the peace-of-mind that came from being prepared for an unexpected interruption we couldn’t forecast. The peace-of-mind of not needing things we didn’t have on hand already. The peace-of-mind of living within our means, and of avoiding the frustration of debt.
When it comes specifically to food, we are grateful for the lifelong habit of having a food storage, and it is THRIVE LIFE freeze dried foods that we are most appreciative for. Nutritious fruits and vegetables, dairy and protein – always here, always ready, always nutritious, always convenient. And that’s all I have to say about that here. It’s been a blessing. A tremendous blessing. Thank-you THRIVE LIFE. You were there when we needed you.
Was there anything specific that helped you get over the uncertainty of this long covid season? I want to hear about it.
I have a simple rule that I apply to everything I ‘did’. Whether its my garden, an event that I was involved in, or a class that I taught – doesn’t matter, it pretty much always applies. At the end of whatever it is, I ask myself these THREE Questions (and answer them of course). 1. What went well? What was I pleased with? 2. What could have been better?What could I have improved on? 3. What did I learn? In my opinion, the most important.
All three questions are very important, and must be asked in order. It is very easy to get down on yourself when something didn’t go right. None of us seem to be short on negative self talk, if the season (or event) was disappointing. Its easy to get discouraged and give up if we focus on the bad, on the things that didn’t work out. So DON’T!
What went well? There is always something that was good. Think about it, and WRITE DOWN the answers. A fruit or vegetable that grew well – a new skill that came in handy – a new hack that paid off – etc. Write down everything that was good about this year’s garden.
For my 2021 garden: What went well?
* Kale. I grew great kale. The year before was the first time I planted kale and I only planted 6 plants, but it encouraged me to plant again, this time I planted double that amount, and some variation. I planted them in three or four different spots, I picked from the plants all summer long, and well into October when I finally harvested the last of it. I used fresh kale in salads, omelettes and scrambled eggs, soups, casseroles, chopped in sandwiches, and smoothies. I tried kale chips in the oven for the first time, and was wowed. Repeated that several times, using less oil each time lol. I dehydrated the excess and ended up with two FULL 2 quart jars of dehydrated kale, crushed into them.
* Tomatoes. I had a reeeeeally good harvest of tomatoes this year. Lots of tomatoes! Mostly the Romanian Giants. For the first time, I grew tomatoes all season long IN my new green house. Eight or ten tomatoes there, four around an arbour in the first garden bed, four around an arbour in the large horse trough, and some in their usual spot on the west side of the house. And some cherry tomato in planters on the patio. Made for a LOT. I admit it – tomatoes are my thing. The backbone of my garden, the one thing I look forward to the most. Everything else exists around them. The most successful places (in order), was the green house, garden arbour and large horse trough arbour – all in the sunniest locations. We ate fresh tomatoes pretty much all of August, September and October. We’ll have fresh tomatoes into November. I canned the excess that ripened faster than we could eat, a couple dozen quarts. I made fresh bruschetta and salsa, canning about 15 pints of salsa. I oven roasted lots of tomatoes. We had so many different types of tomato based soups.
* Compost. We reorganized our compost area since building the greenhouse, adding another large old garbage can turned upside down. Also had a mound of dried lawn trimmings in our compost area, ready to add to compost piles as needed, and use to mulch gardens. We also added to the city compost from time to time – with undesirable compost: either branches and things that take too long to break down, thistle, scraps that included oil or meat, ….. that sort of thing. It was valuable to be able to recycle these organics even though we didn’t want them ourselves.
* Greenhouse. Dan built me a new greenhouse this spring. Not very big, 8×12 – the perfect size for our needs. I dug the soil down deep on both sides, and added gravel, compost and aged horse manure to the soil. When the shelves were no longer needed, I removed them and planted tomatoes, peppers and nasturtiums in the soil.
* Soil amendment in the former spruce area. We took out two massive spruce trees a year and a half before and the following summer it was almost a dead zone. Nothing we planted did well, so we gathered our resources and came up with an amendment plan, thanks to the suggestion of our friend Scott Campbell. Aged horse manure, barley straw and early spring mowing. Became positively LUSH compared to last year.
New Discoveries
Horse trough raised beds Hori hori knife (my new favourite tool) Mexican Tarragon, Papalo, and Epezote
What could have been better?
Grapes. Plums. Carrots. Potatoes. Strawberries. Basil. Beans. Butternut Squash. My planting was too condensed, and I ended up shading some things I’d rather not have. I thought I planted bush beans, when they were in fact pole beans, and consequently they weren’t placed in the best spot. That was unfortunate. I experimented with two different ways to grow potatoes. Both were interesting and I’m glad I did it, but not that great of a yield.
What did I learn?
We’ve been growing tomatoes on the west side of the house which we knew was short on sun, but the best we had at the time. This year, the new greenhouse resolved that issue. 2021 is our last year for westside tomatoes. Next year, that partial sun/partial shade area will be best suitable for greens: lettuce and arugula, chard, kale, nasturtiums and celery.
We topped up all of our beds with aged horse manure and completely redid the entire strawberry bed, including new plants, following the recommendations of some trusted friends. I allowed too many other things to grow in it as the summer progressed: dill, poppies and sunflowers. Next year, I’m gonna limit that. We’ll deep water the strawberries right away (end of October), and cover them in leaves to tuck them in for a long winter’s sleep, and hope for better strawberries next year.
Plans for improvement next year?
Gonna rent a small inground garden plot in our community garden, to plant carrots, potatoes and maybe beets. Those root crops I just don’t seem to have sufficient room or sun for in my small garden, and if there’s one thing the community garden has a lot of, it is SUN!
Seeds for Next Year’s Garden
I ALWAYS buy seeds one year in advance. For the most part, what I plant in 2022 will be the seeds I purchased in late winter 2021, and so forth. It’s part of my personal philosophy of preparedness. There will always be an exception, something I decide to try NOW, but generally speaking, I plan at least one year ahead for gardening. I don’t ever want to have a spring when for some unforeseen reason, I am unable to get seeds. Preparedness is not just food storage.
Some of those seeds will be seeds I saved myself, especially tomato seeds from my own Romanian Giants, Nasturtiums, Poppies and Dill. Garden preparedness includes ensuring I have sufficient potting soil for next spring, as well as planting containers.
I get my seeds from assorted sources: a local seed store on the west side, one of several Canadian seed companies I order online, the odd package that catches my eye at a greenhouse or garden centre, and of course those that I propagate myself or that friends have shared. But for next year I have decided to try another Canadian seed company a friend recommended. I am looking for a company that deserves my loyalty.
Keep your plans for next year ACHIEVABLE.
Seed catalogues are full of all sorts of potential, and it’s good to try something new every year. Some thing you haven’t tried before, a new vegetable, a new type, a new way of doing things, . . . And there’s nothing wrong with trying something totally ‘out there’ from time to time, like watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, honeyberries …. You never know what’s gonna WORK, and you very well may be surprised. Some things may simply have been fun to try, but not really worth investing too much energy down the road, not to mention the garden space that may have been better used for other vegetables. And other things may be tremendous successes. However, keep the bulk of your garden plans for the “most likely to succeed” crops. Go for the tried and true types. Ask other gardeners for their recommendations.
We’re fully expecting our Honey Crisp Apple, which we transplanted into our former spruce area two springs ago, to amaze us in 2022. It got set back when we transplanted it, and had a rough season in exceptionally poor soil, but we’ve apologized, and have done our best to make up for that rough start. I also have high hopes for our Royal Plum, which produced this year, but sparsely.
I highly recommend keeping a garden journal of sorts. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re gonna be a great journaler if you’ve never done well with journals before, but don’t be a defeatest either. Commit to it. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, just a simple notebook will suffice – but have a book that is gonna stick around. Not just a collection of note papers.
Keeping a garden journal WILL improve your gardening experience, I promise. Why? Because you will hone your skills based on what you learned from previous seasons. It will provide you with historical information that will help you better predict future results. It will help you keep an inventory of your seeds and perennials, as well as record your harvests. It can effectively evolve into a personalized garden TEXT BOOK, and every year you add to it, it becomes more and more valuable.
What to include in your garden journal? 15 suggestions
Date your entries and write down your answers to the three questions above. Every year. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. This will be your core.
A pencil sketch of your garden layout with the year clearly marked. This is more important than you might think. You will want to ensure you rotate most crop areas, avoiding using the same spot year after year for the same vegetable.
A list of the plants that worked out best, and the ones that did NOT.
Dated sources for specific plants: greenhouses, nurseries or garden centres, seed companies, friends or neighbours.
Planting times, ready times, harvest times. Maybe even a few recipes you discovered.
Be more specific about times: dates you started seeds indoor, dates you transplanted them, and dates you planted seeds directly into the garden. Germination times. All these are things you THINK you’re gonna remember. Yeah right, you won’t. The information will come in handy for future years.
Soil tests, soil amendments and subsequent assessments of that soil.
Any problems with pests, diseases or other issues
Approximate dates of harvests and the type of yield you got. I don’t have the patience to weigh, measure or count, but I know some do that. I think that’s great. Just not for me.
Weather. I know right? But seriously, every year is unique, and not every season is good for every crop. So record your assessment on the weather trends by recording details, and make note of what crops are doing better than others. For instance, I have noticed that in our part of the city, we seem to be have less violence in the weather. The worst seems to go around us. I have also noted that other areas seem to get a frost quicker than we do, perhaps owing to our number of nearby trees creating a minor microclimate. You’ll be more likely to make note of weather patterns if you’re writing them down.
New changes and experiments. How else are you gonna track what works?
Suggestions, recommendations, and even recipes shared by other gardeners. I know, again with the recipes.
Expenses: how much spent in greenhouses and garden centres, seed catalogues, garden paraphernalia, new builds, maintenance of raised beds etc, cold frames, lattices etc
Hacks, suggestions, inspiration and ideas. Using your garden journal as the place to make quick notes about what they are, or where to find them, is the best way to keep them all in one spot for easy reference later
Personal reflections, inspiration and musings . . . . . after all, it IS a journal. It is part of you. It is a record of yourself.
What plans do you have for your garden next season?
Thanksgiving is always the second Monday in October for Canadians, about six weeks before our American neighbours celebrate the same holiday. It is an important and very unique holiday for a number of reasons. For one, it’s secular in origin, not religious like Christmas and Easter, and rather than celebrating an ‘event’, it celebrates gratitude, something society as a whole seems to have a hard time practicing in general. Although it isn’t religious in origin, its roots lie with the very Christian American pilgrims who gave thanks to God for bounty at the end of a successful harvest in 1621.
For 400 years North Americans have traditionally paused to give thanks at the conclusion of harvest. Even though most of us no longer feel we’re connected to harvest, make no mistake, it is still a successful harvest that ensures a comfortable winter – for all of us. Never in my life has that been more evident than in the year of 2020. For the first time in memory, the planting of spring was in jeopardy across the nation due to supply chain issues and minimized seasonal foreign workers (upon which many market gardens, grain farmers and ranchers depend), and during the first few months, issues with social distancing caused many meat plants to shut down creating a problem for meat producers who depended on them to get their meat to market. Over the months, we came to accept, and even expect in-store shortages and not being able to get what we order as soon as we were used to getting it. True definition of a first world problem at the best of times, but a little more tangible recently.
Bountiful harvests in 2020 and 2021 were questionable right from the onset of spring planting, and many people were worried. Me included. It looked like we were in for desperate food shortages, and very high prices. But from the perspective of hindsight, we can say that the inconveniences of ‘out-of-stock’ items has been only that, an inconvenience. Some prices rose, but the situation warranted that. Though frustrating at times, these inconveniences were only ever ‘lumps-in-our-oatmeal‘. At least for the time being. Other things were a little more impactful: special events that had to be altered, postponed or even cancelled, ill loved ones we couldn’t visit, funerals that sadly got missed, family gatherings that didn’t happen, loneliness – especially for the elderly or immune compromised, jobs that were affected, income reduced, businesses that suffered and some that couldn’t survive, dental care and other health related appointments that were set aside, as well as the loss of other services we enjoyed and upon which many jobs were dependent. Our economy was driven to its knees and we worried about the reliable availability of food and other necessities.
Now, in the autumn of 2021, we’ve learned many things. We’ve learned to continue on, keeping a bigger distance between each other, washing our hands more often, masks have become part of our outer clothing, and technology has become our connection with the world outside our front door. We’re still seeing results of the global upset, and it is affecting our food supply, promising to be more than an inconvenience in the near future.
But we have SO much to be grateful for, and it is more important than ever to not only acknowledge these blessings, but to focus on them. Yes, in some ways its been tough, but there are many good things that came out of our unwilling courtship with covid. I am so grateful that THANKSGIVING gives me pause to reflect and appreciate the specifics of my bigger picture.
If I were to get into details, the things I am grateful for, are innumerable. Though I try to consciously “count my many blessings, and name them one by one“, to do so takes a long time. Those are better left for personal reflection and my journal, for me to review from time to time with my Heavenly Father. But more generally, I can summarize many of them in these broader points.
1. Jesus Christ The gospel of Jesus Christ blesses my life in every way. Through it, I understand where I came from, where I am going, and what I am doing here. It provides a clearer vision of what I want, it helps me appreciate the many roles I play and helps me define my core values. I am grateful for His atoning sacrifice that paid the price for my sins, and swallows up my sorrows. I am grateful for the example He set, the unconditional love and the gate through which He walked which points the way to my Heavenly Father. I am thankful for His gospel which continues to be a beacon in my life, helping me to let go of the past, overcome weaknesses and to focus on becoming the person I want to be. I am grateful for scriptures that teach of Him, and for prayer that is the means of communication He makes available to me.
2. My family Those who produced me, and those I had a hand in producing and in whose lives I had influence – I hope I did enough. For siblings and cousins with whom I walked in my formative years, and who are still in my life. For nieces and nephews who choose to continue to stay in my life. For those of my family who have gone on before me – I appreciate so much, the choices you’ve made to bring me to this place and time. I will do what I can for you. And for those who have yet to be born – I feel some accountability to leave you a better world, and a faithful family in which to grow.
3. Dan The man I share this life with, and with whom I share all these children and now grandchildren. For the growing experiences we’ve had together both good and bad – they’ve made us who we are. I am grateful for love in my life. And as time goes on, I am increasingly grateful for the future we still have before us. I am grateful with confidence that we will grow old together – sealed for this life and the next.
4. The church I belong to which provides doctrine to help me understand my relationship with God, and my responsibility to my fellow human beings. It provides community to me, of like minded people who I love and respect; a community of people I can rely on, people I can reach out to, and people I can help, serve with and learn from. It has been the village that helped raise my children. It is the vehicle through which I make sacred covenants with my Heavenly Father, which sustain me, bringing me comfort and confidence as I walk that covenant path. It provides me with meaningful service opportunities which allow me to put myself and my perspective aside from time to time, to focus on a bigger, all inclusive picture.
5. Good health and strength to accomplish the things that are most important to me. As an extension of this, I am grateful for a good medical system that serves my community. Doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacies, and all those who work in the medical field, that I most often take for granted.
6. Good nutrition which is the building block of good health. For many of our early years, we lived from month to month, not being able to afford a lot of extras, and many times not even buying much in the way of groceries in any given month, but through it all because of gardens, food storage, tithing and careful management, there has always been healthy food on our table. That blessing was always appreciated.
7. Friends. We’ve been blessed with dear friends over our lifetime. We don’t get together in the same way of course, we don’t sit for hours and chat face to face like we used to, we don’t go to movies or out to lunch as we have in the past, but we do what we can in these covid times. We’re still in each other’s lives and we’ve found ways to be creative. The important thing is that when we do get together its as if there’s never been an absence. How I appreciate the love of good friends.
8. Tradition. Traditions are a critical part of our culture. In many ways they are the building blocks of what brings us together, and holds us together. They connect us to our history and provide clues about why we are the way we are. They separate us from others in a good way, providing unique similarities that bind cultural identities, and family units. They provide context for those who came before us, acknowledging the contribution they’ve made to the quality of our lives and the way we understand our world. They are an important thread in the tapestry of what makes us unique – providing a sense of comfort and belonging. Traditions don’t have to be old, handed down from generations before. We can develop new meaningful traditions that have the power to bless our lives in the future, and to create a legacy that will enhance the quality of life of those who come after us. Truth is, we are all creating a legacy of one sort or another – consciously or not. How much better it could be if we focused on what that legacy will look like to those we’re leaving it to.
Not all traditions are good. Part of our responsibility to our family is not only to pass on healthy traditions, the ones that connect and edify, that strengthen and uplift – but to break the cycle of unhealthy traditions, the ones that foster hate and prejudice, division, unhappiness and abuse.
9. Technology Never thought I’d ever say it, but I am grateful for technology. Even to the degree that I understand it, and the terrifying learning curve that is repeatedly before me, I must concede that it has enhanced my life. It has kept me connected with the people I love and care for, the information I need, the community I want, and a multitude of opportunities to serve those around me. Mobile phones, tablets, desk top computers, televisions, the internet that makes them all friends, and yes even social media avenues that help me reach beyond my own immediate circle. Without technology this year, it would have been a lot lonelier than it was.
10. Our Garden
For many years while I managed our family business, an LDS Bookstore – I didn’t have time to fully enjoy my garden. It was a chore that somehow compelled me from spring to fall. I put in the work, and while I can admit I often found solace losing myself for hours in the distraction of it, I confess that I hardly ever harvested it in those busy years. Some years I was tempted to let it go, reasoning that because the store kept me so busy every fall, the final satisfaction of harvest alluded me. But one day I realized that it wasn’t the harvest that soothed me during the calm peaceful summer hours that I quietly weeded with only the birds and squirrels. It wasn’t the harvest that distracted me from business worries and stress in the spring while I planted flowers and potatoes. It wasn’t the harvest that took me on pleasant greenhouse excursions looking for evening scented stock and some new herb that I hadn’t yet grown. I realized that my garden was therapy, and though one day I hoped it would become a-year-long therapy, I would be making a terrible mistake if I stopped the process simply because one portion of it wasn’t working for me. From this vantage point, I am very glad for that decision long ago. My garden has paid me back many times over for the hours I devoted to it these many years. It has been good for me.
I am grateful for continual clean water, electricity, furnaces and fireplaces, hardwood floors, meaningful employment, vacuum cleaners, brooms, chickens, cherries, kale, dill and sunny days. I am grateful for Vitamin D and aloe vera plants, books, movies and this blog that gives me an outlet of expression. I am grateful for the constant drive to improve and learn new things. I am grateful for Santa and teddy bears and quilts and clotheslines.
Being grateful makes us happier. It really does. Because it helps us develop a more positive outlook, it promotes optimism, lowers stress, depression and anxiety. There is growing scientific evidence that demonstrates expressing genuine gratitude improves our physical health as well as emotional. It improves our quality of sleep and even enhances our immune system.
Thanksgiving is a gift. It is the opportunity we often neglect to take without a reminder, that is to pause, take a few minutes, reflect on what we’re really grateful for. I hope you take this time to do exactly that. I’d love to see your list. No doubt you’ll remind me of many more things I too am grateful for.
Fruit leather! Apple leather – rhubarb leather – any kind of fruit leather. Mix it up. Apple pear. Rhubarb raspberry. Plum! Whatever you’ve got on hand that needs to be used up, turn it into a delicious, nutritious snack to grab all winter long.
Rhubarb-raspberry-cranberry leather. Adding cranberries to fruit sauce makes the colour gorgeous! Apple leather behind it. Apple sauce for leather is so dependable in the late summer because they’re usually so plentiful. Its wonderful to use by itself, or as a base with pears, plums, rhubarb, berries, or whatever you might have on hand.
I first learned about Fruit Leather when my oldest was just a baby. I never tried it or even saw it, just read about it. In a library book. I loved the idea of it, and that very week, made some of my own, using our oven. I dried it at the lowest temperature I could get on my oven, and was hooked from that day on. Over time, I’ve progressed to the convenience of the counter top dehydrator I use today, but seriously, one doesn’t need a dehydrator. This is something people have made for many many years before dehydrators made everything easy
When you have access to your own fruit trees or a friend’s, you often have a lot of fruit that needs to be used or preserved – RIGHT NOW. We wait all summer long for fruits to ripen, and then when they do, every hour counts as we eat, juice, can, freeze, dehydrate, make jams or jellies, flavour vinegars, pickle, ferment, bake, and do anything else we can think of to continue to enjoy them for months to come.
It is a fun goal of mine to make valuable use of everything the Lord has blessed me with, or to pass it on to someone else who will, but just because I said it was a ‘fun’ goal, doesn’t mean its not without a lotta work. Usually it means many hours of hard work. Fruit leather is one of those results. It’s where excess fruit goes to find purpose and meaning to its existence. Fruit leather isn’t prejudiced against fruit that isn’t pretty enough to make it to the produce department, or the glass canning jars. Perhaps it wasn’t the ‘prettiest’ peach in the box, or perhaps the apples hit the ground and receive bruises, fruit leather is non-discriminatory.
Taking advantage of fruit that would otherwise go to waste. Apple pie, apple crisp, apple muffins, apple juice, apple jelly, apple sauce, apple butter, apple leather, . . . . . Apple is the base for so many late summer edibles, and the perfect fruit to preserve for all winter long.
In fact, sometimes it even takes biproducts from other projects and makes them valuable again. For instance, apple pulp left over from steam juicing, can be strained to separate the apple sauce. And apple sauce makes wonderful fruit leather all by itself, and a beautiful base for many other mixes.
I think its impossible to have an exact recipe when you’re true the ‘spirit of fruit leather’. When you are using excess, you just don’t measure in ounces or cups. So the ‘recipe’ below is only a guideline to begin with. You can vary it depending on whatever happens to be in season and accessible.
I like to at least heat the fruit through for a few minutes to arrest any alteration in colour or flavour, and also to kill any bacteria. Lightly simmering the fruit, softens it and makes it easier to smooth. Either mash the softened fruit with a potato masher, or puree it in a blender, of half and half to have a more interesting texture.
Sour cherries make amazing fruit leather, alone or in combination with other fruits. They are also terrific dehydrated by themselves. Pitted of course.
Often times a combination of fruits, using the apple sauce first, opens up to a whole new world of textures and flavours. Starting with a base of apple sauce, consider these variations: * apple sauce – straight, all by itself, only sweetened if necessary, and nothing else * apple sauce with pear sauce mashed, skins removed, (trust me on this, pear skins when really ripe are tough and unpleasant). If you puree it, then you can leave the skins on. * apple berry blend – your choice. Whatever’s in season. I love using raspberries, * apple plum blend * apple peach blend * apple pie – apples with cinnamon for apple-pie fruit leather * apple grape – puree the grapes if they have seed in them.
* Sour cherries. Pureed or mashed for added texture, sweetened to taste. By themselves, or in combination with other fruits, always a winner. * Plums. In my climate, there are many varieties of plums that grow well. And they’re not only delicious to eat straight off the tree, but great for canning, dehydrating, making into jams or plum sauce, and of course fruit leather alone or in combination with other fruits. Their sweetness is the perfect companion to the tartness of rhubarb. * Peaches – alone, or mixed with anything you like are always an all time favourite of mine. However, peaches don’t grow in my climate so I always have to buy them, and mashing up fruit I purchased hurts my feelings. So the only time I would ever make peach jam or peach leather is when I got a steal of a deal, or they got away from me, past their prime, and I would otherwise lose them. That’s what makes fruit leather so great – it prevents waste. * Apricots. I don’t often have a lotta fresh apricots that I wouldn’t mind cooking up. Kinda in the same category as peaches. But in the rare instance that I have had access to some, I’d make a TON of apricot leather. I LOVE the flavour and unique ‘tart sweetness’ of apricots, and they’re a powerhouse of nutrition.
alone, or in combination with the tartness of rhubarb, the beautiful colour and natural sweetness of plums is a perfect choice for fruit leather
*Be brave and experiment. If it sounds good, and it tastes good together, then it might be the perfect marriage. Its all about making use of what you have on hand.
* Rhubarb is the perfect base for fruit leather. Beautifully tart, it is great alone, or mixed with berries or apple sauce. And its ever-plentiful, hardy in our climate. That’s hard to beat. If I’m looking for a beautiful red colour, I’ll add frozen or freeze dried cranberries. Sweeten only to taste, being careful not to loose the tartness that sets rhubarb apart.
Additional ingredients and what they’re used for:
Sugar or other sweetener: to personal taste. I am not normally a white sugar girl, but for fruit leather I find it is preferable to other sweeteners like stevia or brown sugars. Besides, sugar has preservative benefits too. Just be responsible with ‘how much’. Honey is great, but it adds its unique flavour to the fruit sauce, so make sure you like that flavour blend before you decide to use it.
rhubarb, the northern gardener’s best friend
Water or other liquid: to give it enough liquid to steam itself. Just enough, not too much. Remember, you’re dehydrating this. The more liquid to add, the more you need to dry out.
Lemon juice: to retain vibrant colour, and to add some tartness. I love the taste of lemon, and the tartness of it. It is perfect in so many combinations, especially those where flavours are being combined.
Recipe (remember there are no real, hard defined measurements). The recipe below is ONLY A GUIDE. I’m gonna use RHUBARB as my example. You can personally adjust for any other fruit, according to your own tastes and preferences.
Rhubarb Leather
1. freshly picked rhubarb, washed, chopped, and lightly simmered over low heat, till its soft enough to mash. Use water only to keep it from scorching (maybe 1/2 cup for every 4 cups of fruit), and keep the heat low. 2. sprinkle sugar over top to taste. 3. add enough lemon juice to keep colours vibrant. Could be a couple of tablespoons to a full cup – depending on how big your pot of rhubarb is. Lemon juice will keep the integrity of the colour, and will add a little zing to your flavour, but is NOT necessary. 4. mash cooked rhubarb with a potato masher to a nice consistency. I prefer this to puree’ing in the blender, because the texture is more interesting. 5. If you feel like the colour is lacking, add some red raspberries if you have them. 6. For colour: I keep on hand a good supply of frozen and/or freeze dried cranberries for the purpose of adding a gorgeous stable RED colour to my red jams and even fruit leathers. If you want your rhubarb a nicer, pinker to reddish colour, add a cup or two cranberries, and simmer with rhubarb till tender. Mash or puree (your choice), to incorporate well.
Now to dry: If you have a dehydrator, that’s my preference. If you do not, use the oven on VERY low, as low as your oven will allow. I’ll start with my first experience which was an oven.
OVEN – You need a flat surface, like a cookie sheet. Spread the sheet with a layer of plastic wrap, like saran wrap (NOT waxed paper – you’ll be sorry), or parchment paper. The saran wrap likes to stick together and its very annoying to lay it flat, but do it anyway. If you rush the job, you’ll only get more frustrated. If you have a flat silicone sheet, all the better. Its reusable and lays flat. Pour your prepared fruit sauce over top of your lined surface, and gently spread it out with the back of a spoon. Spread to about an inch from the edges. How thin? Just thick enough that you cannot see through it, about 1/8-1/4 inch.
Place in a warm oven that is set to the lowest temperature you can – which will probably be between 150-200 degrees. You’re wanting to dry the fruit sauce for as long as it takes to become a leathery, slightly tacky finished product. There are so many variables that will determine how long that should take. Check every hour or two, moving the pan slightly to promote even heat distribution. Be patient. You can’t rush this stage. My guess is anywhere from 9-12 hours. Personally, I don’t recommend leaving it over night because you’re not able to monitor sufficiently. Turn the oven off when you go to bed, and start the process over again in the morning. It doesn’t have to be babysat, just don’t leave it unattended for too many hours.
When you see that it is drying, gently touch it to see how soft or tacky it is. You don’t want any soft spots. When you think that its almost done, I recommend peeling it off the plastic, parchment or silicone sheet and flipping it upside down on the oven rack itself, for another hour or so. This lets air get all around it, and allows it to more evenly dry.
HOMEMADE DEHYDRATOR – In the height of my dehydrating days, when I had all the kids at home, Dan built me a large wooden dehydrator, almost as big as our freezer. He and our good friend Kevin Lamont worked together, as Kevin was also building one for his wife Diana. They heated them with in-car heaters which worked beautifully, moving just enough air and at a very suitable temperature. I used that dehydrator for many years, drying mostly fruits, fruit leather and herbs, but also experimenting with various vegetables. It was also a good place to make yogurt. By the time we moved to our present house, I was running our Bookstore fulltime and very busy in the early fall, getting ready for Christmas. I dehydrated less, and couldn’t justify the large floor space that my faithful dehydrator took. We found it another happy home, and moved on.
On a screened frame, lay out your plastic wrap, or parchment and pour your sauce over top spreading it with the back of a spoon. The nice thing about a big dehydrator is that you can do LOTS of fruit leather at one time. Check the progress every few hours, rotating racks to keep the heat and air more evenly distributed. My estimate is probably a good 12 – 24 hours, but again – so many variables. How full is the dehydrator? How wet and thick was your sauce? Heat and air flow? Be patient and don’t rush it. Just like with the oven, when you think its pretty much done, peel off the plastic wrap and flip it upside down on the screen for the last hour or so.
COUNTER TOP DEHYDRATOR – You can have as few as two or three racks in a counter top dehydrator, or as many as you want. That means you can easily dehydrate a small batch, or a huge batch of whatever you’re doing, and the foot print stays the same. Nice. In August or September, my dehydrator lives in my kitchen, and is often running for days at a time. I have about a dozen racks so I often dehydrate more than one type of food at a time, being careful to monitor the different time requirements. *hint: don’t put fruit and herbs in the drier at the same time unless you want oregano tinted fruit leather. But herbs and zucchini in the dehydrator at the same time are good companions.
There are some beautiful counter top dehydrators nowadays, that are easy to use, easy to regulate temperature, and easy to keep clean. Those are winning features in my books. You can also purchase plastic fruit-leather liners and screens for berries and herbs. I love that flexibility. I have six or eight reusable fruit leather liners, perfect for my use this time of year. Using the same method, I simply pour my sauce onto the liner, spreading out with the back of a spoon to the desired thickness.
fold or roll the finished fruit leather and store in an airtight bag or container
I can expect it to take about 24 hours, but again so many variables. How many racks? How wet is the sauce? And how thickly did I spread it out? Even, how humid is the air? If I put the fruit sauce into the dehydrator at night, I have no problem going to sleep with it on, but if I start the process in the morning, I wouldn’t risk it leaving it unattended overnight. I’d turn the dehydrator off when I went to bed, and start it again the next morning, so that I can keep an eye on the progress. As with the other two methods, when the leather is almost ready in my opinion, I’ll peel it from the liner and return to the rack upside down, for another hour or two or three, finishing the drying process to my satisfaction. *hint: when peeling the fruit leather from the plastic liner, it may be a little tricky. I use a firm plastic spatula to gently scrape the edges to get a good start.
Whichever method you use, the results will be very similar.
To store:
Do a final touch test to ensure the leather is dry enough – no sticky spots. Fold or roll up, and place in an airtight bag or container. Store in your pantry to have handy for regular use. Some store it in the fridge or freezer, but I’ve never done that. For one, my space is limited. And I am much more likely to lose it, and forget about it in the bottom of my freezer. LOL
packed away to store in the pantry within reach of little grandkid hands
When properly dried and package, you can expect your fruit leather to be optimum in your pantry for about a year. Preservation depends on their low moisture content of less than 25%, the natural acidity of the fruit and the sugar content. Don’t push it too long past a year though. It may appear the same, but the nutritional value will have been steadily diminishing from the time you made it. Though dehydrating may slow down the nutritional loss, it cannot prevent it. (Not even in the freezer)
I’ve known lots of people who cut their fruit leather into convenient strips to store. I think that’s great; I’ve just never done it. Mine is usually stored in the original size, and we just rip a piece off when we eat it.
The principle of food storage is sound and I wholely subscribe to it. I live by it. BUT the rule is simple: store what you eat, and eat what you store. Keeping your food storage rotated, means keeping it fresh, and that means keeping it nutritionally sound, and that should be important to us. So EAT the fruit leather you make. Give it to the kids as a healthy snack. Send it in their lunches. Bring it in the car for road trips. Don’t protect it in your pantry like some kind of rare treasure you’ll only bring to the light during some future zombie apocalypse. This is REAL life. And it tastes GOOD.
I hope this is of help to you. If you have yet to try your hand at making your own fruit leather, I really hope you’ll give it a try. You don’t need any special tools to begin, just an oven. The first time I made it (all those many years ago), I was excited to tell my sister about my new discovery. She asked how she’d be able to tell it was done, and I told her “when its dry, you just have to be your own judge”. She made it and then phoned and complained to me that it was terrible. It was like shoe leather. Who wanted to eat that? LOL *hint: stop drying it before it gets to the point of being so dry its like shoe leather. But its an experiment. You’re never gonna know till you try it yourself.
Have fun. I’d love to hear your experiences, your favourite ways of making fruit leather, and your favourite combinations.
In our goal to care for ourselves and our families, there are many challenges. Some more practical and some more emotional. But one of those practical challenges is to find ROOM!
Room to store food that will be accessible enough to our day-to-day living, so as to allow us to not only “Store-what-we-eat“, but to actually “EAT-what-we-store“. When I was a child, it seemed that most houses were built with a cold room. Ours was for sure. And it was COLD, all year round. All our non-frozen food went in there, the boxes of fruit my mother bought, and everything else that needed to be kept cold but not frozen. Twenty years later, by the time Dan and I were looking at houses to buy, the fashion was very different. There were fewer cupboards in kitchens, no (or very small) pantries and zero additional space to store food – especially if you wanted it cold. What the heck? Another twenty years later, with the homes my kids have purchased, I am noticing some common trends. The newer homes have fairly nice sized pantries, but virtually NO available space for additional storage. It seems that for the last several decades, storing more than a few week’s worth of food requires considerable creativity. And being creative is important, because where we store our food storage is a big factor in *how long we can expect it to last, *the quality that it will retain, and more importantly *how accessible it is to us to be able to USE. Types of containers, and conditions in the space we store it will impact its shelf life.
FINDING SPACE WHEN YOU’RE PRETTY SURE THERE ISN’T ANY
After we bought the house we are currently in, it took us a few years of trying this and that before we settled on not one area that worked for food storage, but a combination of three areas. A little over a decade ago, we made some big changes in what we were storing, which influenced of course, how we stored it. Although I still do home canning and I still dehydrate when its suitable, and yes, we still have a freezer, about ten years ago we began to incorporate FREEZE DRIED Food into our food storage. The exceptionally long shelf life was the initial attraction – twenty five years, as opposed to the suggested two years of canned food (whether home canned or commercially canned), and the one year or less recommended for frozen food. That’s a BIG Plus! But it was also the variety that appealed to me. Everyone knows that the weak spot of any food storage program is VEGETABLES. Eating canned fruit isn’t bad, but who really likes canned vegetables? canned peas? or green beans or beets? When I was a child, Popeye tried to convince us that canned spinach was desirable. It would make you strong! he said. And although he did a good job convincing me it would make me strong, even Popeye couldn’t make canned spinach taste good. Suddenly with freeze dried food, one could have spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, celery, onions, and a whole lotta other vegetables – that tasted like they had just been picked, and which were FULL of important nutrients! And not just vegetables. Fruits, dairy products and even meats!
When considering where to store food storage, it is important that you find a place that is dry, dark and cool. Wouldn’t it be nice to have those cold rooms of yester-year? But even though most modern houses don’t plan for that sort of thing, those three factors of *dry, *dark, and *cool, must be our focus when looking for a suitable place. All other factors are secondary to moisture and temperature.
CONTAINERS
Common containers for food storage are: *paper – such as sacks of flour and sugar, or cardboard pasta boxes – short term only. *plastic or cellophane – such as pasta bags, raisin bags etc – short term only. *plastic buckets with air tight lids – suitable to pour from, or place bagged foods into. Practical for holding large amounts of food while keeping smells in or out, air out, and light blocked. Shelf life is completely dependent on what you put into them. *glass – mostly used by home canners, this is as effective as metal cans except for the obvious need to keep in the dark. Food exposed to light will react to it. Shelf life is recommended to be two years or less. *metal cans – of wet food such as fruit, cans of soup etc – like jars, recommended shelf life is two years. Metal cans – of dried food extends the shelf life considerably. It is the absence of moisture and the absence of oxygen that is so beneficial, but of course, it depends what is in the can, and how dry it was when sealed.
In all cases, moisture in the #1 enemy, It is imperative that we protect food from moisture which creates a perfect environment for harmful micro-organisms to thrive in. *hint: moisture doesn’t always mean liquid. Be mindful of moisture in the air that dry food will absorb when exposed to it.
CREATING ROOM
When you invest in food storage, “where am I gonna put this?” has got to be a question we ask ourselves. We can’t just keep buying food without a proper place to put it. We need shelves of one sort or another. And we need some kind of dedicated space.
underneath our stairs we created a spot that promised to work just fine. The shelves are deep enough to hold #10 cans three deep.
The space underneath stairs is often awkward and poorly used. Its generally an unfinished area, without heat, and If its in the basement, the cement floor helps it to be cool. The absence of a window keeps light to a minimum. Building some sturdy shelves can take best advantage of the space. Make sure the shelves are high enough for large #10 cans and deep enough for 3-4 of them or 4-6 quart jars.
The incorporation of freeze dried food into our family food storage meant that our storage situation needed to be adjusted. Frankly, it made it a lot easier. We had already invested in a shelf rotation unit. The company was then called SHELF RELIANCE (changed their name in 2013 to THRIVE LIFE). We opted initially, for the variety unit which held small cans like tuna sized, right up to the large number 10 sized cans, and everything in between. Seriously, it was one of the best investments we ever made in the area of food storage. It made rotating the cans so easy, and rotation is a major consideration when managing long term food storage. First in, first out. No more wasting food because it gets forgotten behind something else. The shelf rotation system was simple and brilliant.
For those like us, who needed some serious organization and to maximize storage space, this can-rotation system was the cat’s meow. It holds more cans than I could have imagined – up to 300 cans of varying sizes. No more stacking boxes and searching for what you’re pretty sure you have somewhere. And more importantly, no more forgetting about cans that remain tucked away until way past their expiry date. They are suitable to set up in a pantry, in a closet, in a food storage room, tucked into some corner in the basement, or in whatever available space you have – it keeps food uncluttered, visible and accessible.
In time, we bought another unit to accommodate some of our growing supply of large family sized cans of freeze dried food. But still, where to put them? and where to create more storage space? When we first got them, we kept them both in the laundry room which wasn’t ideal for a number of reasons, so we kept our minds open to other possibilities.
two rotation units side by side. One is for larger cans only, the other is for a variety of sizes.
At the time, we had an exceptionally long family room in our basement. We measured off a few feet at the back and Dan built a wall, instantly creating a new room, narrow but sufficient for our needs. We put our rotation units into it, adding additional shelves as were appropriate. Having two rooms for food storage might not have been our initial preference, but one must make the best of one’s situation right? It does allow us to diversify and organize better. And it allows for easy access.
TEMPERATURE
When dealing with food that has such an exceptionally long shelf life as freeze dried food, it is tempting to assume that shelf life is unconditional, Make no mistake – there is no such thing as unconditional. Fluctuating temperatures of summer highs and winter lows undermine the integrity of any food, no matter how dry it is stays. That 25 year shelf life is dependent upon ideal conditions. Q: What is the ideal temperature condition? A: Consistent temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit (or 20 degrees Celsius) with the most important part being “CONSISTENT”.
Yes, we all know people who store their food in an unheated garage, but in that condition (at least in the climate I live in) it is impossible to avoid drastic fluctuation of temperature. However, if that is your only option, all you can do is make the best of it. Do you best to keep the temperature as consistent as possible, and know that your 25 year expectation should unavoidably be adjusted. I have even known some who store their freeze dried food in an outdoor shed! Though it may offer shelter from the rain, shed, temperatures can easily dip below -40 C in winter and rise to almost +40 C in the summer, with everything in between. This is extremely undesirable, and will most assuredly affect the stability of your food. It is not necessarily cold or heat that causes the damage, as much as the continuous fluctuation between the two extremes.
In the end, all we can do is the best we can do. I am of the firm belief that FOOD STORAGE is very important. I believe it should be food of the highest quality possible, and that all precautions should be taken to ensure it stays healthy. Where to start? That is a discussion for another time, but it is critical to start somewhere. Better to have some than none. Better to start! Don’t wait for a location to suddenly appear. Take charge and carve out a spot that is dark, dry and maintains a temperature as consistent as possible. Build or buy some shelves to store it, and GO FOR IT. You’ll never regret it.
Where have you found the best place to store your food storage? I’d love to hear your creative solutions when space was limited.
“Yes, I know its a weed. But don’t be such a bigot. ” There I said it. Let’s get that out of the way from the beginning. Just because it volunteers its called a weed, but Hello, WEED is NOT a swear word. Some of my best friends are weeds. Just because something is called a weed, doesn’t mean we should discount it. The word is only a ‘term’. Many ‘weeds’ have earned their spots in my garden.
So, what exactly IS a weed? By definition, it is a “valueless plant growing wild” – especially on cultivated ground intended for a more desired crop. Generally, a weed is seen to be a troublesome plant, causing injury to its more desired neighbours. Okay that’s rude, and I admit – if a weed was being a jerk in my garden, it would have to go. But many times, the plant hasn’t hurt our feelings. All we know about it is that someone told us it’s a weed. Who gets to decide that? Most often, we consider a plant a weed, because it has been defined that way for us by the historically respected wisdom of “they“, whoever “they” are. “They” say that this is a weed, so therefore I must despise it, and do my best to eradicate it. Simply put, “a weed is a plant considered undesirable“, but perhaps it might be undesirable in one situation – while quite desirable in another. It is merely a label for a plant in the wrong place. The term itself is a relative term, and what may be a weed to you may not be to me, and vice versa. If a weed is characterized by not being wanted, then does wanting it, mean it is no longer – a weed?
You’d be amazed how many people just want to bend over and pluck a ‘weed’, prompted by their inner good intentions to rid the world of these nuisances. It is a constant battle trying to ensure these Good Samaritans that all is in control and that the world will not go to heck if we let some ‘particular’ weeds find joy in their existence. I created a ‘spot’ for them in my yard and called it my protected zone. My refugee camp for weeds. A place for them to be safe to simply BE. But their existence bothered some people, so I put up a sign to ensure their safety.
Okay, so for argument’s sake, let’s agree that a weed generally ‘volunteers‘ itself – essentially, invites itself to the party – which really isn’t polite in some circles. And by common understanding, it competes with the invited guests, for resources like water, sunshine and space. Also – not polite. So it’s a little loud, and takes up too much room at the buffet, and yes – a weed usually reproduces rather aggressively, or is invasive, but still – let’s not HATE a plant just because it doesn’t have good garden manners. A plant that is a weed in one context is not a weed when growing in a situation where it is in fact, wanted. The first time I saw an oriental poppy, it had volunteered in my garden – uninvited, and therefore ‘a weed’.
What if you found value in some of them? Would they cease to be the scourge they are now? What if those same weeds became part of your summer meals? Many are available in the early spring, before your vegetables are even ready to pick. Used to their fullest, weeds can increase the potential yield of your garden, and at the very least – make it more interesting.
Most of the weeds I talk about in this post grow from self seeding, so they are up and established weeks before your regular garden. This means that you can start eating nutritious and delicious mixed garden greens (lambs quarters, chickweed, dandelion leaves, borage, plantain, etc) in your salad as early as May (in the Edmonton area) most years. By mid June, as your garden grows and develops. you will be eating more ‘regular’ vegetables from your garden, adding more and more to your salad as the days go by and needing weeds less. But not to worry, they don’t get their feelings hurt easily. They’re there for you when you need them.
BORAGE
herb Borage
Borage was ‘invited’ initially, into my garden, but because it returns year after year on its own – by definition it has become a weed. If one was a weed bigot, they’d miss out on what Borage has to offer. Borage attracts bees and other pollinators to your garden. You’ll need to remove it from spots where it will shade or outgrow nearby plants, but for heaven’s sake, don’t deny it a place simply because you didn’t invite it. Borage is edible in leaf, flower and seed, and fairly nutritious, though the texture is not so desirable. It is for this reason that it has an honoured place in my garden.
CALENDULA
herb Calendula
Calendula are hardy, self seeding beautifully vibrant flowers, free spirits who grow where they want. I love their gorgeous bright orange splashes of colour throughout the gardens: flower, herb and vegetable. Because I pick them for fresh flowers in the kitchen, and also to dry for later, I sometimes worry that I am not leaving enough to self seed, so I intentionally ensure some blossoms get left to go-to-seed, and when ripened I freely scatter them. My investment in the future.
My discovery of calendulas came as a gift from a neighbour who thought I’d enjoy them. I didn’t know what to expect, but trusting her I broadcast the seed and was delighted the next spring when they sprang to life, and even more so later, when they showed their cheery bright orange faces. Calendula flowers attract pollinators all season long, so they are valuable as companion plants.
CHAMOMILE
German chamomile is an annual plant that reaches around 2 feet in height. It is probably the one you’re most used to seeing and the one pictured here, and though it is an annual plant, it is an aggressive self-seeder, so it will likely return year after year. Tricky. Wild chamomile is sometimes referred to as Pineapple Plant or Pineapple-weed, is an annual ‘weed’ that commonly grows in inhospitable areas like gravel driveways, cracks in sidewalks, road sides and of course in fields – any place where it gets plenty of sun and heat.
Pineapple weed gets its nickname from its appearance and scent. The shape of the blossom is reminiscent of a pineapple, and when you pinch one of the flowers you will smell the sweet, light sent of pineapple. Like the other chamomiles, it has medicinal qualities. It is a sedative herb that relaxes the digestive system and settles the stomach (including motion sickness). Also good for calming nerves, and as a mild relaxant to help you sleep. Because of its soothing properties it is used to help reduce stress and anxiety.
Pineapple weed is wild chamomile. It thrives in the most inhospitable areas.
Its hard to say how to grow a ‘weed’ because just the nature of a weed means it grows wherever it darn well feels like it. Usually the problem is to stop growing where you don’t want it. But I find that to be true only until you find a useful purpose for it. Afterward it suddenly gets picky about its growing environ. Wild chamomile grows in cracks and seams and gravel, but in my garden it grows in a protected area, where weeds can be safe. But because it is used to abuse and inhospitality, it doesn’t thrive in a wholesome environment. Poor thing. So if you have a terrible spot in your yard, plant pineapple week in it. You’ll both be happy.
Pick it to use fresh, or to dry for winter use. Of German Chamomiles you can use the flowers and leaves, and even the stems, but I only pick the flowers because they’re so plentiful I don’t need anymore than that. But for the pineapple weed, because its so small and I usually don’t have a lot to pick from, I pick the blossoms and leaves, and if the plant is young and tender, I pick the stems too. Swish the plant around in water then flick off excess moisture or run through a lettuce spinner.
To make an infusion / cuppa tea, take a large handful and steep in tea pot with boiling hot water for 10 – 20 minutes. Easier to keep hot if you gently simmer in a small pot on very low heat. Strain as for any tea, and drink with a touch of honey or a dash of stevia to sweeten if desired. Adding a pinch of mint leaves gives it a nice flavour. Brew lots and chill it for a nice refreshing iced tea later.
CHICKWEED (common chickweed and long stalked chickweed)
I’ve taught classes where I have brought chickweed growing in a pot to show, and had people convinced they’ve never seen it before. I believe they have, they’re just not used to seeing it that up-close-and-personal, or perhaps that well taken care of. The plant lies low and trails the ground, the perfect ground cover. It is easy to pull up and get rid of, but don’t be so quick to try to eradicate it. It is one of my most valued plants (weed or no weed). Learn what it looks like and treat it with the respect it deserves.
Hated by many gardeners, chickweed can be transformed from a pest to a deliciously tender ‘vegetable’ by anyone with an open mind. Hardy, self seeds, highly recommended. With a delicate flavour, chickweed is a nutritional power house: calcium, essential fatty acid, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, silicon, sulfur, zinc, vitamins B1 B2 B3, C and E.
Chickweed harvested in the house in April. An off season treat.
in this image, I have a bonus batch of chickweed that came into the house in the summer with some garden soil. It sits dormant all winter long till the light gets better – mid March. Then it comes to life and doesn’t need much encouragement to grow beautifully.
Common Chickweed that we so often find in our gardens, is a tender plant, branching out from a central root. The small leaves are bright green and sometimes referred to as ‘mouse ears’. The flowers are tiny, white and star like. Although its an annual, chickweed self seeds and so if you’re lucky, you can inadvertently bring in some seed with garden soil if you bring any plants into the house for winter. Common in most gardens, especially in damp partly shady areas.
Chickweed is super easy to eat right on the spot while you’re working in the garden. Be careful not to pull it up by the root as you don’t want to kill it. I know, that is contrary to what you’re naturally inclined to want to do with ‘weeds’, but once you understand and experience the value of chickweed, it will be a valuable and protected plant in your garden. Coarsely chop to add to a salad, throw into a smoothie or steam with other greens. There is no shortage of ways you can incorporate chickweed into your daily summer diet, and you will feel better for it. I promise.
Long-leaved Chickweed is a native plant to the Edmonton area. Also known as long-leaved stichwort or long-leaf starwort, it is a perennial clump-forming plant with stems that are erect or straggling, often branched. It can grow up to 20 inches long. It’s flowers are small and delicate, white with five parted petals.
It normally grows in wet meadows, woodlands, and in marshes where the soil is moist and fertile with full sun. It is considered protected in the wild, and as most native plants are endangered it should never be picked and transplanted. The only way to get one is to purchase a plant or seed from a responsible organization like EDMONTON NATIVE PLANTS SOCIETY which you can look up online. They also have a face book page. They propagate for the purpose of sharing the plants to interested gardeners.
using: The native, long leaved chickweed plant is edible, and can be used in all the same ways one would use common garden chickweed.
DANDELION
dandelions are a common site in every disturbed patch of ground, but they don’t have to be the ‘enemy’
In addition to just good nutrition, dandelions have the potential to provide some therapeutic health benefits. They contain powerful antioxidants which we all know is important to a healthy immune system, and research also indicates they may have anti inflammatory properties as well as being a natural diuretic. Dandelions contain bioactive compounds that are known to assist in reducing cholesterol, and for generations they have been used to promote a healthy liver.
Personally, I don’t know about all that stuff. Some people are passionate about the health benefits, and of course some are always skeptical. But for sure they are nutritious and are unlikely to cause harm, as long as you’re not allergic, so for me – that’s good enough for now. I consider them a gift from Heavenly Father, and I’ll use them where I can.
Dandelions are a power house of nutritional value: highly nutritious, containing vitamins C and B6, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, iron, potassium and manganese. Compared to spinach – the well respected “super food” – dandelion greens have 8 times more antioxidants + 2 times more calcium + 3 times more vitamin A + 5 times more vitamin E and K. That should be enough information to at least compel us to want to give them a try. Dandelion acts as a mild laxative that promotes digestion, stimulates appetite and balances the natural and beneficial bacteria in the intestines. They are a unique addition to your well balanced diet and healthy lifestyle.
using:
Dandelion greens are one of the healthiest of green vegetables. Yes, they’re a little on the bitter side, like radicchio and endive only more so. It seems that “bitter herbs” are the ones with all the nutrients in them. (How ironic is that?) So be creative, and be persistent in finding ways that you can enjoy them.
*Leaves / the greens: are more tender and less bitter in the early spring. Simply snip the leaves from your protected plants, as you would any other garden green. Wash in warm water, and dry as you would leaf lettuce. Cut them up to add into a salad to distribute among the other greens. Studies indicate that bitter flavours are great for digestion and curbing sugar cravings. Eating more dandelion can be as simple as sprinkling a handful of chopped leaves into your next salad. Later, the leaves get quite strong tasting with that bitterness unique to dandelions. I have heard the blanching them helps to get rid of the bitter taste. To blanch, put into boiling salted water for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Strain them and transfer them to ice water.
I added half a red pepper for this one. Nice colours! Served with cucumbers and crumbled feta.
recipe: DANDELION OMELETTE for one 6 – 10 dandelion leaves, washed, stem removed and lightly chopped. 1 stalk of garlic chives with bulb, chopped 2 eggs, lightly beaten
Boil some water and blanche the leaves for a minute or two. Strain and set aside. In a little oil, saute chopped garlic chives over medium heat till tender (just a minute or two). Add the blanched greens and saute another minute or so. Turn heat down a bit, and pour beaten eggs over vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper or your fave seasoning. Cook omelette till eggs are set. Turn out onto plate and serve.
dandelion tea made from dandelion flowers
*Flowers: can be picked when they are nice and young. Wash them by gently swishing in cool water. You’ll be surprised how much dirt will settle in your water when you thought they were clean. Remove all green from the underside, not because it’s bad for you, but because it doesn’t taste good. Toss into your salad whole. Some people batter the blossoms and deep fry them like a fritter.
Or make a dandelion iced tea. NOT kidding! It is quite delicious and very refreshing. Pick lots of dandelion flower heads, being sure to wash them in cool water. Put them in a clean pot and pour boiling water over to cover and a few more inches. Let them steep for an hour or two till completely cooled. You can drink anywhere along the line, the only difference is gonna be whether its hot or cold, and the strength of the infusion of course. I drink it hot, room temperature and cold from the fridge. I like it all ways, but probably chilled is my favourite. Surprisingly it does not need any sweetener.
*Roots: are better later in the year, but before frost. When digging, make sure you dig deep down to get as much of the root as possible. Cut them off the plant and soak them in water to loosen the dirt. Brush and rub together to clean, changing water as needed.
To make a coffee-like hot drink (decoction): chop into small pieces no more than 1/2 an inch. Heat your oven to 350° F, and place roots on a pan to toast for 10-15 minutes. Don’t leave them alone, as they will burn easily. Check every three or four minutes and move them around when they begin to toast to try to keep the toasting even. The pieces should smoke a little and give off a chocolaty aroma while cooking. When most of them look like ‘chocolate’ pieces, and snap apart easily they are done. Allow them to cool, and then store them in an airtight jar out of sunlight.
I have a coffee grinder but I’ve never used it for coffee. LOL. I just throw these toasted root bits into the blender and blend to a coarse crumble – like cocoa nibs. You can store it like this too. To prepare drink, pour boiling water over top of the nibs and brew like you would a loose leaf herbal tea. Let it sit as long as you want, and strain like you would herbal tea leaves. Test for strength and adjust your amounts according to taste.
FEVERFEW
Feverfew is a cheerful, ferny plant with lots of pretty small white daisy-like flowers with bright yellow centers. It is adaptable and low maintenance. It loves full sun and well drained soil, but is agreeable to partial shade. When the flowers are mature / ripe, their yellow centers will begin to dry and brown into seeds. I usually take two or three of these seed heads and sprinkle them among my entire garden. That will give me hundreds of volunteer pop-up plants for next summer. They are a biennial which means they flower and go to seed in their second year. They don’t come back the next spring, but lots of little feverfew babies do.
In its second year, in a favourable spot it can grow to up to 20 inches. A nice bushy, ferny plant. Feverfew is easy to remove where you don’t want it, and its easy to transplant too. Its just an easy going friend, who doesn’t take offense. I allow it to grow profusely in my herb garden, flower gardens and even a few in my vegetable garden. Just because we’re friends, and we get along well.
Feverfew is such a pretty plant, it brings me joy. The taste however, . . . it may have medicinal qualities, but it would never make it in the kitchen. That’s okay. You can’t be every thing to everybody. The taste is strong and bitter to me. My mother-in-law said she’d have to put it in a mouthful of something else to eat it. And that is exactly what I would have to do. Be creative. You only have to eat one leaf.
Feverfew is NOT a pain reliever, so don’t take it when you’re in the middle of a migraine. It is a preventative. I have never suffered from a migraine, and rarely get bad headaches, but those who take one pill a day, or one leaf a day as prevention, swear by it. It is effective in decreasing frequency and severity, and many people I have spoken to about it, say that their headaches are significantly fewer and more manageable. It is also used to relieve chronic premenstrual cramping.
HORSERADISH
horseradish is grown primarily for its root, but don’t discount the tasty leaves when they’re young and tender
So many people are afraid of planting horseradish. They’ve heard nightmare stories about how invasive it is, and the truth is, if you don’t want to eat it, there isn’t much point in growing it. Yes, it will come back every year, so I guess that makes it a bit of a weed, but open your mind. It is a very helpful plant to have around as a companion plant, but also as a salad green in addition to the sauce you make from its root. And therein lies the secret of controlling it. If you eat it, you EAT THE ROOT. Harvesting it is how you control it. Digging out the root at the end of every season, prevents it from getting too far ahead of you, and robustness is pretty important if its gonna continue to come back.
horseradish sauce in mayonnaise adds a punch to any sandwich
Yes, horseradish’s most commonly used part is the root, known for its strong, pungent flavour (and its heat) – that you either love or hate. But don’t discriminate against the leaves, as they are quite edible and very delicious when they are young. They have a sharp, bitter, and peppery taste — similar to arugula and kale and yes, even radish. Snip one or two fresh young leaves and chop up to add to a mixed green garden salad. I’m not suggesting a “horse radish leaf salad”, but to have some horse radish IN your mixed green salad is completely delicious. Try incorporating some of the young leaves into your next garden pesto. Or even add to the greens in your stir-fried vegetables. Be creative. Don’t be a garden bigot by not allowing certain ‘herbs’ or vegetables in your garden to show you how wonderful and versatile they really are.
LAMBS QUARTERS
Like many weeds, lambs quarters self seed, so they are up and established weeks before your regular garden. Also called goose foot or pigweed – lambs quarters is a relative of spinach and quinoa. Sometimes known as wild spinach, and considered a weed in most gardens, it deserves more credit than it usually gets. Highly nutritious, rich in V C and E, essential fatty acids, iron, calcium, minerals and antioxidants.
Like spinach, beet greens, swiss chard and most other greens lambs quarters contains some oxalic acid which when eaten raw in large quantities can inhibit calcium absorption. These plants are so loaded with calcium however, that the amount of calcium not absorbed due to oxalic acid is minimized. Its a good idea to rotate your ‘greens’ for that reason anyway. Variety is a good thing. The black seeds are edible and very nutritious. Very good source of protein.
The underside of Lamb’s Quarters’ leaves and top of the new leaves are covered in a fine pink dust. Resist the temptation to wash it off as it is full of calcium and protein. It contains even more protein than kale. When lamb’s quarters is young, the entire above ground plant is edible. The stems and leaves can be eaten raw, steamed, or sautéed. Can be used any way and in any recipe that spinach is used, including a ‘spinach’ salad.
early spring green garden salad with a base of romaine and some marigold sprinkled on top. Use a nice mild vinaigrette dressing.
When I am in my garden, I will often pick the tender new plants and eat them while I work. I never pull them to get rid of them. They’re much too valuable for that, I’ll just break them off.
I’ll also add them to salads, or to any other green that I steam.
MULLEIN
Mullein is a big, tall, unique looking plant with long fuzzy leaves, and in the flowering years it can reach six or seven feet tall. Introduced to North America with European settlers, it is considered a weed, that grows wild in fields and ditches in many parts of BC and Alberta. Some of the leaves can grow about two feet long.
mullein flowers on tall stalk
Mullein is a hardy biennial in the western states and provinces from zone 3 to 9. It loves sun and dry, so its the perfect plant for the backdrop of a country flower garden, or along sunny fence lines. It is drought resistant so once it gets established, it will pretty much take care of itself. It requires winter dormancy before it can flower. Yes its a weed, but its a great ‘weed’ so don’t be a bigot; bees love the yellow blossoms and birds eat the seeds. If you don’t want the seeds to disperse freely, then remove the flower stalk before it seeds. Personally, I don’t mind plants that self seed if they’re easy to pull up where I don’t want them. Mullein is easy to pull up, so I mostly let the wind or birds plant them where they want and I pull them up where its not gonna work for me. In fact, that’s how it came to me. As a gift from either the wind or some of my bird friends. I didn’t know what it was for a couple of years. Since its a biennial, it was different the second year, and confused me when it didn’t come back the third year, but a few babies took its place. My philosophy is to never kill something I don’t understand, and since it was new (and very interesting), I decided to let it prove itself to me. I figured it out finally and we understand each other now, and have a good relationship. It grows tall, so it needs room to be what it wants to be, but its so fun for the kids to touch the soft fuzzy leaves that I want it in a place where they can enjoy it.
As a biennial, the first year is the leaf year, getting only about three feet tall; the stalks and blossoms grow in the second year. Its small, yellow flowers are densely grouped on a tall stem, which grows from a large rosette of leaves. It won’t come back the year after it seeds, so if you can manage it, its good to have a few mullein plants in various stages of their development to ideally, you always have the tall yellow flowered stalks.
In the spring, when a cluster of a few plants appear here and there, I keep two or three at most in any given area and remove the others to replant elsewhere or two give away. With a little care, they’re easy to transplant.
Mullein is reputed to have expectorant and cough suppressant properties that make it useful for relief of the symptoms of sore throat and coughs. It has been used traditionally for respiratory conditions such as cough, asthma, pneumonia, and colds, but there is limited scientific research to support the claims. Currently the jury is still out on the medicinal uses of Mullein so for now, I use it only as an ornamental herb in my garden, and will continue to stay on top of continued research.
ORACH
Orach is closely related to spinach and lambs quarters. It is a self seeding annual, that stand erect and grow very tall. The leaves are most tender when they are young of course. Freely branching stems carrying many more leaves that decrease in size from bottom to top. Often the stems and leaves are tinged with red or purple. Sometimes they are all red, called Red Orach, and often referred to as “red spinach”. Aside from the fact that it is valuable as a food, it is extremely attractive in a vegetable, herb or even flower garden.
growing: In my opinion, orache is far superior to spinach as a crop vegetable because it can be harvested over a much longer period of time. I brought my first orach plant in as a transplant. A gift from a friend of my mother in law’s. For twenty years I’ve let it grow where it wants and then took out what was in an unsuitable spot. This year (2021) is the first year I have actually purchased seeds, and am planting a deliberate patch of orach. It will go to seed, but letting it, will produce make the leaves less tender. It responds very well to pinching, producing a lot of new stems covered in succulent young leaves. So pinch away, as soon as you see flowers appear.
using: I use Orach like spinach or beet greens or lambs quarters. When young, in a salad, when a little older and less tender, then I add them to anything I use normal ‘greens’ for.
PLANTAIN
Plantain is a low growing perennial weed common throughout most of the world, introduced to North America (like so many things) with settlement by Europeans. Whether you knew the name or not, the chances of you being familiar with plantain is very high, as it is found on disturbed ground almost everywhere – city, town, farm, meadow, woods, … you name it. In earlier days it became known as “white man’s foot” because it was common along roadsides and other disturbed areas. The seeds would stick to the boots of the travelers and to their animals. It grows and spreads in areas close to people and domestic animals. Interestingly, it is also wind pollinated so not dependent on bees, and the seeds along the spikes are popular with birds.
For all the above reasons, it has come to be a noxious weed in North America. Kind of ironic as the definition of noxious is “injurious to physical or mental health“, and plantain although perhaps irritating to farmers, can be very beneficial and in different parts of the world it is actually cultivated as a crop.
I have transplanted plantain plants to a ‘protected area’ of my garden, where weeds are allowed to grow in peace and safety. It has taken me a few years to educate the people I live with about the value in some plants so that the ‘weeds’ can be left to thrive. They don’t pretend to understand me. They just roll their eyes and shrug their shoulders and promise to stay out of the protected zone. Last year, I had to transplant in two more plantain plants because my well meaning mom dug them out in the spring lol. But I think we’ve made progress. I have put up a sign in that section of my garden that say “Let it Grow“. It was my daughter’s slogan; I voted for “Weeds have rights too”, but she was the one who made the sign so she had veto power.
The seeds and tiny flowers extend just about the full length of the spikes. The leaves are broad and oval shaped. The stocks holding the tiny flowers grow up from the roots.
They say that plantain leaves are edible, though you’d want to eat them very young in the spring as they get bitter and a little tough as the season wears on. I have never eaten them so don’t have an opinion. The seeds are also edible and when cooked will swell. I’ve never eaten them either.
It is used as a fresh poultice (called spit poultice) for insect bites. To make a ‘spit poultice (I know, I don’t like the name either), pick several leaves, and mash them together. You can put them in your mouth and chew up to make a green mush – hence the name. This could take you awhile as the leaves can be fibrous and …. well, chewy. The enzymes in your saliva apparently help release the healing and antiseptic properties from the leaf, and give it the proper texture to apply to the bite area. Wrap with gauze or other clean fabric to keep it on for several hours, replacing when it dries out. Similarly it is valued for its soothing quality and is used in salves for open sores.
Fun fact: because of its excellent water solubility, plantain seeds – also known as “psyllium”, is commonly used in commercial bulk laxatives. The seeds absorb water and become a thick, viscous compound that resists digestion in the small intestine. This resistance to digestion allows it to help regulate high cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar levels, as well as relieve mild diarrhea and constipation. Unlike some other sources of fiber, the body typically tolerates psyllium well, making it a helpful natural choice.
Most of the psyllium seed used in North America comes from India as the herb is not commercially grown in North America. People use psyllium as a dietary supplement, available in the form of husk, granules, capsules, or powder. Manufacturers also fortify breakfast cereals and baked goods with psyllium. Psyllium husk is the main active ingredient in Metamucil, a fiber supplement that reduces constipation.
POPPIES
Poppies are the perfect example of why we should wait to see what something is before we decide its destiny.
One of my garden’s most pleasant surprises is the sudden midsummer splash of RED interspersed here and there. I first discovered Poppies quite by accident, in the little Ukrainian neighbourhood of our tiny farm-town – Calmar, Alberta. We were a year or two into our very first real garden, in our very first real home – an old, rundown house that we loved and fixed up. I worked hard in my garden, trying to keep it as weed free as possible, but one evening when I was wrapping it up for the day, I surveyed my work and noted a single tall weed in the middle of my potato patch. It looked so strong and healthy I didn’t have the heart to pull it out, so I left it. The very next day it rewarded me with a big, gorgeous red flower the like of which I had only seen in pictures. My neighbour confirmed it was indeed, a poppy – a “weed”. That was my first experience with the idea that the word ‘weed’ is a relative term. We really shouldn’t get so tied up in the word, as if it defined value. And yet we know we do. I learned that my poppy produced seed, the same poppy seed so popular in Ukrainian baking, and so began a life long friendship: Me and poppies.
That single poppy was the beginning of a dynasty. It did what all poppies do after they bloom, it went to seed. Inside a poppy pod are thousands of tiny seeds. At first white, they ripen into an assortment of grey and black. I took those ripened seeds and broadcast them all over my garden. The next year I had lots of poppies, and lots of seeds. I have taken the seed with me to every house I’ve lived in since then, and shared them with everyone who asked for some. In the mid 1980’s we lived in a townhouse for two years while Dan went back to school. My poppies were growing in the only sunny spot my small yard offered, one we prepared under our front window, with the many other flowers and herbs we brought with us. After my poppies bloomed, some stupid Neanderthal came one night and cut off all the unripe pods, taking them. When we woke up in the morning, they were all gone. Of course there was a purpose – it’s an opium poppy after all, and I supposed the thief knew secrets I didn’t know. I never grew poppies in a front yard again.
Poppies are a bright, colourful, early summer addition to any flower, herb or even vegetable garden. All they need is sun. They can grow to three feet high, maybe higher. Straight and tall, with beautiful toothed, light green leaves and striking crepe-papery flowers that tower over their neighbours. They come in lots of different colours, but of this type I have only ever had red, and slight variations on red.
I learned long ago that when they grow in clumps of several, and for crowding reasons they don’t get enough sun, they will not grow very big. Could be even just a few inches. They will flower, but just small flowers with small seed heads. Its important to thin them out to no more that two or three relatively close together, and make sure they are not shaded by nearby plants. Single poppies (with less competition for sun) will grow the tallest, making the biggest heads, hence the biggest flowers, and ultimately the most seeds.
Because I have limited space, my gardens are rather . . . . . . FULL. And sunshine becomes a premium resource. I don’t want the poppies being shaded, but I also can’t have them shading lower plants either, and I want good airflow in my gardens, so there are concessions the poppies have to make so that everybody can be happy. If it’s seeds you’re after, when the poppies have finished flowering, leave it to ripen. But they no longer need all their leaves, in fact the leaves begin to dry anyway. I pull off all the lower leaves, which allows for better air flow and more light to get to surrounding plants.
Truth be told, I’d grow poppies just for their brilliant flowers, brief as they are in bloom, but every stage of the plant pleases me. Its a lovely plant as it gets ready to flower and the flower is spectacular. Then when they’re ready, the seeds are edible, often sprinkled on top of bagels and used in muffins, breads, cakes and salad dressings. And when all is said and done, the dried seed pod is its own kind of beautiful, making a classy statement in the maturing garden, and a striking addition to dried fall flower arrangements.
Poppies are easy to grow. They want sun, and otherwise don’t ask for much. They don’t even need good soil, and will grow almost anywhere. There are many different varieties and colours, and from the same seed, I have occasionally had pink or even double flowering blossoms. Such is the miracle of genetics. The poppy is an annual flower, and I broadcast seed freely when I harvest it in September or October. It sits dormant all winter and when the conditions are right in summer, they start to grow. It is not uncommon for me to have sporadic blooms from the beginning of July through the end of August.
using poppy seeds
Truth is, poppies are the source of opium, morphine and many other drug compounds. For centuries they’ve been used from mild sedatives and pain relievers, all the way to life and soul-destroying drugs. Personally, I decided decades ago I wasn’t interested in pursuing any use other than to the ripe seeds as a food. So while I acknowledge the darker side, I’m not going to waste anytime debating where the line is regarding it.
As a food, poppy seeds contain essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, zinc and iron, as well as some B vitamins and omega 6 fatty acids so necessary to a healthy heart. They have a distinctive nutty taste and are used whole or ground into meal as an ingredient in pastries and breads. I have always loved poppy seed muffins, cakes and breads, but the true Eastern European poppy seed roll was an acquired taste. Having said that however, I really like it now. Recipes abound for tons of dishes so be adventurous and try them. My faves include: Poppy Seed cookies, muffins, scones, bundt cakes, loaf cakes and even angel food cakes. Poppy seeds as a topping for breads, rolls, bagels etc. Poppy seed dressing for salads.
PLANTAIN
STINGING NETTLE
this post is a work in progress . . . . I will add to it so stay tuned.
In the meantime, as always – I’d love to hear your relevant comments.
Welllll, maybe I don’t absolutely love all of the ‘verb‘ part of it. But I like what it yields. I like the feeling of everything being clean. And I like it enough to do the work necessary to make it a reality. I like the freshness of knowing the medicine cabinet and bathroom cupboards are wiped down and organized, and the mirrors are polished, and corners are wiped clean.
I like dejunking – getting rid of things we really shouldn’t be keeping anymore anyway. I like that the fridge is clean inside and out, that behind it is is clean too. I like the look of a freshly oiled table and sideboard, and the bright clean look of all surfaces that have been oiled. I like clean windows. The truth is, I’m not especially fond of the actual cleanING part – but very fond of the CLEAN part, and so far, in my life – there’s only one way to the desired destination. If I was rich, I’d probably hire someone to come in and do those deep cleaning jobs for me, or at least help me so that I could just skip ahead to the wonderful adjective version of ‘clean’ and not have to wade thru the verb version of it. . . . .
I have many memories of spring cleaning when our kids were home. Some of them are good. Oh well. I guess they’re all kinda good. I just had some lazy-butt kids when it came to spring cleaning, who didn’t always catch the vision of the satisfaction that comes from a job well done. Often times I wondered if the pain of forced labour was worth the price I had to pay for it, but I usually didn’t let that interfere. Especially if they ticked me off.
We made it a habit to use the week of spring-break for spring-cleaning. And by ‘we’, I mean the ‘royal we’ of course. As in – ME. “I” made it a habit to use the week of spring break for spring cleaning. “They” didn’t have much choice. It wasn’t a popular idea, but it had its advantages. I created a list of what needed to be done. The first person who got off their butts to get started, got their choice of jobs, the last person got what nobody else wanted. And of course, their rooms – that went without saying. Everybody over 8 was responsible for their own rooms. Each job was calculated to take the better part of a day to complete. Nothing else could be done during spring break till your job was finished. That should have worked better as an incentive than it often did. There were times when certain individuals spent the whole time feeling sorry for themselves and then the week was done, and they never did get to enjoy their week off school. And then, having wasted their entire spring break getting to do nothing they wanted, they ‘really’ felt sorry for themselves. And they thought I should too. But I didn’t. I just felt sorry for me. And the pain they put me through while they moaned and complained about the injustice of it all.
And now, all these years later, they’re all gone and they have kids of their own, and they can figure out what they want to do about spring cleaning. There are options of course: 1) do nothing and get zero results, 2) be the martyr and do it all yourself, never training your kids how to clean and find joy in a freshly cleaned house, 3) find ways to motivate your family to pitch in and do their part, 4) prevent the need for spring cleaning, by cleaning deeply on a regular basis all year long, which you could do on your own, teaching your kids that some magical fairy godmother is the source of all shiny surfaces, or you could do with the helping hands of those who live in your house. Do I regret being the meanie who made them clean? Nope. Was it easy? Nope. Would I do it again? Yup.
And now, its just me to clean. sigh . . . . and now I have to motivate myself. sigh again . . . . . There are so many other things I’d rather do. But I remind myself: while I don’t especially love the ‘verb‘ part of it, I like what it yields – and there’s only one way to get there.
“Compost is a product that results from the slow decomposition of plant and animal material by living organisms. It is nature’s way of recycling the nutrients that exist in all living things and returning them to the soil to enrich and feed further generations.” – Pauline Pears in Organic Book of Compost.
40% of all household waste is compostable.
So WHO should be composting? And WHAT should we compost? And WHERE would one set up a compost? And WHY would we bother? And HOW do we go about it? HOW does it all work? Lets go through those valid questions.
WHO?
Everyone! You do not need a large yard. You do not need a science degree or expensive equipment. And yes something as simple as kitchen and yard waste can make a difference. Turning what would otherwise be wasted into something valuable is somehow empowering. You are taking control of another area in your life. You are in fact, taking responsibility for managing a good part of the waste you produce, instead of making it someone else’s problem. It is the responsible thing to do. When we look at the big picture, it’s hard to believe that our pitiful contribution can have much environmental impact, but the small project of household compost means we are part of a solution, NOT the problem.
What is the personal benefit our of compost? As in why bother?
Using the compost you produce, helps your future garden grow. It in fact becomes rich, loamy, dark brown soil , “whole food” for plants, providing nutrients and fiber. The more it breaks down the more it improves, making nutrients even more available.
Compost increases your soil’s ability to absorb and retain moisture, which naturally wastes less water, and reduces the need for water.
A natural fertilizer, compost contains balanced amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and other important minerals.
Improves the composition and texture of the soil, making heavy clay soil lighter so it drains better, and adding body to sandy soil so that it holds water and nutrients better.
WHAT
What you compost is categorized into two simple groups: GREENS and BROWNS.
GREENS = wet, sappy material that breaks down readily BROWNS = dry fibrous material that is slower to decompose.
A good compost needs a balance of both. Too many greens will make your compost too wet and too many browns will make it too dry. Both conditions will impede proper decomposition and progress. Greens are nitrogen rich, and often referred to as HOT. Hot means they have the ability to burn plants if used in too high of concentrations, or too ‘raw’ – like chicken manure. It also means that it creates heat in compost that is necessary for the breakdown of material.
There is no BEST way to compost. What works best for me, might not work for you at all, and vice versa. What worked for me years ago, doesn’t work anymore. The BEST way for you to compost is the way that’s going to work best for your situation right now. Do you have a big garden? a big yard? so that you can afford more space for your compost? Do you have a small yard? maybe even a town house? perhaps an apartment? When space is limited, naturally you have fewer options for space, but that doesn’t exclude the possibility of having a compost. Don’t make excuses for why you canNOT have a compost. Find ways you can make it work. The secret is to mesh your compost with your lifestyle. If its to inconvenient, good intensions are soon abandoned.
FROM THE HOUSE – I use ALL fruit and vegetable trimmings, scraps and leftovers for compost. I also use paper and cardboard. I do not use meat trimmings or scraps of any kind. (see below)
Citrus – Worth mentioning separately, because there are different schools of thought that warn against using citrus. Evidently, citrus peels take a long time to break down due to the natural chemicals and acidity which repel worms and other microorganisms, sometimes even killing them. Personally, I add citrus and onions (which some also warn against). My thinking is that in the big picture, citrus makes up such a small percentage of my total composting material, that I simply don’t have time to fuss about it. On the other hand, if I had a LOT of citrus, or if I was composting on a very small scale – like in an apartment using worms, I would probably avoid citrus peels because I don’t want to risk hurting my worms. But in a normal household compost, don’t worry about that. Just how many oranges do you eat anyway? I use ALL produce.
Coffee grounds – improve soil looseness. They are a good nitrogen source for composting, but use with moderation as they are acidic and excess acid prevents the compost from heating up. Adding them directly to the garden may be too much direct acid for the novice gardener, but blending them with everything else in your compost is perfect. We don’t drink coffee in our house, so once or twice a year we’ll go to our local Tim Hortons with a pail and ask for their day’s left over grounds. They don’t save them usually, so we leave our pail and pick it up the next day. I remove the paper filters when I dump the pail into our compost bin. In a normal household I wouldn’t hesitate to use whatever coffee grounds are produced. I’d totally call that moderation. Again, how much can one normal household produce?
Meat, fish, fats, oils and dairy – Can these protein foods be composted? Of course they can. Everything that ever lived is compostable. With meat, fish and dairy however, you risk attracting unwelcome pests like flies, mice, and cats, even skunks, racoons and coyotes if you live in an urban area, or bears if you live in rural areas. Its the smell of rotting meat that is offensive to humans but attractive to animals. There are many composters however, who do compost meat, being careful to cover it with a layer of sawdust or other dry material to minimize odours. There are others who say that decomposing meat contains bacteria you don’t want, while others say the heat generated takes care of it. In the end, you-do-you. I prefer not to deal with it.
Paper products – Most paper products are great for composting. Thin printed paper like newspapers are perfect. Help speed up the process by shredding them or ripping them up when you throw them into the bin. Also paper towels and tissues and even shredded cardboard. They are from trees, after all! Avoid coloured glossy paper like magazine pages as they have been treated with coatings to make them so bright. Not only do they not break down well, they contain toxins that are best left avoided. I also add paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, paper egg cartons, newsprint flyers that come to the door, some packing papers, as well as many brown cardboards. Just rip them up and add them to your compost bin.
Egg shells – are a rich source of calcium and other essential nutrients that plants need. Not only are they excellent for your compost, but many people also add them directly to the soil they are transplanting vegetables seedlings into. If you throw eggshells directly into your kitchen pail and then transfer it directly to your garden compost, you may find some undecomposed egg shells the following spring. Not to worry, they’ll finish decomposing. But if you take the time to dry your shells, and then crush them before adding them to your compost or garden, you’ll speed up the process, and reduce the inconvenience.
Walnuts – NO. Walnut shells, nuts, leaves and bark should not be used in compost destined for a vegetable garden. Walnut trees release a chemical called juglone which occurs naturally and is toxic to some vegetables and plants. Some say that the leaves can be composted because the juglone toxin breaks down when exposed to air, water and bacteria, with the toxic effect degraded within a few weeks, but to me – why take the chance? In my part of Alberta, walnuts don’t grow anyway, but if you’re in southern BC or the western states, then you already know that walnut trees are not a gardener’s friend, and you already know what to avoid. Apparently, compost containing walnut residue is excellent for lawns. For the rest of us – I choose not to put walnut shells in my compost. Its an easy choice.
Old straw or wood shaving bedding from small pets like hamsters– Yes. Just dump the soiled bedding into your compost bin and let it age like everything else.
Indoor plants that become infested with bugs or disease – NO. Get rid of them. In a bag, into the trash. Don’t risk spreading disease or pests.
FROM THE YARD
First spring mowing – will include a lot of great brown material like dead grass, snow mold, dead leaves etc. HOLD ON! Don’t bag it all up and haul out with the garbage. Mow them up and use as the base of a new compost pile.
Grass clippings throughout the year – Yes – But! Grass clippings are usually green and moist. They matt and break down, but prevent moisture from getting through them when they matt. For this reason its not a good idea to use as plant mulch fresh from the lawn mower. Best to spread them out and maybe even toss them with a fork the next day or two to prevent that matting, and let them dry a bit. I have an area that I have Dan dump the clippings, them I spread it out with a rake. A couple of days later I spread it out again, and that should do it. I don’t want to miss out on their goodness. For the compost bin – absolutely. Green grass is quick to decay, adding nitrogen which helps everything around it decay.
NO – when you’ve recently treated your lawn with weed killer or fertilizer. Give it a mowing or two before adding to your compost.
Garden waste and weeds – Another Yes But! Anything organic from your garden is fabulous and is best returned to it. Some weeds like dandelions, thistles and quack grass, spread through root cuttings, so be prepared that you might be creating more by recycling them. Also, some weeds spread through seeds, so it they’re already gone to seed, you may be recycling those weeds again the following year. If seeds are tough enough to get through a 40 below winter, they’re probably tough enough to make it through the decomposition process of a typical compost.
If you’re weeding before the weeds go to seed, you should be fine to use them. Most weeds that I pull from my garden go straight into the compost.
Wood – Small pieces of wood scraps and small branches are perfect additions to your compost bin. All untreated wood will decompose, but obviously bigger pieces like logs or big branches are going to take a lot longer. Breaking down large branches through a wood chipper will make all the difference.
Sawdust – is another great addition in moderation, but not all sawdust is equal. If the wood has been pressure treated, varnished, stained or painted, the toxic compounds in those chemicals will not break down, and can negatively affect the microorganism activity, and ultimately the health of future plants. This is totally logical, as those chemicals are used to protect the wood from decay in the first place. Not something you want in your garden.
Dog or cat waste – NO! Not in a normal compost as it is yucky, stinky and has bad bacteria. However, there are many who have specific compost containers for it. More power to them. I’m not of that persuasion. That’s all I have to say about that.
Rabbit or Chicken bedding / droppings – *Rabbits: Unlike the droppings of other animals, rabbit pellets are a great addition to any compost and even straight into the vegetable garden at the end of the year. It is generally considered that after six months any pathogens that survived the heat of the compost are sufficiently broken down. Rabbit manure is considered GREEN – so add equal amounts of straw, wood shavings, leaves or other BROWNS to balance it out. It is rich in nitrogen, so is a great way to give your plants the boost they need for strong, healthy growth. If you or your friendly neighbour have rabbits, you’ll always have an excellent source of nitrogen for your compost pile. Yay for Rabbits!
*Chickens: Chicken manure is an excellent addition to your compost. It increases the water holding capacity and beneficial organic makeup of your garden, contributing more of the critical elements – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (by about three times!) than horse, cow or steer manure! (particularly good for tomatoes bytheway) It is so high in nitrogen (GREENS), you’ll want to be sure you’re adding sufficient BROWNS to balance it, but the way I look at it, I am usually adding chicken manure WITH the straw bedding anyway – so, problem averted.
Don’t be tempted to use it ‘raw’ – straight from the chicken coop. It can burn and damage your plants, as well as potentially carrying pathogens that can harm people. As with other manures, it really should be composted / aged before using. Six to nine months is plenty of time, and since in our climate, your compost is likely frozen much of November through mid April, count one gardening season to the next gardening season. If you use that as a safe rule of thumb and you cannot go wrong.
Ash – Wood ash is great to add IF it is clean ashes. Dan used to use diesel to start his fires in the firepit, but even months later when you shovel out the fire pit, you can still smell the diesel. Bad sign. We also used to burn a lot of scrap wood that was often varnished or otherwise treated. I have made a concerted effort the last few years, to clean up out fire pit burning so that I can use the ashes in the garden. No gas or diesel. No treated wood, including varnished or oil based painted wood. No coal or charcoal ash, as they contains enough sulfur to make the soil excessively acidic, and harmful to plants. Many charcoal briquets are treated with chemicals. When you’re burning old tree logs, leaves and other brown garden waste, your ashes will be a welcome, moderate addition to your compost bin. As with most things in life, moderation is key.
Diseased or pest infested outside plant material – NO. Get rid of them. Once in a while I might lose a Delphinean to some kind of infestation. I cut if off, put it into a plastic bag and dispose of it. I do not want to keep it on the property and risk re-infecting a different area. If you have a plant that died inexplicably, don’t risk passing that disease on. Get rid of it. Remove it completely from your property, in a plastic bag.
WHERE?
Where is it going to work for you? Sometimes you don’t have a whole lotta choice. Ideally, you want it in the sun to keep it warm. Ideally, you want it close to your garden so transferring the finished soil is easy. Ideally, you want it away from your sitting area – for obvious reasons. But ‘ideal’ is not always possible. Sometimes, you just have to put it where it fits. And its not like you’re putting in a foundation. If, in a few years, it needs to be moved, then move it. Don’t fret about the perfect spot for now. Just get it ‘somewhere’ so you can find out if its gonna work there or not. Next spring, you may change your mind if you want.
WHY?
Your compost pile will turn once living matter from your yard and your kitchen into rich, dark, wonderful, soil. Combine yard waste like grass clippings, leaves, and garden weeds with kitchen waste like fruit and vegetable trimmings, even leftover yesterday’s dinner, and you’re good to go. Essentially you’re taking what cannot be used and making it useable. The real question is “WHY NOT?”
Is compost the same as fertilizer?
I like to compare fertilizer to vitamins. For all intents and purposes, it is the same thing: vitamins for plants. Fertilizer feeds plants in a similar way to how vitamin supplements ‘feed’ us. For the record, I am not opposed to vitamins, but they are not ‘food’. And fertilizer is not ‘food’, it is not intended to feed the soil, it is intended to meet the need of specific plants. Rather short term. Compost on the other hand, is food for the soil. It amends the actual composition of the soil, making and keeping it a healthy home in which healthy plants flourish, Compost and organic fertilizers can work together in the same way that nutritious food and good supplements can work together for our body’s health. The organic matter in compost not only increases fertility by providing trace nutrients that plants need, but also increases its ability to hold moisture, which helps release the nutrients in organic fertilizer. Soil that is regularly amended with aged manure and compost is soil that will stay healthy, providing a healthy environment for plants.
HOW?
How do you go about creating your first Compost? or How do you resurrect a compost that wasn’t all that successful?
How does Composting work? Composting will happen with or without you. It is the natural process carried out by millions of tiny creepy crawlies, all uniquely organized for this purpose. Most are microscopic, while others such as worms and insects, you can see. Its that great circle of life. All you have to do is to keep things natural enough that those creatures are welcome and safe in your compost yard.
Different methods There is no end to the different bins/containers for composting you can employ . From big to small, from free to expensive, from an eyesore to fitting right into your garden – and everything in between. If you’re handy and like the DIY thing, you can make make your own with wood, or a garbage can, or buy one already to go. Your available space will likely be the biggest influencer in your options and will ultimately determine your decision.
Our first attempts at composting were with varying degrees of success.
#1 was just a wooden frame and we put everything in it with no idea of how to layer, what not to add, how to toss and even what to expect. To sum it up, it was pretty much an organic garbage pile and very unsightly. It was also in a spot visible from the alley, which didn’t endear us to our neighbours I’m sure. And because we didn’t have an end goal, we never really knew when it was ‘done’. I’d like to forget about that one, and my apologies to all our former neighbours, who for the record, were all kind and patient with us. We were young, and most of them were considerably older. I think they thought our efforts were ‘cute’ and they were just glad someone was taking care of the property .
Our #2 was slightly better. Another house. We dug a hole in the far corner of our garden and we tossed everything into it. We had a better idea, but a marginally better plan. In the early spring, we forked it out and spread the resulting rich soil, but other than that, we hardly ever paid attention to it. Unfortunately, on the other side of the fence our neighbours had a nice tidy sitting area. Our compost attracted flies and apparently had an odour we hadn’t made note of. Our neighbour was kind, but asked if we could cover it for his benefit. Sorry again.
the UPRIGHT plastic bin
Our #3 was the purchase of a black upright bin. It cost about $100 which was really pricey for us in those days, but at least it was contained. We filled it up throughout the warm months, let it sit for the winter, and tipped it over in the spring to fork out the resulting soil. There was always a upper layer that didn’t break down, so we put that in the bottom of the current year’s collection. It was more successful. And tidier. The black colour kept it warm in the summer, which helps. My one criticism was that it didn’t allow for much air circulation. That perhaps affected the final result, but it was still adequate for our needs.
Over the years, I paid a little more attention to layering better with greens and browns. Dan and I had different expectations from our compost, and different opinions about what should go into it. *For instance, he didn’t like putting corn husks or cobs into the compost because there were always rogue ‘undigested’ cobs (and egg shells) the following spring. I on the other hand, didn’t mind that. They just got mixed up with the rest of the soil in the spring, and soon enough ceased to exist. That was good enough for me. And in corn season, corn on the cob is a family favourite, so we always had plenty of corn compostables in August. I couldn’t bear to waste them. *Dan always put the first spring yard mowings into bags and hauled them out to the garbage cans for pick up. He was all about ‘tidy’. If I saw them in time, I’d haul them back into the yard and dump them in the compost ‘area’ as my bin couldn’t handle it all. I am all about ‘compost’. We’re not always on the same page lol. *If there was anything identifiable left in the compost bin when we emptied it in the spring, Dan felt that it was a failure and we should stop doing it because clearly we don’t know how. I on the other hand, didn’t expect everything to have disappeared, and I didn’t mind those last contributions from the year before still looking like their former lives. So we just agree to not talk about it, and I take care of the compost. It works. We’ve found our peace.
When we moved to our current house, we brought our black upright bin with us, where it served us well for many years. But it began showing its age, and last spring, died. I threw the top half in the garbage and continued using the bottom half till it didn’t suffice anymore. I gave it a proper funeral, and we came up with another style that so far is working beautifully. See below.
the TUMBLER:
A tumbler is a bin designed to turn on an axle or to roll, allowing the ingredients to mix as it is turned. If you have a small yard and garden which is visible to your back deck, then a tumbler may be a good fit. It is neat and tidy, rotates easily – keeping the compost itself tossed and aerated. As it is a closed unit, you don’t have to worry about a bad smell or animals getting into it, and its easy to dump out. It speeds up the process from the whole season, to about half the time.
A tumbler is limited in size and so you’re restricted in the amount you can compost – which may suit you just fine if you don’t have a big yard anyway. They can be kinda pricey, but there are always options to maybe pick one up second hand, or to make one yourself. You will need to make sure you balance your contents out by putting in brown material or you could end up with a stink slimy mess of rotten kitchen produce. They generally have a trap door for adding material, adding water if needed and from which to dump the finished product.
homemade wooden bin with wire netting
I love this style. It is compact, but big enough to last a typical backyard garden all season.
The wire allows for air circulation. The lid can be closed if there is a lot of rain, but still allows the sun to still do its magic. I love the trap door in the front which makes it accessible to fork out the bottom next spring.
If its made with cedar it could be a little pricey, but will last a long time, so it will be worth it in my opinion. I’ve seen this same style made with three compartments, allowing for bigger yards, bigger gardens, more material.
Repurposed plastic garbage can
This is our #4 Compost bin, and it is perfect for us right now. It is an extra large garbage can turned upside down. Dan cut the bottom out for me to make a new ‘top’. He drilled lots of holes around the main body to allow for air. I filled it last summer so we added a second toward the end of the season. The idea is to simply tip it over in the spring, like I did for years with the black one, then fork out the new soil. Because our compost area is in the very back of our garden, it is rarely visible so it doesn’t need to be ‘pretty’. It is surprising how ‘full’ a compost bin can get and how much it compacts. This can was full to overflowing more than a couple of times during the season, and things would settle as it decomposed, always making room for other material. When I went out to have a look at it recently, it is only about half full, although I know that at the end of the season last fall, I couldn’t put anything else in it.
This image is from a reader – Meagan Kessler, and I am using it with her permission. Look in the upper left of center, about 11:00, to see a garbage can painted the same colour as her fence (brilliant bytheway). It has the bottom cut out of it, and several holes drilled into the body of it to all for more airflow and therefore, better composition. It is the perfect solution for her small townhouse lot. Meagan said she would did a hole in the spring and empty its mostly composted contents into it, where it would finish the process. Though Meagan says it was less than ideal, it worked well for her over 14 years. At the end of the day, you’d still end up ahead by repurposing all those food scraps and putting them back into your soil. I think its a great example of using what you have, and making what you have work. Thank you Meagan.
Basic Needs
There really is no ‘right’ container, and no ‘wrong’ container. It is completely about what’s gonna work for your situation: your garden/yard size, your budget, your skill level, your level of commitment to composting, your preferences. – Your compost needs a healthy place to BE. – It needs a good balance of greens and browns. Browns like sticks and cardboard etc, give the compost structure and provide air pockets. – Your compost needs air. – Greens give it nitrogen which speeds up the decomposition. – It needs moisture, but we all know, that too much ‘wet’ is not good either. If it is pouring rain for days, its good to have a lid to keep your compost from flooding and drowning the tiny creatures that live there. You’ll know if its too wet, it will be slimy and mucky and may begin to smell bad. – There should be good drainage so that water doesn’t build up in the bottom. Normally, mine just sits on the ground. Sometimes I have small branches and twigs in the bottom, sometimes I’ve even raised the black upright container a little off the ground with bricks or logs. – Warmth keeps a compost happy. It can’t always be in a sunny spot – we all know there are only so many of those to go around, but try to at least situate it in a warm spot.
Compost is Ready
In the central Alberta climate I live in, (zone 3A), traditional composting season is generally from May through September. I start mine as soon as it is warm enough to dump out last year’s compost – and that is usually further into May than I think it should be. That big clump of compost sometimes takes an extra week or two to thaw – depending on the spring, and how much sun gets to it. But as soon as it has warmed up a bit and I can pull the bin off of it, then its ready to use. It will be dark brown in colour, and look suspiciously like ‘soil’ lol. It will have a pleasant ‘earthy’ smell. Don’t expect it to look like a bag of purchased compost, it’s not likely to be ready all at once. Some of it had most of the summer to decompose, while the last of it was added at the end of the season just before the cold weather hit. There will still be lumps in it, perhaps some egg shells, a few corn cobs, twigs etc. If you’re like me, you likely have some leftover brown material on the top. Don’t worry about that. Just put it in the bottom of your new season’s compost and build on top of it. It can show the new stuff how to do it right.
I use it right away, and I always wish I had more. This year, I’m starting out with two big cans, so I’m hoping to have lots. Use it on top of your garden beds. It’s actually better to leave it on top rather than work it in. That way, the rain will help break it down, and bring the nutrients down will it, into the soil. Use it in your vegetable garden, as mulch around your flower beds, and tomato plants, or mixed with your potting soil. Use around your fruit trees and current bushes.
GREEN MANURE or COMPOST
Comfrey is a perennial herb that has a very deep tap root which draws minerals to the surface and into its large fuzzy leaves. It grows fast and tall, and can be cut a couple of times during the growing season to make a compost activator or to use as a green mulch. Sometimes I chop it down while Dan is mowing the lawn. He mows over top of the comfrey pile, chopping the leaves into mulch, so that I can remove the mower bag and use the mulch wherever I decide I need it.
Another excellent green compost are pea vines. Pretty much do the same thing I do with comfrey. Throw them on the lawn and mow them up. Then throw them into the compost or use as mulch in the garden.
TRENCH COMPOSTING
Early in the spring I am usually ready to start composting before my compost bin from last year is ready to be emptied. I don’t want to add ‘fresh’ kitchen scraps on top of last year’s compost. Sometimes the compost isn’t even completely thawed yet. So what to do? Trench compost. I dig a hole in a part of the garden I am not going to grow root crops. Perhaps zucchini, butternut squash, lettuce, swiss chard, beans, etc.
If its a one time thing, dig a hole and bury it. Simple as that. If you plan to use the method for a week or two, dig narrow trenches, about a foot deep and the width of your shovel. Heap the soil along side of the trench. Then, as your kitchen scraps become available, dump them into the trench, spreading dirt over each section as you fill it. When your real compost bin is ready, cover it over with 4 or more inches of dirt and pretend its not there. Plant your seeds and enjoy knowing that you have buried treasure in your garden.
I’d love to hear of your adventures with composting, your opinions, and your feedback.
