First Week's Lunches

This year I finally bought a Laptop Lunchbox and have been taking my lunch with me everyday. I was worried that it would be too small, but it's amazing how much food you can stuff in there!

Monday: I forgot to take a picture but I packed millet breakfast bread, black beans, steamed kale, and a plout.

Tuesday:Soba noodles with sesame sauce and local broccoli, a local pear, local bok choy, extra sesame sauce, and more millet breakfast bread.

Wednesday:Orange tofu with rice, steamed local broccoli, local Asian pears, and wild harvested local sea palm with almonds.

Wednesday:
Veggie enchiladas made with local corn, zucchini,onion, and peppers, salad with local raw corn, zucchini and canned beans, millet breakfast bread, local plouts.

Lemons!

My parents have a lemon bush (really it's like....5 or 6 trees that have grown together and are now trimmed into a hedge, but anyway), and most years the lemons are left to rot on the bush, because really, what can you do with that many lemons? Some years we zest and juice them, but often we end up with more than we use, bags of zest and juice get lost in the freezer, and there are many more lemons left rotting on the bush.

Before leaving to come back to McKinleyville, my dad gathered twenty pounds of lemons (a small fraction of what was out there) for me. So what am I going to do with all these lemons?

-Limoncello
-Preserved lemons
-Lemon cordial
-Lemon butter/curd (if I can find a good vegan recipe)
-Zest and juice for future use

Which means I should probably get started clearing off a work space and getting to it.

Stockpiling for the winter

This year, for whatever reason, I've felt the urge to store the harvest. Pack it away for the winter months when food isn't as abundant as it is in the summer. Which is a little odd, since I've always been able to get summer produce in winter by going to the store. But not this year. Whether from my efforts to eat more local food, wanting to prepare for the lean times that look to be ahead of us, or from wanting to be a homemaker in some small way, I've spent the last several months buying extra produce from the farmer's markets and storing it for later.

So far I have (all local):
* 2 quarts + 3 pints tomato sauce (sadly already all used up :( )
* 6 pints applesauce (3 cinnamon, 3 plain)
* 11 half-pints blueberry syrup
* 5 cups blueberries in the freezer.
* 10 lbs. potatoes of various varieties
* 4 lbs. dried bean mix
* 3 quarts + 3 pints bread and butter pickles
* 7 long lasting squashes
* lots of garlic
* 15 oz. + 1.5 lbs. pumpkin puree

I've also done some baking for the freezer, but have had to back off since there's no more room in my tiny freezer! I have:
* whole wheat bread
* 2 loaves pineapple zucchini bread
* 1 dozen peanut butter oatmeal cookies

Overall, definitely not enough to truly make it through the winter if I was only relying on my stockpiling abilities, but I feel like we could survive pretty well over the next several months on my preserved food as well as the non-local staples such as rice and flour I always keep on hand if something happened to keep us from being able to buy food easily. It seems a little silly, but it's made me feel more independent of rising food prices and like I am providing for my little family.

Fall is in the Air

I love fall. There is no better season than fall. Crisp days, orange leaves, apples, squash, beans, hot apple cider, geese, storms, Halloween, the big Thanksgiving dinner with the family. Yep, fall is definitely my favorite time of year.

The last two weeks have been test after test after lab report after speech after test. I don't generally like waiting until the night before a big assignment/test to start preparing, but this time I was continuously staying up after midnight starting to study for a test the next morning. But the good news is, I think I did fairly well on everything. I already received my grade on the Chem II exam; 70/100. The average was a 56 and he said if he were to curve each test, a 56 would be a C-, so it's like getting a B. Not too shabby considering I haven't been successful in chemistry since high school (Mr. Null just explained everything so it made sense!). Talking to classmates it seems like I did about the same as everyone else on my physics midterm; I think I pretty much aced bio ocean, and my speech...well, I didn't black out this time, but I wish I had. It wasn't pretty. I'm not sure why I'm having so much trouble in this class, I did fine in Speech, but for some reason I get out of control nervous whenever I'm giving a speech in this class and everything goes right out the window. Oh well....

Tuesday before class I hiked out to the cliffs across from the marine lab and sat in the sun and worked on homework. The ocean was perfectly flat and there were barely any clouds out. Thursday, after the Bio Ocean exam, I had some extra time so I went for a hike up Trinidad Head. We had a storm moving in, so the waves were fairly big and beautiful. I planned on heading back out there yesterday when the waves were supposed to reach 17 foot swells, but the storm didn't move in as planned and the waves weren't nearly as high as predicted, so I decided to wait.

The storm not coming in though meant yesterday morning was a beautiful day for Pastels on the Plaza and the farmers market. Since it's fall, and fall is my favorite season, we bought five squashes (3 pumpkins, an acorn, and a butternut), lots of honeycrisp apples, some broccoli, local dried beans, local mushrooms, and beets. Afterwards we went to the Big Blue Cafe on the plaza and got pancakes.

This morning I baked the pumpkins, then froze the puree (about 1 1/2 pounds) to use later and roasted the seeds. I'll probably get a couple more pumpkins next week and do the same thing. I might also try to cube some squash for freezing, but the ones I bought this week are already spoken for.

I love fall....

Ups and Downs

The stress from school and work is already getting to me. I woke up this morning feeling cranky and just generally depressed. Poor David was tip-toeing around all morning before he went to work trying not to set me off. Hopefully this is just a short term thing, and in a day or two I'll be back to normal.



We went to the farmers market today and picked up lots of goodies. Flowers, cantaloupe, blackberries, raspberries, apples, peaches, cucumbers (for pickling), grapes, plums, and asian pears followed us home today. I'm going to make some bread and butter pickles and possibly try to make some apple-plum butter, and once the peaches ripen completely I'll peel them and freeze them for smoothies or pie.


Now that I have my computer back, I can also show you some pictures of what's been going on over here:

Freshly canned tomato sauce.

Picking blueberries at the local pick-your-own

Getting roses from David

Preserving Summer

Some how this summer I got bit by the canning bug. With school starting tomorrow, I doubt there will be much time for me to continue, but I don't feel too bad about what I got done:

• 2 quarts + 3 pints tomato sauce
• 6 pints applesauce (3 cinnamon, 3 plain)
• 11 half-pints blueberry syrup (much more than the recipe said I'd get!)
• 5 cups blueberries in the freezer.

I have some cucumbers from the farmer's market that need to be used up, so I may try a can or two of pickles some night after classes or after I collect samples next weekend. Or I may put away the stockpot for now and focus on learning to knit in my free time (yeah right, what's that?).


Blueberry Syrup (from Ball's Preserving Website):
8 cups blueberries , crushed (about 3-1/2 lb)
6 cups water
1 Tbsp lemon zest
3 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands (I used half pint jars)


Combine blueberries, 2 cups of the water and lemon zest in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat and boil gently for 5 minutes. Transfer to a dampened jelly bag or a strainer lined with several layers of cheesecloth set over a deep bowl and let drain for at least 2 hours.

Prepare your boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use.

Combine sugar and 4 cups water in a clean large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar, and cook until temperature reaches 230°F (my thermometer only went to 220, so I just guessed...). Add blueberry juice and bring back to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Pour hot syrup into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process the jars in the canner for 10 minutes. Remove onto a clean towel for at least 24 hours before checking the seal.

Vegan Happiness

I have never been good at social situations. I am much like my mother, in that once I am home from work and school, I don't want to deal with anyone besides my family. I don't want people to come over, I don't want to go places. Tuesday I forced myself out of the house, and I'm so glad I did.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned CCAT (Campus Center for Appropriate Technology) before here, but it is a wonderful group on campus that deals with alternative technologies and sustainability. Tonight they hosted a vegan cooking class with AWARE (Always Working for Animal-Rights & Equality); another club on campus. I was a little surprised at how many people showed up (about 12-13?), considering a lot of the fliers had been torn down around campus. The food was excellent, and the atmosphere was great. All of us hung out in the kitchen (luckily a very spacious one!) and talked, helped out, and ate. CCAT is a really special place, and I wish every one had a place like this in their lives and communities. It really lends itself to making everyone feel at home and accepted. Drop in and sit down to read a book from their library, take a few minutes to weed the garden, sign up for a class and learn about herbalism, lost arts of living, organic gardening, thermal curtains, and a myriad of other skills and topics.

And did I mention the food? Because all of it was wonderful. Well, except for the mashed cauliflower with capers. I tried to be impartial to the capers, really I did, but it wasn't happening. The menu consisted of cheap vegan comfort foods (we are po' college students after all) including raspberry cole slaw, 50 cent tomato soup, mashed cauliflower, garlic and rosemary potatoes, mac and cheese, baked tofu, and thai peanut sauce. The big winners were definitely the mac and cheese, baked tofu, and the potatoes. I made the mac and cheese last night for dinner, and even David ate it and said it was good (but that it didn't taste like cheese).

My organic gardening class (put on by CCAT) is having a local and organic potluck on Monday. I've been thinking about doing a local food month (or just in general), but I'm not sure it's possible. While Humboldt is a great area for omnivores to eat local, there are almost no vegan protein sources and very few grains. For the potluck I think I'm going to make a potato salad with oregano, lemon thyme, rosemary, and (cheating-not local, but organic) garlic and olive oil. For my local food diet, I made a modified 100 mile radius that I'm going to try to work in. I had to modify a little because half of my area would be at sea, so now I'm working in an area roughly south of Brookings and Ashland, north of Willits and Willows, and west of Susanville. I think that gives me enough options, but with more research I may need to change it a little more. As things around the house get used up, I'll slowly start replacing stuff with things grown and (possibly or) made in my little area. I can't wait until the farmer's markets start carrying things besides lettuce and starts.

Only one more week of classes!

Picture from Arcata Community.org