Full Spring Ahead

Two weekends ago, I visited Martin's grandmother with his family. She gave me dozens of canning jars that she no longer uses! I also met someone on Craigslist that was willing to sell me two dozen quart-sized jars for $5 and five tomato plants. I now have a collection of jars consisting of my own grandmother's jars and Martin's grandmother's jars, plus some secondhand. I think it's rather appropriate to have our grandmothers' jars as we attempt to harken back to simpler times.

I still need many more half-pint jars, though. I want to make lots of jams and sauces, and a pint of one of those would be too much to consume before it started to go bad! Here's to hoping I can find some at garage sales or thrift stores. I don't want to buy new ones if I can help it. I also need more bands and a bunch of new lids, which I have to buy new since they can only be used for canning purposes once (but they can still be used to store dry pantry items!).

I know I just talked about trying to avoid Amazon, but I still had a gift card to use that I got for Christmas, so I decided to take advantage of that to buy a few more things I had on my wish list. I bought Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning:Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation, The Cook's Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue, Storey Country Wisdom Food Drying Techniques, and a 5-piece canning kit, which includes a funnel, a magnetic lid grabber, a jar lifter, kitchen tongs, and a jar wrench. So now that I've used the gift card, no more Amazon if I can help it!

Although I am planning to can and freeze (not much freezing though), I think Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning will be a good resource for learning the rest of the techniques for preserving food. Plus, the introduction is written by Deborah Madison, who is pretty much amazing.

We love to grill, but we pretty much have no idea what we are doing. We just throw some coals in the chimney, light it, and then put whatever we're cooking on until it looks done. I know there's much more to it than that with charcoal grills, and I want to learn! The Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen people know what they're talking about, so I went with their guide.

The Minneapolis Farmer's Market starts next weekend! I won't be able to go the first couple of days, but I'm excited that I'll be able to go soon. I've fallen in love with the idea of fresh, local food, and I've missed walking through the rows of fresh, beautiful vegetables, fruits and plants. So many interesting things to look at and to try.

My goal this spring/summer/fall is to commute by bicycle as often as possible. My bike is a Trek hybrid, and I have a basket on either side of the back tire. I also just purchased a Banjo Brothers messenger bag with some Easter/Christmas money (Thanks, family!), which is reportedly impressively waterproof, big enough to carry lots of stuff, and is made by a local company. I can even fit our awesome expandable cooler in the bag to keep the greens and such in good condition. The Lyndale location of the Farmer's Market is easily bikable from the office where I work, and I'll be able to transport my local loot home.

On the hyper-local food front, i.e. my backyard, I officially have a growing garden! Lettuce, spinach, and snap peas, oh my! Tomorrow, I will transplant the chard plants to their location in the square foot garden. There's also onions sets and radish seeds working their way up to the surface as I write!

 Spinach

Snap Peas

Lettuce

Chard

The other day, I pulled what I thought was a weed from the garden, and guess what I found? An onion! I'm not sure if it came from seed or from a set that never got dug up last year, but I was certainly surprised! It's our first harvest of the season...

Surprise Onion

My tomatoes are starting to definitely look like tomato plants, and the peppers are sprouting, albeit slowly. I'm thinking about getting one of those warming mats for the peppers and tomatoes, so they grow at the rate they would continue to grow once transplanted to warmer weather outdoors. That could have been a contributing factor to my lack of yield from my tomato and pepper plants last year. 

 Tomatoes

Tomatoes and Parsley

Peppers

Thyme, marjoram, and oregano

The massive broccoli plant tries to eat the smaller ones

We also have beautiful tulips in our backyard, and our chive plant is absolutely huge and about to burst with flowers. I'll certainly be making one of Deborah's recipes that specifically includes chive flowers!

In the kitchen, Martin and I invested in an 8-piece set of tri-ply cookware that was ranked second on America's Test Kitchen. We love to cook, and having stainless steel cookware with an aluminum core—for $150—is awesome. Yes, I patronized Wal-Mart, and yes, it was made in China. You win some, you lose some. Given the amount of home cooking we do, it's totally worth it to have really good cookware. Although I'm beginning to realize that I sound like a major consumer in this post, these are actually some of the first major purchases I've made in quite a long time. I don't spend much money on things other than the basics too often, and I especially don't spend money I don't have. Plus, I think it's better to invest in things that will last, and this will last assuming we take good care of it. And, it just looks beautiful with food in it!

Already Planning for Winter

Last night, I ordered two books I've had my eye on: The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables. My goal for this year is to can, dry, ferment, and store as many locally grown vegetables and fruits as we're able to afford, so we can eat them in the winter. Some of that (I'm hoping!) will come from my own garden, and the rest I'll buy from either the Midtown Farmers' Market or the Minneapolis Farmers' Market.

You'd think it would be noticeably more expensive to buy vegetables and fruits at the farmers' market versus buying them from Rainbow, for instance. Actually, according to a comparison of costs done by Martha & Tom, the goodies purchased at the Midtown Farmers' Market are cheaper than the same at Rainbow and are nearly half the cost of those at The Wedge. Plus, there weren't any heirloom tomatoes at Rainbow, of course, and they also lacked parsnips and celeriac on the day he shopped. The market's only a few blocks away from Cub, Rainbow, and the new grocery section at Target, and likely a better deal on most days. Of course, the market only occurs twice a week for a few hours, which isn't convenient for everyone, I know. We do what we can.

Anyway, I'm planning to preserve lots of food this year. And I'd like to try to turn the storage room in our basement into a “root cellar.” It seems like it could be possible, considering there is a window and shelving in there. I will have to insulate it and use the window to control the temperature, but I think it can be done...we'll see! I'm interested to see what the book has to say.

On the subject of the books, I ordered them from Amazon without really thinking about it. Now I wonder, why is it that I've become more cognizant of where my food comes from, but I didn't think twice about ordering a book from a huge company before trying to find it locally? I've always enjoyed independent and used bookstores, much more so than the big box stores. Yet, it seems like I most often go to these stores without a particular item in mind; instead, sifting through to find a good used classic or an interesting-looking biography. I never once thought to myself that I might look for these books, too. It wasn't until the last three or four years that I started buying books from Amazon. Before that, I always bought books from actual physical stores. I will not limit myself from using Amazon entirely, but I will make a more concerted effort to support a local bookstore first if I can.