Urban Homesteading

Not much to add this week.  We had a fun weekend, but not a lot of it was spent with food.  We went to a new friend’s home for dinner on Friday night (we met through the Urban Homesteader meetup group).  They are actually neighbors, and we had a wonderful time talking natural parenting, homebirth, food, gardens.

They are restoring their 1925 home to orignal condition as much as possible.  It was so cool to see what they’ve done and to imagine what the home was like back when it was owned by a Madam!  How cool that they know the history and are working to preserve it! We swapped recipes and pediatrician names.  I’m happy to have neighbors who are as crazy as us!

We also went to the botanic gardens (on Saturday) to see the Jurassic Gardens exhibit.  H liked seeing the dinosaurs and the weather was just perfect.

We wrapped up the weekend on Sunday with the cheesemaking class, and that was really fun.  I made another batch of addicting and horribly bad for you chocolate chip cookies, and we roasted the last pie pumpkins we had.  (Only have big ones left now).  Besides a few tomatoes, we mostly stayed out of the garden this week… (unusual for us lately).

Here’s the rundown on what we did do:

Plant Something –  none

Harvest Something–  tomatoes, zucchini, eggs, pie pumpkins at the farm

Preserve Something –  Froze tomatoes, made pumpkin butter, froze pumpkin puree, toasted pumpkin seeds…

Waste Not – I took advantage of the extra “damaged” pumpkins that were not good enough to put into shares from the farm.  These would have otherwise gone to waste.   We also saved the whey from the cheesemaking class… some for the chickens, and some for our friends who use it for grains.

Want Not/Prep & Storage – nothing to add this week.

Build Community Food Systems –   I hosted a cheesemaking class in our home on Sunday.  It was cool to learn how easy it can be, plus, I got to meet a few more ‘Urban Homesteaders’ from the meetup group.

Eat the Food – mmm… we opened the dill pickles we made earlier this summer…. YUM!  I’m so glad they turned out well, since we have quite a few quarts of them!

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds:  Rinse seeds and spread on a kitchen towel to dry most of the way.  Mix 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp sugar.  Spread the seeds on a baking sheet, and sprinkle spice mixture over them.  Stir the seeds to make sure they are all covered with the spices.  Place in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.  Stir the seeds and roast another 10 minutes.  Check them frequently so they don’t burn.

So this week, I learned a bit more with canning.  While we were pickling beets on Friday, Rick and I had our first jar break.  And our second. 

We had about two hours before we had to leave to be at his family’s home for a party, so we (I) decided to get the beets finished.  Right as we were putting the filled jars into the pot to process, one of my quart jars cracked open, the whole bottom came off and beets and pickling brine filled the pot.  So I dumped the pot, refilled it and set it to boil again, while Rick called and said we were going to be late. 

You know the saying, a watched pot never boils.  And it truly felt that way.  But once it was going again, we put in all the jars, brought it back to a rolling boil and set the timer.  Well about ten minutes into the processing, I noticed that there wasn’t much steam coming from the pot.  I lifted the lid to see what was going on, and saw that another jar had broken.  😦  We didn’t dump it all out this time, we just got it back to boiling and processed the rest of the jars in beet pickle water. 

In all we lost a quart and a half of the gorgeous beets I’d been hording for this batch.  And we were an hour late to the party.  We’re still not totally sure why those jars broke, but they were jars that I had bought second hand.  I don’t know if that had something to do with it or not, because I looked at all the jars closely before I bought them.  But if that was the reason, I don’t know if it was worth the savings on the used jars. 

Plant Something –  none

Harvest Something–  mint, the last cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggs, chard

Preserve Something –  Froze tomatoes, watermelon rind pickles, carrots, concord grape jam (thanks to the Carlsons), pickled beets, beans.

Waste Not – Made a mei tai baby sling all by myself!  This cost me about $20 instead of 80 for one from the store!  So far I love it!  I’ll post pictures and more on this later this week.

Want Not/Prep & Storage – made a lot of progress on the food log.  When I get this complete, I will post for you to check out. 

Build Community Food Systems –  Went to a Meetup about composting.  It was through DUG (Denver Urban Gardeners), and we learned a lot.  We also got to share a little info about our chickens, and we met another young couple in our neighborhood who are doing some of the same things we are. 

Eat the Food – One Pot Chicken Cacciatore (adapted from Glorious One Pot Meals)

Serves 4
Olive oil
1 large onion, sliced in wedges
1 1/2 cups pasta
3/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup water
Oregano, salt, pepper, marjoram, & savory to taste
4 pieces of chicken (we like to use thighs)
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small yellow squash, sliced
1 small zucchini, sliced
2 bell peppers (any color), sliced
2 large, juicy tomatoes (or (1) 14oz can of tomatoes), chopped
2 TBS capers

Preheat oven to 425.  Spray inside and lid of dutch oven with olive oil.  Put sliced onion and pasta in the bottom of the pot.  Combine water and white wine, and pour half over the pasta and onions.  Put in chicken thighs, and season with salt and pepper well.  Sprinkle in oregano, marjoram and savory (I’m guessing here, but maybe 1/2 tsp each, dried?).  Layer in garlic, squash, zucchini, bell peppers, and tomatoes with juice.  Sprinkle capers on top, and season again with salt pepper, oregano and marjoram.  Pour remaining wine/water mixture over the top.  Cover with lid and bake for about an hour.  Check chicken for done-ness, and finish baking if needed.  (this always take me longer than I will think, because I always pack the pot full of veggies).