I say Tomato...

We have had a hard time trying to grow tomatoes this year. We originally started with at least 10 different varieties this Spring, including Beefsteak tomatoes, Coeur de Boeuf from France, Black Krim, Tommy Toe, Indian Moon, Prescott heirlooms, etc. Unfortunately many of the seeds did not germinate in the greenhouse, others did not survive the transplant process, and many others developed some weird fungus or got eaten by weird bugs.


At any rate, I did not think this was going to be the 'year of the tomato' at Antigua Farms. Luckily, even with over 50 plants dying, we are now getting loads of tomatoes in from the garden. I've made ratatouille, soup, ketchup, marinara sauce, casseroles, salsa, and salads. And now my family is officially tomatoed out.

Mini mini cherry tomatoes

There have actually been so many tomatoes that I've had to think of ways to process and store them. So here are some pros and cons from my tomato storage wars:


1. Canning
Pros: No energy used to store. Long shelf life. Ready to eat out of the jar. Cons: Time-consuming. And do not look up botulism on the internet...

2. Freezing
Pros: Whole tomatoes, soup, sauce; it can all get dumped in the freezer.
Cons: Freezer burn, defrosting takes time, lots of wasted electricity.

3. Drying
Pros: Quick and easy to do. Versatile. Takes up very little storage space.
Cons: Can get moldy if not stored properly.

Sundried tomatoes are a winner!

Verdict is in: if you have too many tomatoes, just make your own sundried ones! You can invest in a dehydrator ($30-$50), you can dry tomatoes in your oven but that means your oven is on all day, or you can do it the super easy way.

Just slice your tomatoes lengthwise (Romas seem to work best) and remove the seeds. Place them directly on a baking sheet. Park your car in the sun and let the tomatoes sit on the dashboard  for a day or two and voila!

Make sure you store them in a dry place and check that the leftover moisture from the tomatoes, if any, does not get trapped in the bag or jar. You can also sprinkle the tomatoes with salt, herbs, or dunk them in vinegar before letting them dry out. Sundried tomatoes are really sweet and can go in everything; salads, omelettes, pizza, casseroles, etc.

New projects for next year?!!



Square tomatoes for better shipping and storage*



Bioengineered, anti-aging, purple tomatoes**

GMO tomatoes with mutated fish genes***

 *  http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/11618

** http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/126892.php

*** http://www.amazon.com/Pandoras-Picnic-Basket-Potential-Genetically/dp/0198506740

Outdoorsy Peach Cobbler

Beware, I have discovered the amazing, multi-purpose dutch oven! You can use it for anything, it will last forever, and you can let it do all the work. Yes this sounds a little like an informercial, but man these things are pretty cool.

During our last bbq, we let our peach cobbler cook in the coals and just as it got dark; dessert was ready! If you want to try it, this is what you'll need:

 Peach Cobbler a la dutch oven

- 1 bbq or campfire
- 4 cups of sliced peaches

- 1.5 cups flour

- 2.5 cup milk
- 1.5 cups sugar

- cinnamon/cardamon

- 1 stick butter

Warm your dutch oven by covering it with hot coals. Melt in the butter first then mix in all the other ingredients, stirring well. Add the peaches last so they don't all stick to the bottom.

We just started our barbecue and let our mixture sit on some hot coals, adding more as the evening went on and the burgers were cooking. Once the bbq was free, we transfered the dutch oven directly into the bbq pit and let it cook for a little over an hour.

 

It does look like our dessert survived a thermonuclear blast, but I promise you it was quite lovely. More to come on the oh-so-great dutch oven, thanks Michaella!

Summer Harvest

Here are the latest pictures of Antigua Farms. After all this hard work, it is finally paying off.

We've been eating kale, chard, and bok choy for a couple of months now, but the summer crops are now ready to harvest and we are thoroughly enjoying it. I haven't bought a vegetable in probably a month.



Weekly 'share' from the garden: arugula, bok choy, sorrel,
radishes, green onions, shallots, kale, and lettuce mix!




These last few weeks we have picked tons of yellow and orange carrots, radishes, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, bell peppers, jalapenos, green onions, fresh herbs, string beans, and a variety of tomatoes!

Raspberry bushes are now in the ground as well as a pretty little plum tree. We've been picking produce, planting new rows of lettuce, radishes and carrots, and prepping the winter crops too (cabbage, broccoli, and squash).

The garden is flourishing. Plants (and unfortunately weeds) have been growing like mad. But man, it's working, we're growing food, lots of it!!

Cherry tomatoes



Yellow crooknecks

Chard

A 'hole' lot of chicken

 
Here is the recipe you should follow for a superb saturday get-together, a farm-party, and a bbq with a twist.

If you want to eat well, share food with good people, and appreciate where it comes from; this is it. Just follow these simple (but hard-working) steps:


0. Allbeit not a necessary step, plucking and processing a chicken was an interesting experience to witness... If you wanna eat meat, you should know how it gets on your plate.

1. Dig a hole. Or better yet, have someone dig a hole for you. If you are married to an archaeologist, your hole will be a perfect rectangle that measures 1m by 1.5m by 0.5 m.

2. Cover the bottom of the hole with river cobbles.



3. Build a fire on top of the rocks.



4. Once you fire has turned to charcoal, remove all the wood/charcoal/debris but leave the hot rocks.




5. Cover the rocks with fresh grass.


6. Place your food directly on the grass, or if it gets sticky you can cover it in aluminum foil too. Veggies, meat, anything goes. The more food the better!


7. Add more grass on top and then cover everything evenly.
8. Pour about 5 gallons of water over the whole affair.
9. Quickly cover up your hole. We used corrugated tin for a quick airtight 'roof' and added dirt on top.

10. Leave your hole alone for about 4 hours. Your food is steaming and cooking. Go grab a beer.

12. Uncover your hole and see what you got!








13. Have a party.









14. Thank the yummy chickens.

A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track





So I found this cool book at the library the other day called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese. It's a kind of a cook book/diary combo. The author goes through a list of items that most people will buy pre-made at the store and try to replicate it at home. Then she'll compare the time, quality, effort, and price of both food versions and will tell you if it's worth it.

Her point is that over the years, more and more dishes that used to be homemade are now considered 'ingredients' that you buy at the store without question. Who would try to make ketchup? And more importantly, everyone has a subjective line with what they consider necessary to make vs. acceptable to buy.

A few of my personal examples on my personal sliding-scale:
- Toast. We can all agree on that one. Let's make it at home.
- Pie crust. Gotta make it, even though most people would buy it. I don't care that it's messy and time-consuming. I would just feel like a lesser person if I bought it.
- Mayonnaise. Cool and fun to make but still a staple item to buy.
- Butter. That is hard-core. Never gonna try to make it, have no desire to.

Anyway, her book and concepts start with peanut butter. It's cheap and easy to make, but now everyone in America buys either Skippy, Peter Pan, or Jif. It should be only peanuts, salt, and maybe oil, but it has turned into a whole industry.

You got pre-packaged PB&J sandwiches (with crusts already removed), pre-mixed PB&J squirt bottles (no need for a knife), smooth or crunchy peanut butter, peanut butter dip, etc.

So if you feel like sticking it to the man, here is the recipe for peanut butter:

1. Put unsalted roasted peanuts in blender.
2. Push button.
3. Remove peanut butter from blender.

One little note of advice. Don't keep pushing the button (Step 2 of the recipe) non-stop until your peanut butter is silky smooth or you'll fry your blender. Not that I did that or anything, I'm just warning you novices.

Chips Ahoy!

So I scored today and got a GIANT trash bag full of greens (90% kale).

Definitely an awesome dumpster-diving experience that I will talk about in more detail later.

For now the point is: I got a crap-ton of kale to use pronto. What do I do?

OK, you can give some away (4 families and 2 goats got a lot of greens), you can freeze it for soups etc (did that), you can eat it (veggie lasagna at dinner), you can juice it (kale/celeri/apple juice at lunch), or you can make, ... kale chips!

Yeah. Sounds funky or let's be honest here, it just does not sound good. It doesn't even look so hot once you're done. But it's actually flavorful, easy to make, and yummy.

This is what you need:

- 50lbs of kale (or less)

- Salt/pepper/garlic powder

- Olive oil

- Parmesan, or hot sauce, soy sauce, etc.

 

1. Strip the stems off the kale and cut the leaves up in little squares.

2. Mix together 1tbsp of olive oil, spices, and a couple of handfuls of kale in a plastic bag.

3. Place the kale on a cookie sheet (try not to layer the leaves). Bake at 350 degrees for about 6 minutes.

You can pull out the sheet and toss up the leaves halfway through so both sides get toasty.

Be careful, it cooks quickly!

Take the kale out when it is starting to turn brown on the edges. 

Voila!

YO-nanas

I get all excited when starting projects and I have a tendency to let things fizzle out. And that's what happened with this blog. It started because of I had a lot of questions about food and health. Maybe it was triggered by having kids, or being more active, or just more curious.

Our lifestyle has changed a lot in the last few years:
We've multiplied.
We've grown plant matter.
We've gotten sick.
We've gotten healthier.
We've gotten cynical.

So what triggered the blog excitement again?
1. Guilt (hi mom).
2. We started a community farm (more on that later)
3. This frigging sticker I saw today in the produce aisle.

Yonanas? I mean come on.

I'm buying a banana because I want to eat a banana.

If I wanted ice cream, I'd have bought ice cream...

Aha! and Huh? (No.4)

It seems like, unfortunately, it is always easier to find some Huh?-facts rather than some happy Aha!-facts.

Aha!
This is from a few months ago, when I visited my sister in Manhattan. An "mini-urban-organic market" just sitting there all cute and healthy at the stop for the ferry for Ellis Island. Even in the winter in New York you can get fresh produce. In this case apples, jam, and honey. And cheap too, way cool!

Huh?
This is an adertisement and marketing strategy at Kentucky Fried Chicken. First off, I have to say that I hate these types of ads, trying to guilt you into buying their crap, under the guise of helping the poor/needy/sick, etc. Like KFC can't just support the cause or make a donation.
But this one is particularly dumb.

Buy a gigantic sugary soda and help support diabetes research. And yes, in this case, they are researching the cause and trying to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, not Type 2. Type 1 is technically not directly linked to eating habits, but come on, really?

Fast Food McFacts

There have been many books and documentarires in the last few years documenting the state of the food industry in the US, the mingling of agriculture and politics, dubious marketing strategies, conflict of interests, and the business of food in general.

And we all know how bad fat food is for us. Well sort of. Not really actually. It's pretty crazy once you start looking at the fast food industry in more depth. The ugly truth encompasses the quality of the food, the health consequences, the attitude toward employees, or the lobbying practices. There is hardly anything redeeming about it, even the Ronald McDonald houses are shady. I'm serious, I used to eat fast food every once in a while, but now when I have the urge, I picture the 100+ mashed up cows that make up my ground beef patty.

Notable movies include Food, Inc., Fast Food Nation, and Supersize Me, if you haven't watch these documentaries, go add them to your netflix queue right now! They have brought awareness to the state of our relationship with food in the US and hopefully have changed some people's minds and habits (it worked for me!).


I guess I'll give you my spiel on organic and local food later, but this following strip pretty much sums up some of the crazy facts about fast food. This really is only the '101 of Fast Food Facts.' There is more to disclose, unfortunately!

At least for now, I present to you; the good, the bad, and the McUgly.

Thanks for the info i-am-bored.com, quite a miscellaneous site but every so often you find some really interesting links!



Aha! and Huh? (No. 3)

As we continue in our random posts of interesting and lame eco-logics, I present to you the latest findings:

Aha!
I had to stop and take a picture of this parasol as we were driving down to Mexico a few of weeks ago.

Yes, it's an-upside down satellite dish used for shade at a roadside food stand.
Que bueno reciclaje, love it!


Huh?
This is a coupon for emergency supplies of canned goods, in case the world comes to an end, there is no food, and we are all ready to kill each other. And it is versatile: "Terrorist Attacks, Recession, Layoffs!"

Don't fret, just buy a year supply of canned or freeze-dried food and stash it in your bunker.

But if the end of the world lasts more than a year, then sorry, you're f***ed.

Nasty Food Contest-Results!

 

Alright, it took quite a while to get all our results in! After many weeks of speculating, the results are finally here...

If you have missed our earlier blog, the contest was to try and find the worst food possible and share the joy and amazement of your find. This was an international effort, with nasty concoctions, dubious ingredients, and awful marketing strategies.

There were many submissions, so thank you everyone for your valiant effort.

Let's start with our first finalist from down under:


What is it you say? Why these are popsicles, mixed and ready to go, you just freeze them yourself. And yes, they are in cute seahorse or koala shapes, what is not to like about that? And don't worry, you can always keep this one until you truly think the time is right. It is apparently quite good to eat until 2016...

Runner up, we have here a truly unique choice of ingredients and packaging choices. Hot dog balls, yes that's right, enhanced with a subtle yet delightful chicekn flavor, and then, wait for it... infused with cheese shots that will melt in your mouth. All of this artfully wrapped in a cute to-go box.

I do have a small bias against our next contestant who comes to us from the farmer's fair in the depths of La Belle France.

As far as healthy, fresh, and organic food, he is a winner. This is pure, fresh, food. Locally raised, with only ONE ingredient. So let me be clear, this is not the worst food possible. However, we must all agree that although this big box of tongues looks delish, it is not for everyone pallet (pun intended).

This next item was suggested as unhealthy food by a fellow Swiss friend. Just our basic ham sandwich.

Why did I include this one? To show the different point of views in different countries. Considered fast food and junk food in Swizterland, it would have been chosen as a healthy lunch choice here in our old US of A.

An intriguing competing duo for this category that I liked to call fluffy fructose fun, we have a tie ladies and gentlemen. These two contestants, although separated by several thousand miles of ocean, agreed that marshmallow art is truly a category worthy of mention.



"Birthday Surprise" from Belfort, France



"Easter Cuties" from Nashville, Tennessee 

Now a special category for most-un-ecofriendly packaging, this one comes to us from Prescott, Arizona.

I think we should all learn a valuable lesson here and try and ruin our attempt at healthy food by buying products in hard plastic shells that will biodegrate in 4,000 years or so.

Drinks were not as popular a choice, so this is one I picked myself, based on color and ingredients.

There are not enough blue foods in this world I tell you, so let's invent some shall we? Blue raspberry juice! And what is the key to blue raspberry goodness? Apparently vegetable oil, yes it is listed as one of the ingredients; who woulda thunk?

Moving on with most creative product name for a food item, I give you, from Mexico:
THE Skwinklote!

I dared not taste it, but secret ingredients include tamarind juice and cayenne pepper.
Probably something to grab if you are in need of a last minute bowel cleanse at the checkout aisle.

And there you have them ladies and gentlemen, please let's give a big round of applause to all our contestants, you are all winners my friends!!