Canning extravaganza

Holy crap, this last week was pretty insane. It started off quite innocently enough:

"Hmm I have a few extra tomatoes, I should make some spaghetti sauce and freeze it. Maybe I'll run over to the farm real quick and grab a few green onions."

Rewind a few days...

This last week of monsoons really boosted our summer harvest, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, and chiles are growing like weeds. So I spent most of Friday morning picking veggies and came home with probably about 50lbs of veggies.

On the way back from picking up my son, we drove by a house that had several trees loaded with pears and apples. "What the heck, let's go knock on their door." It turns out the owner can't eat them because of sugar issues; so an hour later we left with about 100 lbs of fruit.

"I'm pretty sure this won't all fit in my freezer." So... I went to the store and got about 100 Mason jars and spent the weekend dicing, pearing, and cooking various dishes.
The final result? 4 bags of frozen, chopped-up fruit, 5 jars of frozen basil pesto, 8 tupperware of frozen Greek eggplant/tomato dish, 6 jars of jam, 10 jars of jalapeno jelly, 6 jars of applesauce, 1 bag of dried rosemary, 1 bag of dried basil, 1 jar of dried red chiles, 10 jars of pear compote, 16 jars of apple and pear butter, and 20 jars of spaghetti sauce.

Tomatillos and jalapenos

Salsa verde and spaghetti sauce

Jalapeno jelly

Canning yellow tomato sauce

Final product

Phew.

And two days later I thought, "Hmm let me go see how things are going at the farm..."

Men at Work

OK, so credit needs to be given where credit is due. And it's overdue. A big shoutout to all the strong gardeners who have helped and worked so hard these last few months at Antigua farms!

Although I like to discuss the progress of this gardening endeavor via my cute little blog, I think it's only fair that the people actually doing 99% of the work should be acknowledged!

So here we go with the acceptance speech; the 2012 Garden Awards go to...




Jim and lots of little jalapenos


Jim! It's all his fault really, he saw the opportunity and investment in buying the land, fixing up the old house and turning a giant mass of weeds into a garden. He's worked long and hard to build fences, gates, a greenhouse, and a shed; mend beds, turn the soil, weed, compost, sow seeds, and water the plants! The garden would not exist if it weren't for him.

Thomas in the cornfield



From left to right; Hercules, Caitlin, and Booty

Thanks to Thomas and Caitlin, the kickass duo that comes everyday to feed and milk the goats, and take care of all 50 chickens, that walk our equine friend Hercules, and who both work at several other gardens too! Thank you to Ted, who helped fix fences and build the greenhouse. And Frank who comes daily to share his knowledge and grow food. Thanks to Sean who spent all spring and summer watering, seeding, and weeding. And many thanks to all the volunteers who have come these last few months to help plant seeds, transplant our starts, and water the growing beds. You guys all rock!



Frank and many volunteers at our garden party in March



Everyone needs a goat



I have to say I was a little suspicious at first.

Goats? Aren't they loud and smelly?  Well, the guys are, but the girl-goats are awesome. Antigua Farms has three pygmy goats 'on loan.' They don't smell and you can hardly hear them. Still not convinced?

Here are the top 7 reasons everyone should own a goat:
1. They are cute as hell
2. They entertain your children for extended periods of time
3. They eat unwanted grass, weeds, and greens that you would otherwise compost
4. They'll help trim your trees for a fire-wise yard
5. Their poop makes great fertilizer for your garden
6. Their poop also keeps javelinas away
7. They give you milk!
 

Fertilizer

Lovely javelina repelent



Milk!

It's quite amazing, one little pygmy goat can produce over a pint of milk per day. The milk is incredibly rich and there is so much of it, we need to find ways to store it and preserve it.

I made yogurt, which was actually quite simple but to be honest, was pretty strong. So still in the works, I am trying to make goat cheese... You can buy supplies very easily online, from yogurt makers, to strainers, cheesecloth, thermometers, and even various bacteria and molds.

Somewhat uncharted territory for me, but if I somehow create some homemade 'crottins de chevre,' or some 'Reblochon,' I'll be a happy expat.

Thomas milking Twilla

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

In the News...

Alright, vacation is over, back to work folks!

Jim got interviewed by Gerard Ungerman of Respectful Revolution last week. He and his partner have started a not-for-profit advocacy project documenting positive, small-scale projects from people across the US. These range from social justice issues, healthy living, food distribution and hunger, or energy efficiency, to name a few. There are so many people out there with unique and inspriring ideas and projects!

Gerard's motorcycle broke down in Prescott and he somehow heard about us and came to see what we were up to! To be honest, we were surprised he wanted to talk to us. We didn't think we were doing anything special, but it was nice to discuss healthy food, small-scale gardening/farming, and community  work. The concept of his documentary are that no project or idea is too small, and that together, at a grass-roots level, we can make a lot of positive things happen.

If you want more information on this inspiring and uplifting project, visit www.respectfulrevolution.org

Stay tuned and follow Gerard's journey at www.facebook.com/respectfulrevolution

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.

Do we come from monkeys?

This is a question that, unfortunately, I have to explain and defend on a semi-regular basis. How does this relate to ecologics? Well, in order to understand our role, if any, on this big planet, we need to know where we came come. Making smart decisions when it comes to our health and our environment starts by understanding how we fit on this earth. And the answer is not 'poof, we magically appeared here.'

Because I work in archaeology; over the years many people have asked me about:
1. Dinosaurs (that's paleontology)
2. Rocks and volcanoes (that's geology)
3. Monkeys (that's primatology)
4. Aliens and Egyptian pyramids (that's crap)
5. Indiana Jones (no, I don't usually dig up crystal skulls)
6. Evolution

"Well I'm not a monkey, that's for sure. You're a scientist, explain evolution to me"
Well here you have it, I came across this yesterday. Evolution 101, enjoy!

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.

Running with Fingers

Jim here. So…I started running about a year and a half ago and I feel pretty good. I have lost weight and feel strong. About a year ago I read the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. In his book McDougall talks about the benefits of barefoot running and the philosophy of running in general. If you enjoy running this book will change your life. It did mine.

After finishing his book I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers (those weird foot “gloves” that have us all doing a double take when we see them on someone’s feet) and was determined to throw off my thick-soled running shoes and to start running (nearly) barefoot. These shoes were not originally designed for running but were quickly co-opted by the barefoot running community. My initial results with them were not good. I strapped them on and ran a nice easy two miles. I could feel my calves growing very tight but the running was easy, so I continued. The next day my calves were so sore that I could barely walk, and after four days I was still clutching the handrail on my way to the basement. I had never been that sore in my life. I tossed the Vibrams into the closet and cursed the shoes to anybody who would listen.

Once the soreness subsided I continued to run in my regular shoes and found my groove again. I realized that, as with many runners, I was a “heel striker”; that is, I would land on the heels of my feet and roll forward. Barefoot running (or close to barefoot) means running up on the balls of your feet, which is the natural way to run. Watch a child run barefoot through the grass sometime and you will see what I mean. You simply cannot heel-strike while running barefoot; your body won’t let you.

My old running shoes vs. my new Vibrams

The transition from regular running shoes (those with a thick heel) to Vibram Five Fingers requires patience. I started this transition by consciously running on the balls of my feet while still in my regular running shoes. I did this for several months before again strapping on my Vibrams. Things went much better this time. After three five-mile runs along my regular paved road route I had no more soreness and felt good. I have since switched to trail running and am up over 30 miles per week.

There is a healthy philosophy to barefoot running. It isn’t about speed, or time splits (and the stress the emotional and physical stress that comes along with these). It is about slowing down and enjoying the act of running. I now measure my runs in terms of hours in motion rather than minutes per mile.

The lesson I have learned is to simply slow down and allow myself to get into the act of running. There is a lot to see and feel. Trail running in Vibram Five Fingers forces you to slow down and focus on the steady conveyor belt of tiny obstacles through which you need to find your way. Pain is a good motivator, and you will naturally slow down and focus on the trail in order to avoid landing on those sharp little rocks that will send little bolts of lightning through your feet. One’s mind shifts from the sometimes negative train of thought to the emotion-neutral trail directly in front of you. I am happy that I discovered these shoes, and fortunate to have easy access to miles and miles of beautiful trails to explore.

Time for my run…

Clean Freak

Alright, I am moving into all-out hippiness and that's ok. I decided to try making my own soapy products; laundry detergent, dishwasher soap, and soap wash your dishes. My first reaction to homemade recipes like these is 'geesh hippy.' But then again, why do we have these arbitrary rules on what should and shouldn't be homemade.

And I like being a hippy. So here it goes.

Washing soda- $3.24. (yellow box) Main cleaning agent. More caustic than baking soda.
Baking soda- $0.99 (orange box). Not crucial, you can stick to washing soda only but it works well if you are washing with hard water.
White distilled vinegar- $1.1. Softens clothes.
Borax- $3.38. Helps remove stains. Sometimes called "20 Mule Team."
Salt-
Lemon juice (not from concentrate). You can grate a little of the zest and mix that in too.
Fels-naphta soap- $0.97. Or just your favorite bar of soap (Ivory is good too).
Castile Soap- $9.95. Kind of expensive but worth it. Very concentrated and environmentally-friendly soap. You can by it unscented or scented (almond, lavender, eucalyptus). If you are using the unscented version, you can then add a few drops of essential oil to your final soapy mixtures. This was the only expensive ingredient, but you use so little of it, it's worth it in the long run.

Make sure to read ALL the instructions before getting started!

Powdered Laundry Soap
1 cup of vinegar
1 cup of baking soda
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup of borax
1/4 cup of liquid catile soap.

Just pour all the ingredients together and mix, mix, mix!!! This is the key here, if you stop mixing and stirring too early, the ingredients congeal together in a solid white chunk.


FYI, when you add the vinegar to your mix it will start fizzing. You just gotta keep mixing until it gradually dries and looks like cottage cheese or popcorn. Then you can let it dry for about 1/2 hour and squish it to get a fine powder. You're done! Make sure to keep in an airtight container. This makes about a quart of soap and you should use about 1/4 cup per load.




I also decided to try liquid laundry soap. The powdered version takes up a lot less room, doesn't need to be heated, but is more time-consuming and stressful to make. In case you didn't hear me before, you need to stir, and when I mean stir, I mean freaking stir.
A long time.
Constantly.
Or it will turn into a hockey puck.
You'll try to chisel away at it.
And you'll eventually throw the whole thing away in frustration.

The liquid version is a lot easier...

Liquid Laundry Soap
1/2 Fels-Naphta soap
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda

In a large pot, bring 1 gallon of water to a boil. Grate your soap as you would cheese and mix it in.  Add the borax and washing soda and lower the heat. Once everything has melted, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down.



Then dump everything in a 5 gallon bucket and add another gallon of cold water, stirring slowly. Let sit overnight. By morning, the soap will have "gelled." You can either transfer all this into an old laundry soap container, divvy the mixture into two empty milk jugs, or keep everything in the 5 gallon bucket. Done!


Dish Soap
1.5 cups water
1/2 cup castile soap
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp shredded soap

This is pretty much the same thing as the laundry soap. Bring the water to a boil and melt the grated soap. Turn off heat and add all the other ingredients until they are dissolved. This mixture is pretty concentrated so use sparingly or dilute in water. If your soap isn't scented, you can add a few drops of tea tree oil.

Dishwasher Soap
1.5 cups of water
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup castile soap
2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp washing soda

You can add 2 tbsp of lemon juice if your soap is not already scented. Bring the water and vinegar to a boil. Turn off the heat and add all other ingredients until they are dissolved. Again, this is concentratedl; use 2-3 tbsp/load.

Price
I did not perform a fancy scientific experiment to keep track of how many loads of laundry I get from store-bought soaps vs. homemade. Websites and blogs have calculated all this pretty precisely. All I can say is that all the items cost me roughly $20, which is the same as a large container of laundry soap at Costco. After making all this though, everything except the soap bar looks barely touched, which means I can still make several more batches with the remaining ingredients. The price breakdown seems to be $0.01-0.10 per load with homemade recipes vs. on average $0.25 with store-bought detergent. Other people factor in time spent buying the ingredients, etc. Honestly, I just wanted to test this out.

A few reminders
-Your soapy mixtures will not have as many suds. Store-bought versions are made to produce a lot of bubbles, but it does not make your laundry any cleaner.
- Same goes with smell, we're so used to store-bought soaps that are overloaded with 'fresh mountain air' or 'wildflower meadow' smells that at first your laundry won't smell as clean. But it is! Again, if you want soaps that are more scented, there are a variety of essential oils you can buy. Don't add perfume though.
-Definitely invest in a funnel.
- All of the liquid soaps might separate or harden between uses. No big deal, the mixture is still fine, don't throw it away. Just shake or stir before using.
- Some conversions
1/4 cup castile soap = 1/2 bar of Fels-Naphta soap = 1 bar of regular soap.
You can use all three interchangeably. The soap bars just need to be grated and melted.
- Watch out these soaps and chemicals are all very concentrated, I got a huuuge soap high doing this.
- These recipes came from various cool blogs, if you want to check them out! http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/2009/04/natural-homemade-laundry-detergent/ http://frugallysustainable.com/2011/09/homemade-liquid-dish-soap-that-really/  http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-detergent.html

Next on my list? Homemade shoes. Why the heck not.