Winter is Coming

Ok, not really. Not right away, at least. There's still plenty to do out in the garden. 

It was hard to start this blog. I had been trying to decide when the "right" time would be. I'm still half-convinced that January would actually be the best time, because there would be no gardening happening, and my first post could be about what what seeds I'm ordering, from where, and why. But I think it would be such a long, boring slog to get to the point where there is anything interesting to write about that I would quit in disgust and that would be the end of the blog. Maybe. Maybe not.

So, to address the point of this post's title: It's cold! We had a big temperature drop and the high today was something like 51 degrees. Ugh. I actually like cloudy, 50 degree weather -- I just wish we could have it in November, not September. I saw one of my hummingbirds hanging out by the morning glories and nasturtiums and felt so sorry for her. And missed all the bumblebees and monarchs I had seen just a couple days ago. 

I have a few days off and since this cold snap it, I used them to go into full-on Preservation Mode. I've been preserving produce all season long, but today I did quite a variety of things: I cored tomatoes that had finished ripening on the table and froze them in ziplock bags; I simmered beef bones to make stock with garden veggies and herbs; and I dried paste tomatoes (from the farmers' market) and Mt Royale plums (from my front yard tree).

Yesterday I made kimchi which is fermenting on a kitchen shelf and should be ready to put into the fridge in a few days. I use Sandor Katz' recipe as a guide (it's in his many fermentation books and online), but I mostly wing it. I'm not much of a recipe follower -- I treat them as guidelines rather than actual hardcore instructions.

Beef/Chicken stock [oven: 30-60 min; stovetop: 6-7 hours min]

This is a favorite activity for me to do when it is cold out, but I'm not ready to cave and turn the heat on. Days like this generally hit when I have a lot of things on-hand or out in the garden that I can use to make the stock.

So here is how I go about it. I generally collect bones from meals as a matter of course all year long, such as saving chicken or turkey carcasses. It is hard to do this with beef these days because most roasts and steaks are boneless these days. So I do buy ribs or soup bones or chicken legs and such when I find a good sale. 

When I have a lot of bones collected in the freezer, I take them out and roast them if they are uncooked. The meat on them does not need to be cooked through, but you want to brown them as that improves the flavor, and having them roast in a 375 degree oven for a half hour to an hour on a baking sheet -- even if still frozen -- should be fine. Then I put all the bones in a large stock pot. I fill with enough water to cover and I simmer this uncovered for 3-4 hours minimum. Longer is better, but don't have the water boil above a low simmer. 

For the final three hours, I add veggies, spices, and herbs -- many of them from the garden, which is why this is a great project for the first cold days at the beginning of fall. I throw in onions or leeks, one or two thai peppers, garlic, and carrots. Celery if I have it. At this time I also add the spices such as bay leaf (I have a bay house plant), black peppercorns, a couple allspice berries (for beef), and turmeric. In the final hour of cooking I add the more delicate herbs such as lemongrass, thai basil, parsley, and coriander or cilantro (this is a great way to use cilantro that has bolted but doesn't have mature coriander seed yet.)

After this boils for another hour (for a grand total of 6 to 7 hours roughly), turn the heat off and let rest for a few hours or over night. Then pour it through a colander into another stock pot. At this point you can cover it and put it in the fridge or outside if the temp is below 50 to let the fat float to the top and solidify so that you can remove it before canning, freezing or using the stock. Or, you can keep the fat and be sure to stir it well to evenly distribute if you are going to can or freeze it. I can my broth because I have a pressure canner. I don't know anyone else who does this, so I won't get into the details of that. Suffice to say that if you have a pressure canner, you probably already know all about this process.