It's Easy Being Green

Who says you can’t grow your own food in the winter? Anyone who does has never tried because our ragtag methods prove you can!

After one of our first hard freezes in the fall, Homestead Hottie dug up a very stringy tomato plant that never did much. We planted it late, in a weird spot in the front yard and it just sort of languished there. I’ll blame it on the neighbor’s cigarette butts that often decorated its base. Seriously. That tomato was one hot mess but Talina dug it up anyway, planted it in a pot and brought it into the sunroom/den inside.

That tomato has continued looking lanky, covering most of the 4-foot tall window it sits in. It did put out a flush of new growth though and even set fruit around Christmas thanks to our “hand diddling” of the flowers. That’s right, we pretend we’re a bee and we finger all the flowers to pollinate them. We know have a handful of fresh, window-ripened cherry tomatoes to top our next salad with. It’s an exciting and unexpected taste of summer in the doldrums of winter!

We did the same with three pepper plants that survived the first frost. We now have one hot pepper that’s growing bigger every day and another that just needs to turn red already. Can anyone say home office salsa? So this next gardening season, consider moving some plants inside to a bright sunny windowsill and see if you can keep them growing. They might even reward you with a treat of something fresh to eat in the middle of winter.

Last but not least, our seeds have started sprouting underneath that new grow light we bought for a song. The seedlings look really good. They’re definitely much stronger looking than our window sprouted seedlings from last year and they certainly germinated faster. It took just 4 days for most of them to emerge!

In my opinion, it has already paid for itself. Now we just have to wait on Mother Nature so we can shuffle these early spring seedlings out to the garden and then get the summer fruits and veggies started too. Gardening season can’t get here soon enough.

Popularity: 5% [?]

We always get into trouble when we take a trip to our local Rural King farm store. I don’t know if it’s the free bag of fresh-popped popcorn that is slapped into your hands when you walk in the door or the bottomless cup of coffee that aids in filling our cart and running up the tab. I think it’s probably more to the point it is just a fun store in all of its quirky ways. If you’ve ever been in one, you know there is nothing modern or glamorous about it.

Our Darling Daughters love pushing through the aisles while they happily munch (and spill) their bags of popcorn from one department to the next. Spring is always a hit when the baby chicks start arriving in their giant tubs. The sights and sounds of all those cheeping chicks is enough to quickly warm up what could be an otherwise cold and drab early spring day in southern Indiana. There aren’t any chicks yet but there were some baby rabbits which elicited lots of oohs and aahs from the girls.

A new grow light practically jumped into our cart!

While we always find something we don’t really need, we happened to score a great find this weekend. The Rural King was selling a Hydrofarm 4-Foot Jump Start Grow Light System
for right around 60-bucks. Other grow light kits like this will easily cost upward of $100 or more. I’ve also considered building my own in the past but have never really been able to convince Homestead Hottie of the need or where the darned thing would end up living most of the year.

We love to get a jump start on the gardening season but always have problems with seedlings getting too long and leggy before it is safe for them to move outside. Our sunroom/den has three skylights and three westward facing windows but the light isn’t always so direct. We’re hoping our new grow light will help correct that problem and get this year’s seeds off to a good start.

While our friends back in Phoenix are already enjoying their “spring” gardening season, it is hard to believe it’s time for us to begin starting seeds. I was able to plug in our zip code and get a handy little chart on what seeds should be started when based on our climate zone. Click here to head over to All Things Plants so you can punch in your own zip code and get your own list for free! It’s one of the few free customized seed starting calendars I’ve been able to find on the net and it happens to be sponsored by one of my favorite seed companies: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Happy seed starting!

Popularity: 9% [?]

We were stoked to be in the path of the Christmas Day blizzard that socked the Half-Acre Homestead with Old Man Winter’s one-two punch. Stiff winds helped pelt the house with sleet most of Christmas night until it finally turned into snow sometime in the early morning. When we woke up, we were greeted to a winter wonderland of snow…8-inches to be exact!

Our flock of chickens has refused to budge from their coop, instead laying about and basking under the glow of their heat lamp while the flakes cover their yard. I can’t say as I blame them. Who would want to strut around in the snow without any giant woolen socks or insulated snow boots?

The weather outside might be frightful but that doesn’t mean there isn’t time to enjoy some indoor pursuits. Homestead Hottie picked up a great Christmas gift this year, one that’s as nice to look at as it is functional. I was lucky enough to receive a 15 liter fermentation crock made by TSM Products.

If you read my blog frequently, you already know I like to homebrew and bake my own breads (other processes of fermentation). With Talina’s gut healing journey, we’ve learned the benefits of all those micro-organisms that so often get eliminated from our gut with today’s modern diet and convenience foods.

Sure, we eat a lot of yogurt and drink a lot of kefir and coffee but what about kombucha, kraut and the myriad of other fermented delicacies consumed around the world? Each live, unpasteurized, fermented food acts as a delivery vehicle, dropping all those strains of beneficial bacteria into our gut where they can flourish and aid digestion.

Last spring, we were gifted with several large heads of cabbage from another local gardener. They were gorgeous demonstrations of her decades of gardening experience but what is one to do with 4 bowling ball sized heads of the stuff? We made cabbage rolls, apples with cabbage and every other type of cabbage dish imaginable until it finally dawned on us: sauerkraut.

Thank goodness we found Sandorkraut (a.k.a Sandor Katz) to show us the fermentation process is not hard or scary. His book Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods is a trend-bucking bible of time-tested fermentable foods. The more than 180 page book is packed with just under 100 recipes that will keep your kitchen bubbling with beneficial bacteria and some truly tasty fermented treats to nourish your belly.

Back to the kraut, we didn’t have a giant crock to ferment this cabbage in but Katz taught us that something as simple as a crockpot can be used as a fermenter. Weighed down with a bag of brine solution, our kraut bubbled and boiled for about three weeks in the corner of our Half-Acre Homestead kitchen. The sharp tang and amazing taste of living sauerkraut was astonishing. Those cans of crap from the grocery store have nothing on homemade kraut!

Well, now the Half-Acre Homestead has another fermenting vessel proudly working away in our kitchen, just a few feet from my 5 gallon beer fermenter. The TSM fermentation crock looks stately sitting on display by our front window but few people probably realize the treat that is slowly converting inside. Another 5 pounds of cabbage are fermenting away and with the innovative water seal, you can’t smell a thing. I do like to lift the lid every few days and take a whiff though, reminding me the food inside is very much alive and the age old process is working just as it should.

Popularity: 30% [?]

The dance with freezing temperatures has started here at the Half-Acre Homestead as the calendar pushes ever closer to winter. Most in the TriState put their gardens to bed a long time ago but we always try to eek out as much late season produce as we can possibly gather.

In years past, boxes of green tomatoes have ripened in the garage and lasted us well into February, leaving us with just a 3 or 4 month gap before those red ripe orbs grace our countertops again. While we don’t adhere to a strict diet of eating in season, we do a pretty good job of fitting within the confines of availability or work with whatever we might have preserved.

There is the occasional “treat” but more often than not we’re faced with disappointment when we break down and buy that store-bought tomato in the dead of winter…unless it’s a hella expensive UglyRipe but that’s a different story.

This year we maxed out at 12 tomato plants in the garden. Most were random volunteers that sprouted from the bunny poo we spread around the beds to fertilize. I think only about 3 plants were planted intentionally by seed in the window of our den and then transfered out very late into the season. This summer’s extreme heat and drought left us with little to harvest. Once we made way into August though, the tables began to turn.

Buckets of cherry and volunteer paste tomatoes could be had about once a week. A nice slicer or two would ripen around the same time. Because of the heat crippled growing season, most of the plants produced new fruit toward the end of the summer and that has left us with plants overloaded with green tomatoes.

Our little red wagon has seen better days but it still works for hauling in the huge tomato harvest each fall.

Just like our yearly tradition, we’ve rolled out our battered little red wagon, climbed into tomato trellises and done the dirty task of picking the plants bare. Even our 3 year old Darling Daughter gets in on the action, picking armloads of tomatoes to put up in the house. They really do keep and ripen well!

I wrote about how to store and ripen tomatoes well into the winter here. I’ve made an instructional video on canning your own tomato sauce or you can try out a recipe for pickled green tomatoes. They will make a perfect hostess gift for your next holiday gathering!

Popularity: 42% [?]

If you’re a Hoosier interested in local food, you’ve got to check out a brand new coffee table tome called Food for Thought: An Indiana Harvest. The book profiles 80 Indiana farmers, food producers and restauranteurs and allows them to share their passion and thoughts behind providing us with some of the best food to ever pass between our lips. You can read my review on the book here.

In celebration of the book’s release, several Evansville-area organizations are hosting book signings and discussions with author David Hoppe, photographer Kristin Hess and Evansville farmer Bud Vogt of Bud’s Farm Market (who is also profiled in the book). The events are today and tomorrow, August 30 and 31:

Thursday, Aug. 30, 6 – 7 p.m.
Working Men’s Institute (407 W Tavern St, New Harmony, Ind.)

Friday, Aug. 31, 12 – 1 p.m.
Traditions Lounge, University Center (University of Southern Indiana, 8600 University Blvd, Evansville, Ind.)

Friday, Aug. 31, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
River City Food Co-op (116 Washington Avenue, Evansville, Ind.)

Food for Thought: An Indiana Harvest features a broad spectrum of Hoosiers statewide, and is a legacy of the two-year award-winning program called Food for Thought, in which Indiana Humanities encouraged Hoosiers to think, read and talk about food and its role in our lives.

“Through our Food for Thought program, we met an amazing group of people involved in Indiana food – from Clabber Girl’s Gary Morris to Evansville farmer Bud Vogt to Bloomington’s Chef Daniel Orr,” said Keira Amstutz, president and CEO of Indiana Humanities. “We wanted to share their stories about making a living through food, how the creative, entrepreneurial passion drives people to take risks and introduce food-based innovations, and how Hoosiers’ efforts are working to solve food-based challenges across the street and around the globe. These are the stories we will be telling about through our book, and through the book tour.”

Food for Thought: An Indiana Harvest was published by IBJ Publishing and printed by an Indiana company. The $24.95 book is available online (www.IndianaHarvest.com), through local bookstores and gift shops, and at events.

The list of upcoming tour locations include:

Sept. 6, Columbus, IN

Sept. 7-8, Louisville, KY

Sept. 8, Indianapolis (Penrod)

Sept. 9, Starlight, IN

Sept. 10, Jeffersonville, IN

Sept. 20, Crawfordsville, IN

Sept. 27-28, Fort Wayne, IN

Sept. 29, Indianapolis (2012 Indy Author Fair)

Oct. 5, Indianapolis (FoodCon 3 at the Harrison Center for the Arts)

Oct. 6, Fair Oaks Farms, Brookston, IN

Oct. 7, Michigan City, Chesterton, IN

Oct. 8, South Bend, IN and Mishawaka, IN

Oct. 9-10, Chicago

Oct. 17, Vincennes, IN

Oct. 18, Bloomington, IN (Bloomingfoods annual meeting)

Oct. 20, Bloomington, IN (Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market)

Oct. 23, West Lafayette, IN

Oct. 24, Muncie, IN

Nov. 29, Indianapolis (New Day Meadery)

Dec. 7, Indianapolis (Holiday Harvest at Sun King Brewing)

Popularity: 8% [?]

What isn't inviting about the crisp red and white paint applied to a classic Midwestern farmhouse.

Its taken a few years but it seems we have fallen for another farmhouse of yesteryear. Before we moved to our suburban Half-Acre Homestead, we considered renting what we nicknamed “the little red house.”

It was a single story, clapboard farmhouse painted in cheeky red paint complete with white trim. My Homestead Hottie loved the country charm that oozed out of every gable and porch support. I was in awe of the two matching barns, fruit trees and large garden space.

We were smitten and in love with the place until we got into the nitty gritty. The owners weren’t interested in a lease/purchase option. They would continue utilizing the barns and the large garden space for their own pursuits and could visit at anytime they desired. The buzzer of defeat sounded louder with each passing caveat until our love for “the little red house” turned into unflinching disappointment.

As always, it was meant to be. We settled into a new, burgeoning neighborhood and scored a great house for a great price. We’ve now almost lived in our Half-Acre Homestead for four years, a remarkable amount of time for us to stay in one place. Now we feel like we’re busting out the seams though. With our two darling daughters running underfoot and my daily work commute running 45 miles each way, we’re ready for some more room closer to my employer. The suburbs just aren’t for us anymore. Between battles with the HOA and feeling smothered by the surround of neighbors, that means a move to the country is in order.

In the shade of three giant oaks with countless stories to tell, two front doors beckon our call.

The search has begun and we’ve already found ourselves falling for another farmhouse. For now, we’re calling it the “little blue house.” Two stories, bright blue, white trim and a touch of gingerbread make this country home look so inviting…that is once you get past the jungle of overgrowth taking over the 40+ acres here. Then there is the caveat that the house is listed as “uninhabitable”. It seems there are a couple of holes in the roof and nobody has stepped foot inside for 5 or more years.

It could be a nightmare of nesting vermin, rotted floors and a molding basement. It could also be some weather-beaten bones of a classic Midwestern farmhouse waiting for that one breath of new life. We’re already daydreaming of restoring those 40 acres, the hardwood barn with classic gray patina and then the “little blue house”. I can already hear the laughter of our two girls as they thump along the nearly 100 year old hardwood floors, feel the breeze while sitting in the shade of a wraparound porch, smell Homestead Hottie’s goodies baking in the cozy country kitchen and feeling the warmth coming from the wood-burning fireplace on a cold winter’s eve.

Yup…it’s official. We’ve once again been bitten by farmhouse envy.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Here in southwestern Indiana, we’re still grappling with triple digit heat swings and a dryness that belongs out in the desert somewhere. Our garden has required almost non-stop hand-watering this summer due to the lack of rainfall.

The rain gauge here at the Half-Acre Homestead has only picked up about 1.5″ since I put it up in early May. To give you some sort of perspective, that’s what we usually get in one storm around here and now we’re about a foot behind on rainfall for the year. Nearby corn crops, undoubtedly GMO, are withering and some farmers have already tossed in the towel and started cutting their corn crops to chop into silage.

At least with our homegrown food pursuits, we can supplement Mother Nature’s lack of cooperation with our garden hose. An occasional shower of 1/4″ to 1/2″ of rain completely refilled our long-ago tapped out rainwater barrel. Plants are still struggling and producing little in the way of stuff to harvest this year.

Our animals are also struggling in the heat. Chickens are spending most of their day hiding out beneath the bushes and egg laying is few and far between. We’ve had to supplement with store-bought eggs over the last few weeks which is rather unheard of here at the Half-Acre Homestead.

We’ve been helping both the rabbits and chickens keeping cool by filling empty butter and yogurt containers with the cast-offs from the veggie drawer in the fridge. Top the container up with water and stick it in the freezer overnight. By the heat of the next day, you’ll have a fun ice block treat for your animals to gnaw on and lay next to. Our chickens also thoroughly enjoy cold watermelon tossed out into the lawn for their gut-cooling, gastronomic pleasures.

Since we’re talking watermelon, one of the mainstays of summer, how about making a watermelon treat for you to enjoy too? I ran across this recipe for Strawberry Melon Gazpacho and thought it sounded refreshingly tasty. Gazpacho is traditionally made with fresh tomatoes but this twist makes a refreshing change that would be great served for a brunch or as a light, summer dessert soup.

Strawberry Melon Gazpacho

Ingredients

2 cups (1-inch cubes) cantaloupe
2 cups (1-inch cubes) seedless watermelon
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 pound organic strawberries, hulled, divided
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Take cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, half of strawberries and lime juice and put into blender. Blend until smooth. Chop remaining strawberries and stir into soup. Chill until serving.