latest posts – Page 18 – Planet B Gardens

red sauerkraut

Sauerkraut in white plastic bins next to NYC dirty water hot dogs was my only experience with the cabbage condiment until I was well into my 20s. It was a grayish-white, limp, slightly sourish mush to put on top of the dog — dosed with a serious helping of bright yellow mustard to give it some umph. It wasn’t until I had a proper bratwurst dinner with friends from Germany that I finally tasted what fresh sauerkraut could bring to the palate. Crisp, bright, and with a perfect balance of salt and sour. I had to make some of my own. Sauerkraut is simply made of shredded cabbage fermented in salt. That

October 5, 2014

bison stew pressure canning

Keeping jars of stew in the pantry makes preparing a healthy quick meal easy and tastes much better than any canned stews you’d buy in at the supermarket. When I make a stew, I often set enough aside to can a few jars. Dice onions, yellow potatoes, and cube bison chuck roast for this stew, and put them in a pot separate from the main batch. Toss in a little oil and lightly brown the bison and vegetables. Bison is a naturally lean meat, so the extra fat doesn’t hurt. Add enough beef broth to almost cover the meat and vegetables, followed by a 1/2 cup or so of red

October 4, 2014

kombucha brew

Last year during my fermentation kick, I tried brewing my own kombucha tea with mixed results. Kombucha is a brewed and fermented tea that is slightly sour, slightly sweet, and full of healthy probiotics. I learned I like freshly-brewed, homemade kombucha much more over bottled (like you get in the healthy food section of your local grocery). I also tried flavoring and bottling my own kombucha, which looks pretty in the bottle, but still prefer the taste straight out of the brewer. I set up a continuous brewing system with two 2.5 gallon porcelain brewers. I ordered my original culture (called a “SCOBY” for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) online. The

September 30, 2014

roasted hot salsa

I love salsas — the hotter the better. To make my own for canning, I cubed and seeded a couple pounds of heirloom tomatoes. I charred sweet peppers and tomatillos from my friend Nancy’s garden over an open flame, and sliced hot peppers — keeping the seeds of the fresh cayenne pepper in the mix. Chopped a cup of sweet onions. Tossed it

September 28, 2014

ripe fruit canning

Ideally you capture fruit at the height of its ripeness when canning. Too ripe and it becomes mushy. Not ripe enough and its tastiness is compromised. The pears and peaches gifted to me from my friends’ orchard were at that perfect point for canning: Pears in a light brown sugar syrup Peaches, pitted and halved Peaches canned with vanilla. [Update & note to self: Next time skip the vanilla. It’s not the best in combo with peaches.]

September 28, 2014

orchard inspiration

My friends’ orchard, vineyard, and gardens are blow-you-away beautiful and an inspiration. Here’s what was ripening today: Peaches Grapes Apples Plums and Pears. Plus the bounty of their garden gifts:

September 26, 2014

turkey tail feather art

Mama turkey left a tail feather on the deck. Like a piece of art when you look at the details.

cheese experiment

Can you store cheese without refrigeration? I knew cheese makers have been making and storing cheese long before refrigerators were available, so I got curious. Reading up a bit, I learned that you can paint cheese with cheese wax, which allows it to breathe while protecting the cheese as it ages. So I decided to give it a try. For this experiment I used store-bought cheese and cut it into roughly 1/2 pound blocks. I let the cheese sit at room temperature for an hour or so to sweat out excess moisture. While the cheese was sitting at room temperature, I melted the cheese wax (must be cheese wax, unless you

September 18, 2014

the difference sun makes

We moved in too late to start a garden this year, so on a whim I decided to grow two varieties of lettuce in pots on an inside windowsill. In each pot I used the same potting soil and fertilizer, and same amount of seeds in each. They are lined up on the same windowsill. What a difference the amount of sun that each pot gets throughout the day makes on growth. Starting with the upper left, the most to least sun-exposed lettuce, going clockwise. The two on the left are the same variety, and the two on the right are the other variety.

two-part composting

Plum pits from yesterday’s jam making are destined for the compost bin. I started with a worm compost bin only — which is where the plum pits are going. Here’s what the worm compost looks like before adding the pits: Originally I thought I could do all my composting in the worm bin. I learned, though, that worms take a long time to break down grain, vegetable and fruit scraps into the “black gold” you’re starting to see in the picture above. They can process about 1/2 a gallon of scraps a month. Unless I wanted to take up more valuable space for a much larger worm compost bin —

September 18, 2014