Bells of the North Homestead

This weekend my husband and I watched MasterChef.  The thing that I found most amusing and unusual was that a good portion of the aspiring chefs when asked what was their motivation to learn how to cook like they do answered "because I ate crap growing up and I'm tired of eating crap" Same here.  Nothing against my Mom, I love her dearly, but as a child I was reared on fish sticks, hot dogs, burritos made from canned refried beans, and macaroni cheese from a box.  As I became an adult my tastes began to change.  I found I could make pretty good food that was not from a kit (think Hamburger helper).  My culinary world began to open a bit wider when my husband and I attending a Food Network day long function filled with chefs cooking delicious meals with ingredients that I had never heard of. This inspired me to learn more.  What else could I possibly make?  As I grew older and more educated about food I decided to challenge myself constantly m...

We're nearing the end of the first 30 days of our Challenge that we set for ourselves and I have to say, I really miss, most of all, pretzels.  Small, Snyders pretzels.  That was my favorite snack food at work and for almost 30 days I have not had any of those.  I really miss those.  Instead my snacks have been the usual grape tomatoes and sliced cucumbers, apples and cheddar cheese and saltines and a bit of goat cheese that I managed to make last for almost the entire month.  Today I treated myself and made a big ziploc bag of air popped popcorn topped with melted coconut oil and a tad bit of butter and then I sprinkled Nutritional Yeast, some salt and paprika on top. The end result is very similar to movie theater popcorn but loads healthier.  Yeah, I was craving junk food today.  My son has been thrilled lately as he's gotten as many apples as he has wanted (Actually he's only allowed two per day) Still though, we've managed to stay on...

My new favorite winter squash is the Black Futsu squash!  Really!  I think this almost qualifies as a new love of mine! Let me just say this is the most delectable, the most tasty winter squash that so far I have yet to enjoy! We purchased our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds because it just looked interesting.  Here is their description. Rare, black Japanese squash, the fruit is flattened, round and has heavy ribbing. Very unique and beautiful. The black fruit will turn a rich chestnut color in storage. Flesh is golden color and has the rich taste of hazelnuts. Fruits are 3-8 lbs. each and vines give huge yields; did excellent here. Popular with European market growers. Good insect resistance makes this a winner here!  The flesh does indeed turn a wonderful, rich orange color and the flavor (at least to me) was more like chestnuts! Not really hazelnuts.  Also the flesh is not stringy like so many other winter squashes.  It is almost starchy l...

This weekend we knew the time had come since the okra got knocked down during that storm last week.  It's time to plant the garlic.  Just remember, the best time to plant, by the way, is four to six weeks before your first predicted freeze. For us in USDA determined zone 7A, that means we plant on or about mid September because our first predicted freeze is on or about October 29th. Keep in mind, some gardeners do plant in the Spring but I have yet to try that.  In the future I might, but for now we stick to Autumn garlic planting. You can go the the  Farmers Almanac page  for a handy dandy expected frost and freeze date chart. This year we are going with four different varieties, two of which were the ones we used last year, Chesnok red and Persian star, the other two are completely new to us. Those two I purchased from the farmers market and Brad's Produce.  The one from Brads is one of the hardneck varieties called German White.  The oth...

Twenty Days Now.  And believe it or not we don't feel all that deprived.  We have spent $40.76 at the local grocery stores on groceries.  This includes things like parmesan cheese, some Kale that we forgot to pick up at the farmers market, peppermint patties and raisins.  Remember by the way, we're allowing ourselves a total of $60 per month at the local grocery store. We have spent a total of $366.93 at local farms and the Bel Air Farmers Market .  Last week helped that number inflate quite a bit as we spent almost $60 on fresh picked apples at Lohrs Orchard . So all told we have spent $407.69 this month on groceries. Now just remember however, some of these purchases have been towards items (like the apples) that will produce snacks, meals and desserts for the next year.  This time of the year we're squirreling away anything that can be preserved.  Whether it is dried into chips, canned in chutneys, salsas and sauces or frozen, ...

The end of the okra that is. We have been deciding what to do with our okra plants that, this year, didn't really produce much.  This is mostly our fault for two different reasons. We planted them too late. We planted them too few. Number 1 was a new lesson.  We didn't have this issue last year as we didn't plant garlic two years ago. This year the garlic did not come out of the beds until late June to early July and we didn't start our okra plants in pots ahead of time, we direct sowed them, so they had a late start. Lesson learned.  Three months is not enough time to get the okra up and producing fully. Next.  Number 2.  THIS one we knew about and we made the mistake of doing it, yet again. This is one of those moments when I smack myself in the forehead and exclaim "DUHH!" Next year, we will be planting one heck of a lot more of the okra so we can have it fresh, rather than dehydrated or frozen.  So, now here is the issue.  Our garli...

We are now in my sons favorite time of year. It's apple season here in North Eastern Maryland. This weekend we picked a total of 72.2 pounds of mixed varieties of apples from Lohr's Orchard which meant we were busy, and yet I cannot express the joy I felt as I pulled quart jar after quart jar of preserved APPLES and not tomatoes.  Honestly, I am rather sick of tomatoes.  Really.  As much as I love tomatoes I have hit my threshold for canning and preserving them.  I know by October I will not want to see another fresh tomato for probably, at least two to three months.  As of lately my days consist of going to my full time job during the day, then picking our son up from his before and after care for school, and then coming home to see what tomatoes need to be picked, what tomatoes have fallen down during the day, what tomatoes need to frozen (which by the way, includes starting some water to boil so I can peel them first), and then work on all the other...