M O R E T H A N A M A G A Z I N E . . . A W AY O F L I F E
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News from Mother
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10 Ways to Boost Flavor and Nutrition in Fresh Food
DREAMSTIME/CORAMUELLER; COVER: LONDIE G. PADELSKY
Finding Better Food
Green Gazette
What’s really in supermarket meat?; Toolkit connects local food to the workplace; New organic sweet corn variety; Readers share their tips for saving money on groceries; Meat: doing more with less
You know you should eat your fruits and veggies. What you may not know is that how you handle, cook and store these fresh foods — and the types and varieties you choose — can notably affect their nutritional value.
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How to Store Fresh Vegetables
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Freezing Fruits and Vegetables from Your Garden
Learn the best crops to grow or buy, and the right ways to keep them.
Round out your food preservation regimen! Tap these straightforward freezing tips to turn your garden harvests into sensational, off-season meals.
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Easy Ways to Preserve Fresh Food
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Buy in Bulk for Big Savings on Better Food
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Quick Hoops: Easy-to-Make Mini-Greenhouses
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Container Gardening with Vegetables and Herbs
Pack your pantry with the help of this crop-by-crop guide to food storage. You can slash your family’s food costs in half — and support local farmers — by buying meat, produce and dry goods in bulk. Stretch the growing season to savor fresh, homegrown veggies all year by using these nifty quick hoops in your winter vegetable garden.
Lacking a good garden spot? Create a bountiful, diverse garden in containers.
36 ELAYNE SEARS; BELOW: FOTOLIA
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DIY Produce Storage Bins
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Subversive Plots: Use Your Garden to Disconnect from Industrial Food
Make a set of stackable vegetable crates out of cedar fence boards to create storage containers that move easily from garden to pantry or basement.
Take control of your food supply, enjoy better flavor and nutrition, and reject a flawed system by growing your own food or buying locally grown fare. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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M O R E T H A N A M A G A Z I N E . . . A W AY O F L I F E
46 JIM MACKENZIE
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Homemade Butter: The Best You’ll Ever Have
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Backyard Chickens for the Best Eggs Ever
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The Incredible Versatility of Eggs
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The Best Tomatoes to Grow Where You Live
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Asparagus: Early, Easy and Excellent
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All About Growing Winter Squash
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Grow Your Own Mushrooms
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All About Growing Raspberries
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Make Delicious, Low-Sugar Jams and Jellies
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Additional Resources
MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER
58 HARVEY USSERY; BELOW: EMILY HELLER
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Truly Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread
Say goodbye to the intimidation factor in baking bread! These recipes will inspire beautiful loaves and a new outlook on bread. Whether you want it sweet or cultured, learn how to master the simple art of making butter. You can keep a few hens to produce homegrown eggs, even if you only have a small backyard. Eggs can star in numerous recipes, from simple scrambled eggs to tangy pickled options to an elegant soufflé. Enjoy bumper harvests by growing tomato varieties recommended by organic gardeners in your region.
Seven steps to growing superior spears, year after year.
Explore the Bountiful World of Basil
Bring good taste to your garden and kitchen with this fragrant, flavor-filled herb. Practical information about growing winter squash, including recommended types and varieties. With the help of a simple do-it-yourself kit, you can harvest lots of fresh, tasty fungi. Plant and cultivate raspberries by following this guide, which includes instructions on how to properly prune the canes. With these simple ingredients, you can craft naturally sweet, low-calorie preserves.
Source fresh, local food, plus find recommended recipes, books, and cooking and gardening supplies.
MOTHER EARTH NEWS (ISSN 0027-1535) is published bimonthly, six issues per year, by Ogden Publications Inc.; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609. Periodical postage paid at Topeka, KS 66609, and at additional mailing offices. Subscriptions: $19.95 for one year in the United States and its provinces; $27.95 per year in Canada and $31.95 per year foreign, prepaid in U.S. funds. (CANADA GST NBR. 89745 1720 RT0001). Postmaster: Send changes of address to MOTHER EARTH NEWS; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609-1265. Subscribers: Write to M E N; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609-1265 or call 785-274-4300 or 800-234-3368. Outside the U.S., call 785-274-4300. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within two years. To purchase back issues from January 1995 to present, send $7.50 per issue to M E N Back Issues; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609. Copyright 2015 by Ogden Publications Inc. All rights reserved. M E N is a registered trademark. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without written permission. Permission requests must be in writing and should be directed to Bryan Welch; M E N Permissions; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609. Send story ideas to Cheryl Long at M E N; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609. Ogden Publications Inc. cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials. Printed and manufactured in the United States of America. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40754547. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: M E N, P.O. Box 875, STN A, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9A 6P2. MOTHER EARTH NEWS does not recommend, approve or endorse the products and/or services offered by companies advertising in the magazine or website. Nor does MOTHER EARTH NEWS evaluate the advertisers’ claims in any way. You should use your own judgment and evaluate products and services carefully before deciding to purchase.
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Storage Needs of Fruits and Vegetables Cold and Very Moist (32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, 90 to 95 percent relative humidity) Carrots, beets, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, celery, Chinese cabbage, celeriac, salsify, winter radishes, kohlrabi, leeks, collards, broccoli and Brussels sprouts (both short-term), horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes, and Hamburg-rooted parsley
Cold and Moist (32 to 40 degrees, 80 to 90 percent relative humidity) Potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower (shortterm), apples, grapes (40 degrees), oranges, pears, quince, endive, escarole and grapefruit
Cool and Moist (40 to 50 degrees, 85 to 90 percent relative humidity) Cucumbers, sweet peppers (45 to 55 degrees), cantaloupe, watermelons, eggplant (50 to 60 degrees) and ripe tomatoes
Cool and Dry (32 to 50 degrees, 60 to 70 percent relative humidity) Onions, garlic (keeps better in even lower humidity — about 50 percent), and green soybeans in the pod (short-term storage)
developed flavor but before night temperatures drop much below the mid-20s. Damage from really hard frosts can cause spoilage in storage later. On celeriac, cut off all foliage just above the crown, being careful not to cut into the tender growing tip (apical bud) itself, and remove excess roots. My next step is to wash the roots by spreading them out on the lawn and hosing off both sides, allowing them to drain and partially dry. Any roots injured in digging, and any that are deformed or woody, I sort out for fresh eating or discard. At this time, I usually pick out a good selection of roots from each variety I intend to save seed from for the following year (about two dozen in order to maintain genetic viability), label them, and store them separately in gunnysacks of sawdust or chipped leaves. The rest I layer on a bed of the storage medium, cover enough so that no root touches any other (to retard the spread of decay should it occur), and further layer until the containers are full.
and stored in the same way as root crops. I also have successfully maintained artichokes as a viable annual crop far beyond their normal range here in Iowa by digging the perennial plants in the fall, storing them this same way, and then planting them out again just as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring. Leeks and cabbage are two crops with a long history of winter storage. Longseason, firm-headed cabbages have been developed, mostly in Europe, specifically for this purpose and are much preferred as long keepers. Cabbages have often been stored by hanging the heads from their stems, but I have discovered that replanting works much better, keeping them totally garden-crisp for a full seven months. As I dig the plants in the garden, I strip off all the leaves until only the tight heads remain on the stem, then replant as many as I can fit in a single plastic 5-gallon pot (or, if the heads are large, I fit as many as I can carry, because a pot full of cabbage plants can be quite heavy), firmly covering the roots with garden dirt. I use these same containers for leeks, knocking excess dirt from the roots, cutting off about a third of the leafy tops and removing dead
These storage techniques allow “California living” in Iowa.
Seed Plants For the purpose of saving seed, roots of mature Swiss chard may be dug in the fall
As with cabbage, the replanting technique keeps kohlrabi fresh until spring.
(50 to 60 degrees, 60 to 70 percent relative humidity) Dried hot peppers, pumpkins, winter squash, sweet potatoes and green tomatoes (up to 70 degrees is OK) Source: Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables by Mike and Nancy Bubel
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DAVID CAVAGNARO; PAGE 16: ISTOCK/GIVAGA
Moderately Warm and Dry
leaves to reduce decay in storage. Then I pack them into the pot, covering their roots as I go, until I’ve added as many as the container can hold. I water the dirt thoroughly around the roots and let the pots drain well before placing them in the root cellar. In fact, if the cellar isn’t down to temperature yet, I will leave my cold-hardy vegetables outside awhile longer, covering them at night with blankets if necessary, until my cellar has cooled sufficiently. The longer green vegetables can stay out in the light, the better. Our most exciting discovery has been achieving long-term storage of the more fragile winter vegetables, especially radicchio and Chinese cabbage. Any solidheading type of Napa cabbage will do the trick, but hybrid varieties developed specifically for fall production, such as ‘Blues’ or ‘Komatsuna’, work the best. I also choose fall-heading varieties of radicchio such as ‘Augusto,’ ‘Chioggia Red Preco No. 1’ or ‘Rossana.’ In northern Iowa, these varieties must be planted right around the Fourth of July so they are fully headed by the advent of cold weather. Then they must be harvested before temperatures fall much below the mid-20s. The best storage containers I have found for these crops are plastic kitty litter trays available in any supermarket or pet store. As I dig these fragile winter vegetables in the garden, I remove outer leaves from any heads that seem full and hard enough to endure storage, saving others for more immediate use. I pack the winter keepers in the trays, filling around their roots with garden soil until the trays are full. Water them lightly (because there are no drain holes in these trays, do not over-water!) and that’s it — they are ready for storage. I treat kohlrabi, another great winter storage vegetable that keeps perfectly until spring, exactly the same way. All of these replanted crops, especially heads of cabbage, Chinese cabbage and radicchio, will gradually slime black with decay on the outside as winter progresses. Do not be alarmed — you will be amazed how the removal of only a single layer of leaves reveals a perfect, fresh head beneath the surface. Radicchio is the most difficult to store, and some heads will rot faster than you can use them, so just grow extra.
Most winter squash types will keep nicely in a cool, dry corner or closet. A root cellar or underground basement will extend their life even further.
For seed-saving purposes, kale and collard plants can be dug in the fall, stripped of all leaves down to the tiny apical few, replanted just like cabbage, and then set out again in spring. In fact, all cabbage stems whose heads have been cut in winter can be planted out; they will branch profusely and produce ample seed the following season. Less well-known is that kale, collards and parsley can be grown to maturity in large pots and placed in the root cellar in full leaf, and all of those green leaves will stay green and perfectly fresh all winter, available for harvest whenever you desire! At 33 degrees, no further growth occurs; white leaves will begin to grow in the dark only toward spring as the cellar begins to warm up. By then, the plants can be replanted outside and left to bloom for seed-saving. I have had longer harvests of these leafy greens from the root cellar than from a sunny window in the house because, at room temperature, biennials continue to grow and soon begin to bolt.
All container plants in the root cellar must have their water needs checked from time to time. Because too much humidity is usually the prevailing condition, pots seldom dry out, but if any do, just add a little water. I’ve found that one or two spot waterings throughout the winter usually keep things alive until warmer temperatures arrive. Using all of these storage techniques together, we manage to keep an array of fresh garden vegetables all winter long here in the North. We still bottle tomatoes, salsa, applesauce and other fruit, and freeze our berries, corn, beans, peppers and broccoli, yet each year we are amazed how little we rely on our processed vegetables in favor of eating fresh ones — a fair amount of “California living” in Iowa. Veteran gardener David Cavagnaro lives near Decorah, Iowa.
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imaginatively engaged with manipulating that flavor. With a tiny amount more effort than it takes to make sweet cream butter, you can routinely make butter that crosses the threshold between butter and cheese — butter that’s so good you literally want to just sit down and eat it. Commercial culturing is a superficial affair, so don’t imagine any brand you have purchased as a model for cultured butter. Industrial butter is cultured in a
matter of hours. At home, you can do much better. Unlike factories, you don’t need to consider the cost of waiting for cream to ripen. And that’s the secret to making extraordinary butter. Raw cream cultures naturally. Pasteurized cream requires inoculation with an appropriate culture because all the lactobacillus organisms that naturally ferment cream would have been killed in the pasteurization process.
Butter-making is an incredibly simple craft. Even a child can churn cream into butter, which is why doing so is a common activity in kindergartens. But as an adult, butter-making can be a lifetime project. Crafting butter is a culinary area that has barely been explored in our modern world. In addition to seeking topquality cream to make the most heavenly sweet cream butter, and the open-ended possibilities with culturing, one can add
special flavors, such as savory rosemary or floral rose water.
No, Really, Butter Is Good for You After tasting a butter I’d made that he found utterly delicious, my killjoy friend said, “But William, no one should be eating butter.” So I will address those of you who have concerns about the healthfulness of butter. In Moby-Dick, Ishmael ex-
claims, “Flask, alas! was a butterless man!” Flask was also an unhappy man. I will say no more on the correlation between happiness and eating delicious butter. In truth, butter is not the enemy many people once feared. Researchers have upset the old-fashioned “lipid hypothesis” that blamed heart disease on animal fats. Plus, a multitude of studies are showing us how incredibly healthy foods from pastured animals can be. Butter from grass-fed
cows is higher in many nutrients, including vitamins E and A, beta carotene, and essential fatty acids. (To learn more, read “The Fats You Need for a Healthy Diet” online at http://goo.gl/m2nMx.) If you can find cream from pastured cows, your butter will also be more luscious and spreadable than you can get using cream from grain-fed cows. So, how do you make butter so good that those who taste it always want more?
How to Make Really Flavorful Butter
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Butter-making is simple: Add culture (optional), whip, drain buttermilk, rinse and you’re done!
It’s fun and practical to use small hand churns, but food processors make great butter, too. You can also use a mold to make fancy pats (below).
1. Pour sweet or cultured cream into the churn, leaving headroom for the cream to expand when whipped. 2. Begin churning, and as you churn, you’ll see the cream go through three distinct phases. First, it becomes a snowy white whipped cream, then turns yellow and granular, and lastly “breaks” into clumps of butter swishing around in buttermilk. Churn a bit longer to be sure the butter has clumped, then stop. Observe what is happening throughout. Look, listen and feel what happens as the cream goes through these phases so you develop an intuitive feel for the butter-making process and your own equipment. Cream churns best between 50 and 60 degrees, but will break eventually even if it’s warmer. Cultured cream breaks faster than sweet cream. 3. Drain the buttermilk to reserve for baking. Remove the butter from the churn to a steep-sided bowl. Hold the bowl at a steep angle, and gather the butter into a ball. Using the flat of your fingers or the back of a wooden spoon, spread and press it against the side of the bowl to squeeze out any remaining buttermilk. Still using the flat of your fingers or the spoon, fold the butter in half over itself, and press down again. Repeat until little or no buttermilk squeezes out. When done,
WILLIAM RUBEL (2); TOP RIGHT: TABITHA ALTERMAN
sharpening with time. As the cream acidifies, it becomes hostile to toxic bacteria, but should the cream curdle, or smell or taste bad, discard it. The longer you ripen it, the more clear and distinctive the flavor of your finished butter will be. Butter churned from long-ripened cream is a butter of perfection, like a perfectly ripened fruit.
WILLIAM RUBEL; LEFT: MADELINE HYDEN
Equipment should be scrupulously clean. Before and after each use, scald any wooden equipment, including spoons and the inside of churns. Scald repeatedly, if necessary, until there is no butter smell left in the wood. To make sweet cream butter, use fresh cream, skip the culturing instructions that follow, and go directly to Step 1. To make cultured butter from raw cream, pour the cream into a bowl and cover with a double layer of cheesecloth or a clean towel. Leave out in a cool room. If your room is warmer than 60 degrees Fahrenheit, set the bowl of cream in cool water. Become familiar with what is happening to the cream as it ripens (sours, ferments) by tasting it every six to eight hours. Raw cream can be used at any stage from fresh or lightly fermented (e.g. eight hours) to heavily fermented (e.g. a week). To make cultured butter from pasteurized cream, you have two options: You must inoculate the cream with either a mesophilic bacterial culture (from a specialty shop), or a store-bought cultured product — either buttermilk, sour cream or crème fraîche that contains live cultures. If you go the specialty route, purchase a culture for crème fraîche, sour cream or buttermilk, and follow the instructions. If the commercial culture also contains rennet, your cream will set up slightly, but otherwise will achieve the consistency of soft yogurt. If using a grocery store product as the inoculant (starter), strengthen the starter by leaving it out at room temperature for approximately eight to 12 hours, and then add a tablespoon per cup of cream. If you are sure the inoculant is strong, just 1 teaspoon per cup should be sufficient. Leave the cream at cool room temperature for one to three days. With either method, you can further develop flavor by leaving the cultured cream in the refrigerator for days, or even a week or two. The ripening cream should have a pleasant smell and develop a tangy taste,
remove the butter to a plate and drain the buttermilk into your buttermilk container. Rinse the bowl, return the butter to the bowl, and cover with cool water. 4. Wash the butter covered in cool water using the flat part of your fingers or the back of a spoon. Repeatedly press, fold and turn to wash the butter free of buttermilk. Change water as needed, until it remains clear. Another option is to replace the last change of water with a flavored water — rose water for butter to be used in sugar cookies or shortbread, or salted water in which a sprig of rosemary was boiled, for an unusual savory butter circa 1615. Remove the butter to a plate, wash your hands, and drain the bowl. Note: If you are working with a large quantity of butter, an effective alternative to washing butter by hand is to return the butter to the churn, and then churn with repeated changes of cool water until it runs clear. 5. To remove the rest of the water, return the butter to the bowl and hold it at a steep angle. Use the back of a spoon to spread and re-spread the butter repeatedly against the side of the bowl to force out trapped water. When no further water can be pressed out of the butter, remove to a plate. Note: If seasoning butter with salt, sprinkle a small amount onto the butter at the beginning of this step. I suggest erring on the side of
undersalting and would not exceed 1 percent salt, which is a scant one-quarter teaspoon per 4 ounces of butter. 6. Eat up — the butter is ready to use. It will be soft and supple. Always wrap butter before refrigerating (parchment paper makes a nice wrapping). Try to use the butter within a week. Homemade butter is rarely washed free of buttermilk as effectively as commercial butter, and thus seldom stores well. Homemade butter freezes well, but the point of making butter is to enjoy it when it’s fresh!
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Asparagus is not difficult to grow, either. While it takes some time to get a crop started, if you choose your variety and site wisely, then provide basic care as outlined here, you’re on your way to decades of good eating.
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For the highest yields, choose “allmale” varieties. Until about 20 years ago, all asparagus varieties were a mixture of male and female plants. But Rutgers University researchers developed a method for propagating only the male plants (the female plants produce seeds). These “all-male” asparagus varieties — including ‘Jersey Giant,’ ‘Jersey Supreme’ and ‘Jersey Knight’ — produce up to three times more than older, open-pollinated male/female varieties, such as ‘Mary Washington.’ That’s because they put all of their energy into producing spears rather than seeds, according to Chee-Kok Chin, a professor of plant biology and
pathology at Rutgers. That also means male plants do not produce volunteer seedlings, which compete against the established plants and reduce yields. All-male hybrids also are more diseaseresistant than older varieties. In fact, one of the best ways to avoid asparagus rust, a fungal disease that reduces yields, is to plant rust-resistant varieties, such as the “Jersey Boys” mentioned in the previous paragraph.
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Take time to make a cozy bed. Remember that your asparagus will call this site “home” for many years to come, so it’s best to choose a good location and prepare it carefully, says Mathieu Ngouajio, assistant professor of horticulture at Michigan State University. “To avoid disease problems, choose a site where corn or asparagus did not grow the year before,” Ngouajio says. If you can plant a cover crop, such as
sorghum or rye, in the area where you plan to plant asparagus, you’re in luck. “A cover crop [turned into the soil before planting] will increase the soil’s organic matter, which is beneficial to asparagus,” he says. Native to warm climates, such as Asia Minor and the Mediterranean region, asparagus thrives in full sun and rich, well-drained soil. Incorporate plenty of high-quality, aged compost into your asparagus site to improve drainage, boost soil fertility and reduce the chance of soilborne fungal diseases, such as fusarium crown and root rot. If you don’t have compost, add grass clippings or shredded leaves. Planting in raised beds also will improve drainage. You may want to test your soil to be sure the pH level is in the neutral range of 6.5 to 7.5. Plant pathologists have found that lower pH values may promote fusarium disease in asparagus.
Best Asparagus Varieties & Sources All-Male Varieties 1 ‘Jersey Giant’: Medium to large green spears with purplish bracts (scaly leaves); resistant to fusarium and rust disease; cold tolerant 2 ‘Jersey Knight’: Similar to ‘Jersey Giant’ in size and appearance with thick, flavorful spears; highly resistant to rust; tolerant to fusarium; adapted to most climates 3 ‘Jersey Supreme’: Slender to medium diameter green spears; high yielding and uniform in size; good rust resistance; adapted to temperate, cool and warm regions 4 ‘Guelph Millennium’: Developed by the University of Guelph in Ontario; highquality green spears; requires rust control; excellent for cold regions, including Canada and the upper Midwest
ASPARAGUS
Early, Easy & Excellent
Also Recommended 5 ‘Atlas’: Combines the heat tolerance of ‘U.C. 157’ (an older California variety) with the productivity of the Jersey varieties; tips stay tight in higher temperatures (70 degrees and above) longer than with other varieties 6 ‘Purple Passion’: Large reddish-purple spears that turn green when cooked; said to have a slight nutty flavor and be milder, sweeter and more tender than greenspeared asparagus; susceptible to rust
Seven steps to growing superior spears, year after year.
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resh from the garden, asparagus is the delicious essence of spring. The sweet, slender spears are at their best lightly steamed and topped with a bit of butter and maybe a drop of lemon juice. Of course, you can enjoy your bountiful crop in plenty of other ways, too: sautéed, roasted, grilled, in 74 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO FRESH FOOD
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sauce or microwaved, alone or with other veggies in soups, stir-fries and salads. Any way you slice it, asparagus is one of the most delicious vegetables you can grow. But the beauty of asparagus is more than skin deep. One of the few perennial vegetable crops, asparagus comes back year after year, producing pounds of succulent spears for 15 to 20 years or more.
In fact, when it comes to productivity, asparagus is difficult to top. A modest planting of 25 all-male crowns (dormant roots) will yield up to 20 pounds of edible spears per year — that’s 400 pounds or more over a 20-year period! And it’s simple to store your bounty of spring asparagus in the freezer — just blanch it in boiling water, then chill in ice water before you pop it in the freezer.
Mail-Order Sources DAVID CAVAGNARO (2)
By Vicki Mattern
To know which varieties each company offers, match the numbers above to the numbers below in parentheses. Most of the companies offer other varieties as well. • Daisy Farms: 269-782-6321; (1, 2, 3, 6) • Krohne Plant Farms: 269-424-5423; www.KrohnePlantFarms.com (1, 2, 3) • Nourse: 413-665-2658; www.NourseFarms.com (2, 3, 4, 6) • Walker Plants: 856-358-2548; www.WalkerPlants.com (1, 2, 3)
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Pesto with a Twist This pesto combines classic basil flavor with a touch of lemony sage. For best results when freezing any pesto, omit the cheese and add it later — after the pesto has thawed and is ready to use. Yield: about 11⁄4 cups. 1 cup fresh Italian-type basil leaves, lightly packed 1 cup fresh lemon basil leaves, lightly packed 1⁄4 cup fresh sage leaves, lightly packed
1⁄3
cup chopped walnuts 2 to 3 large garlic cloves, peeled 1⁄2 cup freshly grated ParmigianoReggiano or Pecorino cheese 1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste Combine basils, sage, walnuts, garlic and cheese in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. With the machine running, slowly add olive oil and continue to process to a fine paste. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
form seed. Simply strip off the flowers and toss them into salads or sandwiches. Plus, the entire plant — leaves, stems and flowers — can still be used to make basil vinegar.
Preservation Perfected The flavor of basil is always best fresh. To keep basil fresh-tasting and close at hand after harvest, put it in a glass of water on your kitchen counter — just as you would a floral bouquet. (Don’t refrigerate basil; it will darken and last only a few days at best.) Submerge the lower stems in water to just below the bottom leaves. By changing the water daily, your basil bouquet will maintain its fresh flavor and aroma for up to 10 days. For longer-term storage, chop or tear the leaves, cover
Basic Basil Vinegar Rinse and gently dry basil leaves and flowers. Stuff the leaves in a large, clean glass jar and cover with red wine vinegar to within 1 inch of the top of the jar. Use about 1 part basil to 2 parts vinegar; for instance, 1 cup basil to 2 cups vinegar. Stir, cover with a non-reactive lid, then store in a cool, dark area for about a month. When the flavor tastes satisfactory, strain contents until the vinegar is free of plant debris, then pour into clean, capped bottles.
them with olive oil and refrigerate for up to several months. You can freeze chopped basil either as a homemade pesto or in ice cube trays filled with water or stock. After the cubes have frozen solid, pop them out of the tray and store them in plastic freezer bags. Remove one or more cubes as needed to flavor soups and stews, or to bring a touch of summertime garden flavor to winter stir-
Pesto Pizza with Artichoke Hearts and Red Peppers Dough for one 12-inch pizza crust, rolled out 3⁄4 cup pesto 3⁄4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 1⁄2 cup shredded provolone cheese 4 ounces chicken sausage, sliced or crumbled (optional) 1⁄2 cup artichoke hearts, chopped 1⁄2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped 11⁄2 tsp minced fresh oregano 11⁄2 tsp minced fresh marjoram Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread pesto evenly over prepared dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle with both cheeses. Arrange sausage, artichoke hearts and peppers over entire pizza. Sprinkle oregano and marjoram on top. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until crust is golden-crisp and cheese is bubbly. Yield: one 12-inch pizza.
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fries and sautés. Here’s to happy growing, and the satisfaction of enjoying basil at the height of its culinary powers — fresh from the garden in high summer. Kris Wetherbee gardens, cooks and writes in Oregon with her husband, Rick Wetherbee, who is a photographer.
10 Basils You’ll Love
‘African Blue’: Shown above. Dramatic purple-streaked leaves, pink to pinkish-purple flowers and a warm camphor scent make this tall variety a standout in the garden and in bouquets. ‘Cinnamon’: Attractive landscape plant with purple stems and flowers and a distinctive cinnamon taste and scent. Best in fruit salads, herbal teas and Mediterranean dishes. ‘Genovese’: Classic large-leaf, Italian-type with highly aromatic leaves and spicy flavor. Excellent for fresh or frozen use and one of the best for pesto. Holy Basil: Also known as ‘Sacred’ basil or tulsi (Ocimum sanctum). Stunning in the landscape and very aromatic, with clovescented leaves. Best used as a salad garnish or in herbal teas. ‘Italian Large Leaf’: Excellent Italian-type is extremely productive; large green leaves are slightly sweeter than those of other basils. A favorite for cooking. Lemon: (O. citriodorum) Compact plant has smaller leaves than other types and a strong lemony scent. ‘Mrs. Burns’ and ‘Sweet Dani’ have slightly larger leaves better suited to cooking. Great for fish, chicken, vegetable and fruit dishes, or use to accent soups, salads and desserts. Makes a tasty, lemony pesto.
‘Mammoth’: Extra-large, slightly puckered leaves can be used in cooking to wrap other ingredients, or like lettuce in sandwiches; also great in salads and pesto. ‘Red Rubin’: An improved form of ‘Dark Opal’ with the largest leaves of all purple basils. Very ornamental in the garden; fragrant and flavorful. Purple-bronze leaves make a unique-colored pesto and a pretty vinegar. ‘Siam Queen’: Best of the Thai basils; licorice aroma and flavor are good in fish and beef dishes, and in curries and Thai cuisine. ‘Spicy Globe’: Ideal for pots, window boxes or a miniature basil hedge. Compact plants grow just 10 inches tall with small leaves and a rounded form.
SOURCES
Johnny’s Selected Seeds: 877-564-6697; www.JohnnySeeds.com Renee’s Garden: 888-880-7228; www.ReneesGarden.com Richters: 800-668-4372; www.Richters.com The Tasteful Garden: 256-403-3413; www.TastefulGarden.com Well-Sweep Herb Farm: 908-852-5390; www.WellSweep.com
Did You Know … ? When you rustle your hands through a basil patch, the enticing aroma awakens your senses and appetite. That’s because basil is rich in volatile oils, which give it fragrance and flavor. Each variety has a different chemical composition that provides its
unique flavor. Mediterranean types, such as ‘Sweet,’ ‘Italian Large Leaf’ and ‘Genovese,’ usually have high concentrations of methyl chavicol, resulting in a sweeter flavor. Others contain more methyl cinnamate (cinnamon), citral (lemon), camphor, thymol
(thyme) or eugenol (clove). So, depending on the variety, you can taste the basil’s basic flavor heightened by subtle accents of lemon, lime, clove, cinnamon, licorice or even mint. With all of this basil in our world, there’s simply no excuse for boring food.
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Make Delicious Low-Sugar
With these simple ingredients, you can make naturally sweet, low-calorie preserves. By Roberta Bailey
JAMS AND JELLIES
DAVID CAVAGNARO; PAGE 92: ISTOCK/VOLTAN1
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the interaction among pectin, sugar and fruit acids that causes jams and jellies to thicken properly. That type of pectin is derived from ripe fruit, but lowmethoxyl pectin is extracted from citrus peel and thickens when you add calcium phosphate. It was popularized in the early 1960s by naturalist Euell Gibbons after his diabetic brother began experimenting with it to make jams and jellies with less sugar. Low-methoxyl pectin is now available from most health food stores and
he first time I made my own jam, I was shocked to find that the recipe called for more sugar than fruit. When I tried to reduce the sugar in the recipe, I ended up with a thin syrup instead of the thick, fruity jam I had set out to create. As I learned more about making preserves, I found out that pectin, a carbohydrate derived from fruit, is what causes jams and jellies to thicken, and it works best when a substantial amount of sugar is included in the recipe. But one type of pectin, lowmethoxyl pectin, thickens jams and jellies with little or no sugar. This pectin makes it possible to create jams and jellies sweetened with honey, artificial sweeteners, the herbal sweetener stevia or just with fruit. It’s even easier to make lowsugar fruit “butters,” such as peach, apple or pear butter, because these are made without any added pectin at all (see Page 94). Like many foods these days, homemade jams and jellies often taste much better than store-bought. You can Crab apples make a delicious and unique homemade jelly. find good buys on quantities of fruit from local growers — check at your some supermarkets. It’s sold in small local farmers markets and online at www. packets that include calcium phosphate PickYourOwn.org. And if you’re too busy powder and will make up to 18 cups of to make preserves when the fruit is ripe, jam or jelly. It’s also sold in bulk; one you can freeze it and process it later when source is Pomona’s Universal Pectin time is not at such a premium. (www.PomonaPectin.com). I like to follow the simple formula for using this pectin How Pectin Works found in Carol Hupping Stoner’s 1977 Jellies and jams are both made with book, Stocking Up, but you will also find sugar and pectin: The difference is that a detailed instruction sheet inside the jellies are made with fruit juice while jams pectin package itself. Although some are made with crushed or mashed fruit. references advise making several small With most fruit pectin, recipes must batches, I have had excellent results makinclude 55 to 85 percent sugar to allow ing batches of up to 30 cups at a time.
The Ingredients Whatever type of fruit you decide to work with, here are the basic ingredients you will need: Low-methoxyl pectin. For jams, use one-half to three-fourths teaspoon of pectin for each cup of mashed fruit. For jellies, use three-fourths to 1 teaspoon pectin for each cup of fruit juice. Calcium phosphate solution. Mix onehalf teaspoon of the calcium powder with 1 cup of water to make a calcium solution. For each cup of fruit or juice, you will need 1 teaspoon of calcium solution. Lemon juice. For low-acid fruits, such as sweet cherries, peaches or plums, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice for each cup of fruit or juice to enhance flavor and thickening ability. Sweeteners. For each cup of fruit or juice, I would recommend one-fourth to one-half cup of sugar, or one-eighth to one-third cup of honey, but you can adjust the amount of sweetener to taste. For artificial sweeteners, such as Splenda, and for stevia extracts, follow the product directions to find out how much to use in place of sugar.
The Process 1. Prepare the fruit or juice. Berries can be mashed and simmered, then put through a sieve to remove some of the seeds, if desired. For jelly, simmer the fruit, then place it in a jelly bag and allow the juice to drip into a bowl. You can also use prepared or frozen juices. Measure the fruit for jam or the juice for jelly, and then place it in a stainless steel, heavybottomed pot. If you are using low-acid berries or fruit, add the lemon juice. Bring the fruit or juice to a boil. 2. Mix the pectin with the sweetener. Pectin shouldn’t be added directly to your fruit or juice, because it will stay clumped together. If you are using sugar or honey, mix the pectin with the sweetener until no lumps or pockets of pectin remain. To use artificial or herbal sweeteners, prepare the fruit or juice the same way, WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
92-94 Jams and Jellies.indd 92-93
left: iStock: voltan1 right: david cavagnaro
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