Ask a chef

[chickadoodles]

Bennie your breads look fantastic! God bless you all Bennie.

 

[Akrnaf2]

Bennie your breads look fantastic! God bless you all Bennie. 

Thank you very much! and may GOD bless all of us!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Oct 7 - Snow rose?​

Ah what a lovely bit of time has transpired.

Sep 30 - Fall leaf colours!​

We've gone from lovely fall colours straight into...

Oct 10, 2016​

The glory of the WHITE season...(actually, we got snow on the 7th but I never clicked the same scenes...so three days even later).

Thanksgiving Meal - Oct 9, 2016​

Did as I said, cooked stuffed turkey and took to son's where we warmed it up and made gravy. He did the veg (steamed broc & carrots) and we feasted, being thankful for all our many blessings!

Oct 10, 2016​

Course goes without saying, made turkey soup the very next day...warm comfort food...turkey soup!

Oct 4 - Yukon Gold and Amarosa...don't they look unreal glowing?​

So, gone hog wild and harvested my potatoes in two intensive evenings of digging, four or five hours and next day washing them--Oct 6 & 7 were the serious days to get the potatoes OUT of the ground. For we knew, the seventh would bless us with the white from the heavens.

Drying & curing of the potatoes outside​

The taters are in the garage awaiting final sorting and drying before long term storage--paper bags in large rubber pans-kept dark and cool but not frozen! The food ones get eaten...still working on the ones I know will not last in storage (a few I hit with the spade and some less than perfect ones). The seed ones, they need to sit tight till next June when I shall begin planting them again. What joy to repeat and hope for the same as this year.

Meet the MRS.s potato heads...

​

You know I had my helpers there helping...harvest helpers egging me onwards!

For whatever reason...placement, nutrients, moisture, good seed??... Purple Caribe was the best for biggest tater this year.



Purple Caribe - the largest of the potato varieties for this year​

Food potatoes on the left and on the right, the seed for next season. Biggest harvest ever! ​

From about 9 kgs of seed potatoes...what a horde eh?

October 5 - that oat plot​

I am eyeing up that plot I hand sowed to oats this year...making plans for next year's potato crop. Can I repeat the success of this year in 2017?

Sept 30 - Start pulling, de-dirting and hauling oats to the geese and swans as treats...they love them
Oldster Jacob Sheep get some too...help them stay in condition during cold weather​

Naturally as the weather turns to winter, the oats are turning OAT colour. Ripening.

Sep 23, 2016 - Just lookit the worms that thrive in this dirt by the oats...jest lookit!​

What fab thoughts I have about soil healthfulness--not just good foods but we are adding to the goodness in so many other ways too. I am making a difference in the very dirt we own...a good difference in growing and replenishing it. Adding goodness...not taking from it. Farming with a conscience...how neat!

October 5, 2016​

Now because we use composted bedding to fertilize our land...and we wait till the harvest is stopped by Nature and not chemicals like Round UP (nfi), our potatoes vary in appearance. Some varieties like the Russian Blue or the yellow fingerlings (Linuzar Deleketess), are more susceptible to potato scab (found naturally in soils and in dry years, more prevalent...this year was a WET one...so not alot of scab on the skins...nothing wrong with it, just cut it away and potatoes are fine).

Thing about factory farmed foods...they are suppose to be identical, predictable, cloned...you go to the store you want a same same shape, taste, predictable in all ways. When we home grow, we don't get same old, same old. Each one is different and one should REJOICE in that. Do you as a human want to be identical or an individual...do you? So the food we grow is not as predictable. Each item commands your attentions, requires the attentions of those eager good cooks who know how to tease and amplify the uniqueness...of handcrafted, with love type foods.

I am sure doing up a menu, having one printed would be dastardly to a creative chef that hand crafts their art form every meal--decides what to cook because something is ripe and ready, the harvested product is at its peak of goodness. Special today...from a chalk board out front...special of the day depends so much so on the ingredients we choose to put in our menus, cook up and accentuate the individual wonderful tastes, sights and smells...of home growns.

Thing about growing your own foods...you know it is going to be unpredictable and we need to relish in that...we also know what goes in the food too...that is a blessing indeed.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janine-yorio/where-did-the-potato-spro_b_659766.html:

Potatoes, like apples, are typically harvested only once a year and then are stored in a cold storage facility until a grocer orders a shipment. In order to prevent potatoes from sprouting while they’re in storage, growers spray them with an aerosol agent that regulates cell division. After being sprayed with the chemicals (typically chlorpropham or maleic hydrazide) potatoes arrive at the store looking perfect, unblemished, and without any sprouts for up to a year after harvest.

As you might expect, the chemicals that prevent cell division in potatoes impact human cell division too. The implications on human fertility and fetal organogenesis are just now being discovered. For this reason, Japan and the European Union have already placed strict limitations on the usage of anti-sprouting chemicals.

Non-toxic alternatives exist. In fact, a company in Israel called Pimi Agro Cleantech Inc. has developed a non-toxic, organic anti-sprouting agent that is just as effective as the synthetic alternatives. The catch is that until Pimi scales up production of their sprout suppressant, it costs $5 per ton, compared to $3 per ton for chlorpropham or maleic hydrazide. The difference sounds trivial, but in a nickels-and-dimes business like agriculture, the gap is insurmountable.

It is well-known that the food Americans eat is coated with chemicals whose long-term effects are not well understood. But what you may not know is that entrepreneurs and scientists around the world — just like the people behind Pimi — are developing promising new technologies that enable safer food production without compromising productivity.

...

So I shall put up with waiting for the potato plant tops to die back on their own and then racing to harvest them before...before my plots look like this!

Oct 7 - Snows have arrived--YEE HAW! Excellent!!!​

And we have been eating our potatoes...

Sep 29 - Boiled potatoes​

So one could take the leftover boiled taters and...

Sep 30 - Pan fried leftover taters
​

That boiling seems to be using up the ones that won't store (shovel hits, less than perfect shaped ones, etc. - use up the non-storable ones now) and fried some of the leftover boiled ones because I was overzealous with the boiled potatoes I did up that night prior.

Oct 5 - Pulled pork shoulder roast and homegrown boiled taters​

Sep 23 - Casually harvesting taters for BBQing that eve ​

Roasted some of what I dug on the BBQ.

Sep 23, 2016​

Cut to a uniform size, added some oil in tinfoil and on the BBQ to cook with corn and then seared steaks on the infra red sizzler.

​

No more harvesting herbs from the herb garden which is mighty fine by me. They are closer to my kitchen now and easier to get to.

Oct 1 - still harvested from herb garden​

So instead of watching my herb garden get frozen out by winter...I intervened. How long these last, we shall see...

​

And that be that for now.

Bottoms up and top buttons undone...that be the foods & ingredients for today and the past bit of time since I last posted on here to be with the FOODIES!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Akrnaf2]

Tara you have wonderful pics as ever!

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara you have wonderful pics as ever!

Thank you for your kindness as always. Now if I can only figure out how to "scratch & sniff computer screen" to smell all the good food photos posted on here, eh?

I post photos because, you do not have to translate the 1,000 words for each photo--you merely l00k and hopefully understand! LOL

Akrnaf2:
Forgot to say, I have used the "not needed to pre-cook" lasagne noodles before, they worked extremely well and even froze some made with them BUT...I try to buy in bulk to save $ and just regular (you cook to just tender & then layer them in the lasagne) noodles can be bought like that in the places that I shop at.

Hey, you can add spinach to your lasagne...many do that and I hear it is delicious! I love mushrooms in my food...I just added some to the crockpot where the chili we are having for dinner is cooking right now.

Eggplant and avocado, I have never acquired a taste for either...sad as I bet cooked properly (I'm not a fan of eggplant so never tried it in recipes), it would be delicious in a lasagne...with cheese. Cheese...like bacon...one of those mandatory food groups...stop serving cheese and seems it gets the kids living out of your basement to get a life of their own elsewhere, eh? "No cheese? We're SO outta here!"

I would find it difficult not to combine dairy and meat in my foods...I do understand reasons besides religions for that could be immense as I think perhaps sometimes that would be more difficult to digest or even where your body digesting might not use all the good things in each type of food and waste some of it in the process. There is always a good reason for rules....at one time, pigs were regularly fed nasty things and the meat not cooked properly would certainly make you ill if not kill you outright. Crabs, shrimp, etc. could eat off the bottom of the oceans and may well be full of mercury even today. Good reasons to avoid them for sure!
So does this mean you cannot EAT pizza with meat on it? No hotdogs (hmm...are there kosher hotdogs?) AND cheese...lots of Italian meals would be NO NO's...

You are a beacon to be respected Benny...me, no will power...see me fall down into a pan of meat lasagne...good gack--no self control!

I have more straw bedding to toss in the barns before I go back to work so must exit, stage right...

Tara

 

[attimus]

@CanuckBock all to right about feeding the soil as much as we feed ourselves. When gardening I try to keep this in mind as my plants are growing that it is not them that I am tending to but the bit of earth they are growing in.
In the subject of potatoes, watched a food doc a while back about the use of chemicals in and around what we consume daily. Actually watched a guy eat a roundup laden soy bean without skipping a beat to prove they were good to eat. The potato farmers are what got me, they were at least smart enough to know to grow their own plots of potatoes away from the commercial farming process. I mean these guys know the stuff they are putting on the plants and leaching into the soil is that bad but they continue on and all for a buck.

We also just got our first rain last night and into this morning but is clearing up now. The transition that you witness in such a short time must be jarring to the senses. Good luck with your herb garden, mine even without the frost is mostly on its way out, basil is done and flowered and gone to the bees, marjoram and thyme will certainly be my go to's leading into fall along with the rosemary that never dies, a quick mention back to soil composition in regards to my rosemary, I've planted two separate sets of 3 and 4 last year and this spring. 2 of the 3 from last year are on the opposite side of the driveway along with a cherry and olive tree, the singled out one more than double the size of the other two in the first season and I did nothing different between them. Same water cycle, same feedings from the duck pond. It is most certainly the soil that played the difference. I don't believe there's anything necessarily wrong with that patch of dirt where I planted, just that the ground started out different from one side of the road to the other. Harder, drier, less absorbent. The plants there are still doing wonderfully, you can see though that they are making extra effort to stretch those toes out. And retain what i put into them.

A.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

From when I worked at AB Ag office, the factory farmers were in many cases also victims of noxious methods. We sold what was called the "blue book" each year that listed the new and old chemicals and applications. People would come in missing digits, entire limbs from altercations with farm machinery and what not's--some came in one year, not the next. What surprised me though and this was 20 years or so back...there were farmers that were using their ARMS to mix chemicals with. Farming is one of THE most dangerous occupations...but adding in some were using their very bodies to come in direct contact with concentrated forms of the sprays and such. Accidents you can see happen, how many die from long-term exposure to the chemicals and risks you can't nail down as coming from their choice of professions? Yeh, yuck indeed.

:

I recall we use to see labels in our imports..."proudly made in the USA" which I thought was nice. I too can be patriotic to my own country but "made with pride in the USA" was a nice motto to embrace too. Pride in our products, not slapped together as cheap as we could do...argh.

Many say if you work at certain food plants (hotdogs, fruit, meats, grains and other such things we process) you are less and less likely to want to buy the finished products for your own personal use. I would highly recommend the money paid to buy canned Sockeye Salmon is worth every penny if you can't do it yourself. Regular canned salmon...good golly, no thanks. Besides, I think with the Japanese nuke accident, Pacific fish or seafood of any kind must be way over the top risky now with radiation levels. Sigh. Can't help but keep thinking that we soiled our own nest so to speak I guess.

As far as some person "eating" round up (nfi) laced foods...what the hey. I know I watched a document of people harvesting gold using mercury--destroying where they reside in the process too. They KNOW they are poisoning themselves, they know they are going to live a shorter lifespan, but hey, when you might starve to death tomorrow if you don't work for wages, I don't SEE much of a choice...no living or a shortened lifespan of living. Some life is better than no life and if you stuff a chunk of veg with bad chemicals on it in your gob to convince others it is OK to eat and you can sustain yourself for another day...not much of a challenge in decisions now is it?

Tractor cabs, thank heavens, have become more and more safe to contain the worker inside and away for the nasties they are spraying...some human thought in that as I am betting, life expectancy of farming persons with all those concentrated chemicals around (and hoping, not stirring the mix with one of their limbs!) is most likely still shortened by their exposure.

Now I hear with all the artificial chemicals, the fertilizers not being real like composted animal & bird bedding...the soils are getting pretty dead. The yields are down terribly...so in the past, what 100 to 150 years, we have reaped HUGE harvests but now see those slowly and steadily declining. The soils are DEAD and those that managed to keep their dirt alive and real by not going artificial are actually starting to come pretty close to matching unnatural farming methods. Been a long time coming in the span of one person's life, but in as far as how old the EARTH is...did not take us too long to again, mess our nest so to speak.

Organic is not always the answer too...in one study, like 95% of people say they buy organic to avoid the chemicals (pesticides and fungicides) not knowing that organic growers can use some of those products. Many organic standards are in place that allow use of certain chemicals in organically grown items. I personally have issue with the author below in them suggesting GMO is better...I still hinge my opinion on the fact we humans patched in pieces of DNA without really knowing all we patched in when we genetically modified strawberry plants with jelly fish DNA to make the strawberries more frost tolerant. We are playing god but not knowing when we put a plant together with a fish...the Nature would not have likely let that UNION happen. What nightmare will we unleash that violates Nature?

Mythbusting 101: Organic Farming > Conventional Agriculture
By Christie Wilcox on July 18, 2011

:
The £250,000 hamburger: First test tube-grown beef will be served in London restaurant this week

•The artificial burger will be cooked and served for the first time this week
•It cost in the region of £250,000 to produce the prototype
•The 5oz beef burger is grown from the stem cells of one cow
•Creator Professor Mark Post believes the development could help solve problems in the meat industry

By Jaymi Mccann and Sophie Borland for the Daily Mail
Published: 09:44 GMT, 28 July 2013 | Updated: 09:45 GMT, 29 July 2013

Just looked it up, it was $250,000 POUNDS...

So thank you...for telling me about the potato farmers and their private tater plots. It does make you think that bothering to grow just regular potatoes, even though about now, you could buy fifty pounds for like $14...cheap food but not necessary GOOD for you food. Sigh.

Even when I was going to college and taking university courses...I lived in a one bedroom apartment that had a balcony...I grew carrots and lettuce, peas and such there. Not enough to feed us for the year, but that tender and tasty produce, that little bit just enticed me to get my crap together and get that stretch of dirt on the go. Good dirt, good food, better taste and better for us.

Every little bit helps and on this thread, being shown different ways and methods to prepare what we eat, that is good for us too. All good...and we keep trying for good.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[lindalouly]

o

Just sitting down for our Asian dinner. Roasted chicken, lettuces, fresh herbs, peanut sauce, kochigong and rice.

 

[chickadoodles]

o

Just sitting down for our Asian dinner. Roasted chicken, lettuces, fresh herbs, peanut sauce, kochigong and rice.

Looks wonderful!

 

[chickadoodles]

I made rabbit stew for the first time tonight it was so good. I brined the rabbit over night and 1/2 a day in a baggie of water and 1 tsp. of salt.
The next day I cooked it most of the day and deboned it. I added a bit of chicken broth, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, garlic and diced onion.
I chopped a few potatoes and added some baby carrots. When the veggies were tender I took everything out of the pot except the broth and thickened it like gravy.
And put everything back in the pot and make some biscuits!


I would like to add that my husband has had high blood pressure and cholesterol since I met him nearly 8 years ago.
Since we have changed our diet and are now eating more game and using coconut oil for everying that requires oil to cook his blood pressure has come down so much that now he is only on a 5 mg. pill and the Dr. said if it comes down any more he won't need it any more.
And his cholesterol is down so much he won't need any pills for that very soon. *(Thanks Ron)*