If you like to preserve your own harvest I am sure you are familiar with Mason Jars. Have you ever been curious as to who made them? A New Jersey born son of a Scottish farmer, named John Landis Mason developed Mason Jars. He patented his jars in 1858. Before that time home food preservation was a tricky affair. Most people relied on cork and wax contraptions to seal food and it often was unsuccessful.
With the Mason Jar and it’s threaded neck and screw on lid, the canner could form a seal as the hot liquids cooled. The jars were almost transparent so you could see what was inside. Unfortunately Mason never capitalized on his success and instead assigned his patent rights to another company and died a charity case. However the invention of the Mason Jars helped to spark a home-canning revolution that lasted until the 1950’s. World War II caused another spike in Mason Jar production as the government encouraged Americans to grown their own gardens and preserve what they grew at home.
Today original Mason Jars are prized collectibles. They are often used to hold pencils or other knickknacks.
Old Mason Jar
I’ve even used them to make lamps! For those of us who still to like to preserve what we grown at home you will still find Mason Jars in use. I find it very satisfying to walk into my pantry and see the numerous jars filled with the gardens bounty.
Today begins a new adventure for On The Home Front. We picked up six baby guinea fowl! You may remember my post last year about Japanese Beetles and the number of them we have in our garden. I don’t like to use chemicals in the garden and other than picking the beetles off the plants by hand I haven’t had great luck getting rid of the pests.
After doing some reading I decided to try raising some guinea fowl. Apparently they don’t scratch like chickens do and will do a good job at eating the bugs in the garden. We have plenty of room for the guinea fowl to roam around so we decided to give it a try.
Baby Guinea Fowl
One of the books recommended to me was called Gardening with Guineaswritten by Jeannette S. Ferguson. I found it to be a very informative book about raising guinea fowl on a small scale. Of course reading the book and experiencing raising them for myself can be quite different. I will let you know how our experience turns out!
Great book!
I was most excited to learn that guineas not only eat ticks but also mosquitos, Japanese Beetles and weed seeds. They will certainly find plenty to eat in our yard.
We have set up a box for the guineas in our garage with a heat lamp. Like baby chicks they need a warm protected space to spend their first 8 weeks. They will be fully mature by the time they reach 12-15 weeks. I have heard if they are raised with chicks they can live together as adults. Since we also have six baby chicks we will eventually try keeping them together so they can eventually all live together in our chicken coop.
So curious!
Have you raised guinea fowl before? Do you have any words of advice for a novice?
There are many ways to save money on a vacation. Several years ago when our second daughter was getting married we started looking at where we were going to stay. We lived on the east coast and the wedding was going to be on the west coast. There were also many members of the extended family planning to attend the wedding.
We could have all stayed in the same hotel but I found an even better option, which turned out to be much cheaper than staying in a hotel. VRBO or Vacation Rental By Owner. This website allows you to find homes in the area you are planning to stay in, and rent them for the weekend or a week, or whatever time frame you need. I found the most amazing home right on the water with incredible views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountain Range. Not only were the views incredible but also the home had five bedrooms and slept 12. Perfect for our whole family and the extended family and friends that would also be attending the wedding.
VRBO Rental in WA
You may wonder how this works? You just go to the website VRBO.com and click on the area you are planning to visit. Search through the available homes and contact the owner to see if the house is available. The bookings are made directly and your satisfaction is guaranteed.
Vacation Rental By Owner
Since our original stay in Gig Harbor, WA we have rented several other homes through VRBO. Each time we have been so pleased with the rental. We love the convenience of having your own “home” for our stay and being able to make our own meals and have a place to just relax. The week we stayed with our family and extended family was so much fun. Relaxing on the patio or enjoying a meal together made our time so special. For a short time you can imagine yourself living in the beautiful home.
Enjoying another view!
Next time your planning a trip check out VRBO. You might find you enjoy it more than staying in a hotel!
You may remember last month when I shared the delicious Spiced Pumpkin Loaf recipe. Each month I am pared up with another blogger and asked to pick a recipe off their blog to create and write about. It’s a win-win situation. I find out about a new blog and a get to make a new recipe at the same time! Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies looked like an amazing recipe.
This month I was pared up with Jess’s blog Simple, Clean & Homemade. Her blog is relatively new, she started it in March 2012. It was a challenge to herself to try out new recipes that she never though she would make. I’m certainly glad she started writing and I am thrilled to have found her blog and had the opportunity to try one of her recipes.
It was hard to choose just one recipe, as they all look delicious. However we were having family for the weekend and her Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe looked just perfect to have on hand. I made the recipe just as Jess wrote it. what intrigued my about this recipe was that Jess mentioned that these cookies were ot overly sweet, despite the large quantity of chocolate. The salt brings out the flavor of the chocolate without making the cookie too sweet.
In the food processor or Vitamix flour canister, blend oats into a fine flour.
Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer or electric hand mixer. Add vanilla and eggs. Beat until fluffy. Add salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat to incorporate. Slowly add flour and blended oats. Beat to combine. Add chocolate and beat until evenly dispersed.
Roll into balls and store in a plastic container. Store in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. I was running out of time so I formed the cookies into balls and put them right on the cookie sheet. I then sprinkled them with the salt and baked them right away.
Heat oven at 375 degrees. Break the cookie dough balls in half and stack them broken side up. Sprinkle with Pink Australian Flake Salt.
Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 8-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow to cool about 2 minutes before removing them from the pan.
The cookies were a big hit! This is definitely a recipe I will make again. Warm from the oven they were amazing! Can’t beat the sweet salty combination!
I love the different seasons. I especially love spring with the abundance of green everywhere and the fresh fruit, which starts to appear in the garden and at the farmers markets. Although it’s still a little early for strawberries in Vermont, this fresh spring salad with berries is perfect for that first dinner cooked on the grill. We ate this salad with grilled chicken the first night and the next night I served it with slices of grilled chicken on top of the salad. Both were delicious. This salad is delicious with strawberries or blackberries.
Spring Salad
Ingredients:
Salad Greens
Fresh Strawberries
Fresh Raspberries and Blackberries
½ cup slivered almonds, toasted
Orange Vinaigrette:
¼ cup oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp grated orange peel
1 tsp Dijon mustard
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the greens, berries and almonds. Combine the remaining ingredients in a jar and shake well. Drizzle dressing over the salad and toss to coat.
This salad is delicious with fresh berries and try it with leftover grilled chicken as well. Nothing welcomes spring than a dinner on the deck with grilled chicken and a fresh spring salad. I enjoy all sorts of spring salads especially if they take advantage of the fresh fruit that is available.
I never really thought about the number of different ways to sweeten your food. In the last few weeks I have reviewed Maple Syrup, Honey, Corn Syrup and Agave Nectar. This week I will take a look at the sugars. It’s amazing the various sugars that are created from sugar cane and sugar beets; White Sugar, Powdered Sugar, Brown Sugar, Sucanat®, Turbinado and Raw Cane Sugar. What is the difference between these products?
Granulated White Sugar – This is the sugar most known to consumers, it is the sugar found in every home’s sugar bowl, and most commonly used in home food preparation. It is the most common form of sugar and the type most frequently called for in recipes. Its main distinguishing characteristics are a paper-white color and fine crystals.
White sugar
Powdered Sugar – In Canada and Great Britain it is called Icing Sugar and in France Sucre Glace. This sugar is granulated sugar ground to a smooth powder and then sifted. It contains about 3% cornstarch to prevent caking. Powdered sugar is ground into three different degrees of fineness. The confectioners sugar available in supermarkets – 10X – is the finest of the three and is used in icings, confections and whipping cream. Industrial bakers use the other two types of powdered sugar.
Powdered Sugar
Brown sugar is simply white sugar combined with molasses. Brown sugar retains some of the surface molasses syrup, which imparts a characteristic pleasurable flavor. Dark brown sugar has a deeper color and stronger molasses flavor than light brown sugar. Lighter types are generally used in baking and making butterscotch, condiments and glazes. The rich, full flavor of dark brown sugar makes it good for gingerbread, mincemeat, baked beans, and other full flavored foods.
Brown Sugar
Sucanat® (which stands for Sugar Cane Natural), is a whole cane sugar. It’s made by simply crushing freshly cut sugar cane, extracting the juice and heating it in a large vat. Once the juice is reduced to a rich, dark syrup, it is hand-paddled. Hand paddling cools and dries the syrup; creating the dry porous granules we call Sucanat. Nothing is added and nothing is taken out! Because Sucanat still contains all of the cane’s natural molasses, it has a deep brown color and a distinct, natural molasses flavor that enhances many foods. It can be substituted for brown sugar in any recipe and it is especially good in chocolate-based recipes, for baking and for BBQ sauces and marinades. It is an excellent source of iron, calcium, vitamin B6, potassium and chromium, which helps balance blood sugar.
Sucanat
Raw Cane Sugar – It is essentially the product at the point before the molasses is removed (what’s left after sugarcane has been processed and refined).
Raw Cane Sugar
Turbinado – is raw sugar that has been steam cleaned to remove contaminates, leaving a light molasses flavored, tan colored sugar. This sugar is raw sugar, which has been partially processed, where only the surface molasses has been washed off. It has a blond color and mild brown sugar flavor, and is often used in tea and other beverages.
Turbinado
Making the choice of what sweetener to use in your kitchen can be a little overwhelming. Hopefully this review of the various sweeteners can help you make good decisions. Do you have a favorite sweetener you use?
May in Vermont started off with some glorious weather, warm and sunny. The grass started to turn green; the daffodils were in full bloom. It was just beautiful.
Daffodils in full bloom.
This week is a different story. The week has been cool and cloudy. Despite the frosty mornings the creeping phlox is creeping along.
Creeping Phlox
My garlic is up and doing very well. Won’t be long before I’m cutting the scapes and making garlic scape pesto!
My garlic is doing well.
My oregano is back and ready to be used in cooking once again.
Oregano
The rhubarb patch has burst from the ground and is almost ready to be picked. I love rhubarb and look forward to making my first batch of rhubarbeque sauce.
Rhubarb Patch
I love spring in Vermont, the weather can change drastically from one day to the next. The hills are bright with various shades of green. I’ll continue on with the mulching of the garden beds and the planting of the vegetable garden. It will be a few more weeks before I am able to move my tomatoes into the garden..
Spring in Vermont
No matter what the weather the dandelions are back and are everywhere!
What does it mean to be thrifty? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary thrifty is (1) thriving by industry and frugality, (2) growing vigorously and (3) given to or marked by economy and good management.
It isn’t just about being cheap or even saving money. It’s about living a happier, healthier and greener life. This is the life I am striving for. In many areas I feel like I am succeeding and in other areas I need to keep working!
Being Thrifty
Being thrifty can mean learning to make your own fresh mozzarella cheese and realizing just how easy this is. The thought of fresh mozzarella with garden fresh tomatoes makes my mouth water!
Homemade Mozzarella Cheese
Being thrifty is discovering the miracle of cleaning with vinegar and baking soda and realizing that your house can be just as clean with homemade products and so much better for you and the environment.
Homemade Cleaners
Being thrifty is realizing that homemade gifts can be so much better than a store bought gift. Friends love a gift of homemade jam for instance.
Blueberry Lime Jam
Being thrifty is taking the few extra moments to hang your clothes outside to save money on your electricity!
Laundry
Being thrifty is realizing that with a few simple changes you can save money on your grocery bills.
The few items I purchased this week.
What steps are you taking to live a more thrifty life? I love taking this journey to discover a whole new, satisfying way to live.
A few weeks ago I shared my Amazing Sourdough Biscuit recipe, another favorite way to use my sourdough starter is making bread.
This recipe is very simple and you can add all sorts of things to the batter to change the taste. The recipe is adapted from a recipe I found on the King Arthur website.
Rustic Sourdough Bread
1 cup of fed sourdough starter
1 ½ cups of lukewarm water
2 tsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
2 ½ tsp salt
5 cups all purpose flour
2-3 Tbsp Tuscan Sunset seasoning from Penzey Spices
Combine all the ingredients and knead to form a smooth dough. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer. Place the dough in a bowl, cover the bowl and allow the dough to double in size, about 90 minutes.
Gently shape the dough into two logs about 10 inches long.
Place on a lightly greased parchment-lined baking sheet. I used my baguette pan.
Cover and let rise until very puffy, about one hour. Toward the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425. Spray the loaves with lukewarm water. Make two fairly deep diagonal slashes in each loaf. I made several slashes in the long loaves using a serrated bread knife.
Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes; until it’s a very deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.
Couldn’t wait, while it was still warm I enjoyed a slice with some butter! (Well perhaps too much butter!) Yum!
In deciding what to stock in my pantry, I try to have healthy and nutritious items. Last week I mentioned sweeteners; specifically Agave Nectar, which I have never tried, and Maple Syrup which we use all the time. There are many other sweeteners and as one reader pointed out you can even grow your own Stevia as a sweetener. I may have to try that this year.
Stevia rebaudiana
This week I will talk about honey and corn syrup.
Honey
Honey is something we always have in our pantry. We used to keep bees and may have bees again. Once you get used to having your own local honey you can’t go back to the mass-produced honey that might be coming from China!
Our former bee yard.
Bees using nectar from flowers make honey. Bees have a two miles radius so they will collect nectar from all the flowers they find in that area. The type of honey you collect from the bees varies depending on the flowers available to them in that radius.
Honey Bees
Honey is slightly sweeter than sugar so less can be used to achieve the same sweetness intensity. Honey not only imparts a unique flavor to any dish, but is also balances and enhances the flavor properties of other ingredients used in a recipe. Honey acts as a binder and thickener for sauces, dressing, marinades and dips. It also provided and retains moisture to a variety of dishes and can even extend the life of baked goods. We enjoy a cup of tea each evening with a spoonful of honey.
In addition to being a great sweetener, honey also has a multitude of benefits that many people don’t know about. Honey has been proven to be a natural throat soother. It provides quick energy and the next time you get a burn rub it with honey, the pain will go away immediately! You can see why we are now buying our honey in bulk from a local beekeeper!
Corn Syrup
Corn syrup is made when cornstarch is broken down into glucose. You can buy both light and dark corn syrup, the light corn syrup may have vanilla flavoring added, while the dark corn syrup has a stronger natural flavor. The advantage of corn syrup over sugar is its resistance to crystallization. Regular syrups sold in bottles are a home cook’s ultimate resource in baking cakes and making candy from scratch. Unlike other sweeteners, corn syrup does not crystallize upon use or cause any grainy texture in foods.
Corn Syrup
High-fructose corn syrup is distinct from corn syrup in that it is created by enzymatic processing, producing a sweeter compound that contains higher levels of fructose. High fructose corn syrup is rarely sold directly to consumers, although it can be found in a majority of processed foods sold in grocery stores.
High fructose corn syrup s found in many processed foods.
I have a bottle of corn syrup in my pantry but I really don’t use it much. I find I can usually substitute maple syrup or molasses in most recipes. If you do make candy and want to use corn syrup did you know there is a corn syrup substitute? Alea Milham has a wonderful recipe on her blog Premeditated Leftovers.
Nancy on the Home Front 