Preserving tomatoes

We planted a bunch of tomatoes in our pallet cold frames but so far except for one red tomato we only have green tomatoes. Since I use a lot of tomatoes I was hoping to grow a bunch and have some to preserve. I haven't been able to really switch to a mostly local diet this year or have my own yard for expanding the gardening. I was hoping to switch a few things that I use a lot this year. Luckily I heard that Bell's nursery sells the tomatoes that they can't sell at the grocery store for cosmetic reasons at 5 pounds for $5 at their store. I have now brought two 50 pound batches from Bell's nursery that I made into spaghetti sauce, salsa and diced tomatoes.

For the first batch I made an oven roasted tomato sauce and a tomato sauce with tomatoes that were just peeled. I used the rest of the tomatoes that were left for diced tomatoes. I peeled the tomatoes that were not roasted by boiling briefly until the skins crack and dipping in cold water for peeling. The oven roasted ones crack for easy peeling. For my second batch I made another roasted tomato sauce and a roasted salsa and diced the rest. Both sauces were tasty but the roasted sauce was more flavorful and less watery so I decided to roast the tomatoes from now on for sauces. I also used a local onion and some basil and parsley from the farmer;s market in the spaghetti sauce. The salsa had cilantro from the farmer's market. It was a lot of work but it gets me excited for when I hopefully have my own  mini homestead in my backyard where I hopefully will have lots of veggies to can and process.

50 pounds of tomatoes

Sliced in half sprinkled with olive oil and ready for the oven

The helpers peeling the oven roasted tomatoes

Boiled until the skins crack for easy peeling

A local farmer's market onion for the spaghetti sauce

I started  the sauce with the onion and garlic

I pulsed the tomatoes in the blender 3-4 times and added fresh herbs

Both sauces cooking from the first batch

The roasted sauce is on the top

Diced tomatoes peeled and seeded 

I canned everything using a pressure canner for 20 minutes. You don't have to use a pressure canner for tomatoes but it fits more cans and takes less time and has a better chance of preserving than the hot water bath so I used the pressure canner.

We got a tomato corer for the second batch and it saved lots of time

A really big tomato

Salsa in the blender with fresh local cilantro

I pulse 3-4 times

The baby wanted a tomato

The second batch ready for pressure canning

 Spaghetti sauce on the left front, diced tomatoes in the back and salsa to the right

Keeping the baby happy during the processing with wild berry smoothie

Entertaining themselves in a box

In a box with a cracker

It was a lot of work and very messy between the tomatoes and the children but it will be nice in the winter when we have yummy local goodness. 

Alaska local grains

I got a few 50 pound sacks of barley and wheat through the local food challenge. Since we are trying to get our place on the market most of it is at Mike's work at the moment. We just got a container for the barley and one for the wheat so I tried it out for the first time. It comes in berries that need to be ground if you want flour. I used the blend tech and it did a good job grinding it into a flour and didn't take much time.

I made a barley cornbread recipe from the cooperative extension and a pot pie with the whole wheat flour. The barley cornbread needs some tweaking. It was supposed to cook in 30 minutes and was no where near being done at 30 minutes. I used  ground up corn instead of corn meal and that might of been the reason although cornmeal is just ground up corn kernels. You can grow corn in Alaska if you have a greenhouse so I want to experiment with that. I found a recipe online for the whole wheat pot pie crust. It was more dough like this time but it cooked a little softer than I was hoping so I still need to experiment. I may just use some gluten if I can't find good recipes using all whole wheat. When we finish the rice I am going to use the barley in place of rice. The kids at least liked the food and I thought the pot pie was decent even though it wasn't perfect. Teddy at least liked the corn bread. Once we get the new place I have big plans for making bread, tortillas, pot pies, english muffins, pancakes, waffles, cookies, pasta, pizza and bagels with the grain. I am looking for recipes now and will experiment until I have something workable. I am not the best cook but luckily my friend google can provide some help.

In kid news Teddy has been extra fussy lately but he is doing great language wise and is adding some sounds he was having difficulty with. He is doing much better on outings and is doing great around other kids even ones younger than him. Cora is doing good but I wish listened to my worries and got her into therapy sooner. She is a little behind in her rolling and sitting skills and she has a curve in her spine that is common with torticollis. She is favoring sides with rolling too. I been so busy that I don't get to work with her as much as I like. I been trying a little bit of food with her and she is so funny about it. She dives after it with her mouth and starts chomping away but isn't using her hands to much with it yet. I don't think she eaten much yet but she enjoys sucking and chewing and gets mad when she loses what she was working on.

Crabapples

Yesterday a member of the local food challenge group posted an event to forage for crabapples that were on trees on the campus. While they are frozen you can shake the tree with minimal bruising to the crabapples. They are smaller in the winter but you can still eat them and use them for apple butter, apples sauce and jelly. As long as they frozen before processing they are good. They begin to ferment when they have too long to warm up. 4 of us showed up in the early morning with tarps and buckets. Security guards were watching us during some of it and didn't care. We all got a bucket full and will meet soon to process them. They are sitting outside right now frozen and I will sort through so I can freeze them in the freezer until they are ready.

Local Food Challange

I will be writing a lot about a local food challenge I will be starting this summer. I was a vegetarian for a few years and now eat fish and would eat game meat if we had any. Food is one area that I need to improve in despite that. I am a terrible cook and rely on processed food which I have no problems with in moderation. Living in Alaska not much of my diet is local. It is an area I would like to improve in so I was excited to meet people who were part of a local food challenge.

I'm hoping to improve on the gardening this summer and increase our vegetable crop from that.  I know there is local barley and I heard there are some oats and possibly wheat too. I want to improve the garden and forage for berries and mushrooms. The past few years I dragged my friend on berry picking adventures with not much luck but this year I am determined to get lots of berries. I know there are lots of crab apples in town and some bigger apple varieties you can pick. I also would like to grow micro green sprouts. I eventually like a greenhouse for pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers.

We go dip netting every year and get lots of red salmon from that. We are on a list for moose that get killed on the road. I wouldn't mind hunting but we never did it and don't know people who do. I don't think I could do it and Mike has never hunted before.

I would eventually want to get chickens for eggs and would love to get a goat but I don't know if that is allowed. We have local milk and eggs.

I found some good barley flour recipes through the cooperative extension. They had recipes for breads, noodles, crackers, brownies and cookies They also have info on making yogurt and fruit leather. Some people are looking into getting sugar beet seeds and making sugar from that.

I don't know if I will be able to have a mostly Alaskan diet by this summer but I am going to work towards it. In the meantime I am enjoying convenience foods and trying to think of ways to get close to some of the food we eat locally on the cheap.