hummingbirdkiss

ok at the end of my harvest since I closed my winter beds due to drought (we had some rain the past few days but it all "rolled off" ) I am now using my dehydrator full force and making vegan raw crackers..they are not the best things in the world I need more practice and apparently better recipes ..but last night I was making soup and put some in there figuring they were just soup ingredients dried anyway …and then I looked online I and I guess this is a "thing"…so I am just smashing the first few batches to fortify other dishes and now I am feeling very virtuous! I wish i liked the raw crackers more ..but will keep trying as making them in the dehydrator is so easy! ..my husband said "they would be good if you deep fried them now " he is right they taste ..welll RAW LOL!!! I am letting whatever else is in the garden go to wildlife, chickens and ducks now ..I am done with this years harvest and going to just sit back and enjoy what is left of summer. pumpkins were really prolific those I do not pick until the plants die back so nothing better eat those I put chicken wire over them

this is so funny I tossed the rack aside the day I got the pot and have used it for all kinds of things forgot it came with it and wondered what the hell it was ..LOLOL! now I know it was for the instant pot! I never looked at the instructions after I learned how to use it I just shoved stuff in this really is fun to read glad you started it I am dive in and learn kind of person ..but then once i figure things out I like to go back and see what I missed!

I have not read anyone else's posts but will…so I apologize for redundancy here or anything that may have changed since your OP …and I have to run so let me comment if it will help Anna? I can honestly say i think it is ideal for small use needs ! absolutely! Especially with food preservation I can cook down apple butter or whatever it in and can it in the same tiny space it takes ..so easy to do and it holds enough for a small batch of apple butter or jam for sure …it has helped me scale down my cooking "size" to two people instead of the huge cooking I was doing i .. because of the limited size of the pot ….I like it a lot and would give it to any college student I know as a fledgling gift for sure. it browns nicely so making things like soups or stews in it really is "one pot" it is easy to clean everything goes right in the dishwasher and if something is stubborn i used the steam feature..very cool ..I am "down" a kitchen currently so I use it every day for anything from a pot of congee to as i said making jam or whatever to put in jars . ..I admit I have very few appliances and can not compare it to anything else fairly …but I had a pressure cooker explode on me and no joke I am done with those indoors (except the instant pot ) I do all my pressure cooking/canning outside now ..I do not care how "safe" they are ..never again …this pressure cooks enough for me and is NOT scary at all .….I do not even have a rice cooker I use a pot . no slow cooker or toaster or toaster oven nothing extra just the basics .. because they all make me nuts and take up too much space…and right now because I have no counters LOL I have nothing! but the instant pot, hot plate and an oven that cooks at 350F only (new oven pending construction) …it is magical to me to have a thing that does so many things and it s clean neat and fun to cook with .really it is quite fun! it sings when it is done! ….hope it helps I think it was worth every penny..is great for small cooking .. the only thing it can not do really is deep fry ..after a few months I am thrilled with it .. but as I said I do not buy appliances unless I really really need them and this I did not know how cool it was and really needed it .

29 Jan 2007 ..I just found my alcoholic time capsule from my first days here ..so while i have resumed posting a bit you may not hear from me much while I am doing intensive tastings

the unidentified bottle is …are you ready ..jack pot! FALERNUM!!!!! oh my freaking goodness how did I "forget" THISS??????? ok just sharing because I know someone here will understand my bliss ..and my headache today ..wtf was I thinking

I just found the bottle of nocino I made when I joined Egullet. So I thought I would bump the thread even though it must be too late for green walnuts most places ….I found my bottle as I said and was excited to share my bliss! ( I have caches of things all over when I die my kids are going to have a feast I swear ..I know I am not alone I bet a lot of folks here have caches of things they put by and forgot about ) I was looking for something completely different and found a whole bin of boozy based treasures… 2 different quarts of nicely aged vanilla , 2 different batches of nocino and a gallon of black cake fruit I forgot ..a bottle of cassis. a gallon of elderberry wine and something else I can not ID yet but it smells amazing! I do not really drink, I like cooking with alcohol not drinking it ..but I am going to start ..my liver has been preserved for retirement and I plan on using it now with reckless abandon talk about hitting the lotto! this evening I will go down to the beach and just sit with the old man and taste it properly cheers now and have a good evening I am excited!

everything looks so amazing! I will post photos when the garden slows down LOL! I am overwhelmed with tomatoes plums and grapes and trying to get the garlic beds ready for Octobers planting …and regular everything that goes on in life ..YAY retirement and all that rest I thought I would get ..so now I hauled the juicer out and am making juice out of everything I am not putting in the dehydrator and screaming "STOPPPPPP! " .I never had tomatillos overwinter like this a plant from last year went rogue and they are literally coming up through the lawn ..next week they will be dropping by the pounds ..not complaining ..I am grateful right now my state is on fire and we have no resources ..I will take this food prepared into something to the fire fighters this week with friends

Shelby my granddaughter has a little business she sells to the neighbors and me LOL!!! ..the idea of smelling eggs drying just got to me the more I thought about it the more disgusting it sounds.

I am going to bag this idea and just give extra eggs to the food bank I do not think I am up for dried eggs I have eggs every freaking place now ..thanks so much Deryn I appreciate the answer it really helped

Shelby thank you so much you are so sweet to comment like that. ..I will try to post photos I promise you are all so generous with your words and photos I just love reading everyones posts and following our garden dramas as well ..it is crazy out there isn't it .there really is drama in the garden every day …I am going to do a severe cut back this fall and if anyone wants fig starts I am happy to share I always feel guilty pruning a potential tree and throwing it out ..that is why I have so many figs I keep making new trees ..there is no such thing as too many figs anyway. my corn the chickens tore up came back and this is my first 3 sisters that really thrived beans are some rare Italian white bean a friend gave me ..corn is the colored popcorn and the pumpkins are sugar pie of some kind all gifts I tossed them into a bed I made out to an old bed frame along with some Oregon rock dust a friend sent and holy crap that is my most prolific bed I have never seen so many pumpkins saving seed because they are delicious as green pumpkin curry I made it twice already so even if they do not sweeten they have wonderful flavor and I can cook them all summer instead of waiting for frost

tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes as well my house looks like Shelby's but add a pile of tomatillos…I have so many tomatillos this year and half are reseeded and sporting the same fruit they did last year ..nice deep dark purple ones…! (obviously I am still lame and have not even tried to replace my photo let alone post a photo here not sure why I am blocking it I have tons of photos! ) …I am eating them, sharing them and drying them ..no canning but the one vine i have a new sauce tomato on ..it is loaded I am guarding it and it will be sauce! ….I believe i will have enough to can some sauce this year ..but will have to do it outside on the propane burner .(no kitchen still and that is not moving along for a while …(artists can not be rushed and my husband and our friend are doing pouring my countertops out of concrete ) We have no water the ground is dry ..the food might as well be dry as well ..so what I can not eat ..especially the tomatoes and I am trying to eat as many fresh ones as I can! …is either dried into tomato powder or as slices to be added to olive oil later I have so many eggs..the ducks started laying double yolkers and wow I remember our last ducks did this for a year before the eggs just were giant with a single yolk (I love duck eggs so much more than chicken especially for baking ) …has anyone tried to dry eggs? I was thinking just for smoothies and adding it to things rather than reconstituting ..right now i am boiling and feeing them back to the ducks and chickens if I can not take them to the food bank …and give them to the neighbors and eat them (I am eating eggs and tomatoes of some kind 3 times a day right now because I am so busy putting stuff "away" I have no time to sit and enjoy… I am going to trade for chiles today a friend is bringing us a few cases of chiles from NM and I have him hooked up in return …that and some corn I need to put the corn tomatoes onions garlic and roasted green chiles together for the summer magic right???? and I can not grow corn well (I have some but not enough) and our local corn is so good this year (but= it is almost toooooo perfect I had some last night and all the corn is exactly the same sized ..but so flavorful!) ..and while I did grow a huge plant of scotch bonnets …they are doing really well! I eat one or two a day now, flavor is right on I can close my eyes and be in the islands… and looks like the harvest will keep going ….the ghost peppers have not pollenated but the plant is healthy I will just bring them both in as house plants or put them in the green house they look strong and like they will last) the grapes are blushing I could get lucky and the concords will ripen .then I am making basement wine if that happens for sure! The old school kind of grew up sipping ….blackberries ending … apples, pears, Italian plums, Asian pears all ripening in now if we get a month of sun more I will have a second fig harvest (I did last year) .. time to buy next years planting garlic ( I replant the biggest I grow but always like to buy and add new garlic ) Prepping the beds since last months harvest (I plant garlic the same bed 3 years at a time ..kind of like dahlias I move them every three years as well) we did an inspection of our bee hive this weekend and found our bees have been REALLY busy ..I did not see we had a back yard honey discussion but I had to harvest several pounds of honey comb just to get into the hive …first year a top bar hive it was a HUGE mess of honey combs and pissed off bees..I mainly got the hive on a whim and a traded my old mountain bike for it ..I have had to pollenate my squash by hand and thought "why not " right? so I did and you are not supposed to have honey the first year of a top bar from what I have read? well have a half gallon of strained honey in jars …and that was only half of what I needed to pull out but I got scared and left …I also left all the bowls knives and spoons I used and everything is sparkling clean from the bees reclaiming what they lost ..I told them it was not me it was a bear that tore up the combs ..I do not want to take your time if there is another place to talk about this ..but the combs were being built sideways and we could not pull the bars up to check the health of the hive so I had to cut the sideways ones off and straighten the huge honey filled combs so they could have them back …I took a very tiny bit and it was almost a gallon total with what I gave them back to reclaim and that was just on two bars and not the main combs!!! i just finished painting a Langstroth hive ..the top bar is fun and more natural I am glad I have it but after tasting the honey and playing with the bees wax? we are hooked there is no going back …s are so calming and my neighbors are so happy with the honey bees in their gardens ..I can not imagine gardening with out bees ever again ..I said that about the chickens ..then the ducks ..now the bees …LOLOL does it end? ok my friend talked me into planting ground nuts ? does anyone else grow them? I have never eaten them the plant is beautiful and the idea they can make me sick is not appealing after the famous sunchoke episode of 2004 .. second I have a bed of sunchokes and really loved the taste of them cooked like chips ..and also mashed..but they caused such severe cramping and GI distress I just dig them up and give them to friends who are not affected so badly ..they are a very cool plant I like growing them but have to contain them for sure…..can anyone eat them>? if so can you tell me how you made them into food that did not cause such horrible problems form the inulin I guess? am assuming? they are a wonderful tastily little thing but the aftermath of pain is not worth it .. that and the ground nuts? what can I do? i have never tried ground nuts as I said but what I read it said "can cause sever reactions " generally not on the first taste but the second or third? ..wow I can just enjoy the plant but would love to eat them both if i can with out consequence! any advice or info on either would be appreciated! otherwise I can find someone to eat these I guess LOL ..I wish I had not had that bad experience with sunchokes ..wow that was pain like no pain a person should feel over food! Happy gardening!!! I love reading what others are doing and if you can direct me to a thread on honeybees,dehydration of everything we can think of, suncholkes or groundnuts that would be great!

I have eaten "shelf stable" kimchi and even "canned kimchi" myself and it is "ok" just like sauerkraut that is shelf stable is "ok" if you have nothing else to fill the spot … but it is like a shelf stable pickle of any type stops at the point you want to keep going with the flavor and with pickles I want the taste to be "alive" there is no control over what could contaminate kimchi but I know for a fact nothing hides when it is "off" LOL! wow but it is hard if it is prepared well and the fermentation is good and the right bacteria are in doing their thing ? it is a super safe food in my opinion. I never mind buying fresh kimchi or freshly fermented food in places where I am fine eating most anything ..….the only thing I see that is different and I call kimchi "pickles" is that you either stabilize it for the shelf or keep it alive and I do that with all fermented or pickled things. About half my Korean friends my age make their own kimchi like their mother did (I am 57 years old) and if they do not make it their moms do and give it to them or they buy it from a local kimchi deli ..younger kids are eating more mass marketed kimchi and now there is this renewed excitement and fermentation is still "on trend" so kids are starting to make their own kimchi and recipes are being revived..I am speaking from someone who adored kimchi ..have always live in areas with strong Korean communities I eat kimchi almost daily either my own, my friends (I get a gallon jar from a friend as my holiday gift each year she knows me that well they are mini naps stuffed like no others ) I adore our locally produced. kimchi here in the Federal Way and Tacoma area of the Puget Sound our kimchi choices are endless and it was part of why we choose to settle here ..the food! 40 years I have eaten kimchi …in fact I am about to scramble ducks eggs with kimchi for breakfast . the article was interesting thanks .I am not sure where I am going with this early morning ramble …but saw a kimchi topic and jumped in. ps I am putting a kimchi fridge in my kitchen plans ..they are fantastic if you keep lots of pickles or like fermenting or making salsas or sauces you do not want can but want to keep …chutney … I have always wanted one and converted an old beer fridge into a kimchi fridge ages ago ..time to upgrade and very excited to see the size I want available now!

I part chevre, 1 part cream cheese ( the real deal or philly ) ) 1 part sour cream greek full fat yogurt or quark .amts vary per cake size..some get heavy cream as well...i go light on the sugar ..have put extra yolks in but then it was custard tasting...i liked it! .everything room temp, no mixer or food processor ...( I put a small spoon of starch in if I think it needs it) Stir by hand and not a single turn more ... Double foil ..pan of water ..low slow cool in the oven ..no cracks ever It is my husband's 35th favorite dessert i have had lots of practice

I am just standing under a fully loaded fig tree eating them as fast as I can they are beyond good and every year I am a glutton until they are done . about a gallon of blackberries a day and lots of tomatoes on the verge and more tomatillos that I have ever had ! . ..it is a battle between me and the deer we had a set of twins in our back yard and the cuteness has really worn off now I caved and both a small freezer I could not keep up with my harvest and neither could the dehydrator wow this is a good year ..we are now officially on water restriction. I have put myself on it for ages but the city is now ..so I am closing all the beds down as soon as I harvest and not going to do a fall garden this year…I have so many pumpkins and tomatoes I can trade for what I want if I do not have enough of something .. my bee hive is not supposed to be harvested until the second year but the bees have filled it up and I can see honey already (I have a top bar hive and this is the first season ) ..I did not have to hand pollenate a thing this year everything had honey bees and bumble bees I have seen no yellow jackets at all ..knock wood! ETA none of my corn pollenated so I take that back not everything was successfully pollenated.. it just grew to a rocketing 20 feet with not a single tassel my ducks started laying the odd egg and we butchered the two male muscovy they were getting too ambitious about breeding and thought I was a duck .….god that is amazing meat! I roasted them outside and now I am making duck pho from the bones ..best ducks I have eaten in my life

I started testing high sodium ramen since my post above..wow I how did I ever go with out these and while I still make my own ....I am sold on instant ramen! AT least once a week my husband and I roll around in all kinds of instant high sodium goodness .I hack the crap out of if with lots of vegetables or meat or whatever I have on hand. my top 3 current favorites ..I honestly eat this stuff once a week with out shame! it is so good! 1. Ottogi Korean style Sesame flavor with an egg block (it is spicy and delicious! I add kimchi and an egg and wow dinner! ) 2. Sapporo Ichiban Shio Ramen with sesame 3. Indomie chicken curry it is fun to make it I stir fry it and let the noodles soak up all the water (I use half ) 3 I have on hand to try next 1. Prima Food Singapore Curry La Mian 2. Xu Gon Vietnamese Artificial Roasted Duck Flavor 3. Nongshim Japanese style Soba Noodles with sauce I plan on trying every instant ramen noodle variety that sparks me ..I eat enough healthy shit to equal out my day. Please share your favorites and favorite hacks for instant ramen ..the possibilities are endless

should I dehydrate some eggs? my ducks and chickens are dropping eggs like Pez dispensers and I wondered if I should do this ? I can not imagine using them for "eggs" again..but as a protein in a smoothie? or to add protein to things .. 1, has anyone dried eggs and if so what was your results? 2, what did you do with them when you used them? I have to have a plan to use them before I do it . I have read all the stuff I can find online pretty straight forward doing it is like making fruit leather more or less ? then you can put them in a blender .….I can do it raw (that is the plan) or cooked (sounds disgusting to me and would smell awful) and either separate or mix them up I figured I would try 2 dozen eggs like this ..split one dozen and mix one but I really do need ideas for using them and hope someone has used them and can tell me? do them blend up ok in a smoothie I wonder? please and thank you

ok a follow up to this ? In a perfect world I would have time and money to make all my little crazy dreams come true ..but for now ..I am bagging the induction burners …I have searched and searched and it is all too expensive and none of it makes sense to me ..will go as planned with drop in gas burners ..thanks so much this conversation was greatly appreciated. I have learned so much about this whole subject! but in the end the gas burners win for me. the concrete counters will commence in just two weeks now I have to buy the sink and burners first so we can make sure the templates are accurate

we have baby deer with spots and bunnies every freaking place..my Khaki Campbells discovered "out" now and are completely free ranging …the chickens are rogue and I still have a garden full of fruits and vegetables it is amazing and for this very second we have a nice balance of wildlife. My bees have filled the hive with comb (I have a top bar hive this is the first year) …Grapes are LOADED I will be making basement wine for sure this year ..I picking grapes green right now to make pickled baby grapes..salted all the nasturtium seeds to make enough for a year, I have to start picking the plums and blackberries both are coming in very quickly in this hot weather garlic harvest was early and I am enjoying what it is like to harvest garlic in dry weather! Usually I have keep a close eye they rot so fast here but it is so dry they are hanging to cure now 120 heads I am shutting down my beds as I think I mentioned because we are a mess in the northwest right now water wise …but I am going to load it up with compost and all the secret recipes and next year I am going to triple the garlic crop. potatoes are almost ready and so are the Korean zucchini I am actually able to grow chiles this year and I ate a jalepeno yesterday it was really good! unheard of for me so much to say about gardening and I love reading everyones posts

I scored access to a very full orchard that has a very full tree of just on the green side transparent apples and they are getting sliced and put in the dehydrator if you get these green and juicy (before they go yellow and mealy ..god they can be gross) they are a very flavorful apple …so the test to the dehydrator starts now! I made a crisp with them and they are bursting with tart green apple flavor! …I love dried apples and dried apple pie is really good ..I am going to make ketchup with the next load and then give the rest to the ducks ..they give back in more ways that one!

Adams smooth no stir is as smooth as it comes I tasted it …and yes …you can make gelato with it..because really there is not much smoother than this . and still get the taste of the peanuts try it it is cheap enough if you do not like it you can use it else wise it is super smooth ( I am putting it in a milkshake )

Adams has a smooth now that is "no stir" but I did not look at the jar to make sure it has nothing else in it because I am a chunky peanut butter lover ..I assume it has to have something to help it along because it is "no stir" now ? but it is worth a look? It used to be my favorite and I still eat the Adam's chunky almost every day it serves all my peanut buttery needs ..Adams used to be a local Tacoma brand and in "98" they were bought out and started adding more "types" and now it is just like any other peanut butter …the chunky still tastes the same to me just not as fresh and more processed

I think we spent about $100 a Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder maybe 7-8 years ago? Other than the noise (they are loud but I do not care) the thing was worth every penny ..works like a dream and I have no complaints with the grind it is perfect espresso, drip, press whatever it is all good (I am a super picky coffee drinker and have been roasting thanks to friends on this board for about 7 years now)

I grow 100 heads a year and always in the fall (one year someone convinced me to try a spring crop so I did and it was small and not nearly as flavorful! ) …I am so lucky it grows so well here! Looks like I will have a brilliant harvest ready in a week or so ..and am so excited! I love growing garlic …half soft neck and half hard neck I usually replant my largest cloves each year…but always add more from farmers mkts and grocery stores when I find some I like I plant it .…I plant 50 hard neck and 50 soft neck … rotate the beds every three years …the scapes are my first crop and then I thin the green garlic for the second crop and then finally in a week or so ? I will pull and cure them and have my third crop and chose the ones I will save to keep the cycle going ..I have been growing garlic in the Puget Sound for about 25 years now. I am always scouring farmers mkts for seed garlic ..I love garlic and can not get enough of it ..If you have not grown it ..it is a very friendly first crop to try for a beginner gardener with no space…I had my colleagues who lived in apartments growing it on their balconies in pots because it is is just so delicious when you grown your own

I get what you are saying because when I am done with the meat for stock it is spent! if it is still flavorful i have not done my job I think or just made soup meat …to stock ..so I am with you….the meat is not worth the salvage for me…it is tasteless (agreed!) and do not care of the texture ..but my animals love it and thrive on it! … I take anything along with any softer bones (pork chicken all soften to the point you can do this when you do a long low slow …and put it all including the veggie scraps in the pressure cooker with enough water and cook the snot out of it ..the bones soften nicely..I will add eggshells as well if I have them ….( unsalted at this point) and then puree it up super smooth ..and freeze the puree in cupcake tins then pop them out into bags ..so I can serve them frozen to my dog or as a daily frozen treat on these hot days..it loaded with calcium for my egg laying ducks chickens .…they all adore it and it is a good way to up-cycle left over stock trimmings ……this is so easy. Animals are with the effort ..look a the joy they bring us!

well my freezer just went tits up and I am telling you timing could not be better (extreme laughter and sarcasm inserted here please because now I am really in a mess!) I divided the food between our beer fridge's freezer and the kitchen freezer..but at the same time? I am having issue with needing to put the kitchen fridge out and see what is going on because the drip tray keeps loading up with water and leaking all over the floor (new fridge I guess common problem because folks are complaining all over the place online) Monday the solar tube is going in ..I have to be out of the kitchen that day so my husband and his buddy can install it…and so this weekend? I will be canning food in a marathon session …with a pressure and water bath canner on a propane burners in 100F weather with a hose because our fire danger is so flipping hight I am terrified of setting our town on fire. So let the canning begin …glad I have a new dishwasher at least I do not have to worry about the jars I just put them on a short cycle and can right into them from the dry cycle. I encourage anyone who has not canned or otherwise put food by ..to do it .. know having skills prevents hysteria! If I had no idea what to do I would be freaking out right now at the tremendous loss because my back up fridge is not a safe place to keep food for much more than a few days ..the freezer is just a bit colder than the fridge so it has become my thawing ground now .. ..hence the panic canning… ..I am so GLAD I learned to can the first years of being on my own as a grown up.. When I first moved out I started reading Rodale books and Motherearth News and then found the Cooperative Extensions …and read those books and magazines ( had "Putting Food By" "Stocking up Now" and all kinds of good canning books Sunset books were really great early on for me) I grew up in the city..my family shopped daily for the evening meal and no one ever preserved food that I knew. Other than basement wine and I will tell you what right now I am glad I have basement wine on hand! CHEERS and Happy 4th of July to all! Happy Food Preserving …wow the freezer died ..LOL I have no stove it blew up ..the ovens one is dead and the other only cooks at 350 and I am in the midst of getting ready put a hole in the roof to light the kitchen ..of COUSE I need to can a freezer full of food right now LOLOL! (actually it is half a freezer I was in the midst of a kitchen purge to restock after the remodel is done so I guess the timing is "fine") ..the bad part ? I had to toss all the frozen spring rolls and patties I made just a few weeks ago ..in advance so they would be easy for the remodel period …they were just too thawed and I could not fry or bake them in time ..argh what a waste …ducks and chickens got them and loved them