Saving the Harvest: Raspberry Beets - Homemade Raspberry Vinegar

Fancy Beets sautéed in butter and dressed with raspberry vinegar.

This dish is dinner party worthy.  It is a little more trouble than just roasting beets.  A friend in Boston who is an excellent cook made it for us once.  She is an attorney who also studied at the Sorbonne and lived in Paris.  It was one of those dinners that you keep remembering after you’ve left.  She said that the recipe was from Julia Child but I could never find it. You shred fresh beets (an easy task if you have a food processor).   Then they are sautéed with butter and finally dressed with raspberry vinegar. 

 

sliced raspberry beets with currents

If you are too lazy to get out the food processor and clean it afterwards (like me) or don’t have one, you can slice the beets and proceed with the recipe.  I also once added currants (see pictures).  There is a picture of the shredded beets at the end of this post.  I used beets from our farmer’s market.  Keep them in a cool dark place to use for weeks.

sliced golden raspberry beets with red currents

Ingredients:

-        1 1b of uncooked organic fresh beets - peeled

-        4 tb of organic butter ( I use salted butter) or 3 tb butter plus 1 tb org. olive oil

-        Sea salt to taste

-        ¼ cup homemade organic raspberry vinegar

Shred the beets (easy in a food processor).  Melt the butter (and add the oil) in a flat (fry) pan and then add the beets, salt them and sauté them over medium heat until tender.   Turn off the heat and add the raspberry vinegar to the beets and stir well.  Taste to make sure they are salty enough. 

Organic butter is available in bulk at Costco – it keeps well in the freezer.  If you would like to use less fat, then steam the beets by cooking with a few tablespoons of water (and maybe 1 tablespoon of butter).  Sauté the beets in a little butter for a few minutes then add the water and put a lid over the pan to steam them.  

 

Shredded raspberry beets.  Worth the extra effort!

Raspberry Vinegar:

We always have ever bearing raspberries.  Even if you don’t have much sun, you can plant them in your yard and you can have fresh raspberries from August to early November or the first frost.  For raspberry vinegar I just put some organic vinegar in a pan and heat it to a boil, turn it off, put some raspberries in (as many as you can spare), smash them and add a little organic sugar (we buy this in bulk at Costco).  Organic white vinegar (available at Whole Foods) is also very inexpensive and can be used for fruit vinegars of all kinds. 

Ingredients:

-        1 cup organic vinegar (white or apple cider are good choices)

-        ¼ to ½ cup organic raspberries (frozen organic raspberries are easy to find and work well)

-        1 tablespoon organic sugar or honey

Cooking

Heat the vinegar and sugar to a boil.  Turn off the heat and poor in the raspberries.  If you are using frozen raspberries, then do not turn off the stove, but cook  for a minute or so until thawed. Smash the berries into the vinegar with a potato masher or fork.  You can strain it if you like (sometimes I just use it with the pieces intact).  Refrigerate the vinegar when not using it.  If you are giving the vinegar as a gift, filter the raspberry pieces out and then reserve a few intact raspberries to add after bottling.  AGAIN – KEEP REFRIGERATED.

The Monarch Project @ Mercer Road Farm

Notes on Starting a Butterfly Garden – The Monarch Project @ Mercer Road Farm

Just as the bees are in decline, other pollinators – the butterflies (especially Monarchs) are also rapidly disappearing.  This is thought to be from a combination of the eradication of the monarch caterpillar’s primary food source (milkweed) and other farming practices.  Large swaths of the U.S. are planted with plants that are genetically modified (GMO) to withstand herbicides.  These herbicides like Roundup (containing glyphosate) kill milkweed. By the way… glyphosate is also a probable carcinogen (cause of cancer).  Millions (some estimate billions) of monarchs have vanished and their population has been reduced by over 96 percent in recent years.

 

Rose Milkweed

Yellow Coneflower - Ratibita Pinnata

We decided to build a series of butterfly gardens on our blueberry farm.  We do not use any chemicals on the farm, so we thought that it would be a nice safe haven for the monarchs to rest and reproduce.  I had planted a small test garden last year (cheated and used many plants that had already been started – from Prairie Moon).  We have poor clay soil and it is very difficult to grow anything.    I also had planted purple prairie clover, yellow clover, brown eyed susan, Bush's coneflower, culver's root and red monarda (bee balm - I think that the deer ate this). That garden turned out really well – pictured above. 

August - disappointing growth of the milkweed that were planted from seed.  However the monarch caterpillars LOVED the plants!!!!!!!

A third butterfly garden -- slow milkweed growth but the monarch caterpillars loved it anyway.

I had also bought a large number of wildflower and milkweed seeds for other planned gardens.  We got caught by the early snow and could not clear and plow the areas before winter started and so did not get to put the seeds down in late fall.  I put the milkweed seeds in potting soil and stored them in a refrigerator so that I could plant them in the spring.  I did plant most of the milkweed and some of the wildflower seeds.  I was extremely disappointed in the slow start and slow growth of the milkweed plants (see pictures above).  However, I am still hoping that they will come back in the spring.  I will let you know. 

Even though I was disappointed in the plants the butterflies must have loved them.  I went down to hand weed the crabgrass out of one garden and was surprised in late August to find a caterpillar almost every foot or so.  !!!!!!!! Very happy !!!!!!!!  I only found a few chrysalis, but I did have one side of each garden surrounded by large a large unmowed field, so I hope that this is where they built the chrysalis.  I did see many large monarch butterflies in the ensuing weeks.

 

Chrysalis

Here are some notes and observations:

1.  You must choose an area that you will not mow (at least not after early spring).  You might have to weed by hand – at least make sure that no trees are growing. 

2.  Sometimes the caterpillars go “off the reservation” therefore be careful not to mow them or step on them.  I was mowing next to the butterfly garden earlier in the summer.  After seeing the caterpillars around the garden, I have decided this year to surround the gardens with plants that crowd out weeds/grass and do not need mowing.  I will try variegated mint and regular mint as well as Echinacea.  I hope that the caterpillars aren’t bothered by the mint.  I will report back on this. Butterflies seem to LOVE Echinacea and it grows anywhere for me.

3.  If at all possible, plant the milkweed in the fall (instructions can be found at Prairie Moon Farm website and other places).  Otherwise you must follow the instructions for chilling them before planting.  Note that I do not agree with the use of “nontoxic” chemicals to kill weeds and prepare the bed. 

4.  Plant wildflowers and let wild sedge and other nice wild plants grow with the milkweed.  Try to plant with a density that will allow the wildflower and milkweed to crowd out other plants.  

5.  Don’t step in the garden when you see caterpillars.  They may be everywhere and are difficult to see sometimes.  When the butterflies emerge, do not handle them.  They need time to hang upside down to inflate their wings.

6.  The monarch caterpillar can only feed on milkweed but the butterfly will feed on nectar from many kinds of flowers.  Try to keep as many native wildflowers around as you can manage.

7.  Note that most wildflowers do not bloom the first year.  It may take a few years before the garden looks like a wildflower garden.

Here is a list of the seeds that were ordered last year and a picture of the wildflowers and milkweed plants.

Easy Pickles - Preserve Fresh Cucumbers

Easy Homemade Pickles

These are dill pickles with a hint of sweet.  The end of summer is a good time to buy cucumbers in bulk. Dill is a great herb to have in any garden that has some sun.  It reseeds itself in our garden every year.  The flowers are beautiful and in the late summer can be used for pickles. The small cucumbers are best for use in this recipe, but as long as they are organically grown, the large ones are good to use also.

Ingredients:

• About 3 lbs organic pickling cucumbers sliced into ¼ inch thick slices
• 2 cp organic white vinegar
• 2 cp water
•  2 tbl salt
• 1 ½ tbl organic sugar
• 1 tbl peppercorn, coriander, mustard seed
• 3 or 4 large dill flowers or a bunch of dill
• About 2 cloves garlic cut into slices

Optional – cayenne (added to vinegar mixture) or a little sliced hot pepper in each jar to taste

Combine vinegar, water, salt, sugar and dry spices in a nonreactive saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Meanwhile slice the cucumbers with the skin on into ½ to ¼ inch slices.  Use a very large, very clean glass jar or several small ones.    Place some dill flowers or fresh dill in each jar as well as some garlic.  Place the sliced cucumbers into the jar and poor the hot vinegar solution onto the slices.  After they cool a little cover the jar with a lid and keep refrigerated.

Russian Beet Salad with Boiled Beets, Apple and Potato

Russian Swiss Beet Salad

When you are preparing the beets leave a few out to boil and use them in a fall Russian Beet Salad.  It doesn’t sound good, but make it anyway and you will be surprised.  The salad uses vegetables that are ripe in the fall together and is unusual.  This is also a great recipe to use with Organic Love Beets that are always available – they are cooked and peeled (you can buy them in bulk at Costco). If you don’t want the expensive of buying sour cream, just use a homemade vinaigrette dressing.  This salad is also good using only beets and apples (just use proportionally more).

Use the same amount of beets, potatoes and apples

-        1 part beets (6 medium beets).

-        1 part waxy or salad potatoes (2 large potatoes).

http://www.marthastewart.com/271696/potatoes-101

-        1 part apples (2 large apples).

Dressing:

• -        1 cup of organic sour cream
• -        2 tb organic Apple Cider vinegar (we use Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar).
• -        1 teaspoon organic mustard (we get this at Whole Foods).
• -        ¼ cup of sour pickles or cornichon (we make them in August when organic cucumbers are plentiful).
• -        2 or 3 organic spring onions or ½ small yellow onion.
• -        Sea salt to taste (I used a half teaspoon).

Boil potatoes until tender, boil beets until tender; drain and cool.  Meanwhile, Chop the onions and pickles (fine dice). Combine the onion and vinegar for the dressing.  Let it sit for a minute and then add all of the other ingredients and stir it.   Cut the beets, potatoes and apples into equal sized cubes (we used ½ inch cubes).  Add them to the dressing and stir until combined.  Adjust the salt.

Add the dressing to the cut beet, potato and apple mixture.  Refrigerate if you do not eat it right away.  Serve at room temperature or cold.

Saving the Harvest: Beets

Saving Beets for Winter

We buy beets in bulk in the late summer (for example we can get a 4 qt basket for about 10.00$).  We then slice, blanch and freeze them to roast all winter long.  They can go from the freezer to the oven and be roasted in 1 to 2 hours.  I get them out of the freezer, break them up a little and coat them with organic olive oil and some sea salt.  Then roast them for between 1-2 hours at 350 degrees until at least some are caramelized (a little brown and shriveled).  The longer they roast, the better they taste (but don’t roast them too long and burn them).   I’ve served these beets at dinner parties and have had people ask me how I made them.  Sometimes I think that they don’t believe me when I tell them how simple they are to make.  They are surprisingly good just roasted with good organic olive oil (we get it in bulk at Costco) and sea salt.

Ingredients:

-        Raw organic beets preferable bought in bulk

Prep and Cooking:

Peel the beets.  This is what takes the most time and it is really boring.  Slice them in ¼ to ½ inch slices.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the beets and bring back to a boil for about 3 minutes.  Scoop them with a slotted spoon so that you can keep the boiling water and cook them in smaller batches of about 3 cups each.  Let them cool a little and freeze them in flattened portions. 

If you are too lazy to get out the food processor and clean it afterwards (like me) or don’t have one, you can slice the beets and proceed with the recipe.  I also once added currants (see picture).

Broad Green Beans

Broad Green Beans – The Swiss Way – Christian’s Recipe

This recipe is super simple but very, very good.  The result will surprise you.  The secret is to cook the beans and tomatoes for a long time, reducing the tomato.  It is really easy to grow broad beans – we grow scarlet bee runner beans.  The flowers are pretty enough to use the plant as an ornamental and let it grow up a pergola or wall. Sometimes you can buy organic broad beans at farmers markets or organic farms.  Most people don't know how to cook them, but they are easier to grow and harvest than string beans.  

Ingredients:

-Snap and wash approx. 3.3 lb broad beans (1500 g).

-2 onions

-a few sprigs of winter or summer savory

-approx. 2-3 lbs tomatoes

-2 cloves garlic
-sea salt to taste
-organic olive oil (Costco)

Prep and Cooking:

Dice: 2 onions (0.85 lb or 388 g); sauté in olive oil (and some salt) till translucent. 

Add the beans and the rest of 0.42 oz salt (12 g -- about 2 tsp, depending on the kind of salt).

Stir occasionally.  The beans will release liquid for steaming.

Cut 2.6 lb tomatoes (1183 g) into large chunks; add. 

Add the summer savory – you can just add the entire stem and take the bare stem out after cooking.

Squeeze 3 cloves of garlic (3/4 oz or 21 g) into pan.

Reduce well.  Cooking time: about an hour.

Preserving Summer - Slow Roasted Tomatoes To Use All Winter

PRESERVING SUMMER -  SLOW ROASTED TOMATOES

Buy all of the organic tomatoes you can in the summer from farmer’s markets and farms and slow roast them.  Tomatoes from the supermarket tend to be bland and expensive.  Canned tomatoes may contain BPA.  This method produces a concentrated tomato taste and the tomatoes can then be frozen and turned into spaghetti sauce, chili, or any number of dishes in a short time all winter long.  You can even use cherry tomatoes – they make a very special sweet spaghetti sauce. 

When I use them from the freezer for an easy sauce I just sweat onions, chop the frozen tomatoes quickly and add them to the pan with a few herbs like parsley or rosemary – this takes all of 10 minutes and it will be the best tomato sauce you’ve ever made.  For a fancier sauce add black oil cured olives, a few hot pepper flakes, salt preserved capers and a bit of tuna, canned mackerel, or anchovy from Vital Choice (no BPA in the cans) and cook with the translucent onions for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes and cook for about 6 to 10 minutes.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients:

-        Fresh organic tomatoes (preferably bought in bulk). 

-        Organic olive oil (optional)

Prep and Cooking:

-        Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

-        Plan to roast tomatoes of the same type on each cookie sheet. 

-        First half each tomato then place them all together on a cookie sheet (I use parchment under them).  If desired, sprinkle with organic olive oil.

-        Roast at this low heat until shriveled and slightly caramelized (brown). 

Christian helped me with a few batches and here are his notes:

Cherry
1" diameter.

Cut in half, turn cut side up.  (1.4 lb cover 1 square foot, about 2/3 of a cookie sheet.)  Drizzle with olive oil. --> duration 2 hours.

Plum

3" long, 2"diameter.  Preferably same size; otherwise, take smaller ones out of the oven earlier, when they're done.

Halve lengthwise, cut out stems and rough spots on skin.  Brush cut surface with olive oil (covers them more evenly than drizzling).

--> duration 5 hours.

Ratatouille

RATATOUILLE

Ratatouille is the quintessential summer dish.  Organic squash are easy to find in the farmer’s markets and stores in August as are organic tomatoes and herbs.  If you have a tiny bit of land, the patty pan squash and the herbs used here are easy to grow (especially oregano and Italian parsley). Oregano is very cold tolerant and Italian parsley sometimes reseeds itself. Rosemary is nice to have over the winter in the house and is also good dried. The problem with ratatouille is that unless you somehow separately cook small batches of squash and tomato, the mixture basically turns into soup.  By the time it is reduced you have cooked the squash too long.  Here is my solution.  I layer the ingredients with capers preserved in sea salt – placing herbs on each layer.  I bought a huge bag of the capers - so in the end they were inexpensive and last forever. I then leave the layered dish in the fridge for at least a day, drain the liquid into a sauce pan and cook it separately from the vegetables.  Use any herbs, squash/vegetables and tomatoes that you desire.  This recipe is for a small batch, but  I often make a large batch and then freeze some.  Use my slow roasted tomatoes instead of fresh and you won’t have to buy tomato paste – see my next blog post!!!

Ingredients: 

•           3 medium squash (zucchini, summer squash, etc.)
•           1 large onion
•            4 medium tomatoes
•            less than 1/4 cup sea salt preserved capers
•          2 bunches of herbs (e.g. parsley,  rosemary).
•          2 to 4 tablespoons organic olive oil
•          1/2 to 1 7 oz. glass jar of organic tomato paste
•        1 to 2 cloves crushed garlic

Approximately 1 part onion to 3 parts squash and tomato.  For this recipe I used 3 medium patty pan squash, 1 large onion, and 4 medium tomatoes.  I used less than ¼ cup of capers preserved in sea salt (about a teaspoon per layer) and several bunches of herbs (parsley, oregano, basil, rosemary etc.).  The capers were not organic - I bought them in bulk at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA.  I sometimes use winter squash but cut it thinner (1/8 inch slices) than the summer squash.  One may also use eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, black olives and green beans of course.  One half to one glass container (7 oz.) of organic tomato paste – metal cans may contain BPA and the acidity of the tomatoes may leach out more BPA (see http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130819162639.htm) than other foods.  Organic olive oil for cooking the squash/tomato/onion mixture (I use organic olive oil from Costco).  Organic garlic – one or two cloves.

Prep and Cooking:
- Cut the squash into ¼ inch slices, and slice the onions into 1/8 to ¼ inch slices – if onions are large then cut them into half or quarters before slicing. 

-Place a layer of onion and tomato in a nonreactive casserole dish or bowl, then place either salt or salted capers (less than a teaspoon of capers on each layer).


 -Place herbs on top, place a  layer of squash on top of the capers and herbs and put  another layer of capers and herbs, then onion, tomato,  capers and herbs, and so on until the dish is full. 

- Place a lid or wrap on top of the bowl and refrigerate for at least a day. I use a layer of parchment paper and a small plate on top.


- The next day drain the liquid into a saucepan, bring to a simmer, add crushed garlic and reduce it for 3 minutes.  Add ½ to 1 glass jar of organic tomato paste.

- Sauté the vegetables in batches on medium high heat using a little olive oil until they are almost cooked (almost translucent and until some are caramelized).   I cooked these in 2 batches.  Adjust the salt.

About Saving Dragonfiles

ON SAVING DRAGONFLIES – This blog is my attempt to communicate what I’ve learned while trying to eat sustainable organic and local food.   

I never thought much about how food was grown until I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.  It changed my life and how I think about food.  His books and subsequent reading made me angry – about what they do to food these days.  It just seems to lack common sense.

Organic Food Around Cambridge - Boston in the Summer:  We would often visit Hutchins Farm in Concord, MA on the weekend after walking at Punkatasset and Saw Mill Brook or Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.  Hutchins is exceptional in its abundance and diversity of organic produce.  Another great place to get organic produce is the Blue Heron Farm in Lincoln.  It is a beautiful place and not very far from Boston. Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge carries some really interesting organic vegetables and fruits. Cambridge and Boston both have Whole Food and Trader Joe’s markets. 

Organic Food Around Franklin, PA in the Summer:  I grew up here.  The farmer’s market, especially on Saturday has some great produce.  You must ask if they use fertilizers and pesticides – here people do not generally get certified because of the expense and paperwork.   My favorite vendor in Franklin is the Bend Farm.  This farm was started by a chef and his wife -- they have fabulous produce and sometimes sell organic olive oil and chicken.  They also sometimes have wild chanterelle mushrooms.  There is a stand every other week - Robyn’s Nest - where an artist sells small hand painted objects but also sells wild produce (like ramps) and jams made from wild berries.  I bought wild dandelion glaze and wild violet jam from her --- we just love her stand. Chatley’s Greenhouse claims to not use pesticides and they have beautiful produce.  The owner gave me a chestnut tree for free once.  I ask the farmers how they grow things and have on occasion had them save me some produce that they grew without chemicals even if most of their produce was grown conventionally.  My family buys beef in bulk from a certified organic farm, Ron Gargasz Organic Farms.   Ron Gargasz is an organic chemist and also taught at a local college as a key member in founding a Sustainable Systems graduate program.   If you ever visit his farm, you will see that his whole way of life is literally built on the principle of sustainability.