Busy Busy Busy
It’s been a busy week around here. Since we’re celebrating Christmas tomorrow with my family I have to make sure all of my gifts for our “homemade Christmas” are finished. I finished a lot of them last week, except for my little nephew’s gift. He requested a superhero cape this year for Christmas. Since I’m the crafty aunt, my sister asked if I’d be willing to make one for him. I made one on Thursday (photos to come on Monday, I don’t want to give it away), I think it’s the best handmade gift I’ve ever made.
The kitchen is a flurry of activity with several batches of dinner rolls and some sourdough bread being made.
I also made some lemon marmalade with some of those Meyer Lemons I have. I’ll be giving some of this away as gifts, of course some will stay here for us to enjoy on toast (and maybe those dinner rolls on Sunday).
Mr Chiots learned to knit just for our gift to our nieces. He spent yesterday afternoon finishing up his contribution to the gift. They’re going to be thrilled that he actually made these for them! I had to take some photos so they’d believe it. (I’ll share those next week as well, can’t give away the gifts)
I wrapped up the last of the gifts last night and we’re all ready for our family holiday. It’s nice to be finished so early, I’ll be able to relax next week. All I have on my Christmas to-do list is to make caramel corn for the friendly library ladies and the post office workers. Oh yeah – and our awesome UPS man.
Are you all finished with holiday shopping, gift making, cooking, or are you going to be busy, busy, busy this coming week?
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How to Tell if Your Sauerkraut is Finished
I blogged over at Not Dabbling yesterday about how to tell if that sauerkraut you started a while ago is finished. There were a few questions from readers about how to know. I thought perhaps some of you would have the same question, so I figured I’d share the information here as well.
After 2-4 weeks, depending on the temp, you should notice that your kraut is no longer bubbling, or is bubbling much less than it was. I usually notice that the brine starts going down instead of spilling over after 3-4 weeks. The warmer it is, the quicker your sauerkraut will finish fermenting (at 70-80 it will take 2-3 weeks at 60 it will take 4-6 weeks). Mine was finished a week or two ago, and I started mine on October 28, it took about 4 weeks to finish fermenting. You will also notice that your sauerkraut become kind of clear, or loses it’s whiteness.
Another way to decide if your sauerkraut is finished is by smell. If you don’t have a good sense of what sauerkraut smells like, buy some and smell it. Warm it a bit on the stove and the smell will become more pronounced. It smells pleasantly sour almost vinegary. You don’t want it to smell “off” or moldy.
Don’t be alarmed if some mold or scum forms on top of your kraut while it’s fermenting. Just skim it off and add some more brine. If your brine level gets low and some of the top layer of cabbage gets moldy, simply skim off that cabbage and add more brine (1 or 1.5 T. of salt for 1 quart of water for extra brine).
When your sauerkraut is finished, simply take out the jar/bag that you’re using to weigh it down, top off with brine, throw a lid on it and put it in the fridge or in your cool root cellar. Use 1 or 1.5 T. of salt for 1 quart of water for extra brine (if using kosher use more, if fine salt use less).
You can can it if you’re worried about the coolness of your root cellar or don’t have room in the fridge (to can process in a waterbath canner for 15 minutes). If you can it you kill all the good bacteria though, so it won’t be a good source of probiotics. I like my sauerkraut cooked, so I occasionally can it. Sometimes, however I just lid the jar and put it in the basement.
Do you have any great tips to know when you’re fermented products are finished?
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Say NO to GM Vegetables
Last year I started paying particular attention the seeds I ordered. I have been trying to buy heirloom seeds from small seed houses that aren’t tied to Monsanto. With the introduction of a new GM eggplant earlier this year and questions by a lot of readers I thought we could talk a little about genetically modified seeds.
One hundred fifty years ago the United States didn’t have a commercial seed industry; today we have the world’s largest. Whichever catalog you order from (of the big companies), you’re probably getting the same seed as people who order from the other companies. Virtually every large mail-order garden company in the United States uses a seed broker to supply them with seeds. These broker’s find seeds at a low price then they contract with competing umbrella corporations, selling the same seed to everyone.
With the purchase of Seminis in 1995, Monsanto is now estimated to control between 85-90% of the U.S. nursery market (this includes pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers). By buying up the competition and lobbying the government to make saving seeds illegal, Monsanto has slowly been taking over all of the seeds. I don’t know about you, but from what I’ve heard about how Monsanto terrorized farmers I don’t really want them controlling all the seeds, especially the ones for the things I’d like to grow in my backyard!
It is estimated that Seminis controls 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market and 20 percent of the world market—supplying the genetics for 55 percent of the lettuce on U.S. supermarket shelves, 75 percent of the tomatoes, and 85 percent of the peppers, with strong holdings in beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and peas. The company’s biggest revenue source comes from tomato and peppers seeds, followed by cucumbers and beans.
In large part, these numbers reflect usage of Seminis varieties within large industrial production geared towards supermarkets, but Seminis seeds are also widely used by regional conventional and organic farmers as well as market and home gardeners. Johnny’s, Territorial, Fedco, Nichol’s, Rupp, Osborne, Snow, and Stokes are among the dozens of commercial and garden seed catalogs that carry the more than 3,500 varieties that comprise Seminis’ offerings. This includes dozens of All-American Selections and an increasing number of varieties licensed to third parties for certified organic seed production.
The brand-name companies under Seminis (such as Petoseed) have developed, released, produced and distributed varieties common to the market farmer and even home gardener. These include Big Beef, Sweet Baby Girl and Early Girl Tomatoes; Simpsons Elite and Red Sails Lettuces; Red Knight and King Arthur Peppers; Gold Rush and Blackjack Zucchinis; Stars & Stripes Melon; and Bush Delicata and Early Butternut squashes. (Rodale Institute)
What does this mean for us as gardeners and consumers? This means we’re losing our choices of what we want to buy and grow. Thousands of varieties are disappearing. In 1981 there were approximately 5,000 varieties of vegetable seeds to choose from in U.S. catalogs, today there are less than 500. For someone like me that’s very sad. I love to grow the weird interesting things that are difficult to find.
So what are we supposed to do? Just because you buy seeds from places that offer non-GMO seeds, this doesn’t mean that Monsanto doesn’t own the rights to some of the seeds they sell. Buying organic doesn’t help you in this situation either. Here are a few of the varieties they own:
Beans: EZ Gold, Eureka, Goldrush, Kentucky King, Lynx, Bush Blue Lake 94
Carrot: Nutri-Red, Sweet Sunshine, Karina, Chantenay #1, Chantilly, Lariat
Cucumber: Dasher II, Daytona, Turbo, Speedway, Sweet Slice, Yellow Submarine, Sweeter Yet
Lettuce: Esmeralda, Lolla Rossa (and derivatives), Red Sails, Red Tide, Blackjack, Summer time, Monet, Baby Star, Red Butterworth
Melons: Alaska, Bush Whopper, Casablanca, Dixie Jumbo, Early Crisp
Onion: Arsenal, Hamlet, Red Zeppelin, Mars, Superstar, Candy
Peppers: Valencia, Camelot, King Arthur, Red Knight, Aristotle, Northstar, Biscane, Caribbean Red, Serrano del Sol, Early Sunsation, Fat and Sassy
Spinach: Melody, Unipack 151Spinach, Bolero, Cypress
Squash: Autumn Delight, Bush Delicata (producer-vendor), Really Big Butternut, Early Butternut, Buckskin Pumpkin (AAS), Seneca Autumn, Table ace
Tomato: Big Beef, Beefmaster, First Lady I and II, Early Girl, Pink Girl, Golden Girl, Sunguard, Sun Chief Sweet, Baby Girl, Sweet Million
Watermelon: Royal Flush, Royal Star (pet), Stargazer, Starbright, Stars and Stripes, Yellow doll, Tiger
Zucchini/Summer Squash: Blackjack, Daisy, Fancycrook, Sunny Delight, Lolita, Sungreen
So what do we do if we don’t want to grow GM vebetables, or support Monsanto and their bullying? We can buy open pollinated heirloom seeds from places like Freedom Seeds, Seed Savers, Sustainable Seed Company and Baker Creek (along with other places, if you have good seed houses make sure you list them in the comments and I’ll start a resources section that lists them all). Some small seed houses offer both kinds of seeds. I was chatting with Renee of Renee’s Garden and she explained to me why they still carry some seeds owned by Monsanto:
There are many excellent hybrids that were bred in the 60s and 70s that many organic farmers and small-scale farmers use routinely…. (for example it’s hard to beat Early Girl and Big Beef for wide adaptability all over the country, good flavor and, very importantly for gardeners in the hot and humid areas, excellent disease resistance ) Unfortunately, with all this controversy floating about, sometimes home gardeners don’t realize that hybrids has nothing at all to do with genetic engineering, which is a very different thing.
For my seed company, I pay the most attention to what does best in home gardens; so I sell many open pollinated varieties, lots of heirlooms, and also some excellent hybrids. A lot of the hybrids I sell are from Europe where flavor and wide adaptability are important considerations. We trial our varieties for several seasons before I introduce them and I
write my own packet backs based on our growing experience and we have also trial gardens in Vermont Seattle in Florida so we can be assured things will grow well all over before we introduce them.
I think she raises a great point, hybrids aren’t genetically engineered. Some hybrids are very valuable for commercial organic growing and can be very benficial for home gardeners, especially if you struggle with a specific pest or disease. You may need to grow a hybrid if you want to grow a specific vegetable in your climate.
I’m not necessarily against growing hybrids, although I think they’re a symptom of the loss of regional seeds. Long ago people grew seeds and traded with neighbors. Each area had seeds that did well in their climate and could fight off diseases and pests specific to their area of the country. Sadly, we’ve lost the treasure of regional seeds and with them a lot of regional gardening wisdom. We no longer have neighbors we can get local seeds from or talk to about which kind of cucumber does best in our climate. We’re left to guess by what looks good in the seed catalogs, sometimes they work beautifully, sometimes they fail miserably. Occasionally, we stumble upon an old timer that still grows old varieties and can tell us about them (check your local farmer’s markets).
This is one of those areas I haven’t fully made up my mind about yet. On one hand I can see the benefits of hybrids, on the other I really hate supporting Monsanto in any way at all, even if it is by only buying 1-2 packets of their seeds. I’m sure with enough trial and error I could find a viable open pollinated option for just about any vegetable I grow. I’ll keep using up the hybrid seeds that I have, but I’ll slowly phase them out. I really want to grow only seeds open pollinated seeds that I can save seeds from if I’d like to. Since I am in the place where I don’t “need” to grow my own food, I am able to experiment with varieties and experience loss. I realize some market gardeners and growers aren’t in this position. I also want to support open pollinated seeds because I want to ensure their survival. Sure, I don’t want ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes to be lost for all those that love them, but my ‘Cold Set’ performed beautifully for me here in my cold climate and I’ll keep growing them instead.
What about you, where do you stand on this issue? Do you have any great recommendations for small seed houses that aren’t owned/operated by large companies? Any great companies that specialize in open pollinated heirloom varieties?
A few good articles for more reading on this topic:
- Countryside: The gardening game. Do you know where your seeds come from? You may be surprised… By Jerri Cook, Wisconsin
- Rodale Institute: Monsanto buys Seminis. The biggest player in biotech is now the largest seed company in the world following a purchase worth a cool billion. By Matthew Dillon
- Organic Consumers Association: Monsanto Agrees to Buy De Ruiter Seeds from Yahoo
- Path to Freedom: Attack of the GM Veggies
- Rodale Institute: The Shift from Public to Private Seed Systems by Matthew Dillon
- The Seeds of Vegetable Diversity by Sidney Cruze
- Organic Seed Alliance
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The First Seed Catalog
I got my first seed catalog in the mail yesterday. I know a few bloggers have already talked about getting seed catalogs, like Chicago Mike and his Seed Savers book a couple weeks ago. It was from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Baker Creek offers 1400 heirloom varieties. They offer open-pollinated seeds: pure, natural & non-GMO! Started in 1998 by Jere Gettle, as a means to preserve heirloom seeds.
It’s awfully exciting. I flipped through it quickly, but I had a lot going on so I didn’t have time to read through it. I’ll be looking through it over and over I’m sure in the coming weeks, folding pages that contain interesting veggies. I ordered most of my seeds from Baker Creek this past year and I’ll be ordering some this year as well.
Have you received your first seed catalog yet? Are you eagerly anticipating a certain one?
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I Love Nativity Sets
I’m a big fan of nativity sets. I’ve always wanted to collect interesting ones from around the world. I only have 3 right now, but I’m sure I’ll acquire more throughout my lifetime. Mr Chiots and I bought our first nativity set on our honeymoon. We went to Seattle and while at Pike’s Place Market we saw this lovely little set made out of volcanic ash from Mt. Saint Helen’s.
It’s an interesting set not because it’s made out of volcanic ash, but because one of the characters is the little drummer boy!
The second nativity set I got a gift from “our pets” although I think Mr Chiots had a hand in it. Each year I’m given a few more pieces to this wonderful set. It lives atop our TV cabinet throughout the season with some lights behind it.
My newest nativity is a family set. My parents purchased this set in Cartagena, Colombia while we were there on vacation (since I grew up in Colombia that was the usual vacation destination). It’s a wonderfully interesting set, I think it was modeled after the art of the famous Colombian artist Fernando Botero. It’s handmade of clay and has such interesting metallic accents. I have fond memories of this always being out at home and I was thrilled when my mom gave it to me for Christmas last year.
My favorite pieces in this set are the animals, particularly the little fat sheep with their curls. I really love this one because it’s from the country I was born and raised in. It reminds me of Colombia when I look at it.
I always look for nativity sets when we’re traveling, they’re not your typical touristy item though, so they’re difficult to find. Especially interesting and unique ones. I don’t mind though, I don’t want to have 50 sets, just a few that I really love. There are some beautifully interesting nativity sets over at Etsy.com.
Do you have a nativity displayed in your home during the holidays?
