This year I discovered rose hips and I have totally fallen for them! They are super packed full of Vitamin C, but not so tasty, so I made an infusion with them to add to my elderberry syrup this year. For those of you that don’t know, rose hips are the fruit that forms at the flower of a rose if you do not cut it, but let it fall off. I have found the wild roses to have bigger, redder hips than those cultivated for flowering. But as Mark and I were out freezing our fingertips off and barely feeling the multitude of cuts from the wild rose thorns (the kids had enough after about 3 minutes and watched from the car), I thought how beautiful this fruit is and there has to be another use for them. A more aesthetic use for them. I immediately thought they would be a great substitute for cranberry garlands. Each year all the “green” blogs, magazines, news, etc. suggest making cranberry garlands as a green alternative for decorations. I never could get myself to do this because 1) it’s rather expensive if you have to buy them and 2) cranberries are so go to eat, it seems a shame to waste them. But harvesting wild rose hips for a garland, now that I can get behind. Unfortunately I will have to wait until next year because I already used all my rosehips for elderberry syrup and the freezing temperatures  have ruined the rest here in Idaho. But for those of you who live in milder climates, you probably can still get some beautiful red rose hips for your garlands. If you try it, let me know what you think! (Note: Rose hips are really tough, so you will need a big embroidery needle.)

Some of our other favorite Natural Decorations include:

• popcorn garlands
• silver twig decorations from What Shall We Do Today?
• felt ornaments (a nice thick wool felt holds it’s shape best)
• pine cuttings and cinnamon sticks used almost frivolously though out the house
• citrus pomanders (here are directions if you want, but we just usually stick cloves into oranges)
• gold tipped pinecones (I like getting those cinnamon pinecones each year, I save them to use as crafts the next year)

Read more:http://www.brainyquote.com/

• The average American throws away 1,600 pounds of trash each year. That’s 4.4 pounds every day!
• Americans make enough plastic every year to shrink-wrap Texas.
• 600 plastic bags are thrown away every second in California.
• Each year, more than 1 million sea birds and 100 thousand marine mammals die from plastic materials like bags from the grocery store.
• Composting is nature’s way of recycling leftover food into nutritious soil that saves space in landfills and helps prevent global warming.
• It takes 18 years for one corn cob to decompose in a landfill, but only a couple of months in a compost pile!  When food is composted, it breaks down much faster and recycles itself into new life instead of sitting trapped in the landfill for many, many years.

We did run into a little poison oak, but that was easily avoided. I think Bill and I were the only ones close enough to maybe get some on our clothes, and we didn’t have any problems. But it was a good lesson in identifying it, especially since it was still all nice and green with no tell tale reddish leaves. Poison Oak spreads it’s toxin through an oil it excretes. These oils spread easier when in heat, sweat, hot water or steam. But because it is an oil, it does not easily come of with soap and water. For those of you who are not used to dealing with poison oak here are a few basic tips:

1. Take off all your clothes and bath in cold water immediately after exposure. (never warm or hot)
2. While bathing rinse any areas you think might be exposed in rubbing alcohol. Then rinse again with soap and water.
3. Keep all these clothes separate from others and prewash usng rubbing alcohol. (You may want to make sure it will not bleach your clothes, but I haven’t had any problems.) Then follow with a regular wash.

Following these basic steps we have never had an out break in our family. But enough about poison oak, we saw so many other beautiful things. Like the Sacramento River in the morning, red tail hawks soaring, great egrets, wild roses, jack rabbits, not to mention the elderberries! It was a beautiful and productive morning! I am very greatfull to Bill and Wildlands for all their help with this field trip.

I always freeze the berries immediately when get home, they are so much easier to get off the stems when frozen. This time I laid them on cookie sheets and before placing them in the freezer. This made it easier because the did not get tangled in one another.

Then I took them out one cookie sheet at a time and shook the berries off. It worked very well. I rinsed them a few times in a bowl of ice water to clean them. I like to try to keep the berries cold, so they are less likely to pop and let some of the juice leak out. I think next year, I might try washing them while on the stems and before freezing them. I am still experimenting with the best way to wash them with out loosing the juice. Even so, I still had plenty of juicy berries left.

Next I place them all in a large pot with just enough water to cover them all. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

I then juice the berries in batches. I place a layer of cheesecloth in a strainer and them mash the berries in the strainer and collect the juice in a bowl below. I them place the remaining pulp in a bag before throwing away. (It doesn’t have the most pleasant smell).

This time I then poured the juice into ice cube trays to freeze it. After they are all frozen, I transfered them to a freezer bag. That way, I can take out what I need through out the year to make the syrup.

Recipes on the next page…

Elderberry Syrup

1. Boil 3 cups of elderberry juice with 15 whole cloves for 10 minutes. Optional: I also add 1 cup raspberry or dark cherry juice (unsweetened).
2. After the 10 minutes, you can choose to remove the cloves, or leave them in the syrup.
3. Take off the heat and add 1 cup honey and 1 cup sugar. Many recipes call for twice the amount of sugar, so you can add sugar until desired taste, but remember it will taste sweeter as it cools. I like using half local honey because consuming local honey can help build the immune system.
4. I place the syrup in jars (makes 6-7 cups) and can using a water bath method (bath 10 minutes).
5. Let cool completely before storing the well sealed jars in a cool dark place until opened. Once opened store in the fridge.

Since I already had enough syrup right now, I set aside 1.5 cups of elderberry juice to experiment with elderberry jelly. I liked it, so here is the recipe…

Spiced Elderberry-Cherry Jelly

1. Boil 1.5 cups of elderberry juice, 1/2 cup unsweetened, dark cherry juice, and the juice of 1/2 a lemon with 3 whole cloves, 2 whole all spice, and 1 cinnamon stick for 10 minutes.
2. While the juice is boiling, mix in a separate bowl 1/2 cup honey with 2 t pectin powder (use the amount as specified on your pectin package).
3. At this point, remove the spices and add 2 t calcium water (use the amount as specified on your pectin package).
4. Take off the heat and add the honey/pectin mixture and 1/2 cup sugar. Return to a boil.
5. I place the jelly in 1 cup (2-3) jars and can using a water bath method (bath 10 minutes).
6. Let cool completely before storing in well sealed jars in a cool dark place until opened. Once opened store in the fridge.

Let me know what you think and if you have a few recipes of your own!

Here is the basic information for or field trip:

• We will meet at their elderberry mitigation site Tuesday, July 27 in the morning at 10:00 AM. For those of you who sign up, I will email you the directions this weekend. I would allow yourself 45 minutes from downtown Sacramento to get there.
• We will first be given a guided tour of the elderberry mitigation site as one large group.
• Then we will proceed to a riparian area adjacent to a levee where we will harvest the elderberries.
• The children and I will stay at the riparian area at base of the levee and explore while the adults harvest.
• Then we will all leave together.

What to bring:

• Water, Water, and Water.
• Sunscreen and Hats
• Snacks
• Thick plastic bags or a few plastic shopping bags (the stems can poke holes in the thinner bags)
• Shears or scissors

I would recommend everything you bring fit into a backpack or something you can wear and keep your hands free. Also the same for infants. There will not be a good place for them to be on the ground, so I would recommend packing them too!

I am very excited about this opportunity and grateful to Wildlands for their generosity. For more information about elderberries, please see my previous post: Come with Me to the Harvest.

Stone Fruit Crisp

Ingredients for the topping:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 Tbsp Turbano sugar
• 6 oz cold butter, cubed
• 1/4-1/2 cup crystalized ginger, chopped

Ingredients for the filling:

• 4.5 pound cherries, peaches, and apricots, pitted and chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Turbano sugar
• 1/4 cup flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a food processor, combine the 1 and 1/2 cup of flour and sugar. Add the cold butter until the mixture looks like wet sand. It should still crumble. You may need to scrape down the sides a few times. Add more flour if the mixture is too pasty.
3. Take the topping mixture out of the processor and mix in the chopped crystalized ginger with your hands. Try not to over kneed the mixture, keep it light. Set aside.
4. Combine all the fruit in a bowl and mix in the sugar and flour. Let stand until gets moist.
5. Put the mixture in to two sprayed 9×9 casserole dishes.
6. Sprinkle the topping mixture evenly over the top of both dishes.
7. Put in the oven for about 35-40 minutes or until the sides are bubbling with thick juice.
8. Let sit 5-10 minutes before serving, while still warm.

Note: Claire got a little over zealous with the topping and I think I did not have enough butter to flour ratio, so the top was not browning. After I thought they were cooked enough, I placed the oven on broil and set them on the bottom rack, just to brown the tops a little.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th!

[amazon-product text="The Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" type="text"]0143038583[/amazon-product], I (Mark) became very interested in meat.  I wanted to know how to get the highest-quality chicken, beef, and pork locally.  So I started out by creating a spreadsheet (yes, I’m an engineer) that listed all the locally available meat vendors and ranchers in the Sacramento area.  The “meat matrix” is divided into two categories – Grass Fed meats and Grain Finished meats that received no antibiotics, no animal proteins, and non-GMO corn.  I then sorted each meat vendor by how many miles from downtown Sacramento so I could see how things stacked up from a local perspective.  I really enjoyed investigating all the options available while creating and populating the meat matrix because it became a great learning tool.  I talked to a lot of butchers, ranchers, grocery-store workers, restaurant chefs, and farmer’s market vendors about a whole range of topics.  “What do you do if your cow get’s sick?”  “How do you kill your chickens?”  “Is your steer grain-finished or grass-finished?”

So it became obvious really quickly that the best sources of the most responsible grain-fed beef and pork came from our local farmer’s market and co-op.  But the biggest challenge was finding a local supplier of grass-fed beef.  I checked some websites such as www.eatwellguide.org, and www.livingharvest.org, and came across one rancher in El Dorado (about 45 minutes east of Sacramento, on your way to Tahoe) called Forni Ranch.  We emailed back and forth, and they seemed like the real deal right off the bat.

Here is their story (from their info sheet):

“Forni Ranch in El Dorado County reflects four generations of commitment to quality beef and sustainable land management.  Our beef is what is known as “grass fed”.  That means our animals are not confined in a feedlot; they range on foothill pasture.  Nor are they subjected to the use of steroids or hormones.  For you, the consumer, that means the flavor of the beef you purchase will be slightly different than what you’re used to.  It also means you will be buying fresh, locally produced food.”

And here is what they say about their cost:

“Three costs are involved in the purchase of Forni Meat.  The cost of half an animal runs approximately $425 – $450, depending on the size of the animal.  This is paid directly to Forni Ranch when the animal is taken to the butcher.  A flat fee, known as a kill charge, is paid directly to the butcher – approximately $65 for a half animal.  The butcher also receives approximately 80 cents per pound of hanging weight for cutting, wrapping and freezing your meat.”

I had to get some of this grass-fed stuff!  I can’t be sure I have ever eaten grass-fed beef, all I know is that it is very expensive when you go to Whole Foods (usually costs about $8/lb just for the ground beef!), but cutting out the middle man brought down the price for half a cow to around $5/lb.  Now when you purchase half a cow, you are looking at about 140 lbs of meat, and our family would take about a year to go through it all.  So we talked to some of our friends in Sacramento, and it didn’t take long to find three other families that wanted to share our half a cow.

In April I emailed Forni Ranch requesting our half a cow, mailed the $100 deposit, and waited.  And waited.   During all that waiting, I thought it might be fun to visit the ranch, and see the cows with our own eyes.  Hey, it can’t hurt to ask.  I guess I was a bit surprised when the Forni’s said yes, I wasn’t sure they would be up for it.  So during one weekend in May, Bill (my father-in-law) and I took the kids on a trip to the Ranch.

I have to say it was well worth it!  The kids had a blast – they took us on a hay ride through their 400 beautiful acres in El Dorado, California, and we got a chance to feed the cows, walk around some marshes, and even catch some frogs (the kids favorite activity).  Toni and George Forni were class-acts, very friendly and so awesome to spend so much time with us.

And then a week later, I received a call from the butcher.  He asked me about thickness of cuts (we went with 1”), size of packages (two steaks in each package, one pound of ground beef in each package), and went through a selection of cuts to see which cuts into ground beef.  Our group of families wanted about half steaks, and half ground beef, so we converted the all of the roasts (rump, chuck, cross rib) to ground beef.   Here is a breakdown of our 135 pounds of beef:

Steaks: top round, T-bone, Porterhouse, Filet, Tri-tip, Sirlion, Flank, and Prime Rib

Other: ground beef, stew meat, liver and bones (for soups).

About two weeks later, the butcher called to say that our beef was cut, wrapped, and ready for pickup.  So the next day Kate drove out to Castle Meats in Shingle Springs, picked up the meat, and then the four families met for a “meat-swap”. The butcher’s facility was actually beautiful, clean, and friendly. Now our family has about 33 pounds of various cuts of beef in our freezer, that should take us through the summer.

I really have enjoyed working with a local rancher that can be our new source of beef, and I hope that our friends want to keep sharing a half of a cow in the future.  If you live in Sacramento and are interested, contact Forni Ranch directly. They may still have some left this year.

Now for a local source of pastured poultry!

We really enjoyed the market I think because there was a real sense of comminity. Since they are just kicking off this farmer’s market, there were only a handful of vendor’s but they all looked great. I picked up snap peas (1 lb.), strawberries (3 baskets), spring onions, and baby bok choy, all for $13. We are having stir fry tomorrow and the “strawberry monster” (aka: Ross) is lurking around the house. The kids came away with all kinds of loot: balloons, reusable shopping bags, key chains, balloon squirrel and balloon machine gun. And I even got a treat! They were selling those beautiful large elephant grass baskets from Guyana and all proceeds go to supporting the Oak Park Famer’s Market. How could I resist? And it seems I was not the only one, everyone I saw had one. I hope this is just the beginning of a great Market for Oak Park.

After doing our shopping, we went across the street to Old Soul Co. I have been wanting to go there since they opened, but it’s a little off my beaten path for a coffee pit stop. The place was buzzing with people who had been to the Oak Park Farmer’s Market. Adults were visiting, kids were playing, and the baristas were hopping. On the way in we say Mayor Kevin Johnson, so Mark took the opportunity to introduce the kids. I tried their homemade Chai with soy milk and it was delicious! I think the Oak Park Farmer’s Market and Old Soul will definitely become part of our regular routine!

The best bed we have for vegetables is a 24×3 foot bed that is on the north side of the lot against the garage. This is were I will plant the heirloom tomatoes (two brandywine and two sun gold cherries). We saved seeds from last years sun gold cherries and will start them this weekend. We are a little behind to start seeds, but the growing season is very long here in Sacramento, so I am hoping for the best.  I think this year I will also try a boarder of carrots in this bed. We’ll sow the carrot seeds and tomato starts in mid-April after we get back from Idaho for Easter break.  After the carrots are mature and harvested, I plan on putting in an herb or flower boarder. I haven’t  decide what exactly.

The next sunniest box is a small 3×6 foot raised bed. The kids and I planted strawberries with a garlic boarder. It is very late to be planting  both of these, so we got starts at the nursery and hoping for the best. If you are even going to attempt strawberries this time of year, definitely get started plants and the everbearing varieties will work the best.

The medium sized bed is just west and behind the small bed. It’s 2.5×10 feet long and only gets a few hours (2 or so) of sun per day right now. We planted it right now with lettuce, kale, and parsley with an onion boarder. We are hoping this will produce until it starts to get hotter (June ) and then it will be replaced with cucumber plants.

The largest bed, 12X3 feet, and is farthest west and backed by our fence. Right now only half the bed gets light and so we are only planting half of it with peas and more kale. I still have some onion starts that I could use as a boarder. Come June/July we will replace these crops with beans and zucchini.

I will plant herbs all summer as I find open spaces with enough light and I always plant mint in a container. As it can easily get out of control. I try to buy heirloom and/or organic varieties of all our vegetables, but it’s not always possible to find. It’ easiest to find heirloom seeds through catalogues or groups that collect and share seeds. I am relatively new to this and luckily our local nursery carries quite a few. Here is a blog about Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They are one of the largest heirloom seed catalogues out there.

The best advice I can give you is to know your site. Know the amount and what kind of light it gets. The type of soil, sandy or clay. If you live in the Sacramento area chances are you have a clay soil, that will take some time working with lighter soils, compost, and mulch. Also, this year we have tried something new for mulch. You may have read our previous blog about using coffee chaff in the chicken coop. I also used it as a mulch around our newly planted veggies. I have read that coffee may help to deter slugs and I had a garbage can full of chaff, so I tried it. I’ll let you know if it works. I also found this great website (CLICK HERE) that gives you the best times to plant fruits/vegetables in the Sacramento area.

I wish you all a wonderful and bountiful Spring!

]]> http://naturalmomhealthychild.com/urban-farming-on-your-marks-set-go/feed/ 2 http://naturalmomhealthychild.com/kids-in-the-kitchen-breakfast-for-dinner/ http://naturalmomhealthychild.com/kids-in-the-kitchen-breakfast-for-dinner/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:37:34 +0000 admin http://naturalmomhealthychild.com/?p=925 So this last Sunday we have a breakfast themed family dinner. I got the idea because our neighbor brought over a huge bag of oranges from their tree and I new we would never eat them all before they went bad. So I thought we should make orange juice. Also, Claire has been struggling with [...]]]> So this last Sunday we have a breakfast themed family dinner. I got the idea because our neighbor brought over a huge bag of oranges from their tree and I new we would never eat them all before they went bad. So I thought we should make orange juice. Also, Claire has been struggling with the family dinners because she doesn’t like any of the food. So I thought she would find pancakes refreshing.

So the menu was fresh squeezed orange juice, chicken apple sausage (Claire took her obligatory bites), eggs (for Mark and Ross), and pancakes. Everyone seemed to enjoy the dinner very much. I think it was the most successful as far as everyone eating.

Here is my favorite pancake recipe. I use half whole grain spelt flour and half white spelt flour. My favorite gluten free mix is Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Pancake Mix. I follow the recipes with a few exception: I add 2 TBSP of yogurt (coconut milk yogurt for us, but any kind will work) instead of the oil and only add 1 cup of hempmilk initially. Then add more until desired consistency. I find that using the oil gets them too crispy.

Here’s my recipe for Spelt Pancakes:

Dry Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup whole spelt flour
• 3/4 white spelt flour (I find if I use all whole grain, they are too heavy)
• 2 tspn baking powder
• 1/2 tspn salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 2 TBSP applesauce (I like to use my recipe contrived from my mother-in-laws)
• 1 TBSP melted Soy Free Earth Balance (can use butter)
• 1 large egg
• 1 – 1.5 cup hempmilk (or any kind of milk)
• 2 TBSP honey (optional – I would not use if the applesauce is sweetened)
• 1 tspn vanilla (optional)

Pre heat skillet on medium heat. Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk all the wet ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients to the dry and combine, whisking gently. Add additional hempmilk (or milk) until desired consistency. Pour batter on the skilled with large spoon or ladle. When the entire pancake has bubbles and the outside bubbles have begun to pop, flip the pancake (my dad’s old trick). Cook on second size one or two minutes. Serve hot.

Enjoy!