Bringing In The Harvest

So since we moved into our little home, I've been obsessed with gardening. Not just my own little Eden, but growing things in general. I guess it's the next step in embracing the pioneer lifestyle. When D wanted to move out west, we packed up our little Hondas and, with our fathers along for the ride, we were a modern day wagon train of sorts. We even had the cats with us - like modern day oxen! Except, they don't haul anything or make themselves useful in any way.



Cute though.

I got very into making things for our new homestead. I always loved making things, but now, after nursing school and wedding plans were a thing of the past, I could craft in full force. I refinished furniture, made plant hangers, embroidered linens, knit like a fiend. And I planned how I would start my little garden, own chickens and alpacas, spin yarn and collect eggs in a hand woven basket.

Little by little, I achieve these goals. My garden is wonderful. However, I get a little sad when I read about other people's gardens and how they are pickling and canning and freezing and dehydrating. Have you seen this woman?



Check out her vids at www.maryjanesfarm.org

So I picked up her mag at my grocery store after a recommend. I like her. In a lot of ways I agree with her. She ties on that apron and insulates her house and if the world ended tomorrow, she'd have enough dehydrated lentil soup to feed her town for several months. That's just great. But what about MY dehydrated lentil soup? What about Denver? How will I feed Denver?

**At this point I take a few deep breaths and say out loud "baby steps, now. Remember - baby steps make a garden, baby steps will make a harvest... things go
slow..."**

And if you are like me and read Mary Jane's Farm, you know that for the farm girls who harvest only 1 cucumber (and it was a nice cucumber) MJ's sells her food or you can shell out more clams to go to her farm in Idaho and pick apples or whatever.

In MJ's mag, it seems like a consolation prize. Like saying "Well, tough tushies. Try again next year." And I would if it wasn't for this publication I stumbled upon:



I love this mag. I LOVE IT!!!!!!! Sorry for all you guys that live at sea level! This mag tells it like it is for up high altitude folk. And how it is includes:

1) It's hard to grow anything here

2) Don't try growing fruit up here

and most importantly...

3) Real pioneers always utilized whatever resources were available

Hooray!

What does that mean?

Well, for pioneers of old, that meant waiting around for different peddlers to come knocking with peaches or apples or whatever they had. You'd buy loads and then can or, later with the invention of refrigeration, freeze different preparations for later use. Among us mountain folk it's the way of the world. Process someone else's harvest because it's impossible to harvest your own due to natural phenomena you cannot control!

So, as tomatoes drop from $1.99 lb to 66 cents lb and I glance out my window at the tomato plants I own struggling with their tiny green fruits, I sigh with a smirk and toss another store bought 'mater into the food processor. The pureed goodness grown by someone I'll never meet, will soon be part of a large slow cooked marinara that would make my nona proud and will feed this homestead for many months to come.

Sorry this post had no vintage finds! You had to listen to me rant about gardening 2 weeks in a row! Bummer! It won't happen again. And, as a consolation, let me give you my nona's recipe for a nice red sauce.

Now this is exactly as my nona told me so all of you who like things like "measurements" or "exact amounts", beware!

To start, you toss something like 20 or 25 tomatoes into the food processor. Or whatever you got. Make sure to cut off those ugly tops because no one wants to see those. Okay, now you've got a food processor full of tomatoes (*in nona speak, this means full to the brim or at least 4 cups of pure tomato puree) all smooshed up. Good.

NOW - take a couple cloves of garlic. A COUPLE MEANS TWO!! Two cloves. Make sure they're fat. Or you can use 3 but that's it. Cut 'em up real fine. Put 'em in a pot with a little olive oil (*in nona speak, this means 3-4 tbsp) and put it on low heat. You can put a little onion in if you want (* nona translation - Use about 1 c sweet yellow onion chopped fine) and wait for everything to turn clear. Now you add your tomatoes, maybe some spices (*nona speak again. Translation: 1 tsp dried oregano, 2 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried parsley, 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, 2 tsp black pepper and 2 tsp salt). Keep everything going on low heat. Stir every once in awhile. (For extra authenticity, keep wooden spoon on a ceramic spoon rest with "Miami" or something scrolled on it next to stove and use to stir sauce). Do your laundry or whatever you do. In about 12 hours, you gotta nice sauce. Freeze it.

See ya next week!