The Garden Chronicles

It has been a terrific year for tomatoes; half the number of plants and just about the same yield at harvest.  I have a couple of San Marzano tomato plants that are not growing in rich volcanic soil in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.  The are thriving in crappy, Door County clay soil and are absolute tomato factories.  Consequently, our diet features tomatoes at virtually every opportunity.

Tomato tart, tomato seafood stew, venison bolognese, caprese salad, you name it.  

Just the other day I found myself with about 5+ pounds of ripe, San Marzano tomatoes so I whipped-together eight pints of homemade salsa and canned it for winter use.

We all know the uncomfortable truth; that our lover affair with fresh garden tomatoes is a brief and fleeting dalliance.  Incredibly sensuous; and short-lived.  By the time January rolls-around and Ma Nature is hurling freezing sleet against the windows and temperatures hover in the single digits we all would consider felonious behavior to get our hands tomatoes such as these.  

Can 'em while you got 'em.......

Give Peas A Chance

Picking, shucking, blanching and freezing peas.  Garden to freezer same day....

  

The Garden Chronicles

If you are a San Marzano tomato snob you likely already know that a purebred San Marzano tomato is grown in the rich, volcanic soil in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

This year I’ve sourced my San Marzanos from a mutant plant that has overgrown the composter.  

A very robust volunteer from 2023 garden waste.

I collected enough fruits to can and foolishly imagined a dozen half pints.

Here is my harvest.

Four half pints.

Tomatoes and cracked Spanish sea salt. That’s it.

On a foundation of my sourdough crust this is the foundation of a real Neapolitan pie….
 

Frozen Treasure

Last weekend I finally built-up enough nerve to perform a chore subject to a great deal of long-standing procrastination.

I defrosted the basement chest freezers.

There are three chest freezers in my basement and with the delivery of fresh venison to the guys from deer camp the smallest of the three was empty.  Between that and a couple of coolers I had the capacity to offload the contents of the remaining freezers and defrost each.  Freezer #1 on Saturday and freezer #2 on Sunday.  Freezer #3 is unplugged and idled until needed.

I have to say I felt a bit like Howard Carter opening King Tut's tomb; especially the top-loading chest and the hidden treasures that had found their way to the nether region of the bottom.  Smaller in quantity than I initially feared some items were so old they were discarded.  

And I had the opportunity to inventory, consolidate and rearrange the contents into a more organized fashion by application of baskets and boxes.  

And a suggestion by my lovely wife (the brains of the organization) each freezer now sports magnetic dry-erase boards on the door listing the quantity and contents of each.  

Inventory at a glance and an opportunity to really scratch my obsessive compulsive disorder itch!

Silver Lining From A Neglected Cloud

No pruning, weeding or fertilizing all of 2023.  We spent most of the year scratching our traveling itch.

 

Nevertheless, and despite the neglect, our forlorn raspberry patch produced a bumper crop of berries - most of which we froze. 

 

 

The rest we ate with breakfast cereal, vanilla ice cream or straight-up.  We learned the doggo loves them too.  The birds got their share when we weren't looking.

 

 

This weekend I converted all of the stash from the garage freezer into jam. 

 

 

21 half pint jars to be sure.

 

 

Lost the 22nd jar to a rare blowout in the canner. 

Tried it out on Sunday morning breakfast toast.  

 

Perfection!

In A Jam

Figuratively-speaking.

I finished-off the last of my imported Irish black currant jam today.

Fortunately I have been picking and freezing these red gems from our much-neglected tangle of something that used to resemble a proper raspberry patch.

There is homegrown, homemade, raspberry jam in my future....

The Garden Chronicles

The tomato avalanche has possibly begun to peter-out.  The nights are incredibly cooler and even the days not so hot any longer.

Nevertheless, we're eating these delectable fruits daily and canning them while I go.

Obtained from the Pioneer Pantry in Brussels This is my first year raising San Marzano tomatoes.  Tasty and plentiful!  I'll do these again.  Maybe even exclusively.

Come February ordinarily normal individual would commit high crimes and misdemeanors for fresh, homegrown tomatoes.

Seven pints of San Marzano sunshine!

The Deer Camp Chronicles

 Big Box Store speaking the correct language.....

The Best Pumpkin Seeds In The World

Halloween pumpkin-carving is behind us and the memories of making use of the resulting bumper crop of pumpkin seeds persists.  I've been roasting pumpkin seeds most of my life.  Beginning as a child with the help of my parents - followed-on with jack-o'-lantern carving with my daughter and continuing into retirement.  The upshot of this has culminated in farming pumpkins solely for their seeds.  

Admittedly, I've grown pumpkins for carving, roasting on the grill or making pie filling.  Yet we all can get a can of inexpensive pie filling just about anywhere - but where can you get a good roasted pumpkin seed?  

A number of years ago I began raising hybrid pumpkins renowned for their pulp and seeds. If you're a fan of roasted pumpkin seeds you have to check this out.  Not only are these pumpkins terrific for fall décor they are prolific seed producers.  Furthermore, their seeds lack the tough outer hulls of other gourds making them perfect for roasting.  On top of that they're a bush-variety and don't take-up large amounts of space in the garden. 

In 2019 disaster struck.  My seed pumpkins germinated, grew to maturity and by all outward appearances looked perfectly normal. However, at harvest time I was surprised to find them full of ordinary, pedestrian, white seeds with the tough outer hull. My pumpkins were the victim of a cross-pollinated batch of seed stock. The entire crop was a loss. The seed company apologized, furnished a credit for my next order and I had to fall-back on a strategic reserve of 2018 seeds in the bunker freezer.  The 2020 harvest was a welcome return to normal.

This year was beset with a different set of problems - namely a cold and wet spring followed by drought conditions. First planting didn't germinate.  The second planting failed too. The third sowing successfully germinated one solitary vine that produced fourteen plump gourds.  Remarkable but a month behind schedule.  My pal Six Deuce had a crop failure - and as a consequence he was the beneficiary of a half-dozen of my gourds to meet his winter seed snacking needs. 

Behold the Kakai pumpkin......

A fetching bright orange gourd with dark green digital camouflage, non-GMO and organically-raised pumpkin of about 5 to 8 pounds. And chock-full of hull-less green seeds.  Pure kernel and without that nagging-tough outer shell.  All you have to do is open them up, insert your hand into the pulp and all of those seeds will slip right out.  And plenty of them too. 

Pour your seeds into a stock pot and add enough cold water so that they float freely.  Add to that a cup of kosher salt.  Bring your pot to a boil, then turn-down the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. 

Drain your seeds in a colander. Spread them out on cookie sheets and bake at 325 degrees - stirring every 15 minutes so your seeds don't stick and rotating your baking sheets for an even roast.  Allow 60+ minutes or thereabouts.  Ovens vary so use your eyes, ears and nose as a guide.  When your seeds begin to snap, crackle and pop they are done..

Finished product.....

A light, nutty, salty, snack that is full of vitamins, minerals and healthy antioxidants.  They’re good for your prostate fellas.  You can trust me on that.   

Eight gourds yielded five (generous) one-cup paks of vacuum-sealed seeds.  Freeze to maintain freshness.  

Serve with an icy-cold adult beverage during the Packer game and at deer camp. Jill has pronounced them terrific on vanilla ice cream too.

 

The Garden Chronicles

I don’t know about you but there is a big whiff of autumn in the air lately. With football beginning the wood box is filled to the brim. 

The garden is nearing the end too. 

There was a Hail Mary sowing of lettuce, radishes and spinach a couple of weeks ago yet everything else is about done. 

Even the tomato avalanche is waning. 

Once, again, I’m reminded that when you live equidistant from the equator and the pole every waking day of our short growing season is precious.

Big beefsteaks are heading for the canner.

Kitchen counter snacking tomatoes.

Vine-ripened plum tomatoes will be converted into pizza sauce.

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

 

Kermis Time

Kermesse, or kermis, or kirmess, is a Dutch language term derived from 'kerk' (church) and 'mis' (mass) that became incorporated in French and English. Its origins are originally associated with the mass said on the anniversary of the founding of a church (or the parish) and in honor of the Patron Saint.  Such religious celebrations were regularly held in the Low Countries, in Central Europe and also in Northern France, and were accompanied by feasting, dancing, drinking and sports. 

The Dutch-American Village of Little Chute, Wisconsin, has celebrated Kermis annually since 1981 with a street festival. The Wallonian settlements in Door and Kewaunee Counties have celebrated Kermis with traditional Belgian dishes and events for as long as anyone can remember.  

Traditionally, Kermis around here stretched over several calendar weeks as each small settlement - Namur, Brussels, Rosiere, Little Sturgeon, Forestville, Lincoln, Duvall and Casco celebrated the harvest and the life-giving bounty of food.  

I'm not of Dutch or Belgian descent - but we're heading over to the park in Brussels for the Kermis shortly.  The festivities will kick-off with mass followed by food, music, a dunk tank featuring the local priest, beer, both a silent and live auction and a gun raffle.  

In the meantime, for the last few weeks we've been celebrating our own Kermis here with a steady harvest from the garden including an avalanche of tomatoes!

Several batches of homemade pizza sauce.

And cantaloupe too... 

 

 

Recipe of the Day

We've been experiencing an avalanche of tomatoes in the last ten days.  Three kinds of cherry tomatoes started a couple of weeks ago and recently the beefsteak, heirloom and plum tomatoes have come on-line.

To be clear, tomatoes have figured significantly in our diet lately.

Today I puttered in the garden, weeding, pruning, picking and planting.  There are radishes and spinach planted for a late harvest.  Lettuces to follow.  Picked tomatoes by the box-full.  

So I put-up four quarts of fresh from the vine tomatoes and baked a yummy tomato pie.

Recipe here.....

Tomato Pie

Ingredients

• 1 9-inch pie shell (see pie crust recipe for homemade version)

• 1/2 cup chopped yellow or red onion (about 1/3 onion)

• 3 to 4 tomatoes, cut in half horizontally, squeezed to remove excess juice, roughly chopped, to yield approximately 3 cups chopped tomatoes

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/4 cup sliced basil (see recipe note)

• 2 cups (8 ounces/225 g) grated cheese (combination of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack, or Gruyere or Mozzarella)

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise

• 1 teaspoon (or more to taste) Frank's Hot Sauce or Tabasco

• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Pre-bake the crust:

Preheat your oven to 425°F.

If you are like me and are using a store-bought pie shell, follow the directions on the package for pre-baking, or pre-bake it in the oven for about 12 minutes (a little longer for a frozen pie shell), until lightly browned.

If you are using a homemade crust, freeze the crust first, then press a sheet of aluminum foil into the crust to keep the sides of the pie crust from falling down as it cooks. Fill the pie with pie weights such as dry beans or rice to help hold the foil in place.

1. Salt and drain the tomatoes:

2. Lightly salt the chopped tomatoes and set them in a colander over a bowl to drain while you are pre-baking the crust. Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the chopped tomatoes, using either paper towels, a clean dish towel, or a potato ricer. 

    

   

3. Layer pre-baked pie shell with onions, tomatoes, basil:

4. Sprinkle a layer of chopped onion over the bottom of your pre-baked pie crust shell.

Spread the drained chopped tomatoes over the onions. Sprinkle the sliced basil over the tomatoes.

5. Make cheese mixture, spread over tomatoes:

6. In a medium bowl, mix together the grated cheese, mayonnaise, Tabasco, a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper.

The mixture should be the consistency of a gooey snowball. Spread the cheese mixture over the tomatoes. 

 

7. Bake:

8. Place in oven and bake at 350°F (175°C) until browned and bubbly, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes.

    
    
   Pro Tip - If you want to take this recipe up a notch, you can caramelize the onions while prepping the other ingredients. If you do that, double the amount of onion.

*This recipe calls for slicing fresh basil using a technique called chiffonade. To do this, stack the basil leaves on top of each other, roll them up like a cigar, starting at one end slice the "cigar" crosswise in thin slices.

 

How To Make Crispy Crunchy Sweet Pickles

It has been a regular pickle avalanche around here.  I put-up a batch of dill pickles at the beginning of the week and mid-week a batch of the signature crispy-crunchy sweet pickles.  Ordinarily, everyone gets a pint of dill or sweet pickles during the holidays replete with a festive bow on the lid. There's also homemade tomato juice, salsa, pickled beets, dilled green beans and raspberry jam.  This is a medium-sized batch - 7+ pounds of pickle cukes yields a dozen pints of finished product.. 

Begin with a sink-full of freshly-picked, scrubbed and rinsed pickle-size cucumbers. 

Slice your cukes.  The use of a mandolin makes the job go fast and results in uniform slices.  I like the crinkle cut.  Take care with the fingertips as the blade is sharp! 

Toss your cuke slices into a five gallon food-grade plastic bucket filled with a couple of gallons of cold tap water.  

Everyone should have a five gallon bucket.  My recollection is hazy but there is a possibility my bucket originally held cat litter.  It also appears to be food-grade as it doesn’t stain or absorb odors I’ve used it to brine meats and fish, haul butchered venison and assist in pickle-making. I even made sauerkraut in it one year.  In a pinch you can sit on it in your deer stand and keep your thermos, lunch and toilet paper inside where it won't get wet.  Like I said - they're indispensable. The secret to really crunchy pickles is liming them.  

Combine one cup of pickling lime with the two gallons of cold water and mix thoroughly.  If required add to the bucket additional lime and water  as you want your cuke chips float freely and uncrowded in your pickle barrel. Cover the sliced cukes with a dinner plate, snap-on the lid and let it set overnight. 

 

The following morning drain your limed cuke chips in the sink.  They'll be nice and crispy but you have to soak them to remove the excess lime.  Fill the sink full of slices with cold tap water and drain.   Repeat three more times.  Leave your slices to soak in cold water until noon -  3 to 4 more hours. Next - make your brine. 

This is easy peasy. In a non-reactive pot combine equal parts of sugar and vinegar.  For a dozen pints of pickles figure on 12 cups of sugar and 12 cups of distilled white vinegar - stir until dissolved.  Add a single 1 ½ oz bottle of pickling spice and a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt.  Heat to a boil.  Add your pickles slices, cover the pot, turn-off the heat and allow to rest on the stove top for five more hours. 

Following dinner return to the stove-top and return the pot to a boil. Since this is a hot-pack method of pickle-making keep a low fire under your pot and your lids should seal just fine.  When in doubt process in a boiling water bath for an additional 10-15 minutes.  

 

Ladle slices into sterile pint jars. The use of a canning funnel will facilitate a no-mess operation. You might use a tablespoon to organize the slices in your jars but don’t cram them too tightly. Top each jar with additional brine leaving a half-inch of head space. Add a lid and a band and set aside to cool. When the lids 'pop' your jars are sealed and your cukes are officially pickles. 

These pickles are awesome. You're going to want to put these on top of almost any sandwich you make.  Particularly a crunchy peanut butter, toasted cheese, burger, hot dog or a tuna sandwich.  Want to spice them-up?  Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes to a jar.

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 * A word about the jars and lids.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - in the microwave heat a Pyrex measuring cup full of water to a boil. Drop your lids in the hot water.  Fish them out with a sterile tongs.

 

How To Make Crispy, Crunchy, Dill Pickles

Back in the day I published a community blog for JSOnline.  Readers from all over North America and beyond visited WauwatosaNOW to learn about how to make crispy crunchy sweet pickles.  Lest you doubt that claim Google How To Make Crispy Crunchy Sweet Pickles.  That blog post from 2011 is still cached out there on the interweb.  Further evidence that you should never post something on social media that you don't intend to last forever.  For as long as the website was hosted I enjoyed the brief notoriety of one of the World Wide Web’s foremost authorities on crispy crunchy sweet pickles.  But I digress.

A big backyard garden, a green thumb and space in the bunker for canned and frozen vegetables means that the staff here at The Platz rarely sleeps.  Garden harvests = good summer eating and a busy time in the kitchen putting-up the fruits of my labors for future use or sharing with friends, family and visitors.  Product development, refinement and an occasional foray into a dangerous kitchen experiment is also our motto.  After years of floundering around the pickle universe with season after season of mediocre dill pickles the light went on with what might possibly be the gold standard of home-grown, home-canned, crispy crunchy dill pickles.

Just the right balance of salty brine, dill and garlic. Tangy, with a refreshing crunch!

The secret ingredient?  Ca(OH)2 – calcium hydroxide – commonly known as Pickling Lime.

Here’s the recipe -

Start with a sink full of freshly-picked, scrubbed and rinsed pickle cukes.  I grow my own organic cukes but you can purchase them at your local Farmers Market.

Fetch your pickle barrel. Everyone should own at least one five gallon bucket. They are indispensable.  My bucket might have originally held cat litter.  Nevertheless, it also appears to be food-grade since it doesn’t stain or absorb odors.  I use it to brine meats and fish, haul butchered venison and assist in pickle-making.  I even made sauerkraut in it once.  In a pinch you can sit on it in your deer stand and keep your thermos, lunch and toilet paper inside where it won't get wet.   Like I said - they're indispensable.

Slice your cukes and toss into your plastic bucket. I like to make spears and cut my cukes accordingly.   I also use a mandolin because you can make slices of a uniform thickness with cool-looking ridges on them. 

Be careful with this device and don’t do like I do and slice-off part of your thumb with the first use.

The secret to really crunchy pickles is liming them. Combine one cup of pickling lime with two gallons of cold water and mix thoroughly in your bucket.  Add your sliced cukes making certain they float freely.  Cover with a dinner plate, snap-on the lid and let it sit overnight.  

The following morning drain your limed cukes in the sink. They'll be nice and crispy because the calcium reinforces the cellular structure of the cucumber.  But you have to soak them to remove the excess lime.  This is an exceedingly important step.  Lime is alkaline and if you have residual lime in your pickles it might neutralize the acid of your brine causing your pickles to go bad.  Be diligent about the chemistry and you probably won’t die of botulism.

Fill the sink full of slices with cold tap water and let them soak for an hour.  

Repeat this step of soak and drain two to three more times. For a total of three to four hours.  Sure, this is tedious but you can waste precious bandwidth on Facebook while you're waiting.  Although I recommend reading a real book or, weather permitting, working in your garden.

Following the rinse cycle drain in a colander and start your brine.

Basic brine. In a non-reactive pot combine one quart of white vinegar with two quarts of water with ¾ cup of canning salt. (Canning salt is not iodized). This should be sufficient for a dozen quarts of pickles.

Bring your brine to a boil.

While the brine is heating pack your jars.

Into each jar place at least one peeled and sliced garlic clove.  If you really like garlic - do not skimp.

Add dried dill seed.  I am partial to Penzeys dill seed but any will do.  At least 3 t of seed for quarts and 1½ t for pints.  If you like dilliness - do not skimp.  Pack the jars with your pickles. Pack tightly but don’t force the slices. 

Fill the packed jars with the boiling brine leaving a half-inch of head space. Add your lids and bands and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. When the lids pop your jars are seated properly.

Dill pickles are a versatile tidbit and go with just about anything from a grilled burger, brat or dog, smoked ribs or a Bloody Mary. You can even make a scrumptious dill pickle dip with them as well.

Crispy, crunchy, sweet pickle recipe to follow.

Cheers!

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*A word about the jars and lids. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle. Lids are easy - heat a Pyrex measuring cup of water to a boil in the microwave and drop the lids in the hot water to sanitize them.  Fish them out with a tongs.