No Mystery Meat Here! February 26, 2013

I am aware that other cultures eat horse meat, but I choose not to, having grown up with horses as pets and companions.

The recent (and widening) scandal about horse meat making it’s way into the food supply, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21569645)   has people up in arms and wondering “how can this happen?”  Hopefully, like the major egg recall a few years ago, that sent many people to their local farmer’s markets in search of safer eggs, this will have people paying closer attention to their meat supply.  I have a friend living in London, where lots of the horse meat disguised as beef, showed up in the local food outlets.  She reports that people are flocking to their local butcher shops for safer cuts of real beef.

If you buy your meat at a local supermarket, you can get to know the butcher there, and ask about their sourcing, and if they grind their own meat in-house, and what not.

If you’d like to take it a bit further, we Central Texas folks are so lucky to have so many of local sources of all variety of meats available.  You can meet the farmers, ask them about their practices, visit their farms and see for yourself how the animals are raised and what you are going to get.  This way, the chain of control is diminished and the chance of shenanigans is next to zero.

Here is a list of some, certainly not all of our local protein purveyors, all from whom I purchase meat.  I have met all of these farmers, ranchers and purveyors and trust them 100%.

I’ll attempt to list all of the locations where I know they are available, but this will not be exhaustive either, so click the name and it will link to their site.  Many on this list are available for delivery through Greenling and Farmhouse Delivery.

Richardson Farms, Grass-fed beef, pastured pork, chicken, turkeys (seasonally), and sausages.   SFC Farmer’s Markets downtown, Sunset Valley and at the Triangle, Barton Creek Farmer’s Market, and Waco Farmer’s Market, (Jim Richardson is a veterinarian, which gives me great comfort in how their animals are treated) (they also sell eggs, popcorn, wheat and sorghum flours, cornmeal and sesame seeds)

Hausbar Farms  Freedom Ranger Chickens - Boggy Creek Farm Farmstand

DearRun Land and Cattle Longhorn Beef - Boggy Creek Farm, Farmstand – All cuts of beef as well as Summer Sausage

Dewberry Hills Farms, pastured chickens, (and they are delicious) - SFC farmer’s market downtown and Sunset Valley

Thunderheart Bison, All cuts of grass-fed bison (including the hump!) -  SFC Farmer’s Market Downtown, Pearl Farmer’s Market, San Antonio

Full Quiver Farms, Grass-fed beef, whey fed pork – Barton Creek Farmer’s Market (they also make yogurts and some of the best farmstead cheeses I’ve ever had)

Windy Hill Organics, Goat, Beef, Lamb - HOPE Farmer’s Market

Countryside Farm, Duck, Guinea, Chicken - SFC Farmer’s Market Downtown and at the Triangle

Smith and Smith Farms, Chicken, Lamb, Eggs – SFC Farmer’s Markets downtown, Sunset Valley, Triangle, Cedar Park Farmer’s Market, Mueller Farmer’s Market  and Barton Creek Farmer’s Market

Peeler Farms, Chicken - HOPE Farmer’s Market

Bastrop Cattle Company - All cuts of delicious beef – HOPE Farmer’s Market, Mail Order Delivery over a certain amount, Bastrop Producer’s Market

Madrono Ranch  Bison - Boggy Creek Farm, People’s Pharmacy

Broken Arrow Ranch, Broken Arrow Ranch sells wild game such as boar, antelope, nilgai, and quail, online and ships

Salt and Time Butcher Shop and Salumeria  Austin’s newest brick and mortar butcher shop, which also specializes in-house cured salumis

Dai Due Butcher Shop  Dai Due doesn’t sell cuts of meat, per se, but makes delicious things with them, charcuterie, sausages, pates terrines and lots of other wonderfulness.  SFC Farmer’s Market downtown, and Mueller Farmer’s Market

Now days, you can buy all of the same cuts of beef, pork, chicken, lamb and goat that you’d be able to buy at the store, directly from the farmers/ranchers.  They come in plastic vacuum wrap, without the styrofoam and “juice catcher” pad underneath that you’d see in the store.  The meat is normally frozen as soon as it is processed, for maximum freshness.   Less packaging leads to less waste in the landfill, which is an awesome added bonus.

Consumers have choices, and hopefully, if you are looking for local proteins for you and your family, this will be a help.  Is it more expensive?  Yep.  Is it important enough for you to pay more?  That’s for you to decide.

Just so you know that I practice what I preach – a sampling from my freezer:

Thunderheart Bison

Bastrop Cattle Fajita Beef

Smith and Smith Lamb

Richardson Farms Ribs

For dinner last night, I quickly defrosted a slab of Richardson Farm’s Flank Steak, seasoned it with salt and Springdale Farm’s smoked pepper mix, seared it in a screaming hot cast iron skillet, for about 3 minutes on each side; let rest for 20 minutes, squeezed some lime over it,  then sliced thinly, and served on  Blanco Valley non-GMO corn tortillas, with some Full Quiver Cheddar and my own pickled jalapenos and pickled onions.  So easy and good.

Mid-February in an Austin Urban Garden February 19, 2013

So much to do this time of year!  A few weeks ago I started a lot of seeds, mostly tomatoes, some peppers and watermelon.  The watermelon never came up, and the peppers just have.  The tomatoes sprouted pretty well and most had put on their second set of leaves this week, indicating time to transplant into bigger pots.  Here is a picture of the seedlings about ten days after planting indoors.

So, Sunday, I got all of the seedlings transplanted into bigger pots.  The planting isn’t as time consuming as is the labeling of each plant, but I’m swapping with some other gardeners soon, so labeling is essential. (and only fair)  I will likely lose track of which tomatoes I have planted at some point during the growing season.  I always seem to.  The only varietals I might not recognize by sight are Stupice and Paul Robeson tomatoes.

On to the gardens.  The big bed in the backyard was a mess of weeds, bolting broccoli, lettuces and hostas, climbing over from the other side of the fence.  I left an 8 foot section of lettuces and a single cabbage alone, and focused on the middle 8 foot section, cleaning it out, and amending it.  The soil felt loose and well aerated, which made me happy, so after letting it rest for a day, I planted a few tomato transplants I bought a couple of weeks ago.

The strawberries are still chilling in their two 4×4 beds.  They really leafed out after the last “rain”, if that’s what we are calling it.  I had a bag of mulch laying around the yard, so I applied another thick layer of mulch around the strawberries, mostly to keep moisture in and weeds down.

There are 3 beds on the side of the house, the newer ones I had put in late last year, that contain onions.  Two of the onion beds look absolutely perfect for this time of year.  The third, looks pretty sad, as if the onions just never took off.  I’m not sure what to do about those onions, I may pull them up and plant something else there.  Here are the happy onion beds.

You can see one empty bed at the far end of the above picture.   That bed lies beneath my pecan tree, and I won’t know how much sun that bed will get, until the tree grows its leaves.

The two beds in full sun, now contain edible Johnny Jump-Up flowers, cabbage that likely will never make, because of our odd weather, leeks and spinach.

I will harvest the spinach this week to make room for Spring plants.  It is not happy in the warm weather.  The cabbages will come out too, as will the Johnny Jump-ups.  Those two beds will house more tomatoes, tomatillos, all kinds of peppers, and cucumbers.

I also pruned the citrus trees, which was a bit scary, because they think it is Spring and are flowering, so I wasn’t sure if pruning now was OK.  I watched lots of Youtube videos and determined it would be better for the trees in the long run, if I did.  I also repotted the newest of these.  If you see me out somewhere trying to purchase more citrus trees, please do whatever it takes to prevent me from doing so.  I’m all good now, having added another Naval Orange and a Tangerine tree to my arsenal this past weekend.

The Dwarf Peach is blossoming as well.

I went seed shopping at Shoal Creek Nursery  yesterday, and got some seeds I’m very excited about!

Moon and Stars (Cherokee) Watermelon seeds, from Seed Savers Exchange.  The melons look like they have a moon and stars on them!!!  This excites me more than it should.  Most folks would be more concerned with heat and drought tolerance, days to harvest – the normal stuff.  But if I can grow a giant fruit with a moon and the Big Dipper on it, I’m in heaven!  My love of tasty garden foods combined with my obsession with astronomy.  Too much fun.

I also got some herbs seeds I’ve never seen available before, Cumin and Chervil.  Now that I have some more room, I can experiment a little.  Looking forward to both.

Shoal Creek Nursery has a great variety of vegetable, herb and flower seeds – more than I remember ever seeing before.  If you are going to start garden plants by seed, please use a reputable nursery, rather that a big box store.  The seeds available will be appropriate for the growing season in the nursery, while the big box stores leave all of there seeds out for sale year round.

Happy Gardening!

Garden, by Starbucks February 16, 2013

I have always added my own spent coffee grounds and filters to my compost.  Now, I’m putting the grounds directly into the garden.

I recently met someone from Ground to Ground, an organization the promotes a union between neighborhood gardeners and their local coffee shops, to keep more waste out of the landfill.   I learned that coffee can be applied directly to the garden, as a top or side dressing on acid loving plants,  (she suggested that garden soil can be comprised of up to 30% coffee grounds.) It contains nitrogen, magnesium and calcium which are all great for the soil and plants.  And, spent coffee grounds are free.

Armed with my newly learned information about coffee grounds, I left the Green Corn Project event, where she had come to help us transplant seedlings for future garden installations, and headed straight for the Starbucks about a half a mile from my house.  Sure enough, there was a bucket near the front door with two 5 pound bags of spent coffee grounds just waiting to meet my garden. and left with two neatly bundled bags of spent coffee grounds.

It felt too easy, really, just picking up free fertilizer from a store just up the street.  I had done some research, on which plants would likely tolerate and benefit from a direct application of coffee grounds.  I used the grounds to top dress my strawberry plants, citrus trees, and the onion beds.  I applied them pretty liberally, but not completely covering all the soil.   So far, so good.  With our strange Springlike weather, I hesitate to attribute much of the new growth, flower buds, and overall health of these plants, to the coffee, but they are happy and don’t seem to hate it and show no signs of burning.

Happy Gardening!  Pick up some free grounds with your morning coffee next time.

*If you are interested in getting involved with a cool non-profit, that installs gardens for folks who could not otherwise afford one, or be able to physically install one, check out Green Cork Project, a grass roots organization, always  looking for more volunteers.  We have workshops and dig-ins coming up, where you can learn about gardening, maintenance, and help others as well.  It’s a great organization.  Learn more at http://www.greencornproject.org.

Seriously Good Guacamole – Guac-N-Roll February 5, 2013

I met Benjamin Miller a few weeks ago at the Springdale Farm farmstand.  He was checking out the farmstand offerings to see what he might be able to use locally for his new food trailer, Guac-N-Roll.  He left a flyer, and I was intrigued by the offerings, but a little skeptical of the non-traditional ingredients in his different guacamoles.  I am a traditionalist when it comes to such things, but told him I’d come out and try some.

I decided that Super Bowl would be the perfect opportunity to show some guacamole love, and I ordered two kinds, Guac Star and Guac & Awe.  When I arrived to pick up my order on Sunday, Benjamin and his wife Ashlea greeted me and showed me around.

The cool green trailer, parked in the lot of Dane’s Body Shop at 4227 Guadalupe, sports a flat screen TV on one side, which the couple hopes to use down the road for karaoke, music videos and fun video games for customers.  It also has a rockin Mohawk!

Ben threw in some extras for us to try, a Just Beet It, Beet Salad with local micro greens from Wild Sprout, hemp seeds from Happy Hemp,  cotija cheese, pistachios, drizzled with reduced balsamic and olive oil.  It was delicious, and I rarely like beets.

Both guacamoles were beautiful, and each came with two salsas.  I ordered Red House, In-A-God-A-De-Verde, and Chip’s ‘Mas Dinero’ Habanero.  All were delicious, but my favorite was the Habanero, which had some great heat.

The Guac Star, avocado, topped with grape tomatoes, red onions, jalapeno,cilantro, toasted pepitas and dried papaya was delicious.  The avocado was creamy, and slightly spicy with a touch of sweetness from the papaya, but not too much.

The Guac & Awe was creamier, mixed with mascarpone cheese, topped with grape tomatoes, red onions, jalapenos, cilantro, crumbled plantain chips and dried edamame seeds.  We couldn’t figure out what the edamame seeds were, resembling black-eyed peas, but obviously not.  We had to pull out the menu to figure it out, but they were deliciously chewy and a very interesting addition to this crunchy, creamy, delicious guacamole.

All of the guacamoles are made to order, to ensure freshness, and served with El Lago ”bubble” chips.  (non-gmo)  Most of the six guacamoles are vegan, and all are vegetarian.  The entire menu is gluten-free.  The two we tried were very hearty, with all of the additional ingredients, and could easily be a meal.

We also had the Mint Limeade, fresh squeezed limeade with chopped fresh mint.  It was lightly sweet, and absolutely delicious with the mint.  We may or may not have added tequila to it, but I’ll never tell.  They also offer C0-Chata (horchata) and Zhi Tea.

Also on the menu are Posole, Psycho ‘Quiles (chilaquiles) and coming soon, Tamales.  For dessert, Axl Arroz (rice pudding) and Granitas.

Although avocadoes are obviously not grown here, Ben is dedicated to sourcing some of the ingredients locally, when in season, from Happy Hemp, Johnson’s Backyard Garden, Wildsprout, Third Coast Coffe, Tecolote Farm, Springdale Farm, Boggy Creek Farm and Zhi Tea.

The trailer is currently open Fridays and Saturdays from 11:00 until late afternoon, but looks to expand their service to more days.  Follow them on Twitter @guac_n_roll for updates and upcoming events.

Homemade Pastrami February 4, 2013

In an effort to expand my cooking horizons, I decided to attempt to make Pastrami.  Armed with Ruhlman’s recipe, from Charcuterie  I ordered  a half brisket (about 5 pounds) from Richardson Farms.

The week before I was to begin this 6 day process, I had lunch at Easy Tiger, and we ordered corned beef and pastrami, so I could remember how it was to taste.  Both at Easy Tiger were well spiced, and I could pick out clove, allspice and mustard, (I thought).  Both were delicious.

The day before I was begin the brining process, I made the pickling spice, which included Mace, Allspice, toasted and ground Coriander and Mustard, Pepper, Clove, Red Pepper Flakes, Cinnamon, Bay and Ground Ginger.  Savory Spice Shop on 6th Street had everything I needed.

 

The following day, I made the brine, 1 gallon water, 1 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar, 5 teaspoons pink salt, and garlic.  The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of the pickling spice, but I used 3.  I brought the liquid up to a simmer to dissolve the salt and sugar, then put the pot in the refrigerator to cool.  You don’t want to put raw brisket into hot liquid.

Once the liquid was cooled completely, I dropped the brisket into the pot (a steamer pot) and put the top steamer rack on top of it to keep it submerged.  Then I put the pot with brisket and brine into the fridge, where it stayed for 6 days.  On the 6th day, I pulled the brisket out and rinsed it thoroughly, then placed it back in the fridge on a cookie sheet, uncovered, to dry out a little.

The following day, I pulled it out of the fridge, and coated the whole brisket in cracked pepper and crushed coriander.

Next, it went into a 225 degree smoker for close to 3 hours.

From there, the brisket went into a roasting pan with one inch of water, into a 275 degree oven (covered) for about 2 hours.  The water was supposed to simmer, but we had a hard time getting it to that point.  We pulled it out and allowed it to rest for about an hour.

At this point, it didn’t look any different than a peppered brisket.  I was very interested to cut into it and see if it worked.  And, it looked like Pastrami!  I didn’t slice it thinly enough, but it tasted like Pastrami, too.  I couldn’t detect the spices as much as I had hoped, so next time I will use more of the pickling spice.  It could have been more tender as well, so I think more time in the oven would be beneficial, to take on more steam.

All in all, I’m calling it a success, although I will do those things differently next time.

Sowing Seeds Indoors for the Spring Garden January 29, 2013

Every year, I plant some seeds indoors for my Spring Garden.  Seeds are hopeful little things, and waiting for and watching them sprout is something I really enjoy.  I’d like to say that this saves me money on transplants, and it may, but ultimately I will get excited about the transplants once they show up at nurseries, and buy those too.

This  year, with several folks interested in seedling swaps, I went a bit nuts on the seeds, and filled 3 seed trays with tomatoes and peppers.  I simply filled the trays with Ladybug Germinator soil, and used my finger to make the holes to drop the seeds into, then covered the hole.

These seed trays come with plastic covers, but after several days of being covered, I noticed mold and removed them.  I may have been keeping them too moist, I don’t know.  On top of that black contraption, which is actually 2 serving stands, sits a light.

The morning of day 7 since I planted the seedlings, one tomato seedling had come up.  Throughout the day, more and more peeped out from the soil.

It was so warm, I took the trays outside and set them in the sun, which immediately retreated.  Since it was going to stay in the 60′s at night, I left them out, hopefully to absorb more real sun.  By Monday at 1:00, a whole lot more of of tomatoes were up. None of the peppers are up as of this writing, which is perfectly normal, because they just take longer.  I’ll put them back in the kitchen this afternoon, because it will be below 65 the next few nights.

The seed varieties so far:

Tomatoes – Paul Robeson, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Beefsteak, Black Cherry, Renee’s Garden Seeds, “Heirloom Tomatoes, Summer Feast” (for surprise), Stupice (cold tolerant)

Peppers – Early Jalapeño, Serrano Tampequeno, Ancho Gigantea, Pimiento del Piquillo, then a week later, Orange Thai, Habenero, and

Watermelon – Sugar Baby

I pick up  seeds everywhere I see them, but I prefer High Mowing Seeds, Seed Saver’s Exchange, Botanical Interests and Renee’s Garden Seeds.  I have ordered heirloom tomato seeds online in the past, but in the past few years, the variety of heirloom tomato and pepper transplants available has improved, so no need.  Seeds are very rewarding, but transplants are instant gratification.

It will prove to be a challenge to get all these seedlings transplanted to 4″ pots in a week or two, so they can grow more.  (You transplant tomatoes once they put on their second set of leaves.  If there is  no sign of any more cold weather after this, I’m tempted to put some of them into the garden, and just see what happens.  That served me well last year, but it was February before I did so, and its early yet.  I’d rather have some sustained freezes to kill the bugs, or Summer is going to be no fun at all.

The picture below is from Green Corn Project’s Seeds to Starts, second workshop – transplanting seedlings into 4″ pots.  Those seedlings were 3 weeks old, and will now stay in a Greenhouse until March, when they will go into the ground.  We’ll be installing 10 gardens this Spring and 10 this Fall for folks who otherwise would not be able to have a vegetable garden.  If you’d like to help us, please visit the website and sign up for a dig-in!  It’s a great way to learn organic gardening while helping others.

Mid-Winter Strawberry Jam January 28, 2013

I have made Strawberry Vanilla Jam twice – both times failing to get the consistency correct, and ending up with runny jam.  It still tasted great, but it has been bugging me since I last made it months ago.

My own strawberries, planted bare-root, haven’t been looking like they are thriving, so when I learned that Markley Family Farms was going to be at the Triangle Farmer’s Market last Wednesday, I booked it on over and picked up some hydroponically grown strawberries, with making jam on my mind, (and getting it right.)

Many commercially made jams and preserves, use a 1 to 1 ration of fruit to berries, i.e. 4 cups fruit, to 4 cups sugar.  My favorite canning book, Canning for a New Generation, contains lots of lower sugar recipes, which I love, because they are healthier, and you can actually taste the fruit, rather than just sweetness.

I adapted the Classic Strawberry Preserves recipe in that book, (although I didn’t use the straining technique) to make my Strawberry Vanilla Jam.  I had 4 pounds of strawberries, which I rinsed well, then hulled, and chopped in half.  I used 4 cups of organic sugar, and let the berries macerate for about 2 hours before putting the pot on heat. I added more lemon than called for, because I like it – a bit over 1/4 cup and the zest of a couple lemons.

I scraped the meat out of 3 vanilla bean pods and threw the pods into the pot.  Once the  mixture started bubbling, I carefully skimmed off the foam, and continued doing so until the foaming stopped.  I put two spoons in the freezer for testing later.  Then I put in the vanilla bean meat, and stirred it in.

This time around, I let the strawberries cook down much longer, and noticed as the mixture became shiny.  It still wasn’t right at that point, so I continued cooking.  The red color mixture began to deepen, and I decided to test by putting some on the frozen spoon.  After the spoon sat out and warmed up to nearly room temperature, I could tell this time it was right.  When I tilted the spoon, the mixture held together, and came of the spoon very slowly, rather than running right off. At that point I removed the vanilla bean pods.

So, I loaded up my hot sterile jars, and processed in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

All lids down, and I can put to rest my strawberry jam failures of the past, and move on to something else.  Whew! Strawberry Vanilla Jam security.

Markley Family Farms is a hydroponic farm in New Braunfels, Texas. They grow other crops as well, but strawberries are their main.  They have “U-pick hours” during the high seasons, and also operate a CSA.