Confituras Little Kitchen is Open! January 5, 2018

Nearly seven and a half years ago, I did a blog post about the launch of Confituras, at the Barton Creek Farmer’s Market.  During the course of the last seven plus years, Confituras grew quite a bit, expanded her seasonal, artisanal jam offerings, won multiple Good Food Awards, participated in hundreds of events, worked her butt off and landed quite a few retail clients, including Whole Foods.

On Wednesday January 3, 2018 Confituras Little Kitchen, the brick and mortar biscuit and jam shop and community kitchen officially opened for business!  After a successful Kickstarter campaign, and over a year of navigating the arduous city permitting process and construction, this super clever shop is now open Wednesday through Saturday for Biscuits and Jam, locally sourced Little City Coffee and Lost Pines Yaupon Tea.  The shop also has a sweet curated collection of retail items for sale, including  Two Hives Honey, Barton Springs Mill, CoffeeSock and Springdale Handmade soaps made specially for the shop and our Calendula Salve.  Of course, you can still buy Confituras’ jams, jam boxes and a new biscuit box that includes biscuit mix and jam.

The commercial kitchen space will house local chefs and caterers, and will also provide space for new women owned food businesses get their start with help from those who have been in their shoes.

Go by and get some biscuits and jam this weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

Calendula Flowers for Healing January 4, 2018

The first time I saw Calendula (Calendula officinalis) growing in person, was some years ago at Springdale Farm.  I had heard of it, but didn’t really know why, and often heard it pronounced Cal-en-DOO-la, which is not correct.  The farm grows mostly edible flowers and Calendula is certainly edible.  The bright yellow or orange petals look great on a plate with other edible flowers and are popular with chefs.

What I didn’t know, was that Calendula is a powerful healing flower.  When Paula suggested that we should make a Calendula Salve for Springdale Handmade, I started doing some research on the plant and was absolutely blown away by what I read.  This flower, of the marigold variety, packs a powerful punch, and has been used for centuries, both topically and taken internally.   Thought to have antihemorrhagic and antiseptic properties, Calendula was used during World War 1 and the Civil War on battlefields for wound dressings to stop bleeding and speed up healing.  It is also well documented to have been taken internally, to heal digestive ailments and detoxify the gall bladder and liver.  It has been common in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes, and the petals have been used to add color to butter and cheese.  Cool stuff!

I have been gardening for years, growing primarily food, and have been an advocate for “growing your own” for as long, but this revelation that plants could be such powerful medicine had not made it’s way into my radar until a couple years ago.  It’s fascinating.

To make our salve, we harvested lots of the flowers and dehydrated them, then decided on a mixture of oils.  We infused the oil mixture with the flowers for several months, and always have jars in various states of infusion.

You can steep the petals into a tea for a powerful punch, put them in soups and stews or use them as a beautiful component of any salad.  You could keep the infused oil around and apply it directly to scrapes, bug bites, rashes, or most skin situations.  It is great in salves, and could be made into a body butter, which we have done as well or a tincture, which we have not tried.

Calendula can tolerate some frost, and can be planted in the Fall in climates that don’t get too cold.  (Mine were blooming in December but are covered during this arctic blast.)  I’ll be starting some new seeds inside here in a few weeks then will also sow some directly into the soil in the Spring.  I ordered my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, my very favorite online seed source.  Their seasonal seed catalog is absolutely gorgeous.

If you aren’t quite ready to make your own, our version of Calendula Salve is available at the Springdale Farm farmstand, Epicerie, Flourish, Confituras Little Kitchen, Farmhouse Delivery and in our online shop.

 

Happy New Year, 2018! I’m Back… January 2, 2018

Happy New Year!  I haven’t been here in so long, but I always kind of knew I’d find something to say and come back to it.

When I stopped blogging, Paula and I had just launched Springdale Handmade.   Since that post, we have expanded beyond the Springdale Farm farmstand to quite a few retail locations.  I’m looking forward to blogging about them here.

We have learned so much on this journey, and my gardening has changed as a result.  I’m still growing lots of food, but have added an apothecary garden which I intend to really ramp up this Spring.  We use lots of herbs, flowers and other plants in our soaps, and I’m growing more and more of them in my own gardens.  The healing benefits of plants (and therefore essential oils) is so interesting to me, and I’m still learning every day.  We don’t use synthetic fragrance oils in any of our products, and I’ve learned lots about natural remedies that I think it might be interesting reading for some of you.

Going forward, it is my hope to blog about about it all.  For any subscribers who have held on over the last couple of years, it won’t hurt my feelings if you unsubscribe.  I’m hoping this new content will be interesting to someone and I look forward to journaling my new adventures.

Next post will be about Calendula Flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Year, New Project! Springdale Handmade January 15, 2016

Happy New Year!  I know, long time, no blog post.  2015 was perhaps the most difficult year of my life, with my beloved mother’s unexpected passing in January.  Once things started to normalize again, my dad got really sick and spent a month in the hospital and rehab hospital, followed by lots of home care until he got back on his feet.  I didn’t get much gardening done, or cook anything for over a month, and so nothing noteworthy happened that I was excited enough to blog about.

With the new year, comes renewed hope and the evolution of a new project!  You all know that Springdale Farm is my home away from home, and many of the topics of blog posts past, have occurred because of cooking, smoking, canning projects and events that take place there.  Paula (owner/farmer) and I always have a project in the works, and we  had been making soap and body butters for quite some time, and keeping them for ourselves.  People had asked to buy them off and on for months, and we would just share.  Because we seem to be the “more is better” types, we had build up quite an inventory of soaps, with batches curing in boxes in every nook an cranny of our respective homes.

A few weeks before Christmas, we decided to make some labels, and put some soap and candles that I had been making, out at the farmstand.  The response took us by surprise, and shoppers wiped us out!    Soap takes time, so we scrambled to make some batches of body butter, which requires no cure time, for the next market.  A hit!  So we made some Grapefruit Sugar Scrub for the next market.  Shoppers bought it all.

So, we decided to keep it up, and have been developing all natural, seasonal, produce inspired soaps, utilizing parts of the produce that would typically be thrown away.  Ground up, dehydrated citrus peel makes a nice, gentle exfoliant and adds a lovely scent to soaps.  Herbs, produce tops and local honey are lovely additions as well.  The body butters, scrubs and candles complement the soaps.  We are having so much fun with it!

We have big plans in the works for Valentines Day, as well as some other really exciting things in the pipeline.  Please come see us on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9:00-1:00 at the Springdale Farm Farmstand, for your fresh produce and body products and candles!

If you’d like to keep up with what we are making, please follow us on Twitter @SpringdaleHM and/or like us on Facebook.  https://www.facebook.com/SpringdaleHandmade/

Feel free to contact us via email at SpringdaleHandmade@gmail.com

Happy New Year!

 

 

 

Mustard Three Ways July 31, 2015

I recently discovered the best hot dog I’ve ever had, the Texas Dogs from Salt and Time Butcher Shop.  Unfortunately, on the day I made this magic dog discovery, I also discovered that I was out of mustard.  So, I decided to embark upon a mustard making weekend.

I found a compilation of different recipes on a blog I refer to for lots of my canning inspirations, Punk Domestics.

I settled on three recipes, Dijon Mustard, Honey Bourbon Mustard and Imperial IPA Mustard.    The recipes all call for mustard seeds, brown and/or yellow or a mixture, apple cider vinegar, wine and or beer, and all required soaking for 24 hours or more for the seeds to absorb the liquid.  So I started on a Friday, doubling each recipe and measuring out all of the ingredients into three large jars with lids.  (Go big or go home, right?)

After the 24 hour soak, all of the liquids were absorbed, so I decided to go ahead and finish them.

Each one got the same treatment, adding additional ingredients for 2 of them, then blending in the Vitamix, then cooking down to the desired consistency.  I like my mustards smooth, so there really aren’t any detectable seeds left.

The only one of the recipes that I tweeked, was the Honey Bourbon Mustard, to which I added a little Bourbon Maple Syrup in place of some of the honey.  The flavor profiles sounded good, I’m happy with the result.

Each of these recipes is safe for water bath canning, and each processes for just 5 minutes.

I’m very pleased with each of these recipes and would make them all again.  It looks like I won’t have to for a while.  It’s fun to have extra to share along with my recommendation of the Salt and Time Texas Dog.

Lessons from my Summer of Pickles July 10, 2015

I’ve always planted a few cucumber seeds, which have always produced a few cucumbers.  The last few years have been quite hot and dry.  This year, I planted a few cucumber seeds, but something was different than previous years.  We’ve had days of epic, drought busting rainfall.  I think it rained for 30 days straight, at least a little every day.

The cucumbers have flourished and produced more than I’ve ever seen.  The vines have jumped out of their beds and spread out in the yard, and I’m literally tripping over cucumbers.  So, with the first crop, I decided to make pickles.  Having had bad luck pickling cucumbers in the past, and lots of mushy cucumbers I searched for a recipe with little canning time, in hopes for the crunchiest pickles possible.

Cucumbers!

I settled on this recipe with only 5 minutes of processing time.

Garlic Dills

For the cucumbers that were too long for the jars, I cut them down to size, then sliced the ends into disks for sandwiches.  I think the spears make a neater looking jar and easier to pack.

PIckles

In about half of the jars, I included a dried red chili to impart some heat.  I also varied the spices in each batch, some adding pickling spice, some coriander, some simply black peppercorns.

Garlic Dill Disks

And the cucumbers kept coming.

They just kept coming

So I kept pickling them.  I could have tried different pickling applications, but I really just like garlcky dill pickles, so I stuck to those.

I also acquired some Cornichons from a local farm and pickled those too, using a 4 day recipe given to me by my friend Stephanie.  I trust her with all food things.  Actually most of the interesting things I’ve ever done were inspired by her.

Cornichons

And then Boggy Creek Farm has these cute little Mexican Sour Gherkins, so I pickled them too using this recipe.

Mexican Sour Gherkins

These were a little time consuming, having to scrape off the blossom end then puncture each little one.

Blossom End

I learned some lessons from my nearly non-stop pickling.  The short 5 minute processing time makes a big difference in keeping pickles crunchy.  However, the  most important thing I’ve found, is pickling them immediately after harvesting.  The pickles I made with cucumbers harvested that day are crunchier than those made after a couple days in the fridge.  After about 2 days in the fridge, the cucumbers turn to mush when pickled.  And finally, a big lesson.  When planting cucumbers, also plant dill.

It’s Sweet Corn Season, Make Esquites! May 28, 2015

I only eat fruits and vegetables from my garden or local farms, so everything I eat is in season.  One of the beautiful things about eating seasonally, is the anticipation for things I haven’t had since their last season.  I can think of few things as delicious as freshly harvested Sweet Corn.  When I saw that Boggy Creek Farm was to have sweet corn at their market, I went early to the farmstand to snag some.  They hadn’t harvested any when I got there early, so Carol Ann took me to the fields to harvest some with her.  The ultimate test of when the corn is ready, is to taste it, raw, right in the field. It was tender and delicious and I came home with several ears.

I already had something in mind for it, Mexican Street Corn Salad.  When I searched for a recipe I settled on one from Serious Eats.  I had never heard of Esquites before, but it looked like exactly what I wanted, and I had jalapeños and cilantro from the garden to use.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/07/esquites-mexican-street-corn-salad-recipe.html

I cut off the worm end of the corn,  removed the husks and picked off the silks.

I would have loved to grill the corn to get it a bit charred, but alas it was raining.  I scraped it off the cob, and cooked it in a hot pan until slightly charred.

The recipe called for more charring, but the starches had begun to stick to the pan, so I pulled it out,  and added salt and pepper.

I doubled the jalapeños, because I had fresh garden peppers to use and wanted more heat.

I mixed in some scallions, lime juice, mayonnaise, cilantro and then pulled out the cheese.  The recipe called for Cotija or Feta.  Alas, I had gotten Queso Fresco instead of Cotija.  The sharpness of Cotija was exactly what this needed, but I made do with the milder Queso Fresco, because that was what I had.  I finished it off with some Springdale Farm Smoked Pepper Mix, which is good on everything.

The result was still delicious, but the proper cheese would have made it outstanding.  This salad even better the second day, because the heat from the pepper had settled in.  Sweet corn will be around for another few weeks at the farmstands and farmer’s markets.  I highly recommend this recipe, and can’t wait to try it again with the correct cheese.

My Garden, May 2015 – Everything is Different May 12, 2015

I decided to try to keep better track of my garden this season, especially the tomatoes.  I have planted lots of “new to me” varieties, and I’d like to remember what does well.  I’m really horrible at that; keeping track of the little plant markers and making notes.  With that in mind, I’ve been watching everything closely and taking lots of photos.

Everything is different this season.  We’ve had abundant rain and cooler temperatures than I can recall, in all my years of gardening.  My plants are all loaded and some things are producing much earlier than they usually do, like peppers and tomatillos.  I was excited to can my first two jars of Salsa Verde yesterday – with my own (and some Springdale Farm) tomatillos, onions, peppers, garlic and cilantro.  That’s a first for me, this magical alignment of ingredients from the garden.

I don’t remember ever enjoying my gardens quite this much before.  The first thing I do every morning is walk up the street to take my dad’s paper in, then rush back home to spend time in my gardens.  There is so much beauty in the gardens, and I feel like I’m seeing it all with new eyes now. You see, my sweet mom passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in January.  She was beautiful, and I adored her, and then she was gone.

So, with thunderstorms, possible hail, and damaging wind being threatened, I spent extra time in my gardens this morning.  Because, I know, in five minutes they could be gone, and there is nothing I could do to save them.  And they are beautiful now, and fragile and totally out of my control.  So, here are some of the photos I’ve taken of my garden, with some identifiers, because I’m trying to be better about that.  I’m going to be different.

Tomatillos, planted late March, 2014

Purple Calabash Tomato

Black and Brown Boar
Tomato

Michael Pollan Tomato

Arkansas Traveler

Large Red Cherry

Sweet 100

Mountain Princess

Update-My Favorite Spring Events, 2015 March 5, 2015

It most certainly feels like Spring may never get here, but surely things will start to warm up soon.  I’m cheering myself up by looking forward to some of my favorite Springtime Events.  This list certainly in not all inclusive, and doesn’t include some of the obvious large annual events – these are just a few more affordable events I enjoy.  The update is to add Live Fire, the details of which were just released.

March 7, 2015  Sunshine Community Garden Spring Plant Sale This event is held the first Saturday of each March, and is my favorite plant sale for vegetable transplants.  The greenhouses will be filled with everything you need for your Spring Garden, including more tomato and pepper varieties that you can even fathom.  Peruse their online inventory and make your own list to take with you, or you might be overwhelmed.  Go early, wait in line, and be prepared for the crush of humanity that will ensue when they open the gates.  It’s part of the fun, I promise.

March 28, 2015  Fais Do Do, Gumbo Cookoff at Rain Lily Farm  This annual event sponsored by Farmhouse Delivery, is held at Rain Lily Farm on Shady Lane.  Your $35.00 ticket will get you unlimited gumbo tastings, complimentary beer, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages.  Proceeds benefit Creek People.  This is a really fun time, on one of our lovely East Austin Urban Farms.

March 29, 2015  Edible Austin’s Children’s Picnic and Real Food Fair  This is a fun event for the whole family, held at the historic French Legation Museum and grounds.  There will be lots of food vendors, and lots of educational opportunities as well.  Kiddos typically pet baby goats, learn about backyard chickens, learn gardening from volunteers, and leave the event with their own little box garden.

April 4, 2015 Funky Chicken Coop Tour  This-self guided tour of some of Austin’s most interesting and innovative chicken coops.  Homeowner’s show off their coops and share their experiences keeping backyard chickens.  Drawings and giveaways will be available at the launch site, Buck Moore Feed Store.

April 9, 2015 Austin Food and Wine Alliance’s Live Fire This event is a meat lovers paradise each year.  The lineup of chefs has just been released and it looks amazing!  Many of your favorites local chefs and some from restaurants in other cities, will cook over live fire, and for $70 a ticket (early bird price), you will get to sample them all.  The event is held at the Salt Lick Pavillion, and will also feature live music, mines, cocktails, and craft beer.  Proceeds go toward the Alliance’s culinary grant program.

April 12, 2015 East Austin Urban Farm Tour  Also self guided, this is a tour of 4 of Austin’s Urban Farms, Boggy Creek Farm, Springdale Farm, Hausbar Farm, and Rain Lily Farm.  These four farms are all within walking distance of one another, and just a short 3 miles from Austin’s Capitol.  Each unique farm will host hourly tours by the farmers, and you will enjoy bites from some of Austin’s best restaurants, and sips from local beverage artisans and brewers.  While the final restaurant/artisan list has yet to be announced, the early word is very impressive, including Lenoir, Wink, Olamaie, Texas French Bread, Dolce Neve, Live Oak Brewery, Weather up, Austin Wine Merchant, Qui, Kome, Fixe, Fukumoto, Uchiko, Hops n Grain, Mescal, Paula’s, Banner Vodka, The Driskill, Swifts Attic, The Hightower, Anjore, Eden, Gardner, East Ciders, Liber & Co., Zhi Tea, Dai Due, Fresas, Odd Duck, Bola Pizza, Treaty Oak Distillery, Real Ale.  I’ll update this list once it is finalized. The tickets are $50.00 for adults, kids under 10 are free and proceeds benefit Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance.

Ongoing:  Keep an eye out for volunteer opportunities with Green Corn Project.  We will be installing gardens for our recipients through March.

Ongoing:  Antonelli’s Cheese Shop has events every week, including cheese and jam pairings, cheese and beverage pairings, and classes.

Ongoing:  Confituras has jam making classes throughout the year and they are really fun and informative.  It is about to be fruit season!

Kung Pao Chicken, at Home January 7, 2015

I’m working on becoming a better cook, with a goal of conquering some Asian cuisines.  My first effort, was Indian Butter Chicken, which turned out great, so now I’ve turned my sights on Kung Pao Chicken.  This happens to be one of my dad’s favorite Chinese dishes, so he will act as my test taster.

I chose one of the easier recipes I found, from Food & Wine Magazine, online. (link above)  I was looking for a recipe that didn’t venture too far astray from my eating philosophy, which is eating seasonally and using produce and proteins I can get from my local farmer’s market.  Although I grew peanuts last year, I had to purchase the ones I used here.

The main ingredient is chicken, and I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts from Smith and Smith Farms, which I got at the Mueller Farmer’s Market.  This chicken was beautifully trimmed and incredibly fresh.  (Learning to properly debone a whole chicken is also on my lists to conquer, but I’m dreading that one).

Smith and Smith Farms Chicken

The first part of the process is to cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, and marinate the chicken in Soy Sauce, sherry and Cornstarch. (I bought Tamari for the soy sauce and Bob’s Red Mill Cornstarch.)

Once the chicken was cut marinating in the fridge, I chopped the onions and Bell Pepper.  The recipe didn’t call for Bell Pepper, but B5 Farms at the farmer’s market, had some beautiful bell peppers, grown in the greenhouse.  I couldn’t resist.

B5 Farms Tomatoes and Peppers

I cut one bell pepper into the same sized pieces as the chicken, and separated the green onion whites and greens and set those aside.

Next, I made the sauce, which consisted of Tamari, Rice Vinegar, Sherry, Sesame Oil, Water, Cornstarch and a little sugar.

Ingredients

The Sauce

I wisked the sauce to get the cornstarch incorporated and set it aside. At this point I made the rice, and set it aside as well.  I could tell that the next steps would happen quickly.

Time to start cooking.  First, I poured a Tablespoon of Avocado Oil, (recipe called for Peanut or Vegetable Oil), into my wok, and let it get hot.  Once hot, I quickly cooked the raw peanuts until they were golden brown, then set them aside.

Cook the Peanuts

A little more oil into then pan, and I quickly cooked the scallions, bell pepper and chili flakes.

Cook the vegetables

To the vegetables, I added part of the chicken.  It was clear the amount of chicken I had cut up (doubled the recipe), would be more than should go into the wok.  It was still crowded, which made it take longer to cook, and caused some sticking to the wok.

Cook the Chicken

Once the two batched of chicken were mostly done, I put them back into the wok with the sauce and stirred as it thickened.

Add the Sauce

At this point, I tasted the sauce, and wanted more heat, so I chopped up a garden Serrano Pepper and added it to the mix.  I then turned off the heat and threw in the peanuts.

Once the sauce had reached what seemed like the appropriate thickness, and the chicken was done, I plated some up for myself, then bundled the rest to take to my parents up the street.

Serve over Rice

I enjoyed this dish, but felt as it it lacked some complexity.  While I would make it again, I would like more heat, more onions and peppers, some ginger and perhaps some garlic.  I’ll also revisit some of the more complicated recipes I looked at, to see how it could be made more interesting.  It was very easy and fairly quick to make.  My taste tester called after finishing his dinner to give the recipe an A+.  My mom liked it as well, and she is the pickiest eater I know.