Playing with Fresh Ginger in Ohio? {Friday Five}

Earlier this week, my friend Joseph, the farmer behind Swainway Urban Farm, gave me samples of his latest product. It's ginger. Fresh, pink Hawaiian ginger, planted early last spring and harvested now.

I went through my standard methods to try a new fruit or vegetable. I ate some raw and it didn't pucker my lips like grocery store ginger does. I cooked some gently and came away with tender slices, none of the stringy dry texture of the sat-on-the-shelf-too-long roots. Even the stems are tasty to chew on. In short, I played with an entirely new ginger.

Specifically, here are five ways I enjoy fresh Ohio ginger:

1) Candied in honey water - I simmered slices in a light honey syrup and then dried them. These will be perfect sore throat lozenges in the winter.

2) Ginger syrup - Don't waste what's left in the pot when the ginger slices are removed! I mixed the honey ginger syrup with rye whiskey and apple cider vinegar and served in a cinnamon sugar rimmed martini glass for a gingersnap cocktail. Yum!

3) Tops as decor - Ginger greens are spiky, adding interest to an arrangement or on their own.

4) Infused in vodka - you knew I would, right? Ginger flavor infuses in a mere three to four days.

5) Atop soba - This ginger is so fresh that it was a pleasant biting condiment to an umami-rich noodle soup. The amazing orange egg is from Cota farms!

You can pick up some of Joseph's fresh ginger (it's organic too!) from the Swainway booth at the Clintonville Farmer's Market tomorrow and every Saturday until the supply runs out. Or, come see the ginger in its 'natural habitat' at the Movie night & Terra Madre fundraiser at Swainway Urban Farm this Saturday, September 22 at 6:30 pm. I'll be there!

New & Improved Baked Apple {Recipe}

My favorite season is here! I love autumn for chilly mornings, the rainbow of changing leaves, and my birthday. I also love apples, the quintessential fall fruit.

Last night, Lil requested baked apples, a 'dessert' so nutritious that I had to indulge. The only apples we had on hand were the Freedom variety from Sippel Farm. These are tasty red apples but the skins are a little tough. I knew if I baked in my traditional way, the skins would become leathery but I had an inkling that a favorite kitchen gadget might help us out.

Apple Peeler Corer Slicer

Enter the apple peeler corer slicer. This gizmo is one I resisted purchasing for years because it has every marking of a unitasker. Indeed it only works well on apples, but it makes quick work of apples for crisp, jam, and sauce. We use it often enough to justify the $20 cost;  City Folk's Farm Shop has an apple peeler corer slicer to borrow.

Lil loves to operate the peeler, as do her friends. Some of them ask for an 'apple slinky' every time they are over. Even the chickens appreciate this tool because they get to eat up all the skins and cores, so nicely cut into beak-sized pieces.

Baked Apple Recipe

Back to last night - Lil peeled, cored, and sliced our apples. I sat them upright in a baking dish and we filled with a little bit of butter, oats, nuts, and sugar. Lil sprinkled with cinnamon. Actually, Lil covered them in cinnamon as she was so enjoying making the spice rain down on the apples that she forgot to stop. Oops.

They baked in a low oven for an hour while we prepared and ate the rest of our dinner. I tipped the rounds into a spiral for service. Our dinner guests agreed that this was an improvement to the typical baked apple, as pleasing to the eye as to the fork.

Baked Apple Makes: 1 serving Time: 1 hour

1 starchy baking apple per person 1/2 teaspoon butter per person (can substitute coconut oil) 2 teaspoons sugar or honey 1 teaspoon rolled oats 1 teaspoon chopped walnuts or raisins (optional) 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Peel, core, and slice apples. Place with core hole vertical in an oven safe baking dish. 2. Fill core hole with butter, 1 teaspoon sugar, oats, and walnuts or raisins. 3. Sprinkle cinnamon and remaining sugar over the top of the apple. 4. Bake in 300 degree F oven for 40 minutes. Check for doneness by poking at apple. If it does not yield easily, pour 1/2 cup apple cider, hard apple cider, or water into pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake an additional 20 minutes or until apples are cooked to your desired texture.

It's OK To Be Renegade

Do you ever feel like the only jar without a lid? I do. When my kid climbs up the slide, I see the looks from other parents who wouldn't dare let their kid break the 'rules'. I confuse adults when I redirect them to ask my child questions and then listen to her answers because most adults act like kids can't think or speak for themselves. And the opinions about our choice to raise an unschooled, only child? I attract comments like fleece attracts dog hair, even from strangers!

The School For Young Children (SYC), Lil's former preschool where Alex also attended as a child, is one place where I don't feel like the odd duck. SYC teachers agree that children have valid feelings and their words matter. They take time, as we do, to understand and meet kids' needs.

The result of such a system of thought is that kids at SYC of both genders wear tutus, use tools, and go wild with art supplies. They are allowed to play in any way that doesn't hurt people or property.

Children experience conflict amongst each other and learn through resolving disagreements. When SYC kids share or apologize, it is out of genuine expression, not obligation. Parents are encouraged along the way to express their own feelings and grow themselves.

It's OK NOT To Share...

SYC alum Heather Shumaker drew on her experience, and those of SYC teachers who include her mother, to write It's OK NOT To Share...and Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids. This handbook for parents include the child development science behind why it's best to let kids experience conflict and empowerment. Heather's writing won't put you to sleep, though - each chapter is full of immediately useful phrases and situational solutions.

None of the ideas in It's OK NOT to Share are new to me. Our parents raised us with many of these ideals and the rules (though I bristle against the very concept of renegade rules) come naturally to us. The practices Heather outlines are exactly how we have been parenting for almost seven years now. Can you believe Lil will be seven at the end of the month? I can't handle how fast time flies!

What the book gave me was a sense of peace about our renegade parenting. We might feel lonely sometimes, and receive odd looks and comments, but bringing up our daughter as we do is justified. We hope that by empowering her to speak up for herself, to resolve conflicts, and feel her emotions, she will grow up to be competent and compassionate as Heather Shumaker suggests.

I look forward to seeing Heather next week at her reading and book signing at SYC next Wednesday, September 19 at 7 pm. I would love to see you there!

The Great Fruit Fly Experiment

Fruit flies. They are the bane of every person who keeps fresh food in the house, especially those of us who keep produce on the counter.

When we were recently infested, on a day of a house showing no less, I turned to Facebook fans for suggestions. Lil and I chose several techniques to compare in an impromptu science experiment.

Fruit Fly Science Report

by Lil Tayse-Baillieul

Question: Which fruit fly trap works the best?

Process: We put a little wine and soap in a small jar. We also did apple vinegar with soap and covered with plastic wrap. The third thing was put a funnel in with apple vinegar.

We put the three jars out to see which one works the best.

Observations: It took about one hour for the fruit flies to start to get trapped. The red wine had a fruit fly die first. We put bigger holes in the plastic wrap and it started catching flies. The funnel jar didn't have any fruit flies in it.

Alex tried vacuuming up the flies with the Dirt Devil vacuum. It didn't work.

Rachel tried swatting the flies with her hands. It worked but it was hard and slow.

The fruit flies were gone from our kitchen in one day with the traps. The red wine trap had the most flies.

Conclusion: Put red wine and soap in a jar to trap fruit flies.

This is the way unschooling works for us - we have a problem or interest and we investigate together. We don't invest in 'schooly' materials but use what we have on hand. In this case, the fruit fly experiment provided an avenue for us to talk about the scientific method and controlling variables while solving a real and observable problem with things we have on hand.

And now we know - to most efficiently trap fruit flies, leave an open jar of red wine with a little dish soap on the counter.

Homestead Studio, Real Food with Rachel, and more Fall 2012 Events

Announcing the Hounds in the Kitchen Autumn workshop and demo schedule full of flavor and fun!

Homestead Studio

Born from a desire to explore some homesteading concepts in a free-form, playful environment, I put together two series of studio experiences at City Folk's Farm Shop. Lil and I will prepare materials for friends of all ages to manipulate as they wish. The sensory-rich studios will be as fun for a six year old girl as a midlife woman or retiree.

Wool (carding, dying, felting, and weaving) will be held Mondays September 17 – October 1 from 2-3 pm.

DIY Home (cleaning solutions, bath products, and beeswax candles) will be held Mondays November 12 – 26 from 2-3 pm.

Registration is only $20 for three one-hour studios. More details, including how to register, are on the Homestead Studio page.

Real Food with Rachel

Cooks who need a refresher or want to learn how to be less dependent on mixes will enjoy the Real Food with Rachel series at Wild Goose Creative. Set in their open and approachable enviornment, participants will practice whole food cooking skills.

Register for Whole Bird Cooking (October 21), Pies, Sweet & Savory (November 18), or Sauces (December 16) to cook and eat in a fun relaxed space. Classes are held from 3-5 pm on those days and cost $35 each or $90 for the series. Further details and online registration are hosted at the Real Food with Rachel page.

Fall 2012 Special Events

I will teach folks how to Preserve Apples on October 14 and Make Infusions on November 11, both from 3:30 - 5:30 at Franklin Park Conservatory.

The Country Living Fair invited me to present a demo on Making Fresh Cheeses at Home on Friday September 14 at 2 pm at the Ohio Village.

I will host a booth and do a demo at the free Granville Homesteader's Pantry, 1-5 pm at Bryn Du Mansion in Granville on September 16.

Come chat with young farmers and me at the Grow! movie night September 22 at 6:30 pm at Swainway Urban Farm. Tickets are $20, benefitting the 2012 central Ohio Terra Madre delegates. Tickets available at the Swainway booth or coming soon to the Slow Food Columbus website.

Speaking of movies, OEFFA is hosting a free showing of The Future of Food at Studio 35 on September 23 at 2 pm.

I sell mushrooms and microgreens at the Swainway Urban Farm booth at the Clintonville Farmers' Market but on October 20 you'll find me doing double duty offering a Tasting and Food Education Demo at the farmers' market tent.

Email me with questions about these events or suggestions of future opportunities.

Ketchup, For The Good Times {Recipe}

Some preserves are easy, some are drastically cheaper than store-bought, and some are tastier than anything you can buy. Alas, homemade ketchup is none of these things.

So I can't exactly explain why I make it every year.

I suppose I can ketchup because processing all the jars of regular sauce becomes boring. And when I'm in the midst of tomato madness, condensing a little puree with spices isn't any extra trouble - it is, in fact, a welcome chance to do something different.

Last year I improved my ketchup method by cooking the sauce down in a slow cooker. This prevents the bottom from scorching and makes it easy to leave the house or do other chores during the lengthy, oh so lengthy, cooking period.

While ketchup doesn't meet any of my traditional characteristics of a recommended preserve, HITK readers have ask for my recipe. Here it is:

Homemade Ketchup

Makes: approximately 5 pints Time: 12 hours cooking, 30 minutes active

1 teaspoon olive oil 1 whole onion, diced 2 quarts tomato pulp (most easily made with a food strainer and sauce maker tool, or made by stewing tomatoes and running through a manual foodmill to remove skins and seeds.) 1 cup brown sugar or honey 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon garlic powder sachet of whole aromatic spices (your choice of bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves, allspice berries, juniper berries, celery seeds - I use a little of each) 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice per pint

1. Heat a medium sized pot over low heat. Add olive oil and onions. Cook until translucent, approximately 10 minutes. 2. Add onions and remaining ingredients except for lemon juice to a slow cooker*. Turn slow cooker on high and allow to simmer for 3-4 hours. 3. Remove spice sachet and set aside. Puree mixture with an immersion blender. 4. Replace spice sachet and continue to cook for 3-4 hours. Taste (don't burn your tongue!) and adjust salt, pepper, vinegar, or sugar as you see fit. 5. Continue cooking and tasting until tomato is of ketchup consistency. This may take an additional 3-4 hours. 6. Ladle hot ketchup into sterile jars with one half teaspoon lemon juice per pint. Wipe rims, place on two part lids, and process in a water bath for 35 minutes/pints, 40 minutes/quarts. Remove from water bath, cool, and store properly.

*Don't have a slow cooker? Use a medium pot on low heat, uncovered, and stir frequently to be sure the bottom does not burn.

This post, with much respect for the A Prairie Home Companion, brought to you by the Ketchup Advisory Board.

Owl Creek Amish Produce Auction

On Monday, Alex, Lil, and I trekked an hour north of Columbus for three hours of entertainment, education, groceries and snacks for only $16.25. Where was this great amusement? The Owl Creek Produce Auction at 20999 Waterford Rd. Fredericktown, Ohio 43019.

The auction begins with delivery of goods, mostly from Amish farms. The horse carts are unloaded into a large barn and grouped roughly according to lot size. Small lots for homeowners are under the eaves outside of the main building.

Before bidding starts, shoppers are welcome to wander through the offerings. Each bidder requires a number, available for free at the registration desk.

On the day we visited, two auctioneers sold the lots. A microphoned auctioneer, assistant, and recorder worked the big lots while a second set of non-micked men worked the outside smaller lots. The microphoned auctioneer also sold lots directly off the horse-pulled carts from a small tented stand.

The auctioneer described each lot quickly and started bidding. Many lots were split into parts wherein the bid was multiplied by the number of parts the bidder wanted, i.e. a lot of a dozen cabbages were bid on a per-cabbage basis and then multiplied by the number of cabbages the winner chose. A recorder noted the final price and winner bid number. A market manager posts average prices on the Owl Creek Produce Auction Report website.

I held off from bidding for awhile to observe how the auction worked. Lil encouraged me to bid on a lot of small pumpkins which I won for 50 cents a pumpkin, or $6.50 for the lot of 13. As soon as the bidding finishes, the winner can load their lot into their vehicle.

Until we won the pumpkins, Lil was totally confused about what was happening. She wanted to buy and know how much each item was going to cost. We explained that auctions are a good time to use our experience to estimate the value of goods. "How much would you pay?" we asked Lil.

Next, Lil had her eye on mums. The prices were great at $4.50 per gallon pot but the lot sizes were between 4 and 6 pots. I didn't need a lawn full of mums so I passed. I gathered that this week was the first for mums and perhaps in coming weeks the prices will be lower. Lil was sorry that we didn't get any flowers - another good lesson about auctions.

I eyed produce and some of it went for great prices, most notably a whole bushel of sweet banana peppers sold for just $1.00. The growing conditions were not advertised and therefore I wasn't interested in most of it. I prefer, especially for preserving, to use organic produce.

Lil spied a peck of small pears that were obviously chemical free - speckled, bird-pooped-upon, and not at all uniform. I managed to win them for $3.50. When we tasted them in the car on the way home, we discovered what a treat Lil found as the pears are tender and delicious.

The auction was well attended with people of all ages and backgrounds. Most of the buyers were non-Amish. Some seemed to be purchasing for small businesses while others were home cooks like myself. Several times I felt over-crowded but fresh air was only a few steps away.

We wandered away to look at new lots coming in and admire the horses. We ordered a reasonably priced but not Amish-made snack from a food stand behind the barn. Portable restrooms were available.

When we tired and were ready to go home, we took our bidder number back to the registration desk. Through a paper check system, the cashier quickly pulled up our lot prices and took our payment.

If you go:

• Bring cash or check, or maybe just cash if you don't want to get caught over-buying.
• Have an idea in mind of what you might like or need - it's easy to want to bid on something you don't need just because it's a good deal.
• Bring a water bottle, hat, and a portable chair if you want one.
• Though I didn't see anyone eating food brought from home, there seem to be very few rules and I'm sure you could eat in your car at the very least.
• Know that lots continue to come throughout the day, so being at the barn promptly at starting time is not necessary.
• Consider bringing a crate to contain any loose items in your trunk on the way home.
• Be cautious if you bring your youngin' - you might come home with thirteen pumpkins and a box of pears.

Owl Creek Produce Auction 20999 Waterford Rd. Fredericktown, Ohio 43019 740-627-1660 Monday – 11:00 am, Wednesday- 10:00 am, Friday- 9:00 am through the end of October

Warning: Don't Cook Distracted

If you were busy last week with volunteer work, house showings, and homeschooling,

and a family you know loses a child to SIDS,

and you're powering through pounds of tomatoes because they're ready for canning,

while also baking cookies for said family,

watch out for immersion blender blades and

hot stove racks.

You just might cut and burn yourself.

Don't Cook Distracted.

This message brought to you by Agent P.