Finger Lakes Fresh - a meal made with many hands

For a weekend last month (August 22-24), I was blessed to spend a few days at a beautiful Girl Scout Camp in the Finger Lakes of NY at CAMP CEO 2014. To say the Finger Lakes is not specific enough – the place, Camp Comstock, is on a gorgeous piece of land just North of Ithaca, on the West side of Cayuga Lake. 

Vanilla Infused Sugar

A few weeks back, I had finished bottling homemade vanilla extract (see May 3^rd, 2014 post). I was left with all the spent beans. I could not even fathom throwing them away or composting them – what to do?

Vanilla  Infused Sugar – of course!

I dried the beans on a baking tray at 170°F (the lowest my oven goes otherwise I would have gone lower) for about 60 minutes.





Next I scraped the tiny vanilla bean specks (I have heard this

called vanilla caviar) into a 5 pound jar of white granular sugar. I put the dried beans into my food processer and chopped them up a bit as well. I added these to sugar. I left the sugar to get infused for about 2.5 weeks, shaking the container every few days to keep it nicely mixed up.

The best part was packaging it. I chose wide mouth pint Ball canning jars from their Elite Series. Ooo Laa Laa – they note that the Elite Series is ideal for ‘your signature creations including flavored mustards, savory dressings, fruit-filled jams, dipping sauces and luscious chutneys’. I would add ‘and vanilla infused sugar’ to their list! 

When I have seen vanilla sugar at specialty shops it is always in nice packaging. I wanted aesthetically pleasing and practical packaging (as in ‘let me get a spoonful or a scoopful easily’ packaging).

To prepare the sugar for going in the jar, I removed the large bean pod pieces but sifting the sugar in a colander. This left the sugar with vanilla specks for the final product and kept the larger harder bean pod pieces separate and later, discarded.

One 5 pound bag of sugar filled 7 and ½ of my jars. Now the extra fun part – using it (I put a spoonful in my coffee this morning) and gifting it.

As with almost any culinary adventure, there are many more folks trying the same things and sharing them on their own blogs. For inspiration I checked out my old favorite blog the kitchn and a new favorite one Love, Pomegranate House.

The whole process was quick – the longest part was the 2-3 weeks of infusing – but like all of us, I had plenty to do while it quietly and effortlessly did its infusing. 

All I had to do was create the space and then back away and let it happen. A lesson with larger applications in life!

Sweet greetings,

Katie

Brewing & Bottling Vanilla Extract

homemade vanilla extract: brewed, bottled and ready for use

Back near Christmas I wanted to make and bottle my own vanilla extract to give as gifts. Mostly because I like to give useful gifts, homemade a bonus, and secretly, or not so - I can't stand imitation flavors. This was one way I could make the world a better place and improve my friend's chocolate chip cookies too. Oh, and good real vanilla extract is not cheap. I did not start in time to give as gifts, so I simply started the process at that time - which has worked out well because this has been a no stress experience.

I followed some tips I found online, but mostly from a post in one of my favorite blogs - the kitchn. Here is a link to their post and recipe.

Vodka, beans, bottles, caps and patience - and voila!

For my vanilla extract project I modified as follows:

I used vodka (maybe next time I will try rum or bourbon) because I wanted a neutral alcohol that would not compete with the vanilla bean.

I chose Madagascar beans. 

Amber bottles getting filled.

I chose threaded amber glass bottles with caps. This part was especially fun for me because I LOVE pharmaceutical grade bottles (I used to sell them and know a lot more about screw threads, glass types, forming process than I let on). 

My bottles happen to be threaded and molded and I bought them from Amazon. Conveniently they came with caps. 

So easy.

See all the goodies those 'kitchenhose' caught! 

Another modification from my kitchen was 'extrasupport' pantyhose to strain my extract. Cheese cloth and coffee filters work too but I wanted my strainer material to cling to the mouth of my canning jar so pouring it and straining it would be a breeze, and it worked like a charm! 

(I call this secret kitchen tool my 'kitchenhose' and it lives in my baking drawer). In the photo you can see how well it worked to get the particles out of the liquid as I strained.

All ready for  labeling

All that is left is to make some cute tags and decide who to gift them to. 

I also need to remember that results will be better - and darker - if I store the container in the dark while it is doing its thing. 

One fifth of vodka filled 12 - 4 ounce bottles.

You can read a lot more about vanilla here. 

Now, I have all these spent vanilla beans and I can't just throw them into the compost! Next project: vanilla infused sugar. 

Tilling the Winter Webs

till [v] - To prepare (land) for the raising of crops, as by plowing and harrowing; cultivate

I don't know about you, but I love quotes. As part of my garden prep - which is as much a physical body preparation activity as it is a heart and soul prepping one - I spend a  lot of time mentally preparing for it. Tilling the weeds in my brain, if you will. 

As part of my own prep, I love to read quotes to get perspective from other gardeners and growers through the years, as gardening is by no means a new activity for us humans. 

Here are 12 of my recent favorite gardening quotes to help you clear your winter webs and make space for sowing the seeds of your own garden(s). 


Life's a garden, dig it and you make it work for you -- Joe Dirt

However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 'she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow' -- Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

My garden is my beautiful masterpiece -- Claude Monet

A garden should make you feel you have entered privileged space -- a space not just set apart but reverberate  -- and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer to poetry -- Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education

Plants want to grow; they are on your side as long as you are reasonably sensible -- Anne Wareham

To dream a garden and then plant it is an act of independence and even defiance to the greater world -- Stanley Crawford, A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm

We gardeners are healthy, joyous, natural creatures. We are practical, patient, optimistic. We declare our optimism every year, every season, with every act of planting -- Carol Deppe, The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times

Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the flowers, kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden and keep out the weeds. Fill it with sunshine, kind words & kind deeds -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Faith sees a beautiful blossom in a bulb, a lovely garden in a seed, and a giant oak in an acorn -- William Arthur Ward


What are your favorite quotes about gardening to add?

Springing my mind back to garden mode (with a list)

There are little snowdrops blooming in my garden today. I took a walk around the yard, was smiling to see just one little snow patch left to melt. It got me thinking of all the things I want to remember from what I learned LAST year, in my first year ‘turn my front yard into a garden’ adventure.

1    1.      Keep a journal. It will make making such a list much easier. In reality, I captured a lot of the garden learning in photos. I still want to keep a log of things, to ease the strain on my brain.
2.       Plant the things you really liked and don’t worry about the other stuff. For me, it is really all about the tomatoes. Last year in a 4’ x 8’ bed I grew more than 450 tomatoes, in 8 varieties. It was the pride of my summer. I also love to grow (and eat!) swiss chard, beans, basil, rosemary, leeks, carrots, lettuces, and brussel sprouts and a big container of mint. I will try to grow squash again, although mine caught bugs and fungus and were gone too quick last year. I will skip cauliflower, kale and broccoli.
3.       I have always loved old cotton sheets, the kind that have little birds or flowers embroidered on them, and always feel cool to your cheek on a summer night. Well, those sheets, once wor n and tattered make one of my favorite garden tools – cotton strips for tying plants. Especially in my tomato bed, I love to see all the strips blowing in the breeze amongst the green of the plants and the red & yellow of the fruit.
4.       Talk about the food we eat at our family dinner table – it is interesting to talk about where our food comes from and my family is proud and happy of the food we grow and the food we get from our farm share and our city farmers market.
5.       Share. I think I have this one down, but like the reminder. Share the food, share the fun, share the knowledge. Share my enthusiasm.
6.       Move a table to the front yard for al fresco dinners in the garden. We have a back yard table where we ate at a lot last year, but I want to have coffee, breakfast and snacks in the front yard garden too. This is a big lesson learned for me that I am excited to implement.
7.       Find a way to count and predict and celebrate. Maybe we will make guesses to how many tomatoes we will grow this year, or what will be ready by someone’s visit or birthday? Maybe we will guess how many local meals we can make between June and September. Maybe we will host a pot-local luck garden dinner…endless opportunities.

How about you, what garden lessons will you take with you into your Garden2014?

What and Who is Cook it Katie?

Welcome to Cook it Katie.

Cook it Katie is a place when I will share my adventures in 

growing, harvesting, cooking, canning and more.

I turned my front yard into a garden and dove into an adventure in dirt, seeds and plants, cooking, canning, and embracing all food local. 

For me you can't get more local than right outside your front door.

Join me as I share what I see, smell, taste, cook, drink and learn on my daily adventure. 

Who is Cook it Katie?

It is me, I am Katie - a self-taught front yard gardener and lover of all things local. I live in the Finger Lakes area of New York and love gardening, cooking, baking, traveling, sharing ideas,  creating community and hugs. Some of my favorite ingredients are butter, rosemary, basil, fresh mozzarella and tomatoes, lemons and leeks.