When the News Gets You Down...Preserve Greens for the Winter

Our dystopian world of end-stage capitalism feels heavier every day.  I feel helpless when I read about families being torn apart and mistreated by our ICE turned gestapo.  While I am listening to a good podcast that is doing a Constitution Breakdown, I still can’t make heads or tails of what checks on power could possibly help this political nightmare.  So against my instinct, I turn inward.  I try to focus on what I can control and how I can make my tiny space in the world better.  Today that means preserving greens so that my family has healthy food to eat this winter.  Tomorrow that means going to our school garden for our fall work day, which hopefully will help bring healthy food to others in our community.  Everyday it means strengthening our connections with each other.  

Today the weather finally felt like Fall.  Even though it is the middle of October, we have had mostly sweltering heat until now.  But this weekend, the air is crisp and cool.  Our giant pumpkins are piling up in front (and back!) of our house, and my husband finished planting his fall crop of garlic.  Hopefully I can use up the 300 bulbs he harvested this spring by the time the new crop is ready!

My generous sister volunteered to take our kiddos to our town’s Fall Fest, so we had a half day to attend to garden and house chores.  First on the list is always planning my sourdough baking.  How is my starter doing?  Is it ready to mix up the dough?  Should I mix up a boule, sandwich bread, rolls, or something else?  Do I need to take my fermenting loaf out to bake?  Do I have too much discard, and if so, should I make the discard crackers that my family loves so much?  Once the daily sourdough schedule is set it will be interspersed throughout the day.  I make a mental note to leave my starter out on the counter so I don’t forget to feed it before bed.

The next time sensitive chore is to preserve some Ethiopian Kale that my husband grew a ton of.  I think it is a little more tender and mild than “regular” kale, but it works just the same in all of my favorite winter recipes.  Last year I didn’t preserve greens, and I really regretted it. I had delicious onions, garlic, potatoes, squash, and beans to make a myriad of dishes, but I didn’t have any homegrown greens.  I am hoping to preserve at least one pint jar of kale per week for November-February, which comes out to 17 jars.  But really two per week would be better!

I stripped the kale leaves off the fibrous stems while sitting outside enjoying the sunny crisp day and chatted with my husband about garden planning for next year.  Once all the leaves were all stripped, I brought them inside and washed them thoroughly in a giant colander.  I rough chopped manageable piles, first chopping one way, then turning the pile 90 degrees and chopping again.

After I brought a stockpot of water to a boil, I salted it and added my first batch of kale with a spider strainer.  I set the timer for 3 minutes.  I got an ice bath ready while I waited.  When the timer went off, I fished all of the kale out of the water and put it into the ice bath to stop the cooking process.  I started blanching the next batch of kale for 3 minutes.  While I waited for the second batch of kale to blanch, I transferred my cooked kale to another strainer and squeezed out all of the water that I could, handful by handful.  Finally I transferred it to a sheet tray that was covered with a cotton dish towel.  

When my second batch finished blanching, I repeated the process of ice bath, squeezing out water, and finally putting it on the table.  Once all 5 batches of kale were blanched, they were all on the towel on the cookie sheet.  I put another cotton towel on top and rolled the towels up and squeezed to get out any remaining water.  Afterwards I unrolled the towel, I loosened up the kale so that it wasn’t in clumps.

Finally I filled up 7 pint jars with the kale, put a lid on them, and used masking tape to label them with the date and item name.  They will join the other two jars I blanched while I was making dinner earlier in the week.  That leaves at least 8 more jars of kale to get to my goal of 19 (but the more the better!).  My husband says we will have two more harvests before winter, but I don’t know if they will be as big. 

Meanwhile, I talked my husband into making the squash/kale/farro soup for tonight so I have a break from cooking.  He is boiling sun flower seeds.  He is also preparing to make his experimental squash jerky, which makes me nervous because I can’t imagine what it will be like…but we will see.  Between all of that, he got a free mulch chip drop from a neighbor that was trimming trees.  These will make more paths throughout our garden, and they didn’t have to haul them away, using fossil fuels to dispose of them.

I am making my list for tomorrow (or sometime this week!).  I have to make sure everyone has mittens, boots, snowpants, coats, and hats that fit.  I also need to roast my first pumpkin this year.  We have got more pumpkins than brains around here for sure.  I can’t control every corner of the world, but I can help this corner be more self-sufficient, cooperative, and caring for one another.

Blog Post Title Two

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.