Book Review of "The Backyard Homestead"

The Backyard Homestead edited by Carleen Madigan is a 366 page guide to growing and raising food in small spaces.

Storey publishing produces books geared toward a country lifestyle. Madigan used her experiances with Storey in order to create a beautiful manual toward those who wish to grow some of their own food.

The Backyard Homestead is based around a 1/4 acre backyard. While this is extremely large for some yards, for those in the country or on a homestead 1/4 acre is quite small. However, many of the ideas elaborated in The Backyard Homestead can easily be scaled up if necessary.

The book is divided into chapters that make sense for someone looking at raising food.

The first chapter of the book is on the Vegetable Garden. This section gives ideas on the yields of different plants, as well as information on how deep to plant, and the spacing that individual garden plants need. Madigan gives sample garden plans and example crop rotations. information on container gardening, and the manufacture of hot beds, cold frames and trellises is also provided.

After the general information about the garden, she focuses individual vegetables giving information on the varieities and how to use individual vegetable types.

The next chapter focuses on fruits and nuts. Madigan looks at fruit ranging from small fruit to full size fruit trees. She gives recommended varieties for various climate zones. She also provides pruning advice and storage times for various fruits.

In this section Madigan also gives instructions for wines, ciders, and vinegars. This gives ideas for broadening the types of food and flavors that someone can get from their small homestead.

Nuts is the second half of this section. While the section is not anywhere as large or indepth as the fruit section, Madigan does give a few ideas for different kinds of nuts that can be grown in a small space.

The next chapter of the book focuses on herbs. Herbs are extremely important to someone growing their own food as plants which take up a very small space can make a huge impact when added to the food. Madigan gives ideas on preserving herbs, and provides a list of "32 essential herbs". These herbs are both culinary and medicinal, and there are ideas for their uses both inside and outside the kitchen.

Chapter 4 is on homegrown grains. Grains are one of the last things that someone would probably think of growin in their backyard. However, Madigan provides the amount to plant and the expected harvest for 1000 sq. ft and for the acre. She provides ideas on varities to plant, as well as ideas on using your homegrown grains. Bread and Beer making are also covered in this section.

After the grains, Madigan begins to investigate the animals that can be raised on a micro-homestead. The first chapter on animals is on poultry. Madigan looks at both meat and egg breeds of chickens, as well as turkeys, ducks and geese. Madigan gives information on butchering and preparing poultry.

Chapter 6 is on Meat and Dairy. In this chapter Madigan looks at Goats, Sheep, Cattle and Sheep. She gives information on finding good milkers, and on varieties of animal and their main uses. Madigan also covers the raising of rabbits for meat. Between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, almost any animal that can be raised on a full sized farm can be raised on a backyard homestead and Madigan shows you how.

In this Chapter Madigan gives information on butchering, sausagemaking, and smoking the meat. She also gives information on making cheese, butter, yogurt and icecream from the dairy products provided.

The last chapter of the book focuses on food from the wild. This section begins with beekeeping, and goes through edible wild plants, and even how to make your own maple syrup.

Madigan gives a list of resources broken down by chapter, making it easy to find tools and more information. In this section she also gives information on climate zones and even on laws regarding raising chickens within the limits of various U.S. cities.

Overall the book is great for anyone looking at growing some of their own food. The book is however, a very general overview in any particular section, and while this book is great as a general guide, it does not provide information that is in depth enough for someone who is really dedicated to any one aspect of the book.

Two of the main benefits of the book are its beautiful illustrations which show everything from garden designs through poultry breeds. The other great part of the book is the small side panels which give more information, or give tips that may be useful for the reader.

This is definately a book for anyone looking to grow some of their own food.

Live a hands on life,

http://www.uncommonskills.com/

The book can be found at www.uncommonskills.com/baho3.html

Book Review of Landscaping with Fruit by Lee Reich

Who wouldn't want to have a beautiful landscape that was as productive as it was pretty. This is what Landscaping with Fruit is all about.

At 192 pages, Reich provides a substantial amount of information at the fingertips of the reader about choosing varieties to plant, both for aesthetic reasons, and for the fruit that they provide.

The first part of the book provides garden plans, with ideas on how an edible landscape can be laid out. These garden plans provide practical advice on how small shrubs and bushes can be used as hedges, while larger trees can be used as speciman trees in a landscape.

Reich also provides list of trees and bushes with their planting zones, parts used, yield, and best features for an edible landscape. This is great for those who are designing an edible landscape as it provides easy to access information in a list form, and quickly rules out species not adaptable to the particular area being landscaped.

The second part of the book focuses on individual plant types. This is the in depth version of the lists provided previously. Reich looks at each plant type individually and makes notes on how and where best to grow it, how to prune it, what the yields and uses may be, and generally makes a small chapter devoted to each plant.

On the whole, the book is well illustrated, with some splendid photographs. Reich investigaes both common and rare fruit varieities and does so in a way that anyone can understand and take advantage of the edible landscaping ideas.

The book can be found at www.uncommonskills.com/lawifr.html

Live a hands on life

www.uncommonskills.com

Acorn Flour

Have you ever seen the mess that the squirrels leave and wondered if people could eat acorns too?

Well acorns have been used as food for thousands of years. However, like a lot of foods, they require a bit of processing before you can really enjoy them. Acorns are most often used to produce a type of flour, which can then be used to make breads, cakes, and pastries.

The first thing that you should be aware of if you are going out to harvest acorns is to harvest acorns from white oaks, and not from red oaks. White oaks have rounded leaves, while red oaks have points on their leaves. The reason you want acorns from white oaks is because they have much much less tannin in them and will be easier to process.

What is tannin? Tannin is a substance that makes your mouth pucker and is extremely bitter. If you eat large amounts of it, it can cause an upset stomach. Think of when you let your tea sit too long and it becomes puckering, that is tannin.

So we have already claimed that white oak has less tannin, but most white oak acorns still have enough tannin to make them unpleasent to eat. So what can you do. Well, you can leach the tannin out.

First you want to get a large supply of white oak acorns. Most people do not use acorns, and some find them annoying and messy, so all you usually have to do is ask if you can pick up some acorns. You want fresh acorns, although not green ones. You also want to be on the look out for holes. There is a grub that loves to eat acorns, and acorns with holes in them are likely to be completely eaten inside.

Then you want to take your supply of acorns and place them in an low temperature oven for a few minutes to an hour. You don't want to actually cook the acorns, what you are doing is allowing them to dry out a little bit to make them easier to handle. If you want you can leave them in a dry place for a week or so and you should get the same effect.

Next you want to get at the meat of the acorn. Alot of sites recommend cutting the acorns open. This is an effective way of getting at the meat because the shells are not very thick. However, being round, the acorns tend to roll one way or the other and you can cut yourself. So I recommend a hammer and lightly tapping the acorns. It won't take a lot of force to break the acorn, and if you cannot get the meat out, you can cut with a flat surface to help.

The acorns of white oak should be white, with a brown skin that easily comes off or even may stay in the shell. There is a good chance that you will find some acorns with grubs, you can easily throw these away. The grubs trails are dark and are easily visible against the white acorn.

Now that you have your white acorns ready, it is time to leach out the tannin. You can chop the acorns into small pieces or use a food processor to pulverize them into a rough flour. The reason is that the more surface area there is, the more quickly the tannin will be removed.

There are two main ways to remove the tannin, one is be boiling, the other is by drip leaching.

If you choose boiling, you set two pots of water on the stove and bring both to a boil, add the acorns to pot one and when the water turns brown, remove the acorns and switch them to the second pot. Empty the water from the first pot, refill and bring to a boil again. Keep repeating this process until you have clear water at which point all the tannins have been removed. Do not rinse with cold water or put the acorns in cold water and then bring to a boil, the cold will bind the tannins to the acorns making it very difficult or impossible to remove them.

Drip leaching is a bit less involved. Take a container and make a few holes in the bottom. Place the acorn pieces in the container. Cover with water, and slowly turn on a faucet to just keep the acorn pieces covered. Continue until the water running out runs clear, usually a couple hours, but it could be overnight.

At the end of either of these processes, place the pieces on in a pan, and return to the oven on low for an hour or so. This will dry out the pieces enough to make a good fine flour out of them. I find that acorn flour tastes like a mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds with a little bit of sweetness. The flour can be used in place of part of the flour used in baking breads, muffins, cakes, etc.

A recipe from an article by Barbara Sykes in "The Forager" follows

Acorn Bread

Mix 1 cup of ground acorn meal with 3 teaspoons baking powder, a tsp of salt, 3 tablespoons of sugar or honey, and a cup of flour. Sepearetly to a beaten egg and a cup of milk add 3 tablespoons of oil. Stir this gently into the dry mix then pour into a well greased pan. Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes.

For more on acorns and their use as food check out

www.pnga.net/acorn.html

http//www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/clay79.html

http//www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1988-09-01/A-Fall-Field-Guide-to-Nuts.aspx

Live a hands on life,

http://www.uncommonskills.com/

Beer School #3 Adjuncts

Adjuncts are any grain that is not malted but is used in brewing.

Each of the adjunct grains will be dealt with individually with what beer styles they are used in and what they contribute to the beer itself.

Wheat-

Wheat is used in a variety of beer styles, sometimes as a "head grain". Head grains are grains that improve the head retention in beers, and because wheat is full of protein it is perfect for creating a rich and flothy head on all sorts of beers. The beer often has a haze to it from the high level of proteins and many wheat beers are unfiltered, meaning the yeast is still present.

Wheat does add its own flavor to beer, and will add a characteristic that I think of as bready or doughy. This character is most notable in American style hefeweizens like Boulevard's unfiltered wheat. Besides american style hefeweizen, the German style hefeweizen (Konig Ludwig) is heavily reliant on wheat. These beers use a yeast strain which creates the wonderful flavors of clove, banana or bubble gum is a drinkable summer beer. Wit beer (Celis Wit) is another beer that needs wheat to exist, it is often brewed with spices like coriander and orange peel.

Oats-

Oats are used as a head grain in some beers, but really come into their own in oatmeal stout. Oats add an increased mouthfeel, making any beer with oats in it seem smooth and silky in the mouth. It seems historically that oats were a large portion of the mash bill in medieval beers. I have been warned that too much oats in a beer lends an unpleasent grainy bitterness. Perhaps this was used to counter the sweetness of malt before hops came into wide use.

Rye-

Rye is a grain that adds a phenolically or spicy character to brews. It is needed for the German beer style "Rogenbier" which melds the spicyness of rye with the clove and banana flavors of hefeweizen.

Corn and Rice-

I lumped Corn and Rice together because they are mainly used for the same reason, as adjuncts that lighten the body and the flavor of a beer. These are used mainly in American style pilsners (Budweiser, Coors, Miller) to make a light bodied and light flavored drink.

There are many other grains used as adjuncts in brewing, but mostly in small regional styles, and none as widely as these adjuncts.

www.uncommonskills.com

Making Crab Apple Jelly

Crab Apples are a part of nearly any city. These trees are planted for their unique foliage and beautiful blossoms. It is a shame that so many people think of the crab apples themselves as little more than a nuisance.

The upside to so many people not using the fruit themselves is that they will often let you scour their trees as well as any you might be so lucky to have. This was my first attempt at Crab Apple Jelly and I would like to thank Suite 101 ( http://fall-recipes.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_make_crab_apple_jelly ) for the recipe that I used as my starting point. I changed the recipe slightly however.

The recipe I used was

9 cups crabapples

Zest of 1 small lemon

3 cups sugar

Clean the crabapples removing any unusable apples, along with stems and leaves. Cut the crab apples in half if they are small, or quarters if they are very large. This will allow the most flavor to be extracted from the crab apples. Place into a pot, and add water until you can see it, but not to the point that the apples float. Add the lemon zest. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain through a cheesecloth and strainer saving the liquid. You will have about 4 cups of liquid remaining. If you press the apples in the strainer, you will have a cloudy jelly.

Return the liquid to the heat and bring to a boil for about 3 minutes. Add the sugar. Heat until the liquid is 220 degrees F. Pour into sterilized jars and seal the jars in a water bath.

Out of 9 cups of roughly cut crabapples, I made approximately 1 and 1/2 pints of jelly once some of the liquid had evaporated.

Here are the crabapples and lemon zest. I used mostly an orange yellow crabapple with a few very small dark purple crabapples. I do not know the varieties, but the yellow seemed to be a bit sweeter.

Here is the liquid after extracting the juice. A bit cloudy and a pale pink, I reheated it to boiling and then added the sugar.

The finished Jelly in jars. Notice how much darker the color became. This is my first expirament with jelly making and I am extremely please with the results. The color is gorgeous and the flavor is like a sweet apple, with enough tartness to make it interesting.

I hope that you all enjoyed my little jelly making adventure.

www.uncommonskills.com

Beer School Part 2 The King of Beer Grains

In my last Beer School entry I said that this time I would focus on different grains used in beers and brewing.

This is a little like saying that a blog would focus on how grapes affect wine. Grains are integral to brewing, and beer itself would not exist without them.


Beer has been known as "liquid bread" and that is essentially what it is. Both bread and beer go through many of the same processes to arrive at very similar ends. Just as a brilliant baker has both art and science to use in pursuit of great bread, so a brilliant brewer uses both in pursuit of amazing beer.

Barley-


The first grain that we will look at is Barley, the undisputed king of brewing grains. Barley is a short season grain that grows well even in northern climates. This is part of the reason that beer is predominately in cooler climates than wine which needs warmer climates for the grapes. Barley in its raw form is still attached to its husk and is difficult to seperate from it. This makes it less pleasent to eat, and is the reason that barley for eating is often "pearled" or has the husk removed. However, the husk of barley is indespensible for making a good beer.



Barley is first malted in order to be made into beer. Essentially, malting is sprouting the grain, and then drying or roasting to stop the sprout. This allows all of the enzymes to form which convert starch into sugar, but does not allow the plant to use up the sugars. Depending on the roasting process after malting, you can arrive at vastly different colors and flavors of barley malt.



The first of these is base malts. Base malts are so named because they are the foundation for nearly any beer. These malts are dried at very low temperatures so as not to change their color. They provide most of the sugars (that are then turned to alcohol) in any given beer, and provide malty sweetness. Base malts will often create a pale yellow beer.



Next come kilned malts. Kilned malts are roasted at a slightly higher temperature for longer. While still contributing a yellow color (in most cases) kilned malts often have more forward flavors and aromas than base malts. They may contribute toasty, nutty, or graham cracker aromas and flavors to a beer.



Next are caramel malts. In caramel malts, the sugar conversion happens at the maltster prior to the roasting. The roasting then causes caramelization of the sugars. These malts will add a red or orange color to a beer. Their flavors range from toasty, to caramelly sweet, all the way through to dark fruit or raisiny flavors.



The dark malts are the last of the colored malts. These malts are used in small amounts to give a dark color to a beer. In addition to the color, these malts will add dark chocolate, roasty, or coffee notes to a beer. Too much dark malt can contribute an unpleasent astringancy to a beer.



Last are the dextrin malts. These malts are created in such a way as to have a large amount of maltodextrin, a non-fermentable sugar. While these malts add their own sugars, flavors and aromas to a beer, their primary contribution is to body or mouthfeel. Without dextrin malts, some beers would taste too thin for their flavors.



As you can see, Barley alone can create a huge variety of beers. Barley varieties and maltsters can create variations even in the same category. For this reason, brewers often use the same suppliers for their malt, as a variation in supplies is often a variation in the finished product.

Some specific varieties of barley are even named so that brewers may find the barley variety even after it has been malted. Golden Promise is an example of this. This barley hails from Scotland and the UK and has a light malty flavor, with a good grainy sweetness. It differs enough from other varieties that it is worth finding for brews that require its particular characteristics.

In the next installment of Beer School, we will look at adjunct grains and sugars that add their own characters to the beer.

http://www.uncommonskills.com/

For more information on beer and brewing grains I highly recommend

How to Brew by John Palmer
www.uncommonskills.com/howtobrew.html

Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher
www.uncommonskills.com/radicalbrewing.html

Eyewitness Beer
www.uncommonskills.com/beereyewitness.html

and Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher
www.uncommonskills.com/tasting-beer.html

A little bit about herbs

My yard is not very big.

Something I realized when we moved in was that the neighbors oak tree makes it even smaller. But one great thing about herbs is that they are small but mighty. A small amount of herbs can change a dish from ordinary to amazing.

The first things that I planted in the yard was mint. Now mint is the perfect herb for beginners. It is nearly impossible to kill, and the only care that it really needs is to make sure that it is not spreading too far. I built a raised bed with different sections for my mint, because I have a variety of different kinds.

Chocolate mint and Peppermint, close relatives of eachother grow side by side. Chocolate mint smells almost exactly like peppermint with a musky dark chocolate note to it as well. Then comes my favorite, eu de cologne or orange mint. This mint has beautiful round leaves and a subtle, not overpowering, mint aroma. It really does smell like it could have oranges in that aroma.

Then come Spearmint, Gingermint, and Applemint. While they are not my favorites, all of these are wonderful to have if just for the variety. Ginger and Apple mint make particularly good bath salts.

One warning about mints, they do have a tendancy to spread. I have divided my bed with wood dividers and they have found ways around it, and in some cases, have even pushed through it. Keep that in mind when planting mint.

Now my different mint plants have a variety of uses. Bath salts are simple to make, rock salt and mint are layered with each other, and then left to sit for a month. A little Epsom salt can be added for good measure. In addition to that, with a few mint plants you will find an endless supply of dried and fresh mint, as well as mint for teas (what I usually use it for).

Next I have my chives. Chives provide a mild onion flavor, and grow back when clipped. Chives also provide a lovely flower in the spring time. The Pink flowers are edible and can also be used to create a beautiful pink chive vinegar.

Next year I plan to plant garlic chives next to my chive bed. Garlic chives are similar to chives in that they provide a subtle onion garlic flavor to dishes. They are flat like grass rather than round like onions and chives, and have white flowers.

I have the Mediterranean garden in a sunny dry spot. This garden has lavendar, thymes and lemon balm. Thymes are like mints in that different varieties can smell massively differently. French thyme and lemon thyme are the two that I use the most. Lavendar is not often considered an herb for cooking, but as long as you have "English" style lavendars they have their own place in the kitchen. A great lavendar aroma and a slight bitterness can be added to a variety of foods, but shortbread cookies are the traditional way to eat lavendar. Lemon balm provides a lemon scent to tea and bath salts, and grows profusely.

The backyard garden has basil, oregano, tarragon, salad burnett, and sorrell. Basil can grow profusely and the trick is to keep picking off the flowers so that more leaves are formed. Tarragon can only be grown from roots or plants, as French Tarragon is the herb that you want to use, Russian Tarragon can be grown from seed but the flavor is not good at all. Salad Burnett is a pretty little plant with scalloped leaves. It tastes nutty with a hint of cucumber. It makes a useful addition to herb butters and to salads. Sorrell is another herb that can be used to add acidity to any dish.

The potted herbs are next. I have bay, rosemary, sage, and lemon verbena in pots because they must come in for the winter hear in Kansas. Bay forms a regal tree and will keep producing bay leaves that taste better than anything you can buy in the store. Bay tolerates very dry weather and seems to keep growing stronger. Tuscan Blue rosemary creates an upright bushy plant with wonderful rosemary flavor. I find a lot of rosemary has a flavor that is too intense or too resinous. Tuscan blue is subtle and pleasent. Rosemary also resist drought, and so makes a good plant for areas with hot dry summers.

Sage is the essential poultry herb. In addition to flavouring poultry and stuffing, it can be added to sausage to give its flavor. A careful hand is needed when you add sage as there is a fine line between just enough and way too much.

The last herb is lemon verbena. Lemon verbena is a tropical herb that smells exactly like lemon dum dums. I am not kidding. The aroma is sweet and lemony, and makes a wonderful addition to tea. Lemon verbena also keeps its aroma when dried and can be used to give a sweet lemon flavor to dishes like chicken and fish. I use my lemon verbena as a water meter. It requires more water than most, so when it is starting to look dry, everything gets a dose of water. Lemon verbena comes back wonderfully from being dry to perking right up.

My small yard provides me plenty of herbs for cooking and tea without much effort on my part. Whether in a yard or in pots, fresh herbs will help inspire you to cook in a whole new way.

www.uncommonskills.com