Prepping for the Months Ahead. . .

Yes, I know.  The average person hears the word "prepping" or the term "prepper", and the first thing that comes to mind is that semi-unstable guy down the road with a basement full of canned goods and water jugs and the tendency to dig holes in his yard at odd hours of the night.  This is not about anything like that.  Though I do advocate having a store of non-perishable foods for emergencies, all we're going to talk about tonight is keeping yourself in tomatoes and veg for the year.

When you have a large family, groceries take up an enormous chunk of your monthly budget.  With all the soups, stews, and pastas we make, it is truly staggering just to think of the amount of tomatoes my family consumes in a year.  This is why I garden.  Let's face it, quality produce is sometimes hard to come by.  Either produce was picked to soon, so as not to ripen before reaching its destination, or it arrives in a little sad shape to the grocery store.  Some items can even be off the trees for nearly a year before reaching the grocers' shelves, spending most of its life in cold storage, or what not.  This is not to rag on commercial growers--they're doing what they need to do in order to ensure the crop remains sellable when it hits the store.  I'm just saying that it's not always the best when it arrives.

That's what makes local farmers' markets such a wonderful thing.  Many farmer's markets are stocked with locally grown produce and some domestically grown items (meaning they shipped things in that can't be easily grown in that area).  These market are usually run by one or two people you can actually get to know well enough to get the lowdown on everything they sell.  Some other types of markets look the same, but will only have one or two "local" items, and the rest of the stock is shipped in from all over the planet.  You can still get some good produce, but pay attention to labeling.

 The absolute best produce to have is, of course, your own.  Today, I ventured into my greenhouse for the first time since the snow flew, taking stock of seeds I had left out for the winter temperatures to set, and looking over the onions that I had left to go dormant.  It is the second week of April and we are still looking at the possibility of snow on the Copper Island, though the temperatures should be steadily increasing over the course of the week.  The itch to garden is becoming maddening!

Were I still down home, my garden would already be tilled, as the Kentucky Derby heralded the start of the planting season.  Up in the hinterlands, there is no telling when winter will let go of you, plus the threat of frost is real up to and sometimes through June.  With such a stunted growing season, you have to do what you can to artificially extend summer for your plants.

The first step is, of course, to make a plan for the season.  It's more than just putting some seeds in the ground and standing back; you have to work for it.  Whether you have acres to till, or just a postage stamp-sized yard, you have to figure out where things are going to go, and when.  Do you till a row for potatoes, or do you put in a spud box between the privacy fence and the central air unit?  What about frost?  Which plants will survive and which ones need more coddling?  I always begin the cycle with the plants that we depend upon the most:  tomatoes and peppers.  I'll plant seeds in starter trays to get the jump on the warm weather.  When they've reached a good transplant size, I'll put them in tilled soil (usually, the snow has abated by then) or in planters.  As long as the threat of frost exists, I have a portable greenhouse that I sit over them for protection.  Once we're beyond that threat, in go the onion sets.  That spud box I mentioned?  I'm using one of those this year, just to see how it works out.  I will still be putting potatoes in the ground, for sure, but you never know what might come in handy.

For anyone who has grown tomatoes successfully, you are aware that they will start producing slowly then, all of a sudden, it looks like a tomato bomb has hit your garden, and you start looking for people go give the fallout to.  Peppers come in a close second, and onions never make it to that point, as I have an awesome recipe for onion soup.  As for leafy greens, I will be planting spinach in elevated planters and lettuce will just be strewn, ornamentally, about the yard.  I am literally turning my yard into a side salad.

Over the course of this adventure, I will be applying some massive amounts of science to different techniques, up to and including the canning of our harvest.  I am going to be experimenting with different methods of composting, and a biomass heater that may or may not keep me growing through the winter.  During this little romp, I welcome open discussion, both here and on the Cooking for Adventurers Facebook page.  I'd like to hear what has and hasn't worked for you in your own gardening experiments.  I will, most likely, be offering to build spud boxes, for a price, on the Copper Island Makerspace Facebook page, also.

And, just in case you forgot why we're here in the first place, here's something you can do with all of your newly-grown tomatoes.  This is a bit of a modification on the recipe you'll find in the pages of "Cooking for Adventurers":

MARINARA SAUCE

• 1/4 Cup pinot grigio (or, for a lilt of flavor, a white zinfandel works nicely)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Small onion, chopped well
• 2 Garlic cloves, pressed or finely chopped
• 3 Cups diced tomatoes
• 6 Oz. tomato paste
• 3/4 Tsp. salt
• 1/4 Tsp. coarse ground pepper
• 2 Tbsp. Chopped basil
• 1 Tbsp. Oregano
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms, if desired

Heat the oil in a 4 quart saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until tender, stirring occasionally.  Add the mushrooms and keep stirring for a minute.  Add the garlic and cook for a minute longer (don't let it scorch!).  Stir in the tomatoes, wine, tomato paste, salt, and pepper, then heat to boiling.  Reduce the heat to a slow simmer, add the basil and oregano, and stir occasionally for fifteen to twenty minutes to blend the flavors.  This sauce freezes well, so don't be afraid to make extra!

We'll get into the ins and outs of making your own tomato paste and other sauces in other posts.  For now, it's time for bed and dreams of warmer weather.  Here's to a good start to your gardens this year, fellow Adventurers!

Something Fishy This Way Comes. . .

I have fish and the ability to make fire--why should a little snow stop me?

The biggest thing about living on the country's northern frontier is that you never know what the weather is going to do to you, from one day to the next.  The first and second weeks of spring were much colder and snowier than the 50° days we experienced the last week of winter.  Despite the cold, despite the snow, my grill has been begging to be used for quite a while, so today salmon met fire.

Now, out of all the proteins, fish may seem to be the most daunting to successfully grill, but a little practice and some handy tricks make the whole chore quite easy:

• Learn to gauge your temperature!  This makes all the difference between a nicely-cooked salmon fillet and unintentional sushi.  We'll talk about this in a minute.
• Clean your grill!  No matter how tiny, any leftover debris is going to stick to your fish.  Heat the grill to loosen any stuck-on debris (use a wire brush), coat it with oil, then scrub it again with some soap and water.  Wipe it down with an oil-soaked paper towel before use.
• Brush the fish with an oil or marinade.
• Make certain the grill is good and hot before placing the fish on it.  The instant sear helps keep the fish from sticking.  Placing the fish across the grill bars will also minimize the amount of contact.

As far as heat goes, you should shoot for a 'moderate' range, as determined by the "hand thermometer" method (you did read "Cooking for Adventurers", didn't you?  That's on pages 54-55).  At this temperature, the fish will cook thoroughly without needing to be turned.  How long it takes will depend on whether or not you can trap the heat in with a lid, or if you are cooking on an open pit.  The fish will flake easily with a fork when done.  One last thing to note is that, if you are cooking fillets, you should leave the skin ON.  You won't lose any meat because it stuck to the grill, and it will peel off easily when the fish is done.

Now, how should you prepare it?

The simplest way to prep a good sized salmon fillet is to just give it a little pepper and smear your favorite barbecue sauce on it.  Barbecue sauce will glaze well in the grill, especially if you aren't cooking directly over the fire, and will blend well with the flavor of the wood smoke.

With the proper temperature, salmon will cook in a closed grill in the neighborhood of about 15-25 minutes, depending on the size of the fillet.  Don't forget that wind and ambient temperature are also factors that could slow cooking.  Today, it took me around 30 minutes to cook these fillets, but the temperature was in the low 20s with a 15 m.p.h. wind.  Cooking outdoors requires a bit more attention than cooking in a climate-controlled kitchen, for sure!

Another way to prepare your fish before cooking is with a simple marinade.  Try this one:

• 1/3 Cup beer
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tsp thyme
• 1 Tsp ground mustard
• 1/2 Tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 Tsp Salt & Pepper

Place the fish in the marinade for about 20-30 minutes, prior to cooking.  Grill at moderate temperature until meat flakes with a fork (again, usually about 15-25 minutes).

If the weather outside is just too ridiculous, or you just can't dig the grill out of all of that snow, both of these prep methods can be translated to the oven.  Place the salmon in an oiled, shallow baking pan for 15 minutes at 450°, or in the broiler for about 10 minutes.  These methods work the best if your fillets are completely skinned.

And that's it!  Serve immediately with whatever side items you like.  I tend towards baked potatoes and mixed veg, but the possibilities are endless.  The main rule, like with anything else, is to not overthink things.  The first time I grilled fish over a campfire, I was so worried that it wasn't going to cook thoroughly that I almost flipped it over.  Thankfully, it broke apart, indicating that it was completely cooked.  Had I flipped it, it would have stuck to the grill instantly, making more of a mess than a meal.  Learn from some of my mistakes--you can't possibly make them all yourself, can you?

Pick up your own copy of Cooking for Adventurers and help the author keep cooking!  You can get one here!