by Catherine Haug, January 6, 2013
To see all kitchen hints on this site, see: Kitchen Hints. If you’d like to submit a kitchen hint, send it to me and I’ll publish it. Note that if you don’t want your name used, just let me know.
The following hint comes from a new member of our community, Sheree Tompkins. (more…)
by Catherine Haug, December 11, 2012
We all rely on the quality of our food to sustain us and keep us in good health. We trust that foods of vibrant color are rich in antioxidants and vitamins; for example, beets, oranges, carrots, cherries and berries. We trust that leafy greens with rich, dark color are rich in minerals, vitamins and bitters. We trust that fresh meats and dairy are rich in protein, essential oils, and vitamins.
But is our trust warranted? Certainly prior to the industrial age, that trust was well-placed. But modern agriculture is all about the bottom line, and food quality is often sacrificed in pursuit of that goal. Crops are treated with chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, and refreshed with contaminated waters. Animals are fed these inferior crops, and in many cases fed crops that are not their natural diet. All of this leads to nutritional deficiency in our foods.
Just how bad has it gotten? What can we do to reverse the trend? (more…)
by Catherine Haug, December 10, 2012
We are hoping to have a presentation on long-term storage of foods in 2013. This is a great and pertinent topic to our mission.
I stumbled upon an informative site: Preparedness Advice Blog. It has lots of pertinent articles on “emergency preparedness, ‘prepping,’ and long term food storage.” For example, The Long-Term Bug-Free Storage of Dry Grains. It has advice on natural things to add to your grains to keep bugs away, ideal low-moisture level for grain storage, and best type of containers for grain storage.
If you encounter any great info on Food Storage, please send it my way so I can share with our readers as a “Kitchen Hint.”
Beware: While there is lots of food-storage information available on the internet, some of it is mis-information.
by Catherine Haug, Dec 4, 2012
Oftentimes those wild critters that we like the least, need our help. For example, honeybees and native bees that are suffering from the overuse of pesticides, yet are so essential for pollination of edible and other plants, landscape and wild flowers, etc..
And now another maligned critter is on Montana’s radar for study and protection: the bat. This nighttime creature has long been feared – most recently because of rabies – but they provide important benefits for those of us who live near water and wetlands, by keeping mosquitos in check, not to mention other insect pests that plague farmers and gardeners.
Bats in eastern parts of North America are under threat from a fungal disease called white nose syndrome. While this disease has not made its way here, Montana has begun a statewide research project to collect baseline data about our state’s bats. Students at Bigfork High School are playing a key role in this project, as reported in a December 3 Flathead Beacon article: Facing Threat of Disease, Montana Launches Bat Research Project.
Interested in encouraging bats in your yard? Read on. (more…)
Forced Endive in Feb
by Catherine Haug, November 9, 2012
Last year, Don Bates gave an excellent presentation on using Garden Season Extenders. He showed a photo of forcing Belgian Endive shoots in a bucket of sand that he kept in his root cellar, to have greens through the winter (see his photo, right). This intrigued me, as I too have a root cellar and I love endive.
Endive is delicious raw or cooked. See Cat’s Kitchen (my personal website) for a delicious recipe: Endive and Apple Salad with Warm Goat Cheese.
Today I happened upon a great photo-essay on how to grow endive this way: Kitchen Gardeners International: Growing Belgian Endive, by Roger Doiron. I plan to give this a try next year. But do I really have to sacrifice those lovely first greens to my compost pile?
Here’s a synopsis of the growing method: (more…)
by Catherine Haug, Sept 28, 2012
To see all kitchen hints on this site, see: Kitchen Hints. If you’d like to submit a kitchen hint, send it to me and I’ll publish it. Note that if you don’t want your name used, just let me know. See ESP Contact for my email address.
As I write this, so far, we’ve gotten only 2 kitchen hints submitted, and they have to do with using vinegar and baking soda. In this post, I address other uses for vinegar, and next up, I’ll write a post on other uses for baking soda (link will be added when post is available). (more…)