Making Mustard

Now that we have harvested our mustard its time to make it into mustard.  We start by grinding 1/4 cup of our black mustard seeds, and 1/4 cup of our yellow mustard seeds until all are opened, you must be sure it is properly smashed or your mustard will be watery.  The below is before it is smashed.

In small bowl combine the mustard with 1/2 cup of white vinegar and 1/4 cup water.  Let sit for 24 hours.

Mix the mustard water and vinegar in a food processer with 1/4 cup honey and 1/2 teaspoon salt. 

Put into a glass jar and store in the fridge as you would mustard you purchase at the store.

Freezing Vegetables

This weekend we harvested 7 pounds of vegetables. 

There are many options for freezing zucchini, beans, eggplant, broccoli, carrots, peas and other squashes.  They can also be canned, however as I prefer eating most of them when frozen (the exception is squash) we freeze them.  Before putting them in the vacuum sealed bag you cut the vegies into the size you are likely to use. 

You can either boil the vegies for a minuet, or you can lightly steam them or freeze them directly (vacuum sealing the bags helps avoid freezer burn). 

When using them in the rest of the year they will be best eaten in a cooked dish, and not fresh or in a salad.  Our goal is to have enough for the rest of the year before summer ends.

Harvesting Mustard

Our mustard grew very well.  We like it particularly because we can eat the leaves as they grow and then when its time we can harvest the seeds to make mustard. It is now time to  harvest the seeds.  You know its time to harvest the seeds when the pods are dry, but before they open (and you lose the seeds).

Because it is difficult and time consuming to open each pod separately the best way to gather seeds is to tie the plant upside-down in a brown paper bag for a few days.  

The pods will open as each one dries out more.  This allows you to gather the seeds. 

 

These can be used in barbeque, pickles, or to make mustard for sandwiches and deviled eggs.  Next week we will try making mustard.  

Popcorn

I haven't posted for a while, mostly because work has been busy and the garden has mostly been growing, with no additional harvests.  On Saturday when we have time we like to go to the local farmers markets (there is one in Salt Lake and one in South Jordan).  This let's is find locally grown food we don't grow ourselves.  This week we found locally grown popcorn on the cob.

We were told to put it in a paper bag and microwave it until it sounds done.  We tried this and discovered one thing, the bag can't be simply left open.

Shortly after taking this photo we twisted the bag closed (having removed the part that had popped) and tried again.  It promptly caught fire.  This lead us to do the proper research and realize that to properly pop popcorn on the cob you need to place the fist bag upside-down in a second paper bag so that the popcorn is contained, but there is air flow and things will not catch fire.  This lets you have a good amount of locally grown popcorn.