Tomatillos and Ground Cherries, The Mystery Fruits

So we have had our first market of the year at our new market in Collingwood.  It was pretty exciting, getting ready for the market since it was our first one, and though we didn't have a lot of stuff, it was still nice to get off the farm, meet some of the venders and customers.  I also realized that I'm going to have to brush up on my Simcoe county geography, there are a lot of little towns near Collingwood that I have never heard of.   But it was a lot of fun, especially listening to people talk about their gardens. Because we were selling organic, heirloom vegetable seedlings, customers were talking about their gardens, their favorite tomatoes, and their excitement to get into the garden! The plants we got asked about the most were the tomatillo and the ground cherry.  So for anyone that bought some, or people who see the fruit at our stand in the summer, here are a couple tasty recipes I found for both of them, and look forward to trying myself! Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries Search under ground cherry bush for the pinkish-yellow husks, peel back the husk, and pop them in your mouth. Repeat until the sun gets too hot. Gather a few more to share with a friend. Variation: have your friend go to the ground cherry patch. - "Chefs on the Farm", by Shannon Borg and Lore Lea Misterly - Salsa Verde A hot green salsa, and if you don't like cilantro, substitute it for parsley instead. 3 lbs tomatillos 3 jalapeños peppers, chopped 3 serrano chiles chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 cup chopped red onion 1/2 cup chopped green onion 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 2 tbsp lime juice Salt and Pepper Clean and husk the tomatillos, cover with water in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil, than cover and reduce heat to a simmer for 5 minutes. Remove tomatillos and immerse in cold water for 5 minutes. Drain tomatillos, pat dry and chop. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients, than add the tomatillos, season to taste, and enjoy fresh, or simply put in a feezer bag and freeze for a later date. A great way to use up a bumper crop of tomatillos and enjoy them all year long! - "Preserving, The Canning and Freezing Guide for all Seasons", by Pat Crocker - The author of this recipe will be teaching a canning workshop at our farm June 23, call us up if you are interested. Hopefully these recipes will help you try out a couple new vegetables!

Homemade Soaps

Possibly one of the neatest hobbies I've picked up, it allows you to use up by-products and kind of create something from nothing.  Traditionally soap was made from lye made from wood ash, water and fat.  Many pioneers or settlers would make their own, in fact one of our neighbours, when over here for a visit and some tea, told me about how his parents would make soap after an animal was butchered.  They would use the soap for laundry. Now, if you don't have that much fat laying around, don't worry, you can buy it from a butcher or you can use other oils and fats that are in the grocery store already eg. Olive oil, coconut oil, lard, palm oil, etc. If using fat, you have to cook it to clean it up and create tallow.  Tallow is made from beef suet, which I think is around the liver, and is firmer than other fat.  But you can use any beef fat if you can't get suet.  I have started accumulating tallow, which you can freeze until you need it.  I have read that other animal fats work as well, but produce a softer bar of soap, but I have never tried it. Ok, so the soap making process is pretty simple, as long as your measurements from the recipe are correct, the temperatures are close, and you don't mind stirring a lot. Find a recipe that sounds interesting to you, I recommend trying a basic soap before you get to crazy into additives, scents and dyes.  There are a lot of great recipes and how to's online, but I used a couple of awesome books from the library that have everything.  But anyways, make sure you get the process down first before you try anything too crazy. In a nut shell,  Measure out all your ingredients Mix the lye into the water VERY CAREFULLY and  not the other way around Melt your fats or bring your oil up to around 100*F (temp depends on recipe) Cool the lye-water to around 100*F Slowly add the lye to the soap and stir and stir and stir until it thickens enough to leave marks on the top of the soap when you take out the stirrer  Pour into mould and cover in a towel to keep it warm while it does it's magic That's it, I have made a bunch at the farm, once I started it got kind of addicting, and, knock on wood, every batch has turned out.  I haven't mastered milled soap yet, so that is my next project. But if you are at the farm and want to see some of my soaps or experiments, I'd be happy to show you the hits as well as some of the misses. But in my bathroom right now, all I have is hand made soap, my lavender eucalyptus body bar that I made, as well as home made shampoo and conditioner from my friend Pam at pamssoaps.com of the same scent.  It's a good thing the farmers markets will be starting soon, I'm almost out!