The Great Fruit Fly Experiment

Fruit flies. They are the bane of every person who keeps fresh food in the house, especially those of us who keep produce on the counter.

When we were recently infested, on a day of a house showing no less, I turned to Facebook fans for suggestions. Lil and I chose several techniques to compare in an impromptu science experiment.

Fruit Fly Science Report

by Lil Tayse-Baillieul

Question: Which fruit fly trap works the best?

Process: We put a little wine and soap in a small jar. We also did apple vinegar with soap and covered with plastic wrap. The third thing was put a funnel in with apple vinegar.

We put the three jars out to see which one works the best.

Observations: It took about one hour for the fruit flies to start to get trapped. The red wine had a fruit fly die first. We put bigger holes in the plastic wrap and it started catching flies. The funnel jar didn't have any fruit flies in it.

Alex tried vacuuming up the flies with the Dirt Devil vacuum. It didn't work.

Rachel tried swatting the flies with her hands. It worked but it was hard and slow.

The fruit flies were gone from our kitchen in one day with the traps. The red wine trap had the most flies.

Conclusion: Put red wine and soap in a jar to trap fruit flies.

This is the way unschooling works for us - we have a problem or interest and we investigate together. We don't invest in 'schooly' materials but use what we have on hand. In this case, the fruit fly experiment provided an avenue for us to talk about the scientific method and controlling variables while solving a real and observable problem with things we have on hand.

And now we know - to most efficiently trap fruit flies, leave an open jar of red wine with a little dish soap on the counter.

Homestead Studio, Real Food with Rachel, and more Fall 2012 Events

Announcing the Hounds in the Kitchen Autumn workshop and demo schedule full of flavor and fun!

Homestead Studio

Born from a desire to explore some homesteading concepts in a free-form, playful environment, I put together two series of studio experiences at City Folk's Farm Shop. Lil and I will prepare materials for friends of all ages to manipulate as they wish. The sensory-rich studios will be as fun for a six year old girl as a midlife woman or retiree.

Wool (carding, dying, felting, and weaving) will be held Mondays September 17 – October 1 from 2-3 pm.

DIY Home (cleaning solutions, bath products, and beeswax candles) will be held Mondays November 12 – 26 from 2-3 pm.

Registration is only $20 for three one-hour studios. More details, including how to register, are on the Homestead Studio page.

Real Food with Rachel

Cooks who need a refresher or want to learn how to be less dependent on mixes will enjoy the Real Food with Rachel series at Wild Goose Creative. Set in their open and approachable enviornment, participants will practice whole food cooking skills.

Register for Whole Bird Cooking (October 21), Pies, Sweet & Savory (November 18), or Sauces (December 16) to cook and eat in a fun relaxed space. Classes are held from 3-5 pm on those days and cost $35 each or $90 for the series. Further details and online registration are hosted at the Real Food with Rachel page.

Fall 2012 Special Events

I will teach folks how to Preserve Apples on October 14 and Make Infusions on November 11, both from 3:30 - 5:30 at Franklin Park Conservatory.

The Country Living Fair invited me to present a demo on Making Fresh Cheeses at Home on Friday September 14 at 2 pm at the Ohio Village.

I will host a booth and do a demo at the free Granville Homesteader's Pantry, 1-5 pm at Bryn Du Mansion in Granville on September 16.

Come chat with young farmers and me at the Grow! movie night September 22 at 6:30 pm at Swainway Urban Farm. Tickets are $20, benefitting the 2012 central Ohio Terra Madre delegates. Tickets available at the Swainway booth or coming soon to the Slow Food Columbus website.

Speaking of movies, OEFFA is hosting a free showing of The Future of Food at Studio 35 on September 23 at 2 pm.

I sell mushrooms and microgreens at the Swainway Urban Farm booth at the Clintonville Farmers' Market but on October 20 you'll find me doing double duty offering a Tasting and Food Education Demo at the farmers' market tent.

Email me with questions about these events or suggestions of future opportunities.

Ketchup, For The Good Times {Recipe}

Some preserves are easy, some are drastically cheaper than store-bought, and some are tastier than anything you can buy. Alas, homemade ketchup is none of these things.

So I can't exactly explain why I make it every year.

I suppose I can ketchup because processing all the jars of regular sauce becomes boring. And when I'm in the midst of tomato madness, condensing a little puree with spices isn't any extra trouble - it is, in fact, a welcome chance to do something different.

Last year I improved my ketchup method by cooking the sauce down in a slow cooker. This prevents the bottom from scorching and makes it easy to leave the house or do other chores during the lengthy, oh so lengthy, cooking period.

While ketchup doesn't meet any of my traditional characteristics of a recommended preserve, HITK readers have ask for my recipe. Here it is:

Homemade Ketchup

Makes: approximately 5 pints Time: 12 hours cooking, 30 minutes active

1 teaspoon olive oil 1 whole onion, diced 2 quarts tomato pulp (most easily made with a food strainer and sauce maker tool, or made by stewing tomatoes and running through a manual foodmill to remove skins and seeds.) 1 cup brown sugar or honey 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon garlic powder sachet of whole aromatic spices (your choice of bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves, allspice berries, juniper berries, celery seeds - I use a little of each) 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice per pint

1. Heat a medium sized pot over low heat. Add olive oil and onions. Cook until translucent, approximately 10 minutes. 2. Add onions and remaining ingredients except for lemon juice to a slow cooker*. Turn slow cooker on high and allow to simmer for 3-4 hours. 3. Remove spice sachet and set aside. Puree mixture with an immersion blender. 4. Replace spice sachet and continue to cook for 3-4 hours. Taste (don't burn your tongue!) and adjust salt, pepper, vinegar, or sugar as you see fit. 5. Continue cooking and tasting until tomato is of ketchup consistency. This may take an additional 3-4 hours. 6. Ladle hot ketchup into sterile jars with one half teaspoon lemon juice per pint. Wipe rims, place on two part lids, and process in a water bath for 35 minutes/pints, 40 minutes/quarts. Remove from water bath, cool, and store properly.

*Don't have a slow cooker? Use a medium pot on low heat, uncovered, and stir frequently to be sure the bottom does not burn.

This post, with much respect for the A Prairie Home Companion, brought to you by the Ketchup Advisory Board.

Owl Creek Amish Produce Auction

On Monday, Alex, Lil, and I trekked an hour north of Columbus for three hours of entertainment, education, groceries and snacks for only $16.25. Where was this great amusement? The Owl Creek Produce Auction at 20999 Waterford Rd. Fredericktown, Ohio 43019.

The auction begins with delivery of goods, mostly from Amish farms. The horse carts are unloaded into a large barn and grouped roughly according to lot size. Small lots for homeowners are under the eaves outside of the main building.

Before bidding starts, shoppers are welcome to wander through the offerings. Each bidder requires a number, available for free at the registration desk.

On the day we visited, two auctioneers sold the lots. A microphoned auctioneer, assistant, and recorder worked the big lots while a second set of non-micked men worked the outside smaller lots. The microphoned auctioneer also sold lots directly off the horse-pulled carts from a small tented stand.

The auctioneer described each lot quickly and started bidding. Many lots were split into parts wherein the bid was multiplied by the number of parts the bidder wanted, i.e. a lot of a dozen cabbages were bid on a per-cabbage basis and then multiplied by the number of cabbages the winner chose. A recorder noted the final price and winner bid number. A market manager posts average prices on the Owl Creek Produce Auction Report website.

I held off from bidding for awhile to observe how the auction worked. Lil encouraged me to bid on a lot of small pumpkins which I won for 50 cents a pumpkin, or $6.50 for the lot of 13. As soon as the bidding finishes, the winner can load their lot into their vehicle.

Until we won the pumpkins, Lil was totally confused about what was happening. She wanted to buy and know how much each item was going to cost. We explained that auctions are a good time to use our experience to estimate the value of goods. "How much would you pay?" we asked Lil.

Next, Lil had her eye on mums. The prices were great at $4.50 per gallon pot but the lot sizes were between 4 and 6 pots. I didn't need a lawn full of mums so I passed. I gathered that this week was the first for mums and perhaps in coming weeks the prices will be lower. Lil was sorry that we didn't get any flowers - another good lesson about auctions.

I eyed produce and some of it went for great prices, most notably a whole bushel of sweet banana peppers sold for just $1.00. The growing conditions were not advertised and therefore I wasn't interested in most of it. I prefer, especially for preserving, to use organic produce.

Lil spied a peck of small pears that were obviously chemical free - speckled, bird-pooped-upon, and not at all uniform. I managed to win them for $3.50. When we tasted them in the car on the way home, we discovered what a treat Lil found as the pears are tender and delicious.

The auction was well attended with people of all ages and backgrounds. Most of the buyers were non-Amish. Some seemed to be purchasing for small businesses while others were home cooks like myself. Several times I felt over-crowded but fresh air was only a few steps away.

We wandered away to look at new lots coming in and admire the horses. We ordered a reasonably priced but not Amish-made snack from a food stand behind the barn. Portable restrooms were available.

When we tired and were ready to go home, we took our bidder number back to the registration desk. Through a paper check system, the cashier quickly pulled up our lot prices and took our payment.

If you go:

• Bring cash or check, or maybe just cash if you don't want to get caught over-buying.
• Have an idea in mind of what you might like or need - it's easy to want to bid on something you don't need just because it's a good deal.
• Bring a water bottle, hat, and a portable chair if you want one.
• Though I didn't see anyone eating food brought from home, there seem to be very few rules and I'm sure you could eat in your car at the very least.
• Know that lots continue to come throughout the day, so being at the barn promptly at starting time is not necessary.
• Consider bringing a crate to contain any loose items in your trunk on the way home.
• Be cautious if you bring your youngin' - you might come home with thirteen pumpkins and a box of pears.

Owl Creek Produce Auction 20999 Waterford Rd. Fredericktown, Ohio 43019 740-627-1660 Monday – 11:00 am, Wednesday- 10:00 am, Friday- 9:00 am through the end of October

Warning: Don't Cook Distracted

If you were busy last week with volunteer work, house showings, and homeschooling,

and a family you know loses a child to SIDS,

and you're powering through pounds of tomatoes because they're ready for canning,

while also baking cookies for said family,

watch out for immersion blender blades and

hot stove racks.

You just might cut and burn yourself.

Don't Cook Distracted.

This message brought to you by Agent P.

Kousa Dogwood Fruit {Foraged Edible}

Last week, we walked the dogs past this house and this tree for the thousandth time when I spotted something new: pink spiked fruit.

Alex picked one up off the ground. The soft fruit was about the size of his thumb nail. With a little pressure, the skin split open to reveal bright orange flesh inside.

"It's edible," I said without knowing exactly what it was, nor having ever tasted it myself. I just knew I looked it up a few years ago. Ever the risk-taker, Alex licked a bit. "Tastes like mango." We passed around the fruit and agreed it was very sweet and tropical-flavored.

As soon as I returned home, I looked up the tree. It's a Kousa Dogwood, an Asian version of the ornamental tree species. Kousa fruits are indeed edible and sometimes used to make wine.

Lil and I ventured out later to collect some more. We observed the Rules of Foraging and rang the bell of the nearest house to ask permission. No one answered so we limited our picking to what was fallen on the ground.

I tossed our modest haul in the Foley food mill and pressed the gritty flesh from the tough skin. With only a few tablespoons of yield, I naturally mixed the puree into a vodka martini with a lemon twist.

If you happen to see a Kousa tree in your neighborhood, collect fruit in the fall to experience this taste of the tropics in central Ohio. And if you're a gardener, consider planting one - these Dogwoods are resistant to fungal diseases that often kill the more common Flowering Dogwood.

Pressure is On! Canning Sweet Corn

I finally did it. I bit the bullet and tried pressure canning. I chose canning corn for my first project because it is abundant right now and I generally like store-bought canned corn.

To begin, Alex and I husked 4 dozen ears of fresh, non-GMO corn from Bird's Haven Farms. I cut kernels off the cobs while a large pot water boiled on the stove and the jars and lids sanitized in two additional pots of boiling water. Yes, I'm glad that our heat wave finally broke and the kitchen stayed at sub-sauna temperatures!

I loaded the raw corn into the jars, pouring boiling water over top and released air bubbles with a sanitized thin knife. I read the instruction manual and adjusted the canner weight for 10 pounds of pressure. Then I placed on the two part lids, put the jars in the canner, twisted the lid closed and turned up the heat.

My sweet corn and I survived to report that pressure canning is no more trouble than water bath canning. The only difference, really and truly, is the annoyance of the sputtering canner sound. For sweet corn, you must endure the hissing for a full fifty five minutes. I recommend leaving the kitchen and doing something else during the processing, lest your ears bleed from the racket.

The canner had to cool for a full half hour before the seal released. All six jars sealed within minutes of being removed from the pot. Sweet!

Only time will tell if home canned corn texture is something I enjoy eating, but at the very least this batch taught me that pressure canning is nothing I should fear. Low acid vegetables, stocks, and meats - the pressure is on!

Have you ever pressure canned? What do you think about it?

Added to Simple Lives Thursday #110

How to Harvest Hickory Nuts

Post by Lil, age six 

This is how you harvest hickory nuts. You have to a hickory nut tree. The bark is jaggedy and there are many lobed leaves on each branch.

This is how you know the nuts are ripe: it has to be brown and also green. When it's hickory nut season you let them fall down and pick them up off the ground.

You have to have a vice to crack them. It's hard to crack the shell open. Squirrels crack the shells open with their teeth.

After the squirrels drop the nuts, they can hit the roof of the garage or the ground. It gets the ground kind of messy so watch out for that.

The meat is ripe when it is light brown. It tastes kind of like pecans. I usually eat them raw.

I like doing hickory nuts because the inside is yummy.

Note from Rachel: Encouraging your child to collect, crack, and consume hickory nuts is a most glorious waste of time learning activity.

Have you ever eaten hickory nuts? Do you like Lil writing on Hounds in the Kitchen? She wants to know!