New England Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Don't throw away (or compost) the innards of your pie or jack-o-lantern pumpkins!  Amongst the tricky pith are treats, delicious seeds! By the way, a serrated grapefruit spoon is my favorite tool for scooping pumpkin flesh.

Soak the pumpkin innards in water for a bit and then separate seeds from stringy pulp by hand. 

Rinse the seeds in clear water again until they are completely free of orange goop. Strain through a sieve to remove most of the water.

Place seeds in a shallow layer on a cookie sheet pan.  Sprinkle them with soy sauce and Old Bay. For this batch of seeds from 8 pie pumpkins, I used about a teaspoon of each.

Roast in a 300 degree oven for about an hour, turning every 15 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy! Unlike candy treats, home roasted pumpkin seeds are a good source of protein, fiber, and zinc.

Keep leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a year.

NB: You can save raw (un-roasted) seeds for planting next year by removing them from the pith and placing on a coffee filter to dry completely. Most pumpkins are non-hybridized, meaning they will readily grow and produce fruit from seed. Store thoroughly dry seeds in a paper envelope and direct sow in June for ripe pumpkins near Halloween time.

This post was added to Hearth and Soul Volume 19.

Brother's Drake Meadery

Mead, the honey wine fit for kings, is no longer a hard to find ancient drink.

Nay, Columbus is home to one of a very few Meadery's in the state, Brother's Drake Meadery. Operating since 2007 in Worthington, Brother's Drake makes a variety of traditional (honey, yeast, and water), melomel (honey, yeast, water + fruit), metheglin (honey, yeast, water + spice), and creative (honey, yeast, water + spice, fruit, or other flavoring agents) meads.

Mead has been made for centuries and is likely the first alcoholic beverage drunk by humans. As honey is a more refined and less available form of sugar, mead was once enjoyed by royalty alone.

The friendly mead makers at Brother's Drake invited a group of local bloggers to their meadery for a lesson in the ancient art of making mead and tasting of their modern interpretations. Amanda Anderson (co-mastermind of Feed Social Media and Wild Goose Creative board member) won a drawing to make a small batch of mead to take home. She demonstrated how simple mead making is: stir together water and honey in a sanitized pot, pour into sanitized carboy, pitch yeast, and attach an airlock.

Woody, chief mead maker, suggests that home mead brewers use EC1118 yeast and a ratio of 3 to 4 pounds honey per gallon of spring water. Let this mix ferment for two months, rack it into a second carboy and allow the secondary fermentation occur for an additional three to four months. Then, the mead is ready for bottling. Aging in the bottle improves flavor further.

After Mead 101, we gathered in the cozy tasting room to try Brother's Drake meads. Many mead ingredients, including all of the honey, is now sourced locally. The current line up of meads were offered alongside several plates of cheeses and crackers from Integration Acres. Rumor has it that Integration Acres and Brother's Drake make be working together again soon to produce an Ohio native pawpaw melomel.

Ever the purist, I enjoyed the tupelo honey traditional 2008 'Southern Belle' Reserve most of all. The oldest mead we tasted, the Southern Belle has a round full body with gentle wildflower flavors. I also liked the dry, fruity Testa Rossa, a raspberry melomel, and herbal Pillow Talk, metheglin.

Alex and I made mead (technically melomel, as we used lemons) nearly ten years ago when we were newly married and living in California. It was good, as I recall, and drunk long ago. We have mead yeast in the fridge and will be applying lessons from Brother's Drake to make another batch soon. In the meantime, we will indulge our royal tastes and sip on a bottle of the newest Brother's Drake variety, Bergamot Blue.

Drink a Drake yourself!

• Visit the meadery and taste samples during open hours listed on their website.
• The site also lists where to buy and taste Brother's Drake meads around Columbus.
• This Wednesday from 6 - 10 pm is the Brother's Drake Fall Release Party at Dirty Frank's Hot Dogs. There will be special mead cocktails on hand and pairings with Dirty Frank's artisanal dogs.

Apple Pie Jam

In early September, I agreed to host a canning demonstration at Oakland Nursery's Fall Festival.  I said I would make a local fruit jam, figuring that I would pick up something in season the day before at the farmer's market. With very warm early fall temperatures, fruits ripened far ahead of what's typical for this season.  I looked at several markets this weekend and could only find one Ohio fruit ripe and available: apples.

Thus, the invention of apple pie jam.  Spiced gently with cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg and sweetened with brown and white sugar, this jam is reminiscent of apple pie filling.  Spread on buttery crackers or toast, apple pie jam is a great way to treat yourself to fall flavors year round.

Apple Pie Jam

For four to five half pints:

8 cups finely diced or shredded peeled apples of at least two varieties 1 cup water 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 5 teaspoons calcium water (comes with Pomona's Pectin) 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 3/4 cup white sugar 5 teaspoons Pomona's Pectin

1. In a heavy bottomed pan, combine apples, water, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and calcium water.  Heat over medium heat until apples are tender, approximately 15 minutes. 2. Meanwhile, mix sugars with Pomona's pectin. 3. Bring apple mix to a boil. 4. Stir in sugars and pectin. 5. Return to a boil for one minute, stirring constantly. 6. Turn off heat. 7. Immediately ladle into sterilized half pint jars.  Leave 1/4 inch head space. Screw on two part lids. 8. Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  Remove from water and let rest for 24 hours to fully set. 9. Store sealed jars at room temperature. Once opened, store in refrigerator and eat within three weeks.

This recipe added to Hearth and Soul blog hop.

Wordless Wednesday: Jeni's Ice Cream Tour

I've never posted a Wordless Wednesday before but today, still suffering from a sinus infection, a post with few words sounds like a good idea.

"When we spin sugar, it's by eye and sight.  When we layer Askinosie Chocolate, it's by hand."

"Butterfat is this perfect flavor carrier. It melts at body temperature so flavor is released to your mouth and nose."

"We are friends with our farmers and our farmers are friends with us.  We hold each other accountable for quality and for paying fairly."

These are pictures from yesterday's tour of the Jeni's Ice Cream production facility in Columbus Ohio. It was offered as part of Local Matters Local Foods week. The quotes are from Jeni Britton Bauer, dairy heir of Jeni's and founding member of Local Matters. More events are scheduled for the rest of the week including what promises to be an exciting local drinks tasting at House Wine Thursday evening and the Harvest Ball Friday.

It's Local Foods Week!

Local Matters has declared the next seven days Local Foods Week.  They have arranged a plethora of local food activities including a Market to Market ride going on now.  Alex, Lil, and I have tickets for the Jeni's Tour Tuesday and I'm trying to figure out how to catch Brother's Drake Meadery at one of their tastings.

I am leading a canning demonstration at Oakland Nursery's newly renovated education space on Sunday October 10 from 12 - 1 pm during their fall festival. Come drop in and taste some homemade jams!

If you're up for it (we are!) take part in the Local Matters Eat Local Challenge this week for a chance to win prizes while eating delicious local food.

Cleveland is also hosting a local foods week October 2 - 10 with activities that make me want to flee northward.

I know everyone was carefully planning local foods week to coincide with my thirtieth birthday on Saturday. I can't think of a better way to celebrate than eating delicious locally grown foods. This week will be Oh So Good!

Ohio Love Apples

Humble as pie,

Basic as 'a is for',

Diverse as the land and people:

Ohio apples.

Already this season I have picked a bushel and a half of apples from Windy Hill Apple Farm.  Most varieties are ripening two weeks earlier than normal this year.  I have sauced, dried, eaten them fresh, and even baked a dozen into my first ever apple pie.  In October, I will return to Charlie's for the king of Ohio apple varieties, Gold Rush.

Helpful tip ~ Store apples until April or longer by following these steps: 1. Wash storing apples, such as Gold Rush. 2. Leaving them wet, place in a thin plastic grocery sack. 3. Loosely tie the sack shut. 4. Place in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator. 5. Every few weeks, re-wet apples if they are dry and remove any that may have gone soft.

oh-I-o love apples, do you?

Added to Hearth and Soul blog hop.

Published!

In the Edible Columbus Fall 2010 edition, readers will find a Young Palates column written by me.  It is all about apples and features my favorite apple farmer, Charlie Fritsch of Windy Hill Farm.  Read online here. You can find print copies of Edible Columbus around the city at their advertising locations.

The Hobby Farm Home November/December 2010 issue has an article about hosting a class or workshop.  I am one of three subjects of the article with quotes, a picture, and link to this blog included.

The online version of this issue of Hobby Farm Home is not up yet and I am not sure whether the workshop article will ever be made available online.  I bought my paper copy at Barnes and Noble in the Lennox shopping center.

As exciting as it is to see my name in print, personal glorification is not why I am writing and pursuing interviews.  Instead, I want to share my passion about local seasonal ingredients and home cooking.  I want to show people simple and healthy ways to engage more with the food system.

I would love to hear your feedback.

Local, Affordable, Healthy Late Night Snack

My favorite evening snack is local, affordable, and healthy. It's low in calories, high in fiber, and satisfying. It doesn't come from a bag or a box and takes just four minutes to prepare. Each serving costs less than a quarter.

Any guesses yet?

When nighttime hunger hits, most often I turn to popcorn for a snack. Here's how I pop:

I heat a pan on the stove with a little bit of olive oil in the bottom.

I add two handfuls of Ohio grown popcorn kernels I buy at the Clintonville Community Market.

I shake the pan once with the lid on so the kernels are evenly distributed. After the popping starts I shake it some more, allowing unpopped kernels to fall to the bottom and receive enough heat to pop. When the popping stalls to one or two pops per second, I turn off the heat.

A slight dusting of salt, and popcorn is served!

What is your favorite local, affordable, healthy late night snack?

This post was added to Fight Back Friday.