Food Safety....Means Living Food

Issues of safety have been coming to mind over these past few weeks while I have been filling my cupboards with all sorts of jams, sauces, preserves, pickles and so forth. Of course, when it comes to food hygiene I am from a food background and there are stories I can tell!! LOL

So, down to the basics - what do I really think and believe about food safety and all of this anti-bacterial, highly sterilized stuff that we are supposed to eat? Not a whole lot. For instance I do not feel it is proper or right to drink sterilized, chemically treated water... and the list just goes on from there, I can assure you.

All of the attention paid to using anti-bacterial soap, dish liquids, even clothes (socks etc.) is doing far more harm then good. These are not necessary in the kitchen or anywhere else for that matter. We are living beings, that means inside as well as outside - when you deliberately kill off these organisms, on our bodies and in our food chain - disaster results. 

Our bodies, hands, skin, guts, and everywhere else is supposed to be ALIVE with bugs (that means bacterial colonies) to enable our immune systems to function properly as well as digest our food, make vitamins, essential fatty acids, participate in removal of toxins, keep inflammation in check and play a role in recovery and repair. 

Now does that sound like something you must eliminate at all costs from your body, food and life? Without these little critters, there would be no life. 

To get back to our food, I have seen things that would make your hair stand on end - perhaps another time, I will tell some stories from the food industry. However, suffice it to say, a lot of this resistance that I have been experiencing (energy that is not my own) has been focused on issues of food safety.

And I am tackling them one at a time while I continue on with my glorious journey into creating my own homemade foods. Food that we cook ourselves is perfectly safe - of course, we are not idiots, some things must be cooked, surfaces need to be clean (hot water and soap works for me), I do sterilize my jars and process my preserves according to instructions. 

However, there also comes a time to be reasonable as well. For instance, yesterday I mulled over what to do with the 2 jars of jam that did not seal. I know that they will keep perfectly well in the fridge for a few weeks, but I didn't want too many jars in there either.

When I went online to read up on re-processing the jams to see if they would re-seal, the amount of FEAR that I encountered in peoples' comments was astounding. You can't do that, you mustn't do this, the jam will go off, the jar is no longer sterile, there is risk, this is a food hazard blah blah. 

It would have been laughable if it wasn't so sad. These same people were sterilizing their jars with bleach, had jams with twice as much sugar as fruit, were using paraffin wax in their sealing and treated tap water to cook their produce - they had all bought into the food safety scare mongering. 

But, with not a clue that the chemicals in bleach, water, and wax and of course sugar are far more toxic! There was one lone voice amongst the melee, an elderly woman who mentioned that she had been making jam for many years and of course as long as you follow the procedure of canning, there is no problem. 

I wanted to bring this up for one main reason - the jams that I have been making at home are lasting far longer then the ones (superior quality) that we used to buy at the shops. The only reason I can put forward at this point, after having made quite a few jars myself, is that I am using ripe organic healthy fruit, no preservative, sweetener or pectin, with clean (living) water....

I have a feeling this plays a far larger role in our food chain then anyone would want us to think. 

Have a healthy day,

April

Coriander seeds coming up

Making Preserves

Yesterday was a preserve day, I made nine jars of different kinds of preserves with the fruit that I had on hand. And, as usual I wanted something a little different from the ordinary jams that I had been eating all along. 

First of all, there is a slight difference apparently between preserves and jams - preserves are thicker, chunkier and usually contain other ingredients such as dried fruit and spices. As opposed to a jam which most often contains only fruit and water (in my house anyway!). But, both are fruit based and these terms are often used interchangeably.

With all of the types of fruit that I had in the house this week, I thought that it would be great to make something a little different and to keep expanding my own learning and methods of working with each type of preserve. I also wanted to make something that was chunkier and could be used as part of a meal rather than only being suitable for toast and crackers.

Since I had a few apples and pears in the house I ended up making a great smelling spiced apple/pear preserve that was not blended as much as it normally would leaving it quite chunky and very thick. The only spice that I used was cinnamon for this one just to keep it simple and because cinnamon goes very well with anything related to apple.

Raw Apple and Pear ready to cook

The end result is similar to an apple sauce, but with the presence of pears, will give a softer, fuller flavour. This type of preserve will be great on crackers with cheese or on the side of a veggie rice stir-fry as a sauce. I am enjoying the versatility of these foods and can imagine endless possibilities and ways to use them.

Jars of spiced apple & pear preserves 

Next, with all of the apricots, nectarines, peaches and more apples, I decided to make what I ended up calling Apricot Raisin Preserves because that was the dominate fruit. Again I wanted to try my hand at making something a little different to give us various flavours, textures and tastes to enjoy in the coming months. This one I can't wait to taste!

There is something about the delicate flavour of apricots that draws us in and awakens the senses, when combined with a few spices and some other equally delightful flavours, this should turn out to be a wonderful addition to any meal. 

For this preserve I chopped and chopped everything that was to go in the large pot (I ended up making a lot of this) and then put in some apple juice, raisins and spices with a little water because the dried fruit would soak up a lot of the liquid. Again as with the mango chutney, I had to keep stirring because it was quite heavy and would settle on the bottom of the pot.

Chopped fruit and raisins for the preserves

I also let this mixture cook for quite a while to get the goodness of all these fruits well blended throughout the preserve. I decided to add pumpkin pie spice which I made up myself from cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. Of course the smell is magical and this will taste great with a meal , on bread and crackers or any where else that I can find to use it.

A big batch of preserves 

Today I am off to make some ice cream from left over bananas and some of these fresh preserves,

Have a good one!

April

The Story So Far....

Today I have been taking stock of what I have learned and managed to change during these past few weeks of deliberately not buying and using the remaining processed foods, that were in our diets, as much as possible. There are a few things that stand out, some of which surprise me.

The main and perhaps most important thing is the taste - I think that I had either forgotten or somehow, never fully realized that homemade jams just taste far better. For some strange reason, I had it in my head that I would not be able to duplicate a good quality shop bought jam or spread as far as taste is concerned. 

Of course, the very first thing that we all noticed about my homemade concoctions was the flavour bursting through, the fragrance spills out as soon as the jar is opened and even the colours are strikingly different. Today we are eating peach jam which tastes and looks like peaches, with a hint of apple, and the smell is exactly like ripe peach.

Another point to be made here is that making these jams (and any of the other condiments) has not taken much extra time. I usually wait until the house is quiet and the children are in bed, so that I can handle the boiling water bath and sterilize jars without kids underfoot. It has become a time for myself, perhaps in the same way that others spend time on their creative pursuits, cooking is my outlet and my way to be innovative in my life. 

I went to the cupboards and counted the finished jars to see what I was up to, as of right now I have a total  34 jars of jams, apple sauce, apple butter and apricot/fig preserves. My goal is to have about 50 or so with a few being made every month for special occasions. At first that number seemed huge, but not anymore, it's totally doable.

Something else that stands out here is that the children prefer the apple butter and apple sauce that I have made while they have not really ever shown much interest in it before. Further to this, is that I am finding more ways to use these sauces - not only at breakfast on toast or in porridge, apple butter tastes lovely on the side with lamb dinner or on a goat's cheese sandwich as well. 

Finding new ways to make and use these homemade foods goes hand in hand so it is important to trust your instincts and play with it. If at first you don't succeed, try again - this is really important, because when it comes to cooking many people give up easily when something doesn't turn out right. Although I never gave up on cooking, I did think that there were certain things that I could not make or that were on the 'difficult to make' scale. 

In the past I have made my own mustards and mayonnaise with different results, some good and some disasters. This time around, I didn't really follow any recipes, I actually looked at the ingredients on the back of a natural organic mustard jar and then put them together the way that I thought they should go, plus or minus a few things. My mustard turned out great and is now 'aging' in the fridge after being mixed with honey. 

Perhaps the best thing of all is that once you have had and made your own foods (I cook each and everyday all of our meals) nothing else compares. It is no longer a 'treat' to eat out or spend excess money on food items that can be easily made at home with much better results. I remember those days of spending a fortune on a meal only to feel bloated and heartburn afterwards. 

Finally, one of the best things to come out of making more of my own foods is that I know exactly what is in each jar. There is no label to be read or company to be trusted (did they only put in what they said they put in?) nor is there unnecessary contamination from chlorinated, fluoridated or medicated water supplies that I try so hard to avoid.  

All in all, this has been a great learning curve for me, one that I hope will take me much further than I first imagined, now I think I am ready to branch out into other types of foods such as pickles, chutneys and my own tomato free pasta sauce. 

Today I am baking savory muffins (goat's cheese and rosemary) while last night I made another batch of apple butter, this weekend I want to do something different with a fish dish...

Back to the kitchen! 

April

All that's left of my muffins!

I Think, I Am Going To Like This...

Yesterday I was doing some research on using the apricots that I had on hand and making some sort of preserve with them and came across several mentions of apricot fig preserve or jam. From several recipes and descriptions online I was able to come up with my own version of this lovely jam.

One thing that I love is the taste of figs and of course any fresh fruit is also nice, however, making this jam yesterday was not the only thing that got me thinking and so excited. It was actually a deep realization about the foods that I have been eating and of course complaining about.

I have long known that we eat the foods that are put on store shelves and part of us must fade away - the creative soul - because there really is little imagination into tastes, textures and flavors anymore. Well, we get strawberry jam or apricot jam or perhaps some company is a little daring and makes something a little different. But for the most part, the food is all alike and fairly generic, either way, it is someone else's idea of what 'we' would be likely to purchase. (There's my food management and supply degree talking)

Yesterday opened my eyes a little further into my creative soul because it hit home that now I was in charge of the jam and I could make it anyway that I wanted. My apricot fig preserves then ended up with some of the flavors that I love, such as cloves, cinnamon, walnut and orange. I did not follow a recipe or even an idea, just an intuitive sense of what would taste nice on roasted duck at Christmas or as an accompaniment to homemade crackers and goat's cheese. I wanted something tasty and versatile.

When you make your own foods completely from scratch and allow yourself to unleash the foodie in you, who knows what will result. I have a feeling that it would be something fabulous and great every time. This is really the only way to go, when it comes to food.

The tiny bit of preserves that were left over were sitting in a bowl on the countertop - waiting for me to taste today, because my fast is now over and I am getting back to solid foods. I had a little spoon of it and it is lovely, just as I imagined it would be, slightly spicy, very thick and rich, yet it has the freshness of homemade food. 

And as there are only 3 jars of this (which all sealed perfectly I might add!) we won't be sick of it, it will be treasured and reserved for feast days to be used on special dishes and meals. Just as wonderful food is meant to be. Not too much, no endless supply of any one item, just something precious to be enjoyed and used thoughtfully.

What a great approach to eating, mindfulness at it's best,

April

This is one of the many pots of baby salad leaves that grow outside my door and in my cold frames. Greatest way to get greens fresh for a good long season.