Pickled Eggs and a Kimchee State of Mind

Firstly, I must apologize for not posting these past few weekends. It has been project crunch time around the homestead: the hubby prepping and crafting his beautiful gourds, me working on decadent body product for my upcoming event. If you'll be in Austin this wednesday, come by and check it out. Some great jewelry by Schatzelein and bent on design, as well as $1 Lonestar beer at Thunderbird Coffee. I'd love to meet you.

Anyhoo, Sunday was a full day of farmers market patronage, cooking, and finishing up the last touches on my portion of the Mother's Day event. My kitchen tinkering included a first for me:  pickled eggs. Strange sounding, I know. Pickled eggs came to be when folks needed to travel with their protein and lacked sufficient storage to keep eggs fresh and unjostled. When pickled, the eggs can be kept for a few months unrefrigerated. I found a recipe on my local poultry meetup group and will experiment with it using only 4 or so eggs. No idea if i'll like them, so i'd rather not waste The Ladies' hard work.

Fresh eggs are hard to peel!

My other decision today relates to sustainability, seasonal eating, and my enjoyment of kimchee. I've posted my recipe here a few times, and still plan on trying the marinating method (versus the pound it to death method). But today i will only mention my new approach:

Kimchee is a condiment of versatility and self expression. You can use just about any vegetables and spices you like. I have decided that from this point forward, i will be preparing my kimchee with entirely seasonal produce. I stopped by the Hope Farmers Market today and purchase a locally grown cabbage (i tried to grow cabbage, but the snails beat me to the harvest) and then wandered my garden to pick some spring onions and garlic whips (which i dutifully followed by planting some basil seeds in their stead, it's about time!) Today's kimchee will be made with:

• Local cabbage
• Homegrown spring onions
• Homegrown garlic whips
• Homegrown carrots
• Homegrown dried chillies
• Homegrown coriander seeds
• Homegrown nasturtium leaves
• Homemade whey from local raw milk
• Salt - sourced from far away, i'm sure

Pickled eggs (very reduced recipe to serve 5 eggs):

• Malt and cider vinegar
• water
• 1 whole clove
• Small cinnamon stick
• 1/4 teaspoon or so of pickling spice
• Dash mustard
• Some hot peppers and cayenne powder
• 1/2 T rapadura
• pinch sugar
• 1/2 T pickling salt
• Garlic cloves

Bring to boil, simmer 15 minutes, cool and pour over the eggs. I know this is supposed to be non refrigerated, but it wierds me out, so into the fridge it goes.  I'll test them out next weekend and see what i think!

Great productive weekend for us, onward to a new week, and hopefully a successful (or at least informative) market event on Wednesday.

Wholesome Wednesdays: Carrots

I harvested this very strange little carrot and just had to share him with the world. He was planted in some beautious potting mix stolen from Gabriel Valley Farm, a local organic grower (when working at The Natural Gardener, about a million squash plants died after being not purchased for too long and me and my co-workers spent a few hours dumping the plants and saving the potting mix. Victory was mine). Anyway, the potting mix has a lot of crystally shiny bits, which i think may have impeded the progress of the carrot and caused it to divide thusly:

Carrots are clearly good for you, though they're a bit higher in sugar content than some other vegetables and maybe not as great a choice of a 'calorie free snack' as say celery would be. Here's the breakdown:

• Very low in saturated fat
• No cholesterol
• Very high in dietary fiber
• High in manganese
• High in niacin
• Very high in potassium
• High in thiamin
• Very high in vitamin A
• High in vitamin B6
• Very high in vitamin C

But as you can see, kind of high in sugar per the rest of their nutritional content.

I recall growing up that carrots were supposed to help you 'see in the dark'. Natural news says this about carrots and vision:

"It turns out carrots really do give your eyes a boost because they contain beta-carotene, which the body is able to convert into vitamin A, an essential vitamin for healthy vision. Vitamin A, also called retinol, is key in fighting vision problems like cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and night blindness. It is found primarily in fish oils, liver, eggs and fortified dairy products. However, if you don't eat animal products, you can make sure you are getting plenty of vitamin A by eating fruits and vegetables that contain carotenoids like beta-carotene, which the body then converts to useful vitamin A, called "provitamin A." "   -http://www.naturalnews.com/020364.html

But don't forget the dark leafy greens with their cartenoids as well - we all need a balanced diet to get the vitamins and minerals we need and which help each other be absorbed and utilized. Having a ton of iron of vitamin A is great, but you also need their counterparts that facilitate their absorption.  As a general rule, try to eat at least 1 or 2 servings of richly colored vegetables a day - think spinach, kale, beets, carrots, even red wine. But i also remember my friends in high school who were dieting, eating a baggy full of carrots and thinking they were doing their body good: sugar is sugar, my friends. Try mixing up raw carrots and celery or jicama or radishes along with some homemade hummus that's low in oil. That makes for a satisfied, balanced, and reduced sugar lunch snack. And celery is filling, man! Try eating a whole bunch of celery and you'll be exhausted by the end just due to the crunching. ha.

Anyhoo, here's to your health, and enjoy the rest of your wednesday.