 Plant a zucchini and feed the world, the saying goes. Well my over exuberant self had to plant the WHOLE package of zucchini seeds because what if those pill bugs liked zucchini seeds and left me with none like my lettuce, like my beans? I didn't stop to consider that they might all grow. They might all turn into viable large, feed the world plants. And they did, but I couldn't dare throw them all out. What a waste! Well, not only are we 'feeding' the world with zucchini now but our whole family, at every meal and every dish. Time for some variety! Here are a few yummy looking zucchini recipes for your zucchini abundance.  Preserving Recipes Preserving Zucchini (freezing shredded zucchini) from Life Between the Kitchen and the Coop Salt and Vinegar Zucchini Chips by Sugar Free Mom Dehydrating Zucchini for Winter Use by Learning and Yearning Fermented Zucchini Pickles from the Fermented Food Lab  Dessert/Breakfast Recipes Blueberry Banana Zucchini Bread from Made to be a Mamma Zucchini Brownies from Crazy for Crust Zucchini Breakfast Casserole from Simply Recipes Side Dish Recipes Roasted Garlic-Parmesan Zucchini, Squash and Tomatoes from Cooking Classy Zucchini Tots from 31 Daily  Main Dish Recipes Zucchini Stuffed Shells with Italian Sausage from Yellow Bliss Road Zucchini Season Italian Sausage Boats from The Beautiful Life Zucchini Pad Thai from Eat. Drink. Love Zucchini Meat Loaf by Diet Taste Mexican and Zucchini Beef from Low Carb Yum Garlic Margherita Chicken and Zucchini from Healthy Fitness Chicken Parmesan Zucchini Boats by The Wholesome Dish Last but not least our yummy zucchini muffin recipe for those rather large, "missed you when I checked the garden yesterday" zucchini, you know the type. They are now going into one of the best chocolate muffins I've ever had. We hope you will think so too or at least have a new way to use those monster zucchini's!  
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March will be finishing up here soon and April is headed on in. We have also had some beautiful sun breaks but a whole lot of that liquid sunshine has been coming our way. That along with a thunderstorm or two and all the plants are looking vividly green and the leaves on the trees are coming on out. Many of the trees and plants are blooming, Spring is here for sure!    Check out all the blossoms on those cherry plum trees!!!
In the hoop house... Not too much change in the hoop house through the month. We had some good planting weather in February with plenty of sunshine. Since then its been wet, very wet with not much sun and most of our seedlings and plants are fairy stagnant for now. The cool weather crops don't seem to mind too much and there are still plenty of bugs after our tiny plants.  The radishes are coming along here and there. We seem to have some bugs enjoying them before we get to them. The joy of gardening ;)  Our musclin salad mix is coming up here and there. Enough so that we are using some in our salad mix. Looks like its time to interplant a bit more seed for those bare spots. Also time to bring the salt out for those lovely Oregon slugs!  Baby kale, a favorite in our parts and it seems hard to keep enough of it around. These little spouts are near ready to harvest which means its time to get our third section of kale going!  Overwintered cabbage seems be doing more sprouting up than out. But it sure is beautiful! Those green sprouts in-between which look like two blades of grass are baby onions which should help keep bugs off of our cabbage. Whats growing outside... Our currant bush is blooming for the first time! We had a bush many many years ago and moved right when it finally was producing enough berries to do something with. Sadly we never took it with us so we are excited to have this new bush blooming.  No its not grass ;) Our chives have made a come back after being without water through our hot summer and having the chickens scratching around them. A nice little plant to have outside our door for fresh garnish.  Spearmint, no killing this stuff. No one would know this was two little small plants from the store only a couple of years ago. Time to dehydrate and add to our Bloom'n Hibiscus Tea!! The farm animals ... Hi Rosco... yes you can have some yummy grain but after the chickens get theirs!  Feeding frenzy... what happens when their feeder doesn't get filled! The Fermentation Station ... This week we start a new adventure in our kombucha brewing. Sadly our homemade starter from GT's Kombucha turned into a vinegar scoby and we have been drinking vinegar for a few weeks :( Thankfully we received a Tibetan Scoby that is working out wonderfully. Much better tasting! We are second fermenting the tea here with some Pinot Noir grapes from Thistle Hill Vineyards.   Our new baby socby and the mother that was shared with us a couple weeks ago. Looking good and health waiting for their new batch of tea!  Time for continuous brew kombucha tea!  Despite our vinegar kombucha its still mighty fizzy and active. This one sort of surprised us with a lot of fizz! Flavored with elderberries, rose hips and ginger. In the farm kitchen... My first attempt at a lemon merging pie. It turned out tasty but needs some work on getting the layers to stay together. One way of many to use all those farm eggs!  Naturally fermented sourdough hot cross buns (old school variety without the fruit and sweet stuff) for Good Friday.
Eggs, Eggs, Eggs, and more Eggs! Go chickens go! We had quite the amount of meals with eggs in them last week I might say. Its time to get our little egg stand down at the end of the farm driveway.  Dinner... salad and quiche ;) Minus the chicken poo.. thats just how you know the eggs fresh!  Naturally fermented sourdough bread for the Feast of Saint Patrick to go with our Vegetarian Irish Stew and Green Matcha Shortbread. What's New in the Farm Store and |
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sourdough strawberry shortcake tutorial
Recipe serves about 6-8 people
Ingredients:
3-4 cups strawberries; washed, hulled & sliced
2-4 t/l organic sugar (for sugar free replace with maple syrup, honey or other sweetener of choice)
1 can full fat coconut cream (We used Trader Joe's Coconut Creme)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
For the shortcake:
6 tbl solid Coconut Oil
2 1/2 c. Freshly Ground Soft White Wheat Flour (or if store bought whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 c. sourdough starter
3/4 c. Organic Soy Milk (water works as well as any other type of milk)
1 1/2 tsp non-aluminum baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbl. organic sugar
(for sugar free replace with maple syrup, honey or other sweetener of choice.)
1/4 tsp. sea salt (I used Real Salt in this recipe)
grind those wheat berries!
Mix in sugar and salt
Add in the coconut oil…
Once your oil is measured out cut it in with a pastry knife or two butter knives… if all else fails fingers work too. Cut it in until it resembles coarse crumbs.
now for the fermentation…
Add the liquid
add liquid to dough
When your dough has been mixed as above, cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let your dough ferment for 4-8 hours depending on how quickly your sour dough is working and the tempature of your house. If its warm as it was at our house the other day it only took 2-3 hours. It had a little more motivation sitting outside. Just make sure if you put it out in the sun that you keep an eye on an critters looking to take a bite. Such as say a really hungry cat, or some of the two legged kind over anxious for their dessert. Really uncooked sourdough is not very tasty…
Slice up those strawberries!
fermented and ready to bake
If at this point something comes up you can stick the dough in the refrigerator to slow down the fermenting process. It will continue to ferment but at a much slower rate so make sure to use it as soon as you are able. If disaster strikes and there is no way to finish your shortcake then wrap it up in plastic wrap and stick it in the freezer. Just make sure to bring to room temperature before using.
The next step is to spring on the 1 1/2 tsp. of non-aluminum baking powder and the 1/2 tsp. of baking soda. Gently fold in the dry ingredients but do not mix. It will turn into kind of a wet ball and then you can place it in your pie plate for baking. (Or cut for single cakes, like biscuits, place in muffin pans for shortcake cupcakes, even stick in a mini loaf pan for slicing…) Make sure to grease and flour the pan that you are using.
whip the cream and put it together
Now if you are like me and don't plan that far ahead sometimes the Trader Joe's coconut creme (in the brown can) will whip fine with the liquid in it, sometimes it is already separated at the bottom of the can but it just depends on the can purchased. This time around we had some left over in the refrigerator so it was nice and cold.
Separate the liquid from your creme by scooping the cream out and the liquid should be at the bottom of the can. Once your cream is out whip as you would cows milk whipping cream until the peaks are slightly stiff. Add 1 tsp. of vanilla about half way through and if you want a little powdered sugar, we didn't use the sugar this time around.
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When we started I tried to make my own starter from scratch and after many failed attempts and brick loafs I bought a boxed starter from Cultures for Health. From there on out things went much better. Once a week or more we have sour dough pancakes which are super easy to make and very tasty. We noticed with those right away that we didn't 'feel like a pancake' after eating them like we usually did with the white flour non-sourdough pancakes we had eaten for years . These freshly ground whole wheat sour dough not only tasted better but was easier to digest. We have also had sourdough cake, sourdough pie crust, sourdough muffins, and of course sourdough bread which I'm still trying to master. Today I wanted to share our sourdough English muffins as a favor to a friend that requested it, who would like to make them as well.
Ingredients: (Recipe makes appox. 8-12 muffins)
- 1 cup Active Sour Dough Starter (we are using a whole wheat one in this recipe, though any should do)
- 4-5 cups of freshly ground hard red winter wheat
- 2 cups of milk (here we are using Organic soy but any non-dairy milk or water will work)
- 2 TBL raw honey
- 2 tsp baking soda
-2 tsp sea salt (We love using Real Salt)
A quick note about the flour used in this recipe. If you have a starter that uses a flour other than whole wheat you are welcome to use that type of flour to make your english muffins as sour dough starters prefer the flour they are use to being fed when making baked goods out of it. The starter may act differently if a different type of flour is used. We have always fed ours with hard red winter wheat as when we tried to feed it hard red spring wheat the starter did not grow as well or act as we needed it to. Store bought wheat will work as well but again it may act differently than you see here.
Freshly milled flour is the best way to utilize all the lovely nutrients that God placed in the wheat berry. Store bought flour, even whole wheat, has the bran and other parts removed to help keep it shelf stable otherwise it would go rancid quickly. The more that the flour you use is in its natural form the more health benefits you will get from it. We have been blessed with a Nutrimill for grinding wheat but have also previously used a Wondermill Jr. which is not electric. I'm afraid our wheat grinders got worn out and that is when we welcomed the electric mill. I highly recommend the Nutrimill, it has done a wonderful and consistent job. Our wheat berries are ordered from Azure Standard and sometimes we get them in the bulk section at Winco who usually carries Wheat Montana brand but our starter has been finicky with that on occasion so we stick with Azure for the most part.
The first step to making Sourdough English Muffins….
The night before or early in the morning mix your 1 cup of active sourdough starter (it does not have to be in its bubbly risen state as with bread but it should have been feed in the last 12 hours or so) with your 2 cups of milk. Once mixed well you will have sort of a thick looking milk with specs from your flour.
Add your flour, starting with 3-4 cups. Mix that well and see how sticky or dry your dough is. It will change depending on the freshness of your flour, which flour you are using and how wet your starter was. You want to add enough flour that the dough comes off the mixer bowl but make sure it is still sticky to the touch. Whole wheat flour is going to suck up some of the moisture but later on you will be adding honey that will make it sticky too so it will take some practice. Always err on the side of too wet, you can add it later even though it won't ferment but you can't take it out and will have dry muffins. The dough show here below the pictures is still just a little bit sticky, so I'll add just a little more flour, maybe 1 tablespoon or so.
While sourdough English muffins don't need to be kneaded, a part I love, I do knead them a little in the mixer. Now that we added our flour I let the mixer knead the dough for a couple of minutes until it all comes off the edge of the bowl and starts to form a nice ball of dough. A quick tip! Make sure that you either wash the mixer/spoon right away or put it in water to soak. Sourdough starter is like glue and is very hard to get off if left to dry. Now its time to take a break!
Sourdough is not like commercial yeast in that it will take one hour to rise and then be ready. Sour dough works on its own time fermenting the dough as it rests. I find that my starter takes about 4 hours, some others say theirs will go 12 hours or something in-between. I have found though that if I let mine go past 4-6 hours that it usually starts to deflate so it will depend on the temperature of the room that the dough is in and how active your sourdough is.
If its a cold day I like to part it on a little chair in front of the wood stove, or on top of the dehydrater and turn it on low to warm it up or on the back of the stove if I'm baking and heat is coming out of the vent there. The top of the refrigerator is also a warm spot, or even out on the porch if its a sunny day (with plastic wrap over the top or a towel to keep out bugs, and kids fingers! )
Time to get cook'n!
Now that it has been 4 hours or so the sourdough has risen to about double its size. Warm up your griddle and/or frying pan to about 375 degrees. We have an electric griddle that takes care of this size recipe pretty easily with only a couple left for a second round.
Its now time to add the 2 tablespoons of raw honey, 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of sea salt. Sprinkle that over the top of your dough and put the mixing attachment back on and mix until all the new items are evenly mixed in. (If you placed your dough in a different bowl its just fine to move it back to the mixing bowl)
Once those are all mixed together, dump your dough out onto a rolling service that is well floured (according to how sticky your dough is). If you want you can use a rolling pin and roll your dough out to about 1/2 inch thick. Usually I just pat out our dough because the amount is rather small and its less to clean that way! Using a biscuit cutter or as we use, a wide mouth canning lid, cut out your muffins. Place your muffins on the griddle or frying pan and cook on a med. low heat until they are nice and brown on one side. About 10-15 minutes or so depending on the consistency of your dough. Then turn the muffins over and do the same to the other side making sure the middles of the muffins on the outside are not squishy before taking them off the griddle.
Let cool and then slice and toast! They make great mini sandwiches, toast, mini pizzas and more. We mostly use this recipe for the bread in our house because they are simple and easy to make with just a little bit of planning ahead. Enjoy!
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