Partner Plot News: Honey!

This is the story, told in pictures, of how jars of fresh, artisanal honey made their way to the free produce stand in the All Peoples Darius Simmons Community Garden.

These are bee hives.  In nature, bees make their own hives, but bee keepers build these little houses which are just perfect for honey bee colonies.  Each bee in the colony has its own job.  Forager bees are the bees we see in the garden.  Their job is to go out into the world, flying from flower to flower to collect nectar (the sweet juice in the center of the flower). The nectar will be turned into food for the bees in the hive. Pollen from flowers sticks to the bees, so as the bees go from flower to flower, that pollen moves from flower to flower with them.  This pollinating process makes it possible for plants and trees to produce fruits, from apples to zucchini.  This is why taking good care of bees is so important!

When the forager bees come home to the hives, they give the nectar to the house bees. A little bit of bee spit from the forager mixes with the nectar.  A little bit more bee spit mixes in when the nectar goes to the house bee. That bee spit helps the nectar turn into honey.

Inside the hive, the house bees build little hexagonal cylinders out of wax to hold the nectar. After bees squirt the nectar into the wax hexagons, the bees inside the hive make a warm breeze with their wings to remove some of the water from the nectar.  The nectar becomes thicker.  That is how it becomes honey!  To keep the honey fresh, the bees make a little beeswax cap for each hexagonal honey pot. In this photo you can see the honeycomb - all of the little hexagons are filled with honey!

Bee keepers collect honey from the hives by removing some of the honeycomb.  It is important to leave enough honey in the hive so that the bees have food for the winter!  Remember, honey is bee food first, and people food second.

The process of collecting the honeycomb and squeezing out the honey is sticky business!

This is a honey press.

Look at all that honey!!

It's important to remember that raw honey should not be given to children under age 2.

The pressed honey is then decanted into jars.

Good to the last drop!!

And that is the story of how jars of yummy honey made it to the All Peoples produce stand. Thank you to Pastor Larry, the honey team and friends from St. Olaf for this fun Partner Plot Project!!

Canning Yummy Sauce from Ugly Tomatoes

With all the rain we have had late this summer, the tomatoes have gotten super ripe, super juicy and in some cases, super ugly.  However, just because they are ugly is no reason to toss them into the compost heap.  Here is a little photo journal describing the journey of some slightly ugly tomatoes which I picked from the All Peoples Community Garden.

Remember when these plants were just babies?  Miss Susan picked the ripe
fruits from these rows before I took the picture.  Do you see the big,
beautiful green tomatoes hiding in among the leaves?

In about 5 minutes, I picked these beauties from another row.  You can see
that some of the tomatoes actually are not super beautiful.  Some are a little
squishy and overripe.  Some have cracks and some have spots. A few are really ugly.

Don't let this ugly tomato scare you! The ugly might just
be on the outside!

Notice that removing the spotted skin from the scaly
tomato reveals a perfectly good inside.  Notice that 
cutting into the cracked and goofy-looking tomato also
reveals a lovely inside.  Also notice, a serrated knife with
really small teeth (like a steak knife) is a great knife for cutting tomatoes. 

I cut away skin spots, dirty cracks and the cores (the little green
leafy bits) and this is what the good stuff looked like.

This was my bowl of garbage for the compost.

Maybe you have never seen one of these.  I got this from my
grandmother.  It is a food mill.  You dump your cooked fruit or
vegetable into the cone strainer and push the juice and pulp
out through the little holes with the wooden pestle. You could use
a strainer or a colander in the same way.

I cooked and stirred the tomatoes until they were well cooked.
The longer you cook them, the thicker your sauce will be.
Then I dumped the cooked tomatoes (about 2 cups at a time)
into the cone strainer.  The idea is to push and push until only
bits of skin and seeds are left in the cone, and all the good 
tomato stuff is in the bowl under the strainer.

Skin and seeds go into the compost bowl.

Eventually I ended up with a very full bowl.  It's important
to scrape the thick tomato pulp from the outside of the strainer 
into the bowl too.  If you do not have a food mill or
a strainer or a colander to use, then you need to peel your
tomatoes before making sauce with them.  (I will show
you how to do that in the blog post about making salsa.)

I decided to can my tomato sauce, but you can also freeze it.  These steps below are for canning:

The next step for canning the tomato sauce is to put it into clean, hot jars. (Yes, I know it is
called "canning" but unless you are doing this in a factory, you are using jars.)  Wash
your canning jars, rings and new lids in warm soapy water.  Then keep
the jars hot in a big kettle of simmering water and keep the clean rings and lids on
the clean counter where you are working. Carefully lift the jars* out of
the water one by one (dumping the water out) into the pot and filling them (one by one)
with the tomato sauce.  These are pint jars.  To each pint jar, add 1-2 Tablespoons of lemon
juice and 1/2 teaspoon of pickling salt.  I season my tomato sauce later when I
use it to cook something, so I like to can it plain.  Wipe the rim clean with a clean cloth before 
putting on the clean canning lid.  Screw the rim on just barely tight (not all the way.)

*I have a jar lifter, but if you do not, you can use a big tongs to sort of grab the neck of the jar
with one hand and use a big slotted spoon under the jar with the other hand.  Just be careful
not to touch the boiling water.

This is my big canning kettle.  You can see the water is bubbling.  This is 
where the empty jars were before I filled them, and it is where the full jars get
processed.  This is called a water bath.  The jars need to process in boiling water
for about 30 minutes for pint jars.  During the processing, you will see tiny bubbles
of air coming out from under the rims.  That is the air leaving the inside of the jar. 
This is an important step in making sure your jars seal properly.

After carefully lifting the jars out of the water, set them
on a towel to cool.  Listen for the sound "pop" as each lid becomes sealed to the jar.
Leave the jars on the counter overnight without touching them.  The
next day, carefully unscrew the rim of each jar, one by one,
and check to make sure the seal is secure.  I do that by 
sniffing (can you smell tomato? then the jar is not sealed) and then
turning the jar on its side to make sure it doesn't leak.  If the seal is good, then
screw the rim back on tightly.  Be sure to label your jar with the contents
and the year!  (Tomato Sauce 2020, for example)
Store your sealed jars in a dark, cool place, such as a kitchen cupboard.
If any jars did not seal, just put them in the fridge and use the sauce soon.

If you have any questions about canning products from the garden, there are lots of good books, web sites and smart people you can ask!  One important piece of advice:  Many old cookbooks have instructions for canning which do not apply to the fruits and veggies we grow today.  Today's varieties of tomato are much sweeter than in "the old days" so you must add lemon juice or vinegar to the jars and process the jars (if using a water bath) for longer.  If you ever open a home-canned product and it smells or looks funny, throw it away.

Have fun with your ugly tomatoes!!