self sufficient life

What to do with all that basil

Do you grow basil on your kitchen sill too? Those little pots of basil that you can buy in most supermarkets are great if you only need a few leaves in a salad or for decoration, but if you let them grow, they can give you a lifetime supply of basil.

Once the basil plants grow big enough, they will start flowering and the flowers will produce seeds. You can see the seeds when the plant drops its flowers. Each flower usually produces four seeds, with a few dozen flowers on each stem, you can easily harvest a hundred seeds from a single stem.

After planting seeds that I harvested from a plant last year, I have also tried to propagate the plants by taking cuttings. The cuttings where a great success and I soon had more basil than we could eat in salads. As the plants where already flowering, I had to use the leaves before drying the seeds. I decided to make some pesto and it was good!

Here’s how I made the pesto:

Ingredients:

• a few hands full of chopped basil leaves.
• A clove of garlic
• A handful of cashew nuts
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• A little lemon juice
• Some pepper and salt

Pound the garlic, cashew nuts and basil in a pestle and mortar or use a food processor. Real pesto is made with pine nuts, but cashew nuts are a lot cheaper alternative often used in the pesto you can buy in a glass jar from the supermarket. Add a little olive oil until you have a consistency you like and add pepper, salt and lemon juice to taste.

The pesto can be kept in the fridge for a few days or you can freeze it. I use this pesto to make sandwiches, just smear a nice thick layer of pesto onto a slice of bread and top with turkey or chicken breast and tomato slices.

If you want to use the pesto with pasta, you can add a few handfuls of grated parmesan cheese, just stir it into the pesto. When storing the pesto in the freezer you should omit the cheese as it doesn’t freeze to well. Just add the cheese after thawing the pesto for use. Enjoy!

Newsletter signup bonus

As some have already noticed, I just put up a form that enables you to sign up for my free newsletter. The newsletter will be send on a monthly basis and feature tips and tricks related to the subjects covered on this blog.

All subscribers will get free access to a 60 page e-book on hydroponics. This book covers about all the basics from system design to planting.

I’m currently looking into a few more goodies to give away to my subscribers. Sign up now, so you won’t miss out on anything!

Worms in supply chain management

Summer was ending when we got the key to our new home and greenhouses. Heating the greenhouse this winter is really not an option because it will be too costly. Still, we didn’t want to wait until spring, so we quickly did some vegetable planting, hoping for a small harvest before winter really kicks in.

As we where running out of good soil for the planting I decided to try something different. We had some Styrofoam fish boxes laying around which looked like a perfect size planting container to grow some cucumbers in. The worms in the worm bin had not produced enough vermicompost yet, but I figured: why not let the worms continue their work while the plants are already growing?

So, I filled up the fish boxes 2 thirds of the way with a mixture of halfway done garden compost and the contents of my worm bin, including the worms. The boxes where toped of with some good soil. While the plants grow the worms should create a steady supply of worm castings.

Not knowing if this would work, I was pleasantly surprised by the growth rate of the cucumber plants. Now, six weeks later, the plants have grown nicely and are starting to develop fruits. This method of growing cuts out the work of having to harvest the vermicompost and the plants seem to like the steady supply of fresh nutrients.

I just found out that Compost Guy is doing the same, he calls it “Garbage Gardening”. I think if you want to sell your produce, a better term for this method of gardening should be used, as “Garbage Gardening” will probably not market very well.

Cast Iron Cookware

Being the cook in the house, I really love my Teflon coated frying pans and wok. Low- or no-oil cooking just seems so much healthier. I had heard about how damaged non-stick coatings in cookware can be bad for your health and that even high grade coatings will only last a few years when used for you daily cooking.

Looking for information about good cookware, I found a lot of rather disturbing information about non-stick coatings. I wouldn’t just trash all my non-stick coated pans, but I have decided to not buy any new ones once our current ones have been used up. Now, since our new kitchen has an induction stove, all the aluminum pots and pans we have, had to be replaced by steel ones anyways, so now I’m cooking Teflon-free.

In my search for new cookware I came across a very nice deal on a 5 pieces set of Fissler pots. Cost shouldn’t really be an issue when buying cookware, with pots and pans you usually get what you pay for, so you should invest a little more and get something decent. My last set of pots have been used for daily cooking for about 7 years now and they are still like new. The only reason they had to be replaced is because they don’t work on the induction stove.

I still needed a good frying pan when I found out about how good cast iron pans are. When seasoned right, they have very good non-stick properties and can last several lifetimes. Old cast iron pans are usually better than new ones. They used to make two types of pans: plain cast iron (which has a kind of rough feel all over) and cast iron which has been machined inside, making it a lot smoother. They don’t do the machining anymore, but machined pans are so much better because of their smooth inside. Garage sales or flea markets are good places to find the old smooth pans. Don’t worry about how it looks, almost all old cast iron pans can be restored to look like new. Just be sure the pan you buy is not warped or cracked.

I remember my grandma used to cook with cast iron pans, so I went looking in her basement and found two old pans. They looked terrible, but where straight, had no cracks and where of the machined type! Restoration begins by removing the old seasoning. I put the pans in a bath of lye water and let them soak over night. The lye will eat away on the seasoning but not on the iron. The next day I gave it a good rub with a wire brush and the pans looked like new.

The seasoning of a cast iron pan is done by heating up some oil until it turns black and sticks to the pan surface. (Traditional Chinese woks get the same treatment before their first use.) My favorite seasoning is done with lard: rub the entire surface of the pan (inside and outside) with a thin layer of lard and set the pan in the oven or on the stovetop. Heat the pan on high for about 20 minutes, you should open up your kitchen window as this will produce a lot of smoke! Burned in fat should turn black and stick to the pan. One layer of seasoning is enough for the outside of the pan, I gave the inside 3 more layers. The inside of the pan should now have a shiny black finish.

When cooking in cast iron pans you should use a stainless steel spatula. Scraping the bottom of the pan with the spatula will make it a little smoother each time you use it. Don’t worry if things tend to stick at first, over time your pans non-stick properties will get better. Cleaning is done right after use with a dry paper towel. If that doesn’t clean it you can use a little water and a brush, just don’t ever use soap. After using water, let the pan dry on a hot stove and rub a little cooking oil all over the surface of the pan, both inside and outside. When treated right, I’m sure I can pass my grandmothers pans along to my own grandkids some day.

All that is left on my kitchens wish list is a decent wok and a Grease Keeper

We’re back!

Yes, I know, we wanted to live off-grid, but the property we bought is a little too far off. Now we have finally found an internet provider that can supply us with a decent internet connection, so we’re back online!

These past 2 months have been very eventful, but we are about settled now. The first 4000 liter fish tank has been set up inside the greenhouse. For now it houses goldfish. We’ll have to see how temperatures develop in the greenhouse throughout the winter. I will probably build a shed around the fish tank and connected grow bed and equip it with a grow light to be able to grow some veggies this winter.

Sorry, no pictures at the moment, as the USB cable for the camera is still in one of the unpacked moving boxes…