Understanding Food

In a previous post, I wrote about my desire for my kids to know more about their food and its origins. In the past few weeks, we have experimented with food in several exciting ways, and the kids are experiencing the joy of eating food we have produced instead of food bought at a store.

We began by trying a new whole wheat bread recipe. My last recipe turned out quite bland, and the bread was only slightly edible when loaded with jelly or peanut butter. This recipe, however, resulted in two wonderfully light and tasty loaves of whole wheat bread. The kids enjoyed watching the whole process and look forward to helping out more next time, now that I know that the recipe works.

Additionally, I had a bunch of mushy apples and plums that we accidentally froze by turning down the temperature in the fridge drawer too far. I found a delicious recipe for Plum-Apple Butter and made some of that as well. I cut the sugar in half and estimated the amount of apples and plums because I do not have a food scale, and it was very yummy - much better than any apple butter I have purchased at the store. The kids love it with peanut butter on a sandwich instead of jelly.

I also splurged and bought myself supplies for making yogurt, mozzarella and ricotta cheese, and sour cream. I have not attempted the cheese or sour cream yet, mostly because of a lack of ingredients, but I have already made two batches of yogurt. Hannah and Ben love the homemade yogurt, even plain or sweetened just with fruit, like bananas, berries, cherries, or peaches. Becca will eat it in small amounts, but she has never liked yogurt much. She does eat more of my yogurt than she does of store-bought yogurt, but it still is not her favorite food. I made the first batch while the kids were sleeping, but I encouraged them to watch me make the second batch. They were amazed that simply heating milk, adding a small amount of plain yogurt or yogurt culture, and then letting the mixture sit in an insulated container all day resulted in a fresh batch of plain yogurt. I am still learning the best way to culture the yogurt, as my second attempt came out a bit more sour than the first, but I am excited about the health benefits (and cost benefits) of making my own yogurt instead of buying it in the store.

Finally, after a productive trip to the farmers' market, I taught Hannah and Ben about preserving an abundance of food. I began by measuring a bit more than four cups of blueberries into a bowl. Then, I handed Hannah a potato masher and told her to crush the blueberries as much as possible. When she was finished, I gave Ben a turn and then did the last little bit myself. When we had four cups of mashed berries, I combined sugar and pectin in a bowl and then mixed that with the berries. Following the recipe on the back of the pectin, I stirred for the required length of time, poured the mixture into plastic "jars" and allowed it to rest and thicken for 30 minutes. Voila! Freezer jam! The kids love the taste and enjoy eating something that they made on their toast and sandwiches each day. I also found an excellent recipe for freezer pickles, which Hannah and Ben also helped me make and love to eat.

So, now the kids have a bit more understanding of what goes into the jars of food on supermarket shelves, and I have begun having healthier and cheaper options for our family by making a lot of it myself. Amazingly, the recipes are very simple and tastier too! Not bad for a couple of fun and productive summer afternoons...