Peeling, Canning and Drying Peaches

 Food Storage  8 Responses »
Sep 132011
 

We purchased two cases of Michigan peaches so far this year – one from a local supermarket, and one from a roadside market up in Door County.  I decided to can most of them, as the boys adore canned peaches.  I also dried some in the dehydrator and make some peach jam.  For canning peaches, use those that are ripe but still firm.  I use the softer peaches for jam or drying.

How to Peel Peaches

Before canning or drying peaches, I remove the skins.  The skins get really chewy after drying, and strangely slimy after canning, so I highly recommend this step.

First, prep a large pot of boiling water, a slotted spoon or other large scoop to remove the peaches from the boiling water, a basin to place them in to move them to the chilling water, and the peaches you want to process.

Next, prep your chilling and skinning area.  I like to chill mine in my wash basin in the sink, gather the skins in an old yogurt container, and place the peeled peaches into a basin of water with a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice or a teaspoon of citric acid in the water to prevent browning.

Once the boys got going, I placed another basin of cold water in the second sink, and added additional “post peeling” bowls as well.

You may also want to prep your canning equipment at this time, including:

  • your water bath canner
  • clean and sterilized quart jars (I run mine through the dishwasher and time it so they are hot when I’m ready to can)
  • lids and rings in hot (not boiling) water
  • jar lifter
  • tongs or lid lifter to grab rings
  • funnel
  • clean cloth to wipe jar rims
  • ladle
  • wooden spoon for stirring
  • chopstick to remove air bubbles
  • Light syrup (recipe below)

Once your water is boiling, place 8-10 peaches in the boiling water for around 60 seconds, depending on the size of your pot.  You want to work quickly, so no peach is in too long, otherwise they will cook and get soft.

Remove from heat and plunge into cold water (ice is helpful, cold is required).  This stops the peach from cooking so it doesn’t get too soft, and also makes it cool enough to handle to peel.

Put child labor to work peeling peaches – lots of peaches.

The skins should slip off easily at this point.  Again, working as quickly as possible is a good thing, as the longer they sit in water, the more water they will absorb.  I usually let the boys finish peeling while I prep everything else for canning.  I remove the pits and either half or quarter the peaches, depending on the jar size (I use wide mouth quart jars for peach halves) and make sure the cut edges are exposed to the lemon water to prevent browning.

How to Can Peaches

I like to work from left to right on my stove.  Fill on the left side, process on the right, unload finished jars on a waiting cloth next to the right side of the stove.  I prefer to cold pack peaches, which means the fruit is loaded in the jars at room temperature and then boiling syrup is poured over the top.  I think the peaches stay firmer and more attractive using this method, even though they float more in the jar.

In this photo I have the rings and lids at the top, sugar syrup on the lower left, water bath canner on the right.

To prepare syrup, while heating water, add sugar slowly, stirring constantly to dissolve. Bring to a gentle boil. Fill jars while syrup is still boiling hot.  For light syrup, use 2 1/4 cup sugar per 5 1/4 cups water, which will yield 6 1/2 cups of syrup.  You may use less sugar, fruit juice or honey, but these will all give your product a shorter shelf life and quicker discoloration.  Sugar acts as a preservative by binding up free water in the fruit (see The Natural Canning Resource Book).  Note: The juice from the peaches also makes a great flavoring for homemade water kefir.

Drain peaches in a colander.  Fill jars to 1/2 inch headspace (leave fruit and syrup 1/2 inch from top of jar).  Ladle on hot syrup.  Run you chopstick or small non-metallic spatula between the peaches and the jar to remove air bubbles (metal may scratch the inside of the jar).  Add extra syrup if needed.  Wipe rim clean, screw on lid (not too tight – air must escape during processing).

* Note:  if using Tattler lids, use 1 inch headspace, tighten rings, then unscrew 1/4 inch.

Place jars on rack in canner.  When canner is full, lower jars into water.  Make sure jars are covered by 1-2 inches of water.  Bring to boil, process (boil gently) pints 20 minutes, quarts 25 minutes.

When the cooking time is up, remove jars at once and place on a rack or on towels away from heat and away from any draft.  If using Tattler lids, tighten rings as soon as they are removed from the water bath.  This is not necessary for standard canning lids.

After 12-24 hours, check lids for seal.  Standard lids should be concave in the center and held down tightly.  Tattler lids should be snug if you try to pull them off.  I love listening to the “ping” as the jars seal.

Here’s round one of peaches the next day, wiped off ready to be labeled with date on contents on the lid with a Sharpie marker.

How to Dry Peaches in a Dehydrator

Drying peaches is super easy. I often dry whatever I can’t easily fit in the canner, or peaches that are too soft to can or marked up a bit.  Thinly slice your peeled peaches, dip them in the lemon water to prevent browning, then drain the slices in a strainer.  Place slices on dehydrator tray or Clean a Screen insert on dehydrator tray, or equivalent mesh insert on other dehydrators.  Dry at around 135-140 degrees F until leathery or crisp, depending on thickness of slices.  I usually dry mine overnight.

I highly recommend using the mesh inserts, as the peaches are very sticky and like to stick to the trays.  With the inserts, you just bend them and the dried fruit pops right off.

Store in an airtight container out of direct sunlight.  If I have a lot of a particular dried fruit, I vacuum seal it in mason jars with the vacuum sealer attachment.  These make great snacks and can also be added to homemade granola or fruit and nut mixes.  If you’ve got a LOT of dried fruit, Mary Bell’s Dehydrator cookbook has some good recipes for pies and other baked goods using dried fruit.

So there you go!  Peachy goodness to enjoy all year long.  If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider passing it along.

Strawberry Picking

 Local Food  5 Responses »
Jul 182011
 

Last week I started posting strawberry recipes, but I didn’t say a whole lot about where we got our strawberries.  I figured this week I’d do a couple more strawberry posts, first sharing a bit about our strawberry picking adventures, and then wrapping up with another “how-to” post on preserving berries.

Strawberry season ran late in our area due to an awfully cold spring.  The boys and I first went picking on July 8th, weeks later than the season would normally start.  Our first stop for berries was Kraynik’s Berry Farm, just north of Hwy 29 and less than ten minutes from our home.  If you’re heading east on 29 between Green Bay and Kewaunee, just look for the big red berries.

Kraynik’s also has U-pick peas and raspberries, which should be starting up shortly, if they haven’t started already.  Normally the peas are ready much earlier, but the owners said that when they would have normally been planting, the field was under a foot of snow, and went they went to plant a second time, it was under standing water.  I know the feeling…

Here are boys, all fired up and ready to get picking (well, maybe not so much, but they know it’s their job).

I wish you could have smelled the air in the berry patch.  The sun was shining and the berries were sweet and juicy due to the heat and rain.  The only downside  was that it had been a little too wet, and there were quite a few rotten berries as well.

Here’s Todd, the owner, weighing up our berries.  Pretty reasonably priced, IMO.

Here he is posing with the truck where they store the berry boxes.  Kraynik’s moves the stand to the field where the berries are currently being picked.

After a couple of hours in the hot sun, the boys and I went out for custard, just like my mom and I used to do when I was a kid.


Our second round of picking was at Wilfert’s, just south of Mishicot.  I like to visit Wilfert’s later in the season, as their berries tend to be larger than Kraynik’s as the season progresses.

The local growers don’t spray much, maybe because the cold kills off a lot of the bugs.  These folks only spray once during blossom set, unlike many commercial growers.  Apparently 50 different pesticides are used on strawberries, making them one of most sprayed fruit crops.  We ran into more rotten strawberries here, too, and the boys had a tough time picking.  You can see the berries were very soft, and my hands got quite stained.

Wilfert farm sells out of a large building where they also sell other produce, and they post regular updates on their site and to their Facebook page.  I picked up some peas, cauliflower and kohlrabi.

Like I told the boys, it’s more work to pick your own, but it a good way to help support your local farmers.  I’m sure local growers have struggled with the weather just like I have, and their incomes are probably lagging well behind where they ought to be by this time of year.  You’ll never beat the freshness of something you’ve picked yourself.  PickYourOwn.org lists dozens of farms throughout the United States, and some from around the world.  If you can’t grow it yourself, pick your own is the next best thing.


If you have fresh strawberries available, check out my recipes for Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake made with Almond Flour, Low Sugar Honey Sweetened Strawberry and Strawberry Banana Jam, Old Fashioned Strawberry-Banana and Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam, and Gluten Free Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble.

This post has been added to Simple Lives Thursday at a Sustainable Eats and the
Homestead Barn Hop #21 at Homestead Revival.

 

Preserving Asparagus Three Ways – Freezing, Drying and Lacto-Fermenting

 Food Storage  11 Responses »
Jun 232011
 

I had the opportunity to babysit my neighbors asparagus patch for two weeks earlier this season, and I was blessed with a bounty of asparagus like I have never seen.  The photo above was just one picking – and it kept coming!  For those who are not asparagus savvy, you need to keep the spears harvested during the production season, otherwise they will get tall and produce seed, and you will have no more asparagus to harvest.  Thus, I was over picking every two to three days to keep the plants producing.  The neighbors have a lovely 100+ year old farmhouse, and four different asparagus patches around the yard.  As I was picking, the fresh spears looked so good that I decided to try one raw for the first time.  It was really good!  It tasted very much like fresh picked green peas, without much of the stronger “asparagus” taste that puts many people off.  I ate several more.  :-)   Since there was such a bounty, I used several methods of preserving asparagus.

The first thing I decided to do with the excess asparagus was freezing.

How to Freeze Asparagus

From the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, one of my favorite preserving references, with my comments in parentheses.

Select young, tender asparagus with tightly wrapped tips.  (Check – picked them fresh myself. :-)

Wash thoroughly and sort into sizes.  (Definitely needed to do this – the size variation in homegrown asparagus is quite substantial compared to commercial asparagus.  I always went for the thinner stalks in the store, thinking they’d be more tender, but I found out while picking that they emerge from the soil at the width they will be as they grow.  Thinner stalks are not any younger than fat ones, and the fat ones were often more tender and juicy.  Don’t fear the fat asparagus, and don’t fear fat in general.)

Trim stalks by removing scales with a scarp knife.  (This is done primarily to get any trapped dirt off that may be hiding underneath the scales, so I didn’t bother, as my asparagus were grown in grassy and mulched areas.  you’ll be able to see how dirty your asparagus are.)

Cut into even lengths to fit in freezer containers.  (I skipped this, too, since I wanted to pack whole spears in vacuum bags.)

Blanch small spears 1 1/2 minutes, medium spears 2 minutes and large spears 3 minutes.  (This is where the sorting is needed.)

Cool.  (I scooped mine out and plunged them into a cold water bath to halt cooking.)

Drain.  (I first drained in a colander, and then placed them evenly space on a flour sack towel on top of an old, absorbent bath towel, to wick away as much excess moisture as possible before freezing.)

 

Pack asparagus into plastic freezer bags, can-or-freeze jars, plastic freezer boxes or vacuum bags.  (I chose to lay out my asparagus on cookie sheets covered with reusable parchment paper (I use that stuff for everything.) and pre-freeze them before sealing them in vacuum bags the following day.

Seal, label and freeze. (I packed the frozen spears into meal sized packages with varying amounts per package and sealed them with my vacuum sealer.  My goal was to have a product that looked as good when you brought it out of the freezer as when you put it in – no ice crystals, no mushy mass of green goo, just neat, tender spears ready to be heated in a pan with a bit of butter, salt and pepper.  If you plan to keep produce frozen for any amount of time – for instance, in this case, I probably won’t pull this out until winter, when fresh veggies are gone – the investment in a vacuum sealer and the small amount of extra time involved is well worth it in the HUGE improvement in quality of frozen veggies and fruits.)

 

How to Dry Asparagus
Again from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving with my comments in parentheses.

Choose young, tender stalks.  (The ones that taste like green peas. :-)

Wash and cut off tough end.  (Funny that they didn’t mention this for the freezing.  Anyway, you can trim a little bit from the bottom as needed.  With many of the younger stalks, I really didn’t need to trim at all, because there was no tough part at the bottom.)

Slice into one inch pieces.  (Note – if you have really fat asparagus stalks, you probably want to cut them in half lengthwise, too, before loading them in the dehydrator.  I didn’t do this initially, and ended up doing it at the end of the drying process to get those wider pieces to dry evenly.)

Steam blanch 3 to 4 minutes.  (I just blanched them in a pot of boiling water for about two minutes, until they were bright green.)

I started with about six cups of chopped asparagus.

Here’s the whole batch in about 8 quarts of boiling water.

After blanching, I chilled them in a cold water bath to stop the cooking.

Drain well and spread evenly on dehydrator trays.  I used the mesh inserts (the Clean-A-Screen trays) to make sure that no veggie parts fell through the screens as they dried.

Dry at 125F until brittle.  Rehydrate and serve in soups or with seasoned cream sauce.  Water content 92%.  (I put mine in at night and they were done the next morning, except for the wide bits, which I split in half and dried for a bit longer.  You want them to be very dry, so they snap easily in half, for optimum shelf life.)

Isn’t it amazing how much they shrink up?  If you’ve get very limited food storage space, dehydrating is the way to go.  Remember the six cups I started with?  After drying, it all fit into one cup sized jar.

This was labeled and stuck in the pantry.  If you want to boost shelf life even more, you can use the Foodsealer jar sealer attachment and vacuum seal the jar, too.

How to Lacto-Ferment (Pickle) Asparagus

This recipe is the love child of two different posts, one from Heartland Renaissance, and one from A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa.  Since I scored some green garlic (immature garlic) from a neighbor (thanks, Deb), I figured I’d use it in the ferment.  My neighbor, Betty, who provided me with the asparagus, had mentioned that she wanted to make some pickled asparagus.  I’m pretty sure that she had standard pickled asparagus in mind, but I’ve been experimenting more with live cultured foods, so I used lacto-fermentation.

Lacto-fermentation is the use of water, salt, spices and sometimes whey to preserve food without heat canning.  The lactobacilli bacteria that proliferate in lacto-fermented foods not only help to preserve it and give it that “pickle” flavor, they also act as little probiotic factories, making the food more digestible and increasing its nutrient value.  Lacto-fermented food is loaded with healthy bacteria.  I eat some every day, generally with every meal.

Lacto-Fermented Asparagus Recipe

For each quart jar:

1 teaspoon peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon pickling spice
2 stalks green garlic, cut into 1 inch pieces
Enough asparagus to pack the jar tightly
4 tablespoons whey – If you do not have whey, add an extra tablespoon of salt to your salt water
Salt water – 2 tablespoons sea salt to one quart water, mix well to dissolve (you won’t need all of this to fill the jar, but it’s better to have a little extra than to run short)

Clean and trim asparagus so the spears will fit into the jars below the neck of the jar (you want to keep them covered with liquid during fermentation.)  Put loose spices into jar, then pack asparagus into jars as tightly as possible (they will shrink during pickling and will want to float and pop up out of the liquid).  Wedge in garlic pieces as you go.  Pour in whey.  Pour in enough salt water to completely cover the asparagus, but make sure to leave one inch of head space at the top of the jar.  As it ferments, gas are produced and jar contents may expand.  I used atlas jars, which have wider shoulders but narrow mouths, to help wedge the asparagus in so it stayed below the water level.  You can also use a smaller jar with water in it nested in a wide mouth jar, or a clean stone, or other clean weight to hold the veggies under the brine.  This worked out pretty well overall.  Cultures for Health has a fermented vegetable master, which is designed to keep air out but allow gases to escape.  It’s on my wish list. :-)

Cover jars with a clean cloth (don’t seal tightly – they need to breathe), and place in a cool, dark place and allow to ferment for at least 3 days.  After three days, you can continue fermenting, or cover tightly and move to the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process.  The flavors will get stronger and the asparagus will get softer the longer it ages at room temperatures.  Heat dramatically speeds up the fermentation process, so warm weather ferments will have shorter shelf lives.  I kept mine on the counter for three days under a dishcloth, then covered it tightly and moved it to the fridge.

One day three, I was a little freaked out when I took off the dishcloth and saw this:

At first, I thought it was mold.  Although it is generally safe to eat fermented foods with mold on the surface (just scrape off the mold and eat the product underneath, as long as the smell and taste are not foul or “off”), I was surprised that it had molded so quickly.  Upon closer examination, I found out that it was not mold, just milk solids from my whey, which could have been strained a little more finely.  After a little judicious scraping, the tops looked like this:

Much less “Fear Factor”. ;-)

My final product turned out a little cloudy, probably due to the whey and the “pickling spices”, which had some finer bits, but the taste is delicious.  Judging by the shelf life of other ferments I’ve tried, these should be good for several months – even a year – refrigerated, if they lasted that long.

I’m very grateful to have a stash of different types of asparagus that I can now enjoy for months to come.

Early Greens from the Garden

 Gardening  19 Responses »
Apr 052011
 

Alas, my ground outside is still very much covered with snow and ice, and here I am oggling greens seeds old and new.  I love the variety you can find by shopping through seed catalogs.

This years planned greens include:

  • Lettuce – Rocky Top Mix
  • Lettuce – Red Romaine
  • Amaranth – Joseph’s Coat
  • Lettuce – Really Red Deer Tongue
  • Lettuce – Blushed Butter Cos
  • Lettuce – Summerlong Gourmet Mix
  • Mache – Verte de Cambre
  • Spinach – Bloomsdale Long Standing
  • Spinach – Bordeaux
  • Minutina – Erba de Stella
  • Strawberry Spinach (saved seed)
  • Spinach (saved seed)
  • Kale – Dinosaur (Lacinato)
  • Swiss Chard – Five Color Silverbeet
  • Kale – Nero de Tuscana
  • Kale – Red Russian
  • New Zealand Spinach
  • Bok Choy – Ching Chang
  • Chinese Cabbage – Michili

To get a jump on the season, I’ve got an indoor planting bench and a small greenhouse attached to the house.  This year, I decided to try something different and pre-sprouted and grew out some pea seeds just for use as greens.  The tender tops and little tendrils make a nice salad addition.

To sprout my peas, I placed them in a wide mouth mason jar, covered them with water and the sprouting strainer lid, and let them soak overnight.  In the morning, drain and rinse and leave them on the counter for a few days, rinsing once or twice a day.  By the end of they week, you’ve got something like this:

As you can see, the peas have developed mice little root systems.  Some of them haven’t sprouted, so those get tossed.

I put some potting soil in old organic salad mix trays, snuggled the little seedlings in and tucked them under the grow lights.  At the same time, I started some Rocky Top lettuce mix, some butter Cos, some spinach, some Alyssum and some Painted Tongue.

Two days later, and the peas were coming along nicely.

A week later, and the first  pea tops were ready to harvest.  The salad greens and flowers were poking up out of the soil.  As I said, it’s been really cold and dreary here, so I’m setting no records for rampant growth.  I moved all of these trays out to the greenhouse shortly after this photo, and they’ve really been creeping along.

Here’s my first bowl of pea tops.

I added them to a nice mixed salad with some organic store bought greens (a month later, and the lettuce and spinach are almost ready to harvest as micro greens – trying to be patient).  Here we’ve got some leftover shell peas from supper the previous night, greens, pea tops, soaked walnuts, raw milk bleu cheese from Nala’s, soaked sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, balsamic vinegar and flaxseed oil.  I regularly enjoy having a big mess o’ salad like this for lunch.  Sometimes I’ll add sardines or pickled fish, or fresh sourdough bread slathered with plenty of butter.

Temps are finally warming up this week, so I’ll be starting more seeds inside and hopefully be able to plant outside within the next few weeks.  I decided I’m going to use my sprouting jar to pre-sprout my early peas before plating them out in the garden (these really early ones will remain inside for greens) , since I regularly have germination issues with peas when the ground is cold and wet.  I’ve got some worm castings from Whitetail Organics to top dress the soil, which adds a nice little nitrogen boost that leafy veggies love (I also add it to my potting mix).  The worm castings don’t have the potential disease issues of improperly finished compost or pathogen potential of  other manures, which is another reason I like to use vermicompost if I have it.  Most greens do well in (or prefer) cooler weather, so they are great season extenders.

What are your favorite greens?  Do you have any tips for growing them that you’d like to share?

UPDATE:  The snow has finally cleared from the garden, and I can see the semi-permanent greens bed that had just started leafing out last fall coming to life.  I’ve been letting this corner of my garden self-seed with mache and strawberry spinach.  Last fall it was getting quite overgrown with inedible weeds (the dandelions went in the salad bowl, too), so I cleaned it and added spinach.  The little plants are about an inch tall.  Yeah!

This post has been added to Simple Lives Thursday for April 7, 2011 at GNOWFGLINS.
This post has been added to Fresh Bites Fridaysfor April 8, 2011 at Real Food, Whole Health.

This post has been added to Fight Back Fridaysfor April 8, 2011 at Food Renegade.

How to Process Walnuts – Curing, Cracking, Soaking, Storage and Maple Candied Walnuts

 Food Storage, Recipes  18 Responses »
Feb 232011
 

Last fall I got a phone call from one of my neighbors – “Would I like walnuts?” (I love my neighbors.)  It turns out that other neighbors, relatives of theirs, have two beautiful 89 year old Carpathian walnut trees in their front yard, both of which produced a bumper crop this past year.  Those trees were sent directly from the Carpathian mountain area all those years ago, at a cost of $1 each, which was big money back then.  They came with an apology note about how expensive they were.  (I heard this story from the folks who owned the trees as we picked nuts.  The farm is still in the same family, and the trees were purchased by the grandfather of the current owner.)  We were blessed with many buckets of nuts, enough to share with family and friends.  I had to learn how to process walnuts.  :-)

Curing Walnuts

I was instructed by the tree owners to spread the nuts out in a warm, dry, shaded place to cure for at least a month before using them. I’ve seen mixed recommendations online on how long to dry.  I suppose it depends a lot on your conditions.  The goal of drying is to reduce the moisture within the nuts to prevent mold growth.  When properly dried, the nuts inside should have a nice “snap” and not be rubbery.  At this point, the nuts should hold for up to three years in the shell in cool, dry conditions (if you don’t eat them all first). 

Update:  On year later, and the nuts I cured last fall are still in great condition.  I just wish I had more of them, as I am down to about a gallon pail’s worth in the shell.

I spread my nuts out on the shelves of my greenhouse to dry.

After I got them settled, I covered them with some burlap so the sun wasn’t beating on them.  Once the mousies found my stash and I started finding empty shells, I moved them inside in my black planting trays that I use for seed starting.  Many we cracked and ate, others have gone into the canning pantry for later use.

The Best Way to Crack Walnuts

For cracking our monster nut harvest, I was lucky enough to find a great deal Reed’s Rocket Nut Cracker at the local kitchen store.  If you do any serious volume of nut cracking, you need one of these crackers.  They are not rated for the super-hard nuts like black walnuts, but for all the “standard” nuts they are amazing.  If you’ve got a smaller nut or odd sized nut, like a hazelnut, just fold a bit of dish towel and tuck it in the cracker with the nut to make sure it fits tight enough to crack.

This cracker saved so much time and so much easier to use than our old “pincer” type cracker.  I borrowed it to the neighbor who shared the nuts with us, too.  To avoid flying pieces of shell, we covered the cracker with a cloth as we cracked.  (I cut up an old, worn bath towel, which we use in place of paper towels in the kitchen.)

The nuts come out neatly, too, often in clean halves instead of bits and pieces.

It’s rather fun to use, too.

Once we had a bunch of nuts shelled, I made them into Crispy nuts ala Nourishing Traditions.

Crispy Nut Recipe

To make crispy nuts, mix together in a glass bowl:

4 cups pecans, almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, walnuts
1 T. sea salt
Enough water to cover

Stir and leave on the counter overnight, at least 7 hours.

Drain well in a colander and dehydrate at 125F for around 24 hours, depending on how crispy you like them.

Store them in the freezer to prevent rancidity.  Don’t forget to date and label them.  They will keep for months.

Storage of Walnuts

As I mentioned above, properly cured nuts in the shell kept in a cool dry place should last for at least a year or more.  The shell acts as a natural protective barrier.  Once the nuts have been shelled, because they contain a high amount of polyunsaturated fat, they go rancid quickly.  I highly recommend keeping shelled nuts in the refrigerator or freezer.  In the fridge they should keep for six months, in the freezer, safely a year.

You may be thinking at this point, “But they don’t store nuts in the refrigerator at the store.”  Once you’ve had a chance to compare the taste of freshly shelled versus pre-shelled, you’ll know that they probably should. Most stores do turn over product fairly quickly, but store not are, in general, not optimally processed and not terribly fresh.  It’s cost prohibitive.

Soaking Your Nuts

Kimi over at the Nourishing Gourmet had a great post on soaking nuts (in case you’ve gotten to the point where you’re wondering why I bothering with soaking and then dehydrating).

Why Should I Soak Nuts?

Unlike grains, nuts contain smaller amounts of phytic acid. Their real issue for us is having high amounts of enzyme inhibitors. These enzymes are useful to seeds and nuts because it prevents them from sprouting prematurely. But they can really strain your digestive system.

Soaking your nuts in warm water will neutralize these enzyme inhibitors, and also help encourage the production of beneficial enzymes. These enzymes, in turn, increase many vitamins, especially B vitamins. It also makes these nuts much easier to digest and the nutrients more easily absorbed. And, yes, this is a traditional method of preparation. For example the Aztecs would soak pumpkin or squash seeds in salty water and then, sun dry them. 1

I found that soaking and dehydrating walnuts also improves the flavor significantly, as the tannins are reduced as well.  You don’t get that bitter, “puckery” feeling in your mouth.

I know this post is already quite long, but if you find yourself with an abundance of nuts and want to make a special treat, this recipe for Candied Walnuts from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen is lovely and couldn’t be easier.  I made some up for the holidays to give as gifts.

Candied Walnuts

2 cups walnut halves
3 tablespoons maple syrup (grade B)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch or two of sea salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place all ingredients into a baking dish (I use a 7 x 11-inch glass baking dish). Stir well with a spoon. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, watching carefully so they don’t burn.

As soon as they come out of the oven stir them up so the syrup sticks to the nuts and not the pan. Immediately transfer them to a plate to cool.

Now those of you who are friends with me on Facebook know why I’ve been soaking my nuts so often these past few months. ;-)

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