Green Options

My roots and love for Wisconsin run deep, ever since we traded the Chicago urban corporate scene for organic farming and sustainable living on our rural farm and bed and breakfast, Inn Serendipity.  And at heart, I’m a four-season loving gal.  But man, that fourth season of winter can run a bit long here.  Fortunately, I have a secret weapon in my freezer:  a bumper crop of June strawberries.

Obviously, these little red berries are now rock, hard frozen.  While I practice my local, seasonal, eating mantra like the next foodie, let’s face it, frozen berries aren’t in the same league as their summer counterparts.  While these berries still pack a flavorful punch, the consistency ranks close to mush.

But don’t loose your lust for berries..  Here are three easy tips to maximize the frozen berry flavor and embrace the mush factor:

If you love milk (from animals or a vegan option) but are tired of drinking it plain or having it with your cereal every morning, you can try to prepare some delicious drinks and frozen desserts from it. Here are a few recipes you can use to enrich your daily diet.

We are having an amazing flush of fall strawberries this year, and the colder nights make the berries super sweet.  Given the state of the economy, I feel more pressed to preserve the abundance of food growing in our garden.  Making organic strawberry jam is easy, and it is one food item I can easily provide our family a year’s supply of with the help of my children.  This recipe makes about 5-6 cups of jam, so I like to double it. You don’t need a pressure canner to can jam; just a big pot will do.  You will need to purchase pectin; I like sugar-free, citrus-based Pomona’s Universal Pectin.

Organic Strawberry Jam

In preparation for canning:
Sterilize your jelly jars. You can do this by placing them in boiling water or in your dishwasher. Also, heat up the rings and lids in a pot of water until little bubbles begin to appear, but do not boil. Heat a really large pot of water for canning. The jars must be completely covered by the water. Place a lid on the pot to help the water heat faster.

To make the jam:

• Pick or buy 2 quarts of berries
• Clean the berries, remove the green tops, and mash gently.
• Add 2 teaspoons of calcium water (included in pectin package) to mashed berries

There are two things I look forward to, more than anything, with the coming of summer: caprese salad with creamy mozzarella, ripe tomatoes, and fresh basil from my herb garden, and strawberry shortcake.  When I was younger, I so anticipated the strawberries, absolutely my most favorite fruit in the world, which we only got in the summer.  My mom would make sweetened biscuits, top them with strawberries and Cool Whip, and my brothers and I would devour this sweet treat.  This dessert always reminds me of my childhood.

Now, with global food shipping, you can strawberries any time of the year, if you’re willing to pay for them.  But those winter strawberries, with their white, tasteless core and Frankenstein-like size, are nothing compared to the sweet, juicy, red berries you can get in season.  And, rumor has it, they’re starting to pop up in St Louis, the precious few pints available after the heavy spring rains getting snatched up within minutes of the opening of the markets.  My schedule hasn’t allowed me to fight the crowds for these jewels, but tomorrow I’ll be heading to my local Wednesday market to procure the first fresh berries of the season.  See what I’ll do with them, after the jump.

In the vegan cooking classes I teach and the outreach I do, I am often asked how to incorporate "organic" food into our diets without breaking the bank. Since I rarely have a simple answer, I usually start off by saying what I think is a really important thing to keep

Keep in mind that the typical consumer is NOT paying the true cost of food. The meat, dairy, and egg industries, in

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Ever wonder what these plants are saying to one another? Researchers in the Netherlands say there’s an early-warning network in place. Is it only clover, no, many herbal plants have been studied.

And what about talking to your plants,does that work? And can one plant feel inferior to another?

It’s all included here, on Greening the Golden Years Podcast.

Editor's note: We're pleased to welcome Colleen Patrick-Goudreau to the Green Options writing team! Colleen has taught vegan cooking classes in Oakland, California, for seven years, and is a columnist for VegNews magazine, and a contributing writer for KQED radio's Perspectives program. Her first cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Recipes for Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets, will be published

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Assembling the TartSadly, strawberry season is beginning to wane here in northern California; however, the news is not all bad as the raspberries and cherries are ripening in my garden. This delicious recipe for Organic Strawberry Almond Cream Cheese Tart came from my friend Laura. Our town hosts a good old-fashioned pie auction every spring to raise money for our community council. Laura made this tart one year, [...]