Tuesday, September 8, 2015

A yummy experiment

Younger Daughter decided to try an experiment: to create a meal 100% from home-grown or home-produced ingredients.

This is similar to the "Hobbity breakfast" Older Daughter often used to make, but those meals were more by happy accident than design. Younger Daughter deliberately wanted to be even more of a purist. She decided nothing, absolutely nothing, could come from outside the farm.

She took herself off to the garden and came back in with a couple of potatoes, a carrot, onion, and tomato, and a handful of herbs. She got some chicken stock I had canned up, simmered from a chicken we had raised ourselves. She also took a piece of beef from one of our steers.


No salt or pepper, since of course we can't "grow" (or mine, as the case may be) those ourselves. Instead, she added a cayenne pepper from last year's garden for a bit more zest. Other herbs included sage, oregano, parsley, and some dried green onions from last year.


She started by chopping up and then browning the meat. I told her if she wanted a bit of oil, I had some homemade butter in the freezer, but she opted to see if the meat would produce enough juices on its own. It did.


While the meat cooked, she chopped up the veggies...


...and the herbs.


She added everything to the pot, including the chicken stock, and let it simmer for awhile to allow the potatoes and carrots to soften.


She pronounced the results "delicious."


Other ingredients she had available but didn't use could have included chicken, butter, eggs, milk, wheat (left over from our wheat-growing experiment a few years ago), a variety of canned veggies from last year, cheese, horseradish, corn, garlic, fruit, etc. Next year we hope this list will include honey from our hive(s).

As I said before, I believe it's a minor triumph to be able to eat well from the results of our own labors.

9 comments:

  1. Well done, Baby Girl!

    And it's OK to use salt and pepper if you've bartered for it with something homegrown or hand made. ;)

    A. McSp

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  2. Cayenne was a great addition, also you can grow a black pepper substitute by growing Nasturtiums and collecting and drying the seed pods. Those same pods can be pickled and use as a poor mans Caper as well. The leaves and flowers are also edible and deter a myriad of pests if grown throughout the garden. High in A,B and Vitamin C, as well.
    Strelsi

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  3. Congrats and kudos to the whole family! This is a triumph!! ...and I kinda like the idea of maaaaay-be counting some salt n pepper in, if we barter somethin' homegrown for it!

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  4. I think it was a major accomplishment. You should be proud of your daughter (s) as I know you are. I can run thru all of the daughters I know and none of them can do that. Great job.

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  5. Congratulations, Younger Daughter! Job well done. You've set a great example of how we really can feed ourselves if we but try. By the sweat of our brow.....

    Fern

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  6. It looks delicious ans I think the seasonings you used would be yummy!!! Job well done!!!

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  7. You've said on other posts the chickens are fed bought-in feed -- and I assume the cows have supplemental feed in the winter. This reminds me of a community I know that claims to be 100% self-sufficient in chicken and chicken products -- they're ready for any that hits us -- but feeds them almost entirely on bought-in feed! I know this is Scroogey, but the reality is that if this boat goes down, even the most determined of us is going to have a hellish struggle.

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  8. Well done! So well done, it made me hungry to just look at it, and I could smell it cooking in my imagination.
    sidetracksusie

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  9. Good for YD. Shows she appreciates what you do and shows some initiative for even thinking of this.

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