This is my greenhouse when it was brand new. Several years have gone by and it has proved to be a wonderful addition to my farm. The glossy clean windows are covered with green SOMETHING~  I suppose dried algae but a bleach wash on a warm day will take care of that.May has been very unkind to us, Very low temps during blossoming season and an unseasonal snow flurry frost  hit us last night. My tomato plants, started 2 months ago in the house, had been transferred to the greenhouse in the hopes that all would be well, as with other years. OH NOOOO !!!    NO SPRING FOR YOU !!!

We anticipated the worst and put an electric heater in the greenhouse hoping to improve the temps. But they still took a hit and were partially wilted but maintained their nice green color.  Hopefully 

things will perk up. Praying for sunshine !

While we are all shut up in our houses with the Corona pandemic many people occupy their time painting the bedroom or kitchen walls or doing handyman projects, Not me . I just cook. I try to learn to do something new every year that I didn't know how to do before. I had made bagels in the long ago past but didn't think they came out that  good. 

I finally found a bagel recipe that is most excellent.It is the best recipe in the world. Everybody agrees, ( Just ask Trump) I found it on the Smitten Kitchen web site where profoundly wondrous recipes are to be yours with just a click,  https://smittenkitchen.com/2007/09/bronx-worthy-bagels/    You start with a bowl,,,, the BIG BOWL!!    Bagel dough is more dense than the dough for your average loaf of bread, If you have an electric mixer with a dough hook it's better to use that than hand kneading.Just get it started in the big bowl. It has to come out with a satiny non tacky or sticky finish , No leftover flour flakes. I won't discuss the recipe details here.... that's why I posted her site so that if you are interested in making your own bagels you got the SECRET RECIPE !!!!    However, once the electric mixer has gotten about 3/4's of the way done you will realize this is a heavy dough. Therefore ~  divide the dough in half. When you get to the part where the last 3/4 of a cup of bread flour is done, add half of it to the first half of the dough then the last half of it to the last half of the dough. DO you follow me?

 Now you need another BIG POT but for boiling water with a TB of baking soda.  Bagels are boiled before baking.But the process goes very fast. 1 minute on one side then 1 minute on the other side, NO MORE, Remove from water with a slotted spoon. I have one of those basket ladles which works perfect.

 Remove from water. Brush an egg white wash over the top and dip in toppings, We love Everything bagels so mix sesame seed, poppy seed, Kosher salt together. First I have a little bowl of rehydrated onion flakes ( takes a couple of minutes in hot water) that I spread over the bagels with a butter knife. Then I dip the top of the bagel in the sesame, poppy seed ,salt bowl and put on a parchment paper covered baking sheet to bake them Follow Smitten Kitchen's directions,

 To keep the holes from closing up during the overnight refrigeration process I rolled little cylinders of card stock and stuck them in the holes. when the dough starts to rise it closes up the holes otherwise.

 Then my parchment paper ran out so I cut the cardboard roll in sections to use for next time.

 Mine baked for about 12 min total.

 They were SOOOOO   YUMMY !!!    No preservatives but they freeze well. Bagels come out best if you let them thaw naturally to room temp.

It was pouring rain yesterday so I annihilated the gloom by making rye bread. 

This is by far the most delicious recipe for rye bread I have ever tasted. I have been through years of trying to find that one great Jewish deli rye bread with the crispy crust but had failed to find it. Then one day.... THERE IT WAS  !!!    Here is the web site.    https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/new-york-deli-rye-bread/           While the recipe is given, let me walk you through it with pictures so that it makes sense and is easier if you have never tried this method before. You can buy rye flour online if you can't find a store that sells it. I got mine on a WalMart website. They mailed it to me but I had to buy a few bags, You can also buy bread flour online too or anykind of flour for that matter.

FIRST  you must make a sponge .  A sponge is a batter and is used as your base. Check out the website given for the recipe,  The sponge contains the secret wonderful ingredient that gives it the unique taste. That ingredient is MALT  that is used in beer brewing. You can bye it online or at a local place that sells beer brewing and wine making supplies and ingredients, This is NOT the same malt used to make ice cream malts, shakes & malted milk that you get in the grocery store.Once you open the bag store in in a zip lock bag and press the air out.You only need 1/2 TB so bye a small bag. It will last you FOREVER !

Next , mix the secondary flour mixture in a separate bowl and then gently cover the top of the sponge with the flour mixture,  DON'T MIX IT IN. Cover bowl with a plate and wait about an hour or so until the sponge starts to bubble up through the flour mixture. Also DO NOT ADD THE OIL YET,  That gets added during the kneading process.

You can see the sponge bubbling through the flour in the picture below.

I  use my mixer with the dough hook. Add the oil to the mixing bowl then dump the sponge and flour mixture into the mixing bowl. 

Let the mixer do the kneading and let it keep going until all the caraway seeds and little bits of loose flour are well mixed in but if you don't have a mixer with a dough hook just check out Youtube on how the knead bread dough. Rub a little oil onto your hands to keep the dough from sticking. I learned that from making pasta.I use olive oil. (  Rub it on your face too. It gets rid of dry skin fast and is better than anything.) While this is mixing wash out your bowl and dribble a little oil around the side walls of the bowl. About 1 TB  more. Take the dough and put it in the bowl to rise.Flip it over ( the dough, not the bowl) so that the oil in the bowl coats the outside of the dough. This keeps it moist  and adds the perfect amount of oil to the recipe. If you don't have a warm area you can heat your oven to 170F  and SHUT IT OFF then place your dough in the warmed oven and let it rise.  

I cover the bowl with a plate while it rises. It takes about an hour or so. The bowl will probably be filled with the risen dough when ready. It will be moist when you dump it out on a floured board. Knead it into a loaf shape ,sprinkle corn meal lightly on baking sheet (ungreased) and let it rise on the baking sheet. I place warm bottles or containers of hot water on the sides of the loaf to keep it from spreading out sideways. The warmth also helps the loaves rise faster.I want it to rise vertically to make nice size loafs for sandwiches. 

The recipe calls for 450 F  for the first 15 min. but mine started to burn. I just bake my loaves on 

400 F the whole time for about 45 Min.  Put an egg white wash over the loaves and make 2-3 superficial  slices across the top of the loaf before you put it in the oven, I make the dough the day before I bake it because I make a lot at one time. This way it doesn't take up my whole day.  You can put it in the refrigerator overnight .   I made 6 loaves yesterday, cut them in half and froze them in zip lock bags, That will last me a long time.

SO  GOOOOOD  !!!!!  My husband woke up for a nap and said, "It smells like a Jewish bakery  down here ".   (:> He always says the right thing. 

Tomato plants have such a pleasant scent. Every time I water them they show their appreciation  by sending forth that wonderful fragrance.Plants say 'Thank you'  if you pay attention. Basil does the same thing.

I start my tomato plants  in egg cartons on my window sills. Each window holds 3 cartons perfectly. Then I transfer them to yogurt cups until it's time to move them out into the greenhouse.I usually already have them in the greenhouse by now but it has been too cold because of all this global warming. I 'll probably transfer them this week if the nights aren't too cold. I grow 2 types of tomato plants, heirloom ( so that I can save seeds and replant them)  and hybrids for heavy big meaty tomatoes.They have to be planted away from the heirlooms so that they don't cross pollinate and ruin the heirloom reproducing capability.

      What will I do with all those plants ??  I have around 50 altogether.  Well, tomato sauce, whole tomatoes, tomato puree' and tomato soup, ketchup, BBQ  sauce and  salsa. 

Then there are soups and stews to be made, and I add tomatoes to canned Swiss steak and hot Italian peppers.When you don't have time to cook you can just dump out a jar of  sausage & peppers into a bowl and heat them up in the microwave then put them on a roll or over rice or noodles which don't take as much time to prepare. Even though I complain, " I don't want to see one more tomato !!!" by the end of canning season I miss having fresh tomatoes  right out of the garden when fall comes .around. By February I'm so happy to see the seed catalogues come in the mail,

I  was so amazed when I started making bread of the many types of flour that are available.

 All Purpose flour is used for most things but for bread you need higher gluten, hence Bread flour. If you can;t find bread flour in the grocery stores order it online. Bread flour is a white flour. If you make rye bread you use part rye flour and add white bread flour. The same goes for whole wheat flour.

Semolina flour is mixed half & half with all purpose flour for making pasta   but you don't need semolina to make pasta. A.P. flour is fine.  In fact, fettucine noodles are lighter and absolutely delicious when made homemade.   Store bought fettucine seems heavier and takes longer to cook. My stash of flours consist of All purpose flour, bread flour, rye, whole wheat,buckwheat (for pancakes & waffles) and semolina. Once in a blue moon I'll buy cake flour which is finer and silkier.

       Think of all the things you can make with flour: 

          Pastas(spaghetti, ravioli,lasagna,noodles for soups & stews,fettucine,) tortillas , pierogis, breads, bread crumbs from stale bread , cakes, pies,struedles and other coffee cakes,cookies, biscuits, dumplings,pancakes,waffles. There's more but I can't think of them now. So, unless you have dietary restrictions flours are a good thing to stock up on. It takes time to do that. We would buy a bag or two every time we grocery shopped until we had enough.
           Rice, barley, dried beans , lentils and peas are good to store up  also, I get gallon pickle jars and hot pepper jars from the mom & pop deli nearby. Flour and beans, etc store beautifully in them and so far I haven't had bugs make their way into those jars. Melted wax around the rim of the jar lid is an extra precaution to make a snug fit,

      Five years ago I posted this advice on my Facebook page.  It has profited us greatly during this lockdown .  We haven't been to the grocery store in 2 months but we have been to a small mom & pop market & the Dollar general  for things like dog & cat food, dairy products, junk food and things you can't make.   here's what I posted  5 years ago:   
     
       I would STRONGLY suggest, with the greatest of urgency, that if you have not done so yet, this spring and summer you either raise or purchase your produce and learn to can it. (Freezing is good, but if the electric goes off for any amount of time it will thaw. )You can still can on a propane grill if you need to pressure can and a campfire will allow a boiling water bath enough heat to can high acid fruits . Lawns are nice, food is nicer. You would be amazed at how much will grow on 1/4 acre. Buy bread flour and All purpose flour.It freezes nicely ( to keep summer bugs out).What do you use flour for? Italian bread,whole wheat bread,rolls,cookies,pita bread,rye bread,pies,cakes,macaroni, spaghetti,fettucini,stromboli,pizza,every kind of pasta( buy semolina flour to combine with white flour to make pasta. It only uses small amounts as compared to the ratio of white flour).Look at EVERYTHING you use on a day to day basis.If you stocked up on different flours,yeast (get the freeze dried 1 lb brick that Fleishman's sells),rice,dried beans and split peas (to make soups and chili).A fugitive in Yugoslavia said he wished he had toilet paper stocked up because of his war torn zone.Always keep seeds and have seed potatoes.Do you have a SHORT WAVE RADIO ?? They are cheap to buy. Get the hand crank one. I have a hand crank flashlight in my car that still works GREAT after 8 years. Get one of those also.Being a prepper is not an off the wall anxiety state of mind. It is being realistic with the possible situations confronting us.The "grid" collapsing is one of them knocking out all electric and computer access.We immediately return to the 1800's but unprepared.

You don't need semolina flour to make good pasta. All purpose flour is great.  You also don't need a farm or a lot of acreage . A trip to the supermarket and ask for a crate of corn when they go on sale,  Then can or freeze it,You can buy "seconds" at fruit stands.  Tell them you are looking for "canners".... tomatoes, peaches, etc.  Start your tomatoe plants on your window sill in egg cartons. Then transplant the end of May.

   

The end of the harvest has finally arrived. Once again I am relieved but saddened at the same time. I will miss the wonderful sweet taste of a red juicy tomato freshly plucked from the vine. I will also miss  evening walks through rows of  soft dirt freshly hoed between plants and the smell of tomato vines. I harvested enough to make tomato sauce,salsa, ketchup,BBQ sauce plus some soups for the year. 

       I was fortunate enough to get several bookcases many years ago to store the canned goods. They once belonged to a lawyer in Greenwich Village ,NYC that my father's Aunt Hattie worked for as a legal secretary. That was in the early 1900's. They have sliding glass doors that help to protect the jars from cellar moisture and dust and they also look nice.

      I still have to dig up our potatoes but that can wait for another week or two.The soil protects them from deteriorating until the cellar is cold enough in the fall for storage. Once they are harvested the garden clean up begins. Uggghhhhh !  I'm not looking forward to that.
      Each year I try to learn something new or at least perfect something I couldn't get the hang of in the past. Last year I finally found a recipe for ketchup that actually had true ketchup flavor.  This past year I succeeded in making apple cider vinegar and it tastes and smells great.I used Cortland apples which are the only apples that I know of that don't turn brown. The apples remained white and the vinegar a lighter color. Since I can't test the pH I can't use it for canning but I use it for other things.
       This is also a time of year to save seeds. My window sills have been a ripening spot in my kitchen for tomatoes and now have seeds scattered and drying . Soon the sills will have new basil plants growing into the winter and in late February egg cartons will rest upon them as starter beds for tiny new tomato plants. I'll transfer them them to the greenhouse in the spring once the temps rise above freezing.
       So, what will I be doing the remainder of the year and winter ?  Well, I will probably sew. I learned to make puppets for Junior Church Bible story lessons and VBS  last year. I will probably make a few more. It's fun. We live on a farm. There is always PLENTY to do.