How I make Vanilla Sugar

So since I have vanilla beans on hand, and just picked up a few 4 pound bags of sugar on sale recently... And since I'm down to a half jar of Vanilla Sugar... I decided it was time to set up some more. Good vanilla sugar takes a while to really cure nicely. For me, it's a goodly couple months before I consider a jar steeped enough to use.
What is vanilla sugar? Why, simply white sugar infused with vanilla beans. What is it good for? All sorts of sweet applications that use vanilla. Like if you make pound cake, cookies, or meringues- use vanilla sugar and vanilla to kick up the vanilla. Works great for homemade ice cream, and is excellent in jellies. Makes a tasty addition to your coffee and several hot teas :)

Onto making it...

This is your whole list of everything you need.
Vanilla Beans and a 4 pound bag of sugar
jars to put the sugar into
a bowl, whisk, and spatula to stir your sugar up
a knife and cutting board to slice your beans on

 Mmmmm, I use five beans for this. One bean per pound of sugar, plus one bean for the batch.  These are lovely and fresh, very flexable and easy to cut.

 After you slice down the bean, use the back of your knife to scrape your bean. Yes, the back of your knife. Works easier this way, trust me.

 Mmmmm, lot of beanie goodness just piling up on that blade.

 5 beans yield of guts, yum. this gets stirred into the sugar. Yes, the pods and all their remaining clinging goodness are getting used later on.

 Now to start the sugar. Use about a third of the bag to start off with, and use all the bean guts.

 Before the first whisking. You are going to whisk it it because it will break up the vanilla blobs easier. You use less sugar because it's easier that way too. Once the vanilla is well distributed, add another third of the bag of sugar and whisk that in. Once that is well distributed, use the spatula to stir in the last third of a bag of sugar.

This is the whole bowl of sugar, after stirring. Now to fill the jars :)

 The stripped pods, with much goodness clinging to them, yum.

 Cut them up into 5-6 segments, you will be distributing them equally among your jars.

 Two quart jars, filled about a third of the way full of sugar, ready for the first batch of beans.

 Here's about a quarter of the beans in one of the jars. After tossing in your beans, close up the jar and shake well. Open jar up, add another third of sugar and another quarter of the beans, close up the jar and shake well. Add the final third of the sugar to the jar and shake well again.
Keep in mind that you are doing this to two quart jars.

This is what a full jar looks like. Nice distribution of little black flakes, and you can see some of the beans. There will be about a cup of sugar left over. If you really want to pack it into the jars, you can make it fit. I don't bother, I just use a pint jar for the leftover sugar. That sugar will receive my leftover beans from the last batch of vanilla sugar, sort of start a mother. But you want to make sure you use all 5 fresh bean pods between the two quart jars.

Now all you have to do is seal the jars, set them aside in a cool, dark, and dry place.. and in a few months when summer baking and sweet preserving comes in, you will have some sugar ready for use.

And that's how I make vanilla sugar.

Winter composting bin project

Last fall I read around about winter composting, and bins, and worms, and.. came up with my own winter composting scheme. One that hopefully would yield up a couple big garbage cans of compost over the winter- or at least a good way of storing up the compost over the winter so I don't have to walk all the way down to the yard pile. And getting in on having spring straw on hand as I need it that has already gone through it's freezing period.

So:
12 straw bales
2 large garbage cans with strap down capable lids
1 large box of 45 gallon contractor bags
couple bungee cords
roll of packing tape

A drill with about 1/4" big, to drill a ton of holes in the cans with

 Figuring out the layout, and starting to wrap the bales in plastic. We did a double layer of bags on the bales, and finished off the open end with packing tape. As the bales were snugged together, the taped together ends all butted into another bale to ensure the flaps would stay closed.
Where this is located is right outside the kitchen porch. It gets a lot of good southern sun in the winter.

 Bagging up the bales. These bags fit perfectly.

 The first row snugged together. Then we went and picked up the second load of straw bales. And did it all over again :) Note that the orientation of the garbage cans isn't correct in this pic. We were just making sure stuff was going to fit right before moving on. The cans ended up with the handles back to back. This way when one lid opens, it's supported by the other can.

 Top view of the drilling I did. This helps with air flow. The bungee cords are super snug. At the time of writing this, I'm only using one per lid because the bins are remaining surprisingly undisturbed.

 Side drilling detailing.

 Bottom drill detailing:

 Empty and ready to start filling.

 Got some leaves, AKA brown matter.

A heap of kitchen clean out scraps I saved up to kick the batch off with.

And.... heh, I apparently never took follow up pics on this. We filled three of the big bags full of brown leaves while they were super dry, and stacked those over the top of the whole heap. This is to help keep the bins a bit clear, and provide the brown stuff needed to layer in with the kitchen scraps.

So I just took a pic out the laundry room window at the thing.

At first in the fall when it was still drier and quite blustery, we had the top bags blow off a couple times, but they didn't ever go far. Used up about a half bag or so to fill up the bin on the left, that one is now sitting for a while. Started up the right hand bin a week or so ago.
I didn't use the garden claw at all in the left hand bin. Last time I checked it was when I started the second bin, and the total volume had dropped by an inch or two maybe. So I finally gave it a clawing, and the top couple inches was still mostly loose leaves with a bit of other underneath, so that all got a good stir finally. I used the claw right off the bat on the right hand bin.

Makin Kraut

Had to go out and about today... Got a glorious head of cabbage at the fruit exchange for $1.95. So guess what? It's kraut making time :)

Kraut is a lacto-fermentation. Remember those yummy ass carrots? Same thing, veggie, salt, and mother natures preservation. And by luck, I happen to have a crock I can ferment in- thanks sis!

So....

Here's the crock, weight plate, and that lovely head of cabbage.

Most folks only see a cleaned head of cabbage- just the head with all those wonderful outer leaves stripped off. I stripped off the outer leaves too, and bagged those up for some stewing greens. That left me with a 5 pound head to shred up. You want to use 1/4 cup of kosher salt per pound of cabbage, so it's important to weigh the head before you start shredding.

And right off the bat, you need to sanitize your crock and weight plate. Simple, some white vinegar and water, bring to a boil, and fill your crock up with the plate sitting on the bottom. Let it sit till it's needed. But sanitizing is necessary, to kill off anything that might be around- just like when you do canning, you sanitize the jars, even if they are freshly washed.

I used my serrated bread knife to shred the cabbage. Just a bit easier than using great-grandmas mandolin, though I wanted to use that instead. The bread knife is long and sharp, perfect for making those super thin slices. You want to stay within a quarter to dime thickness- over a quarter thick is just too darn thick, thinner is better. I halved, then quartered, then cut the quarters into eighths before cutting off the core section and shredding. The cabbage was rather big, so eighths made for easier shredding and better final shred lengths. 

Big ass bowl full of 5 pounds of shredded cabbage. Why use a bowl, and not just right into the crock? It's easier to mix the salt in this way instead of having to sprinkle in layers, and gives you a better idea on what your liquid yield is after wilting. And the cabbage all fluffy crunchy won't want to pack down into the crock, but after salt wilting it packs up right fine. I used 1 1/4 cups salt for the 5 pounds, keeping in the 1/4 cup per pound ratio. I placed a clean floursack dishtowel over the bowl during wilting to help keep out any bugs or nosy kitties. Gotta keep it clean!

So here's what it looks like after an hours wilting. I went for a stroll to check out the blackberries to kill time during this so I quit peeking at it. It's noticeably less fluffy, and pressing it there is no more crunch to it. If it had still been crunchy, I would have let it wilt longer.

Here all those 5 pounds are packed down into the crock. Packing is important, get the air out. Now, if I had layered and salted, this thing would have been super full and harder to manage and pack, harder to tell if the bottom was crunchy or not. So I took a couple handfuls at a time, packed them down, and repeat. And hell yes, you make sure you pour all the rendered cabbage juice into that crock too- that's vital. You can't really see it, but the juice is just barely up to the cabbage top. With the weight plate and a bit more break down, the cabbage will be fully submerged. Shouldn't need any saltwater addition.

Now for the weight plate. It's not the weight itself, but makes sure to evenly press all the cabbage down.

This is the weight- a quart bag full of saltwater. Just a couple tablespoons of salt and hot water. Why saltwater? Just in case the bag leaks, you are adding brine instead of water. And after an hour of the crock sitting like this, the liquid was well over the cabbage.

Then cover the crock with the floursack dishtowel to keep dust, bugs, nosy kitties out. Since we are having a rather cool spell right now, it can sit on the counter. If it turns hot, it will need to be taken down to the cellar. This fermenting does better under cool conditions- makes for a far tastier fermentation.

How do you know when the stuff is fermented? Well, during fermentation, there are bubbles, and once the bubbles stop, fermenting is done. This can take a couple weeks, but by keeping it cool and letting it ferment longer, you get a tastier kraut. I've seen some folks say it can be done in days, but slow and low is better as far as I'm concerned. So this will probably sit for a goodly month before I do anything else with it. Some folks just leave their kraut in the crocks till eating time, but alas, I only have one crock right now. So when it's time to take it out, I will either vacuum pack it for the fridge, or more likely, can the stuff in a hot water bath to make it shelf stable. That is, if there is any left over to store once we chow down on it :)

Seed tapes

I was talking with a dear friend today about a new home and their wee girl and gardening. Considering the time of year I was suggesting some plants vs seeds.. and it struck me that a very kid friendly project is making seed tapes.

Seed tapes can be made year round. All it takes is some tape, flour glue and seeds. And it's great for very little seeds that like some spacing, like carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, radishes..

What you need:

Flour and water for glue. The consistency depends on the seed. Bigger seeds like beets, some spinach or radishes need a thicker glue. Smaller seed like carrots or lettuce can use a thinner glue.
Cheap paper, like cheap toilet paper, paper towels, or crepe paper streamers left over from whatever.
Seeds! That whole bucket is seeds I want to keep making seed tapes with.
A little dish to pour your seeds into. Makes picking them up much easier.
A marker- to write the seed name on the paper with.
Something to work on. I'm using a brown paper bag here. markers can write through the paper super easy, and the flour glue can seep in pretty quick too.
And lastly, something to lay the tapes on while drying. I'm using a stack of cooling racks, but you can use paper bags or news papers. Keep in mind those tapes have to lay till dry, which can take several hours.

Little bit of flour. This is a couple teaspoons maybe. You don't need to make a lot of glue, it does not keep well.

Mix with a bit of water. This is thinner than pancake batter.

Lay out a piece of paper. I like using 4 squares at a time.

Write the name of the seed on the paper. Be careful, the stuff likes to tear.

Drip out little drips of glue in the right spacing. For this spinach it's about 4 inches.

Drop on your seeds into the drips. This one called for 3 per spacing.

The seeds sitting in their drip. with bigger seeds like this it's nice to gently press the seeds into the glue. For smaller seed like carrot or lettuce, that's usually not necessary.

Set your paper aside to dry.. And on to the next one :)

Here's some seed tapes that are done already. If I have the seed envelope, I like to keep it with the tapes for helpful information when actually putting the seed into the garden. And wrapping a sleeve around them makes them more manageable.

When time comes to plant the seed, just lay it down, cover it with a thin layer of dirt to keep the paper in place and give the seeds their proper planting depth. Water in well and treat it like any other direct seeding.

Some notes on flour. You can use any kind of flour. I've used wheat and found it made a thicker glue, good for beet seeds. If you want to, you can add food coloring to your flour when you make your tapes to help you ID them :) Or just make making seed tapes more fun for kids.

You can do this any time of year. It's kind of nice to do them in the winter when there's no hope of any gardening, but you can still feel like you are planting seeds.. sort of...

How to make recycled net bags into a scrub pad

We get various goods in net bags and quite often we just tear them open and pull out our onions, citrus fruits, and occasionally other produce and toss the bags. Don't toss them. They are useful for a ton of other uses. Quite a few of them pack down rather small awaiting use.

This is a bag full of bags that I've saved up over time. When you open your bags, don't just rip them open, if they have removable closures, use them. Don't worry if you do have a couple ripped bags, those can get folded into the center of the scrubbie. If the bags are stapled shut, take the time to snip off the very ends.

Whole heap of bags sorted out. As you can see there are some different grades of netting and different closures. These need to be cleaned up of labels and such. What needs to be cleaned up?

These are bags that aren't suitable for making into scrubbies- the more woven stuff or mostly plastic bags. These are really good for other uses though.

These are bags flower bulbs came in. They are nice because they are a sealed envelope.

Your typical onion bags

Cut off just the staple at the end!

Another typical bag type

Trim off right below the tag.

Ok, now that that's done, whew. We have a bunch of bits to put together. Of course going through a whole bag like this is a chore, but you can do it as a winter project :)

To keep it simple, you stack and fold in a bunch of bags. What combinations you use is up to you.

 This is three bags that have been stretched out to be sort of even, stacked. If you have a ripped bag, it will go onto the top of the stack so it's folded in.

 First fold, tucking raw edges inside

 Second fold, tucking raw edges inside

Turn 90 degrees, then third fold

And finally fourth fold.

 Now for stitching. Start in one corner, leaving a tail for tying off. Stitch all the way around

 Make sure your last stitch come out on the same side you left your tail. Tie your tails together, and snip off the extra.

And here we have the done scrubbie!

Made up one quick over the holiday as my last scrubbie was dying. Used 3 bags stacked, folded thrice and against that thrice again, then used a fat yarn needle and a scrap of yarn to seal the sides. It works great!

Using one of those sealed envelope bags is even easier.

 Stack and fold your bags like in the above. You might need to fold more or in quarters to get it to fit nice.

 Stuff those suckers in and lay them down nice.

 Fold over, and stitch along just the one side, being sure to leave a tail when you start to tie off at the end.

 Stitching and tying done! Now this scrubby has extra layers of the heavier yellow netting to make a more "scouring" side to the pad.

Fear not if you have zero stitching skills!

 These bags typically have small stuff, glass pebbles or marbles, small soaps, tea candles and so on.

 Take the lock off. Notice the barbs on the loop? Those need to be eased out of the cuff.

 Roll up a bunch of net bags and stuff the one net bag. Then put the loop and cap back on, being sure to do it tight so the bags are a firm ball.

And poof! Round ball scrubbie with zero crafting skills! You can cut off the tail end of the bag if you find it annoying.



So next time you think about tossing those bags or buying a new scrubbie- don't.