Make your own Vanilla Extract.

Having sworn off white sugar (any sugar really) and most all grains entirely, i like to know what is in the stuff i use.  I like to have vanilla in my homemade yogurt, but i found that many vanilla extracts available have sugar added or other unnecessary ingredients.  I don't really call myself a purist, but when i can control the ingredients of a thing and make it myself, i find it to be another fun project.

So i make my own Vanilla Extract.

Its super easy.  Just find yourself a good source of fresh beans (i suggest eBay, its where i got mine, there are good sellers there).

Depending on how much extract you want to make, you can buy as many as you want.
I happened to get a large batch of beans because i plan to use them for things besides extract and i plan to use the beans themselves as well as the extract i make as gifts.

This spread cost me under $30 including shipping. 

The recipe is simple,  about 6 beans per cup of extract. The only other ingredient is Vodka.  Smirnoff works well, it has the right balance of price and taste for my purposes.
I am making double strength extract so i can dilute it if i want or just have that extra rich flavor in my recipes. Regular recipes say 3-4 beans per cup of Vodka.

So i start by measuring the Vodka.
I have 12 relatives i plan to give the finished extract to for Christmas, so i need at least 24oz per batch.  I have two types of beans, Madagascar and Tahitian.  Madagascar extract is the most common type available, Tahitian is rare as an extract but it has distinctive different flavor.  So i am making a batch of each.
I want to have some left for myself so i am going to make 26 ounces of each.  So i needed 52oz of Vodka.  A 1.75 liter bottle gave me plenty with some left over.

Weighed for each jar:

 One pound, 10 ounces give or take.  (zero out the jar on the scale first)

That equals roughly 3 and one half cups

And for double-strength extract, that's 6 beans per cup.... 21 beans needed

Slit each of the beans lengthwise and scrape out the insides

Into the jar it goes. 

 Rough chop the rest of the bean and put it in the jar....  repeat 20 more times ;o)

Cover and shake.  

Here are the Tahitian beans:

A second jar, before shaking.
Allow to steep at room temperature out of direct sunlight.

This is what the jars look like after one night of steeping.

The extract needs to steep for at least 6 weeks.  The beans can be used about 3 times. I heard of people simply topping their jars off with fresh Vodka and adding the occasional bean.  The extract can last indefinitely since the Vodka's high alcohol content keeps things quite sterile.

Strain it through a fine mesh, bottle it and use like store-bought, or use it straight from the jar. The bean particles settle out of the way so you can do this.

I plan to purchase a number of  new 2 ounce glass bottles with dropper tops, i'll make a nice label to go on them and they should be a unique and useful gift. 

There are DIY Vanilla extract recipes out there that are non-alcohol. Usually the vodka is subbed with glycerine. Not the solid bar soap glycerin, but the liquid type. I have bought it at the pharmacy before, i used it to make bubble bath, lip balm and other homemade cosmetic items.I've never bought it for edible purposes but as far as i know the pure glycerin is safe to eat.  It is more pricey than Vodka.

The recipe i found for Non-Alcohol Vanilla Extract is:

12 oz Glycerin
4  oz warm water
2 Whole Vanilla Beans

Procedure is the same as the regular method, split, scrape and chop the beans into the liquids, keep in a glass jar, shake often. Should be ready to use after a month or so.  I'd probably double the bean bill. But that's me.

Photo Tutorials and odd root veggies:

 I read quite a few blogs. Normally they are gardening or crafting blogs where the author is constructing some fascinating contraption or modifying something in order to repurpose it.  I decided that i am jealous of never having done my own photo tutorial. So, i think today is the day!

So, to set the stage:

I love the seed starting product known as Peat Pellets.  They are very convenient.  They allow me to sow seeds without having to buy anything but them and the seeds.  I can place the Peat Pellets in most every container i want.  What works best for me is to save  styrofoam meat trays and set the PPs on those. The trays take a Sharpie marker very well and there is plenty of room to write.

But, like i said, they aren't very cheap. I usually buy them by the bag - about $15. for 100.
It saves the work of having to individually fill those rotten 6-pack trays, which always give me trouble,  and they are more compact to store than bags of soil.

My mom gave us her Keurig coffee pot a few months ago, the timer on it ceased to function so she was getting a new one. We don't use timers on coffee pots, so it was a good match for us.  Now the one-cup system always sort of bothered me,  i'm not an environmentalist- really.  But the one-use plastic cup just kinda irked me even though i absolutely adore the brewing system.

Being the seed-starter than i am (i'm a better seed-starter than a gardener, big plans, bad luck, little follow-through) i pretty quickly realized that they were about the same size as my peat pellets. And better, by function, they already have a drain hole precision- punched into the bottom. All that needs to be done is to  remove the lid, the grounds and a quick rinse.  This is a project that is well within my skill level.

So i saved the K-cups over a number of months (about 130 saved), disemboweled them and set them aside (much to my hubby's annoyance) until around now.
Here are the Disemboweling instructions for making the Keurig K-Cup into a little pot for seedling propagation.

 This is a K-Cup. Recently used. Its good to clean them out shortly after they cool off or else things get a bit scary in there.

 Perfect seed-starting size.

Break the foil lid and peel it off. It is a little harder to pull off than usual foil tops because these are not really made to be removed.

It dosen't take very long even though it might separate into a few pieces, the cup is tough enough.

Now, dump out the coffee grounds. They stick to the mini filter, but that is ok. Usually i dump the grounds into a bowl (when i do 20 kcups at a time) and feed them to my worms.

 Then i poke my finger through the center of the paper filter, hook it and yank, peeling it away from the edges.

Dismantling complete.

I don't even have to poke a drainage hole.

Just a quick rinse...

Don't even need to use soap.

All clean and ready to be filled with potting soil.

 The white cups are best because they take a label so well. They also come in black plastic, but i only use those if i must.

They fit 50 to a standard flat, just like the Peat Pellets, and if you drink the coffee anyway, they are technically free.


Yay! My first tutorial.  LOL



So, you see, it is pretty simple :)


I spent some time looking up some info on growing a couple of the unusual root vegetables that i want to try this year.
Burdock is one of them.
Apparently it is quite good, shows up on cooking shous occasionally and is said to be loaded in good vitamins and minerals. Its downside is that the roots can grow about 3' long,  can get quite large around and are tenacious- so harvesting them is challenging!
But i came upon an ingenious idea for making the harvest much easier- if not the prep work:

From one of our customers, W. Takahashi:
I have a tip for growing Gobo without the intense digging normally associated with gobo. I start seeds early inside on a hot pad (Zone 5). Garden prep: Cut 4" PVC into 36" Lengths and then in half lengthwise. Bury the PVC starting 2"-3" deep at surface and the deepest end at 12" (at a cant). I plant the seedlings at the top end, positioned to ensure roots will follow PVC, keeping plants watered & fertilized. Once established, I mulch heavily with straw. I normally overlap each PVC with a 15" spacing of the plants requiring harvesting from the last plant first. Harvesting requires minimal efforts.  Source

I think its brilliant.  Hubby just sees it as more work. I'm wondering it it might be worth it, its a great idea but i don't know if it will ever happen, to be honest. But at least i know the best way to do it if ever!

The Salsify seems pretty straightforward, they are like thinner, foot-long carrots. But i learned that the foliage can also be eaten since salsify is related to the dandelion.

So, off to read a couple more gardening books. "Cash from Square Foot Gardening" and "Garden Encyclopedia".  The Cash book is basically the original "Square Foot Gardening" book, but with extra tips for making it a backyard business... not terribly interested in that- though i hope to be getting enough produce to both donate (and not just tomatoes and zucchini) and put away, bit it was the only square foot book we coulf find for free on the internet.

The Garden Encyclopedia is full of info, as it should be. It even has a section to help me decide how much of each item to grow- production estimates. This will keep me from getting carried away and planting too much of one thing and barely enough of another- while allowing for the plans to preserve.

Between the two books, i am being reminded to also stagger the planting of multi-harvest crops, like lettuce, cabbage, radishes and bush beans, so i don't have them all coming to bear in one week, but that we have one or two harvestables at a time.

More reading, graphing, planning, calculating and thinking.   Yay!

During the little one's nap today, i hope to get the onions, shallots and welsh onions (similar to chives) started and set outdoors with the other wintersown flats.