Hidden Apples

Many Carmel Vally residents over the years have had the wisdom to plant fruit trees on their property. Sometimes a single tree, and sometimes even small orchards. These trees provide shade in the summer, and delicious fruit too. Apples, apricots, peaches, pears, almonds, figs. The variety is quite extraordinary. And every year, these loyal trees do their job making their fruit. I'm always amazed when I discover yet another hidden treasure of sustainable food located in some private place in Carmel Valley.

Our friends the fruit tree however are sometimes more efficient than we are. Producing more than their owners can possibly consume at once. And of course canning for the winter requires some set-up and more significantly, time, a commodity in short supply in today's modern life. The bottom line is that there is a tremendous quantity of food in Carmel Valley, that is ripe for the picking!

So Tuesday, Elizabeth and I headed out to pick apples. We collected enough apples for our current orders. The apples were weighed and bagged back at Elizabeth's Farm, and I distributed them to CSA subscribers with my usual rounds on Wednesday. Fresh apples are always nice, but just as important is knowing that they were 100% natural, and come from a local, sustainable source.

Today we will cook down some of the bruised and damaged apples for our own enjoyment. Some day we hope that the Co-op will be able to build a commercial kitchen and we can offer locally grown and canned apple butter and apple sauce to our CSA subscribers too. In the meantime, you'll just have to believe me when I say that it is delicious!

The Art of Local Soap Making

This week Elizabeth, my neighbor and co-op partner, called to tell me that she was making Castile soap. Castile soap is a soap that is made exclusively from vegetable oil, and commonly used to refer to soap made from olive oil (you can find more information about Castile soap on Wikipedia here). Elizabeth is a soap maker, so making soap is not necessarily a unique event at Lizard's Creations, but today it was different. This particular batch is a milestone in a concept that she and I have been exploring with our Co-op: How to live more local?

Living the Vida Local

So how do we live the Vida Local? With vegetables, the answer is simple. We set a geographic radius (50 miles) and receive all of our vegetables grown from within this area. My lavender is also rather straight forward, the lavender is grown here on my farm, and the essential oils and hydrosols are manufactured here. A radius of zero. But when you go up the chain and start thinking about applying local to things like soaps, what does it mean? Elizabeth has of course always crafted her soaps locally. And as we started working together, she began integrating my local lavender oils and buds into the process. This got her to thinking: how far can I go using all local ingredients?

Many of her soaps include ingredients include oils such as palm oil, and other ingredients that are just not produced locally. But with creativity, there is always an answer. That is where a serendipitous meeting she had w/ Carmel Valley Olive Company created an opportunity. This local farm and producer of olive oil less than ten miles away. Elizabeth asked the essential question, can I make this into a locally made, and locally grown Castile soap? If the olive oil and the essential oils were local, then the bulk of the primary ingredients (save the lye used to induce saponification) would be entirely local as well. Imagine the carbon savings if gallons upon gallons of heavy oils were no longer shipped from abroad, but rather obtained locally from a few miles away!

Today was the day to put this ideal into practice. Being such a significant event, I grabbed my camera and headed over to watch and record the history.

Making Soap

Dressed in her blue and white soap making smock, Elizabeth had already prepared the lye mixtures according the careful measurements. I carefully handed her my contribution, Carmel Lavender essential oil from this year's harvest and distillation (read my previous blog entry on the Lavender Oil Harvest here). She was about to begin measuring the bounty from Carmel Valley Olive Company, so we went into her soap workshop to begin making local soap.

With soap making, the measurements are absolutely critical. Without precise measurements, the saponification process will not be right. And if the saponification is not right, the soap will not be right. Elizabeth began measuring out the oil very carefully on here scale. Look at the beautiful golden green color of the oil. The smell of delicious olives filled the room. What a wonderful way to start a soap. We also measured out the essential oil, and set it aside for later.

Next the oil needed to be heated to a precise temperature. For this, the oil was placed on the stove, and Elizabeth carefully monitored the temperature with a thermometer. Likewise, the lye solution I mentioned earlier needed to reach the proper temperature as well. interestingly, the reaction of the solution had naturally preheated the solution, so for this, it is a waiting game for the temperature to cool as the reaction slowed down. She told me that at times she could float the mixture in cool water to help cool it. But today, that was not necessary.

Once the oil and the lye solutions reached the proper temperatures, they were mixed together. This is where it got tricky. Elizabeth told me that the soap now needed to "trace". I.e. when saponification started, it should begin hardening. As you mix the solutions together, this leaves traces behind the spatula. The tricky part is that usually the soap recipes have other oils and fats in the mixture. Pure olive oil was a new experience. And apparently some of her research told her that the tracing stage could take some time. Or maybe never? We really didn't know. So we mixed. And mixed. And mixed. And mixed. After a few hours of mixing, Elizabeth made the call that the saponification was going to take some time if it were going to happen. She would monitor it through-out the day, and give me a ring if it started to trace. So at this point, I collected my camera, and called it a day. I left with a lot of anticipation. The idea of locally grown ingredients is very compelling. I very much wanted to get a good shot of the hardening soap in the mold. But this would have to wait until the soap is ready.

Soap History - The Soap Maker's Birthright

While we were waiting, Elizabeth pulled out an old dry cake of soap in a dish. "Here, look at this" she told me. She continued that this cake of soap was made by her grandmother in the 1940's. You can see the dry cake of antique soap in the photo to the right. It turns out that Elizabeth's grandmother was a soap maker. She made handmade soaps in Nebraska during the war. Her contribution to the war effort. Coincidentally, her grandmother was also called Elizabeth. And even though Elizabeth told me that she never had the opportunity to learn soap making from her grandmother, I felt that the connection was an important one. For 70 years soap had been made in her family. The basic process of saponification has remained the same, and so must have been the need for precise temperature and measurements. And yet in a world that is so different. Here we are today, trying to simplify life by making local products. A luxury in today's time, thought most likely a necessity in yesterday of 70 years.

Meanwhile, back in good ole' 2008...

I had returned home. I called that evening, but no trace. I called the next day, still no trace. We were starting to lose heart. Perhaps no amount of patience would bring saponification. On the third day, I called, and almost reluctantly asked, "well, did it trace?" YES! It had traced! Apparently we were a day short on the patience. Today it was hardening. Elizabeth had already poured the soap mixture into the molds. But I wanted a victory shot for this article. So I picked up my camera and headed over. Wow, what a color! The dark golden green had changed to a buttery yellow / beige. The soap was not solid and no longer even jiggling in the wooden mold. Here the soap will rest, probably for a couple of weeks to further harden and cure.

Once the soap completes the curing process, it will be removed from the mold, cut into bars, and wrapped in the signature wrapping of Lizard's Creations. The locally made and locally grown soaps will be available in locally owned retail shops, such as the Diamond Horseshoe in Carmel Valley, as well as through the Co-op (you can purchase Lizard Creations soaps at the coop website here).

A beautiful soap for a beautiful dream. I feel fortunate to be part of the journey to rediscover how to work together as a community to provide for the essentials of our life, be them food, soaps, or whatever.

Basil Pesto

I've got one word for you. Basil. This year has been a tremendous year for growing Basil. And I don't know why. Last year, I nursed one plant all summer long and would scrupulously harvest 3 or 4 leaves a day to chop into a tomato salad or some such. I dreamed of making bowls of delicious pesto for sandwiches, pasta, whatever, but alas, the poor little plant never really was able to make enough for such an enterprise.

This year was different.

First, in early April, I seeded about 30 or so plants in 3" pots and put them into the cold frame with the other starts. All took. In fact, by May / June when I planted them out, they were looking already better than my poor little plant from 2007. I actually had too many plants and not enough space to plant them out, so I had to give half of them away to friends and neighbors. Already the season was looking good.

When I did plant them out, I made a brand new raised bed with galvanized 1" hardware cloth on the bottom to keep the pesky gophers out, and filled the bed with compost and oak hummus that I collected from under an old oak cluster. They seemed to love it. They grew nicely all summer long, but in early August, for whatever reason, they exploded. And my healthy plants turned into a giant hedge of Basil. Oops. Now I have to eat it all. Way too much for Tomato salads, even every night. Time to make Pesto!

I have spoken to many different Pesto makers, and each have their own recipe and special tricks. I like to make a very basic pesto. It is easy, not too expensive, and very yummy to eat. I start with the following 4 ingredients:
- Basil
- Walnuts
- Lemon
- Olive Oil

In this batch, I made about 1-1/2 to 2 pints of Pesto, which took about 8-9 cups of basil leaves (essentially a two quart bowl almost full), about a pint of finely chopped walnuts, 4-5 lemons, and a few tablespoons (maybe a bit more) of olive oil.

Alright, I hear half of you yelling already "Walnuts! That's sacrilege!" I know, I know, everyone who is anyone uses pine nuts. Well my personal feeling is that pine nuts are just too snooty for my taste. They are typically twice as expensive as walnuts, and I just don't really think the difference is worth it. So feel free to substitute the pine nuts if you wish. Sniiifff. (smiles)

The lemon is absolutely essential. And it is not to be used sparingly either. Without enough lemon, the pesto will turn an unappealing brown color almost immediately. It also helps to remove the bitter edge that Basil can sometimes have (esp. if you don't trim the stems well enough!). If you don't have lemon, use lime, or SOMETHING acidic.

First clip the leaves from the stems and place the leaves in a big bowl. Make sure to get any large piece of stem, even if you need to cut the bottom part of the leaf off to do it. I've found the stems can add a bitter flavour. This can be somewhat neutralized w/ lemon, but not entirely. So it is best just to err on the side of caution and try to get rid of all the stem you can.

I chop the Basil and the Walnuts separately in the food processor. I do it this way because I don't like to measure things out, but prefer to cook "to taste." Chopping separately, I can then blend the Basil and the chopped walnuts together in exactly the right proportion to my current mood. Typically, the ratio is about 1:1. I do, however add the lemon to the Basil just before I chop it. So put the leaves into the food processor, squeeze the lemons directly into the chopping bowl, then chop. I do this to try to preserve the freshness and color or the Basil as much as I can. it is amazing how fast Basil will turn brown when cut. Obviously, when making a batch as large as two pints, it is going to require several batches of chopping. Make sure you add the lemon proportionally, so each batch of chopped Basil is done w/ enough lemon juice.

Once the Basil and nuts are chopped, then mix them in a mixing bowl and add the olive oil, until the texture is easy to spread. Like I said above, 1:1 ratio of chopped Basil to nuts is a good mental starting point, adding the oil sparingly until the desired texture is reached. Taste, and add more lemon, basil, or nuts if necessary.

I'm sure many of you have your own yummy twist on Pesto making. Please feel free to comment and tell me how to make it better!

The Honey Harvest

Last Sunday, after my visit to Catalan Farms, my son and I prepared to harvest some honey. I've spoken quite a bit in previous articles about the difficulties that I've had with the new hives this year. The good news is that the established bees from last year seem to be doing quite well. So whatever the affliction, the stronger colonies seem to be able to withstand it. This year was not a complete bust. While very small, there was indeed some surplus honey for us humans to enjoy.

After collecting the frames of golden honey, we headed over to neighbor Steve's house. Last year, Steve and I, together with another fellow beekeeping neighbor, went in even on honey extraction equipment. Steve is a year ahead of me in terms of establishing his colony. Last year we got to sample his bee's miracle. This year, we get to see what mine can do. We decided the easiest thing to do was to transport the frames over to his house and do the extraction there.

Bees are orderly creatures. When they finish filling up a honey cell with delicious honey, they cap it off with a nice cap of wax. The first step in extraction is to perforate these caps so the honey can flow out. There are many ways to do this including electric capping knives that get hot and slice the caps right off. Well, we used the "poor man's" tool called a scratching tool. In the photo on the right you can see the tool; essentially it is a series of needles on a handle that you rake across the comb, perforating the caps so that the honey can come out.

Once the caps are scratched, we placed the frames in the extractor. The extractor is essentially a centrifuge. The frames are placed inside, and are spun at high speeds by cranking the handle. The centrifugal force (okay, for physics folks, there is no such thing, but this isn't a physics class now is it :) pulls the honey out of the cells where it sticks to the walls and slowly slides down the sides, collecting at the bottom. There it creates a gorgeous pool of honey. We repeated this step multiple times until all the frames of honey had been evacuated.

The evacuated frames are just the empty comb with scratched caps. These frames I put right back into the hive after extraction. One of the benefits of writing this article post-facto is that I can report that I peeked inside a couple of days ago, and the little bees had already finished repairing most of the damage to the comb from the extraction, and the had cleaned out and repacked the residual honey. Harvest season over, their work now is for them alone.

Back to the honey harvest, we can now open the gate at the bottom of the extractor and watch the beautiful dark amber honey flow out! This is strained through a double strainer to remove the little pieces of wax that came from the broken caps. The pure honey flowed through the strainer (very slowly that is) and collected in the honey pail beneath it. I must admit that we all took a little sample of the honey at this point (just to make sure it was good, of course). And it was absolutely fabulous. The biggest surprise was the subtle but very distinct taste OF LAVENDER! Yes! Lavender! The bees obviously were hard at work in the lavender fields and brought this back in the pollen they used to make the honey. It was truly a wonderful taste that I did not expect and was quite grateful for the experience.

Most of this work was done indoors, as with hives nearby, the process tends to attract the bees to reclaim the fruit of their labor. However, at the end, we brought the extractor outside and let the heat of the sun warm up the barrel. This helped get more of the honey stuck to the sides to flow faster.

Then we poured the pure honey from the honey pail into 1/2 pint
mason jars ready for the table! This year, I will share the bounty with our Co-op subscribers.

Given the limited quantity, it will have to be on a first come, first served basis. The price will be $8.50. If you are interested, you can contact the Co-op coordinator at http://www.carmelvalleycoop.org/, or you can visit Carmel Lavender Contacts by clicking here.

With all of the trouble that I have had this year with the bees, this experience was a reminder of the rewards of success. It has given me new resolve to try to work through the problems I have had and restart the colonies next year. This week I have checked the progress of the re queening I wrote about earlier. Unfortunately the re queening seems to have failed and the colony is dead. But the hive next door still lives and from the remaining I will get things going again next spring. Despite the trouble, it is a fantastic experience working with these amazing little creatures.