Self-Sufficient Christmas

Every Christmas Eve, we do two things at our house. First, we go to our church for a short devotional, after which every single person is given a brown paper bag with an orange, peanuts in the shell, and a few candies. This tradition began 70 years ago, at the height of the Great Depression, when this was a very small town indeed, and families were looking at quite a bleak Christmas. The Burgess family owned an orchard (they still do), and they scrounged up some apples and a bit of candy and gave them to everyone in the town at church on Christmas Eve. There is no more perfect way to celebrate Christmas Eve, and we never miss it.

Afterward, we came home through the blowing snow to my scratch stew. This year, our stew was completely self-sufficient. You can see a picture of it above. The carrots were from our winter garden. I used in two kinds of potatoes, white russets and a rare all-red potato. The onions are from our garden, and, I'm proud to say, even the beef is from our property. Normally our beef comes from my parents' farm. Now we have our own beef. I diced an entire rump roast for this stew.

Delicious, and wholly self-sufficient. This self-provident stew is probably a close replica of what the original folk here would have eaten on Christmas Eve during the Great Depression. Certainly most of the farming families (it was all farming families then) would have used their own vegetables in their winter soup, and most likely their own protein too. Having our brown paper sack with an orange and peanuts, and a Christmas devotional, and self-provident stew felt like a humble and appropriate way to remember those who came before us, and their sacrifices. -Caleb

Fresh Lettuce, Yet It's 5 Degrees!

Today, Dec. 20, 2012 at dusk (4:45 p.m.) it was 24 degrees in my garden. Yesterday it never got above freezing at all, and last night the low was 5 degrees -- so cold we had to run the kitchen faucet all night to keep the pipes from freezing. Despite all this, we have a bounty of wonder in the outside garden.

It bumped above freezing long enough this afternoon to melt a little bit of the snow, so when me and the kids went out to pick lettuce, the cold frames were literally frozen to the ground -- some of them I couldn't pry open at all. Here is what we got -- fresh lettuce, kale, collard greens, and Swiss chard (pictured above). There are lots of other things out there too -- carrots, rutabaga, onions, peas, and more. If I ever get a half-hour I'll try to finish posting the photos from the full December winter garden tour.

One more thing before I sign off. When it was 24 degrees in the garden, we decided to go warm up in the geothermal greenhouse -- where it was a balmy 80 degrees! So warm and beautiful we didn't want to leave. I checked on the 50 varieties of seeds I planted a couple days ago, and the kids dug in the dirt and played. It's warmer in there than it is in the house! No artificial heat or electricity, either in the garden or in the greenhouse, yet full of fresh food, despite the bitter 5 degrees last night. -Caleb

Christmas gifts from me to you -- recipes, seeds, yeast

As my Christmas gift to my blog readers, below you will find free recipes. And I’m encouraging everyone to give self-sufficiency for Christmas this year in the form of heirloom vegetable seeds. The squash seeds from our property -- all meticulously isolated for purity -- are available now, with winter lettuces, etc. I’m also giving free seeds with any order of $15 or more (my choice). I’m offering free LIVE natural yeast with every paid seed order of $15 or more. Check here to see the list of my seeds, which include some of the rarest in the world!

If you’d like signed copies of my books to give for Christmas, please email me with your order. Forgotten Skills is $20 for two copies, plus $5 shipping. Art of Baking with Natural Yeast is $25 for two copies, plus $5 shipping. To order, email calebwarnock@yahoo.com.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.  -Caleb

FASTEST, EASIEST COOKED WINTER SQUASH

Recipe copyright Caleb Warnock

1. Wash a winter squash. Cut into large chunks.

2. Steam on the stove with a blossom steamer or steamer pot. Dense squash (hubbards or Potimarron, etc. ) will be done in 20 minutes. Light squash (pumpkins) will take longer -- about 30 minutes.

3. Pierce with a fork to check that squash is now tender. Serve with butter.

OR, TO MAKE PUREE

3. let the squash cool about an hour. Using a butter knife or steak knife, remove skin from each piece. Puree in a blender, or through a mesh strainer using a spatula.

CREAMY CARROT BUTTERNUT SOUP -- IN A CROCKPOT!

Recipe copyright Caleb Warnock

1 medium butternut or other winter squash, cooked

1 cup cream

2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/2 teaspoon salt

7 carrots, finely diced

1 onion, chopped

1. Put broth, salt, chopped onion, cream, and cooked pumpkin into blender for 20 seconds.

2. Put pumpkin mixture into a crockpot on low. Add carrots. Cook 3-4 hours on low. Enjoy!

Caleb is Mouthy. Get Over it! :)

I got this in an email from one of my friends, yoga classmates, and former students. Every word of it is true. Enjoy! -Caleb

PS - I know a lot of you out there could add to this list. If you want to, email me your "calebisms" and I'll post them here for the world :)

Hi Caleb,

I came across a list I had made in class of fabulous one liners you said, so in the spirit of holiday giving I am passing that on to you :)

• Every word I say is fascinating 
• Nyquil all the children (instructing a class member about how to find time to write)
• I am a rather genius teacher
• I do have an inflated opinion of myself
• I don't know why all you people are piping up with your opinions as if they mattered (my personal favorite)
• We need a man in this class - or at lease some sturdy lesbians
• OK back to me and my point
• You did it! I'm a genius!

Happy holidays! - Katarina

And more Calebisms, from my friend Tanya (all of these are also true -- I said them. I admit it.)

"If your manuscript begins with 'It,' go ahead and turn around." (meaning, LEAVE)

"Stick a pin in everyone."

"Let's wallop him. Do it with some chutzpah!"

"I'm a little afraid of me."

"Never underestimate the power of my arrogance!"

"Save these golden dewdrops falling from my mouth."

Sorry, But Commercial Fresh Yeast is Not Natural

Sigh. I just got off the phone with the corporate office of Kneaders Bakery and Cafe.

Here's the problem, which a lot of people are confused about. My wife came home a couple days ago with a take-out bag from Kneaders. Here is what it says on the bag: "We love great European bread! We love everything about it -- the simple pleasure of kneading it by hand, the rich aroma of the levain (natural yeast)..." The parentheses are theirs, not mine.

The moment I read this on their bag, I knew it was not true. I wish there was a "magic" natural yeast -- by magic I mean a natural yeast that acts like the genetically modified yeast used commercially and sold in grocery stores.

But there is not.

And I also knew exactly what was going on with Kneaders -- they are not trying to lie to their customers. They just don't know what they are talking about. They have confused "natural" yeast with "fresh" yeast, like so many other people.

There has been a lot of confusion about this lately. I've been getting a lot of emails about it. Here is an email I got this morning from Arlene Butler, who is the Taste of Home field editor & former writer for the food section of the Ogden Standard-Examiner:

"Ten years ago my son brought a sourdough start home from his mission. It's history goes back to the Yukon & Alaska gold rush. It is an amazing start! It has a good balanced flavor and is very vigorous. I guess it had to be vigorous to survive the cold (minus 50). We also tried several other starts including a Mormon pioneer start that the people in Ft. Bridger WY have kept going but it was not as strong - the loaf was heavier.  No other starts have compared to this one. I just wanted to share that this start has gone 4-5 months (while I remodeled my kitchen) without being fed!  I am not sure why you have to feed yours twice a week but I am thinking it is because you are keeping it active."

Here is what I wrote back to her: 

"Thank you for your email. The problem with so-called "gold rush" starts is that the recipe to "start" them is to go to the store, buy dry yeast, and make a "start" -- which means that the start is simply fresh yeast, not natural yeast. Which is why your start was so vigorous (it is genetically modified and not natural). Kneaders is also advertising that they are using "natural" yeast but if you call their corporate headquarters, they say it is fresh yeast. Which means it is genetically modified and not natural. Melissa and I are very, very careful to make sure that any yeast we use and hand out is documented natural yeast. This is because if the yeast is just fresh, it does not predigest the gluten, which is exactly the same as using grocery store yeast. I hope that helps."

I spoke this morning to the corporate headquarters for Kneaders. David Vincent is their corporate baker and yeast expert. He had no idea that commercial yeast is genetically modified and is not natural. Here is what he said, through a spokeswoman, to me: "We do use a commercial yeast, so there is no guarantee that it is not genetically modified."

So what they are advertising as "natural yeast" on their take-out bags is actually just fresh yeast. There is so little education about the fact that commercial yeast has been genetically modified to be vigorous, but not to eat the gluten. I don't know what to do about this except keep speaking out and trying to educate people.

This is a painful subject for me because I have a friend who bought an enormous quantity of my books and immediately went to a local bakery, bought some of their fresh yeast, and started using in all our recipes. And it works perfect. Unfortunately, it is genetically modified and not at all natural. I have not had the heart to tell her this yet. I got another email earlier this week from someone who said to me that they wanted to use "dry active yeast" from the grocery store as natural yeast in our recipes. In our book I wrote that yeast was genetically modified in 1984. This person's logic was this: Dry active yeast -- freeze dried yeast -- was invented in World War II and therefore should still be natural as long as it is not labeled "rapid rise" yeast.

Here is the problem. Since our book was published, I have learned that yeast was genetically modified long before 1984. In fact, yeast is the preferred and original test subject for genetic modification. This is because it grows very fast, is a simple organism, and is free. If has been used by universities and laboratories to study genetics for decades. It is the most used genetic modification test subject still to this day, because it is free and easy to use, and there are more than 1,000 varieties occurring in nature, so there is lots of room for study and work. I have not yet been able to determine what year yeast in the grocery store first became genetically modified, but I now know for sure that it was before 1984.

Here is the other problem, to be frank. I preface this by saying that I'm not complaining, I'm simply explaining. I have other books to write, and other work to do (not the least of which is my full-time job), and no one is paying us for all this work and research. Our publisher has sold 10,000 copies now of our natural yeast cookbook, for which I will, in six months, be paid $2,000 as my wage. And that is less than I spent on photography of the recipes and supplies for creating my recipes in the book. So I've made exactly $0 for three years of work. I will continue to work on yeast research as I can, but you have to understand that this is volunteer work on my part, even though it directly affects the health of hundreds of millions of people who are being made sick because genetically modified yeast does not digest the gluten in flour. I'm doing what I can, as fast as I can. -Caleb

This is What Winter Gardening Looks Like -- Nov. 5 2012

Because there is so much interest in winter gardening when I give speeches and garden tours --  and so little first-hand experience out there -- I’m determined to keep a monthly update on this blog of the winter garden this year. So today I’m going to take you on a garden tour. All of these photos were taken in my backyard garden today, Nov. 5 2012.


Above is a picture of thyme in a glass cloche. I've been collecting glass cloches from thrift and antique stores -- this is a glass jar kept upside down. 


Two more glass cloches, each with lemon balm under them. If given some protection, lemon balm is perennial.


You can't hardly see it, but there is a spinach plant in this cloche. I found two of these glass cones at a thrift store for $1 each!


This is one of my homemade cold frames filled with the fastest growing winter lettuce -- it grows an astonishing four times faster than any other lettuce -- Grand Rapids. We had this lettuce for dinner last night. 


This is inside another homemade cold frame -- spinach and a rare Chinese kale.



This is some of the 109 square feet of winter wheat planted in my garden right now. This wheat will never need any protection, and it will be ready to harvest in the first week of June. This is my largest wheat planting in my garden to date -- all from our own seed. I started with about 20 grains of antique wheat and have now grown it out to this!


A glass cloche on the left with Swiss chard on the right. This chard has not had any protection yet because it has been unseasonably warm.


This is a view inside another one of my homemade cold frames. On the left half you see my bush beans. On the right you see some of my multiplier onions. Because the onions are so tall, I had to put a big frame over them -- but that meant lots of empty air space above the beans, and on a night when it hit 10 degrees outside, the top leaves of the beans froze. I should have put them in their own fitted frame. 


This is a view of multiplier onions and a whole bunch of self-planted Swiss chard. All of this has been outside without any protection so far. 


This is inside another cold frame, this one purchased from the internet for about $120. These are cabbages and lentils. 


A close-up of my lentils in flower -- in November! This is only possible in a cold frame. It's taken me five years to find a lentil seed that would grow in my very, very short growing season with alkaline soil. I will sell a very limited supply of these lentil seeds between now and Christmas. 


These are the cabbages we are eating now. These cabbages are 20 months old, and spent all of last winter under a cold frame. If you look closely you can see on the bottom left and bottom right that there are new baby cabbages too. 


What is this ugly photo, you say? This is one of my winter lettuce trials. This is a section of three lettuces planted a couple weeks ago and grown without any protection so far. The two stones in the center mark the three sections. You can see the lettuce in the center has failed to thrive. The lettuce on the right is doing okay, but the lettuce on the left is really thriving. We'll see how it does over the next two months. 


This is an overview of my perennial herbs -- savory, garlic chives, parsley, lemon balm, time, bergomot. 


This is a close-up of Marvel of Four Seasons, inside a homemade cold frame.


This is Green Oak Leaf lettuce, inside a cold frame.


This is Red Iceberg, which is a ballhead lettuce. This is a little baby, just planted about a month ago. It will begin to form a ballhead in late January.


These are a variety of winter pea that withstands hard frosts! These have been in a cold frame. I have another section of a different type of pea that is actually doing better than these, but I forgot to take a picture :(


These are the rutabaga. The deer started eating them, so I set a cheap wire cage over them. They will be ready to harvest for Thanksgiving, fingers crossed!


This is a purple mustard greens plant, and it has not had any protection yet this winter.


Inside a cold frame full of my Winter Green Jewel romaine lettuce, with some more purple mustards up front.


This is our former glass front door to the house, now being used to cover a raise bed of fall-planted carrots, which are thriving.


This is Caleb's Deep Winter lettuce, in a cold frame.


These are some of the rarest onions in the world, and certainly the rarest onions in this country -- I am the only one growing them. These are the best winter onions according to historic garden writers. I'm trying to save them from extinction. The seed for these were flown in from the Netherlands for me by the federal government. I planted the seeds in Feb. 2012 -- these are the same plants, being saved for seed. My friends have been saying we should sacrifice one so that we can see what this very rare onion tastes like, but a tasting will have to wait at least another year -- everyone of of them is needed for seed production right now. 


Some makeshift cloches covering baby leaks, with a garden decoration.


A close-up of baby leeks in a cloche.


More leeks thriving in a cloche.

These are a cloche of those very rare onions you saw a moment ago. These were planted from seed a few weeks ago. There is very little of the seed left, and no way to get more.


An overview of some of the cloches. In the front is a 2-foot-deep hot bed made of a mix of natural materials, topped with an old bale of grass hay while it heats up. I just made this hot bed a couple days ago, and when I finish it I will plant more peas. I really wish I'd planted a lot more peas -- we could eat them all.


This is a glass house covering four huge collard greens plants. 


This is a closeup of some mature Swiss chard which has not been covered with any protection yet this year.


One of my pride and joys -- a baby cantaloupe plant in November! This is one of the rare cantaloupes that used to grown historically over the winter. This is being kept alive by a three-foot-deep hot bed. Cross your fingers for me!


This is a broody hen. She is sitting on 10 eggs. Last year I had not one but two broods of chicks hatched out here in October -- a feat so rare that a picture of it ran in the local paper. I've never, ever heard of a hen hatching out chicks in November -- its a frightening comment on how unusually hot it is this winter here. Nevertheless, we've had no other chicks born here this year, so we really want this brood to be a success!


These are figs on my fig tree in my geothermal greenhouse.


This is a peach tree, which I grew this year from seed, and a Swiss chard plant that is almost three years old, in the geothermal greenhouse. 


The winter tomatoes are coming along beautifully in the geothermal greenhouse! Here is a closeup of a roma tomato.


The tomato plants in the geothermal greenhouse are a whooping 7 feet tall! They fill the greenhouse from top  to bottom -- and it is hard to get a picture!


Carrots and lettuces under cold frames. 


This is an overview of part of my garden -- you can see a bunch of cold frames in the front right, and composting beds topped with sand on the front left, with my scarecrow and bunches of cold frames in the background.




Thanks for touring my winter garden! My vegetable by vegetable guide to winter gardening -- the first we know of to ever be published in the U.S. -- hits bookstores in April 2013!

Our Beloved, Beloved horse, Amie, has Died

Our enormously beloved horse, Amie (pronounced in the French, ah-mi) died this morning. She was 30 years old.

There will never be another horse like you, Amie.


Our neighbor owned and loved Amie before we did. My step-daughter Ariel fell in love with Amie as a little girl and wanted to buy her. Charmayne and I had just been married and our horse was the first thing we purchased. Ariel was over-the-moon happy and has loved her horse devotedly ever since. I still don’t think our neighbor really wanted to part with Amie, but she knew how much Ariel loved her, and decided to let us buy her.


Amie was the most gentle children’s horse on earth. This is no exaggeration. She would let the kids walk through her legs for hours. Xander spent so many hours with her. I always knew I could trust Amie with him alone in her pasture from the time he could walk by himself. He was so curious about her and she patiently stood by him while he would walk up and down underneath her belly!! He would check out her teeth, rub her knees, and explore every aspect of this magnificent beast, and she never once blinked an eye.


When both Amie and I were a bit younger, I would ride her for hours. I rode her up the mountain at the mouth of American Fork Canyon. And I used to ride her along the top of Traverse Ridge, before all the houses were built up there. Charmayne would laugh and call her my hobbit horse because Amie was always short, and I am tall, so it never looked right when I was riding her. Me and kids rode her for hours in the pasture. The day came, about five years ago, when Amie was just too old for me to ride her, but she continued to let the kids ride her, almost always bareback.


We had many large groups of kids come and ride Amie. She was the hit of our family parties, and the kids from the extended family would come and ride her. Xander’s kindergarten class came here for a field trip last year and they all rode her. All the grandkids loved her. She will be missed terribly.


Amie was famous. She was featured in my first book, both in print and photos. She is featured in my new book coming out in 2013 -- I just saw her pictures in the proof the publisher sent me last week. Amie was seen by more than 1,000 people who have toured our garden over the past year.


Thirty years old is a very old age for a horse -- it’s 90 in human years. She had been going downhill, losing a lot of weight, and we had been told to prepare for her death. But then we had a vet out, and she had oral surgery, and the vet put her on a special diet -- and Amie began to gain weight. Over the past 2-3 months she had gained about 80 pounds, and had begun to look so much more healthy. She never had a sick day. We had gotten rid of our two cows, and Amie had the green pasture all to herself again, which you could tell she loved. She was happy.


This morning, Ariel went out to feed her breakfast at 7:30 a.m. as usual. She found Amie at the south end of the pasture, behind the hill we had “built” for the kids a couple years ago. She immediately called the house. Charmayne and I were in bed asleep. I heard the phone ring, and then I heard Charmayne scream, and I knew something terrible had happened. We called Conrad and Xander and Ada and Dominick to tell them the news. Xander and Ada came over on their way to school to say goodbye. Xander was wearing his Halloween costume, and went into the pasture, walked over his hill, and ran down the hill to kneel by Amie’s side. Ada, who is only 2, had a hard time understanding.


Amie will always be beloved to me. You were the best horse, Amie. You let the kids love you. We miss you hugely this morning, but we are grateful that you didn’t suffer. You were happy last night! A happy horse for 30 happy years. Mourned by us all.

Even now, two hours after she found her, Ariel is in the pasture alone with her horse. The grass is covered with white frost. -Caleb

Over the Sugar Coma? Try a Healthy Halloween.

From the Daily Herald Provo, written by me :) Photo courtesy Julie Peterson.

You know the drill -- outfit the kids in photo-worthy costumes and let them run the neighborhood to fill buckets of candy. Then comes a saturnalia of sugar -- and when you try to reign it in, the little cuties' behavior can become less than adorable.

Is there a better way?

"For my family, Halloween used to kick off a two-month sugar high that would inevitably end in January with a New Year's resolution to eat better and live a healthier lifestyle," Betsy Schow of Alpine said. "That changed a few years ago when I lost 75 pounds and needed to find ways to keep it off for good."

Schow is the author of a new book, "Finished Being Fat," now available on pre-order, which details her physical and mental journey from plump to fit.

"Even if you're not a recovering junk foodaholic, little tweaks can have big impacts for you and your kids," she said. "A little sugar is nice, but a lot can lead to more than just the sugar crash."

Aside from those expensive trips to the dentist, there's childhood obesity, "which is running rampant in this country," she said. "And studies show that poor diets lead to behavior and focus problems in kids."

Consider not buying the big bag of candy this year.

"Use Halloween as an opportunity to emphasize fun in a healthier way and hand out some alternative treats," she said.

The best way to stave off a sugar coma is to feed children first, said Leslie Smoot of Real Foods Market in Orem.

"The art of trick-or-treating begins with a good pot of chili," Smoot said. "A good homemade chili will fill the family with a delicious bowl of nutrition before everyone runs out the door to collect treats. Our chef at Real Foods Market makes a large batch of chili every Halloween. It is a perfect solution for families on a busy Halloween night."

"This same strategy can also help children and parents avoid overeating at a Halloween party," said Mindy Probst, registered dietitian at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, in a statement to the Daily Herald.

Next, choose fun but healthy treats to hand out. Smoot suggests mini boxes of raisins, nut butter packets, SeaSnax roasted seaweed snacks, cheese sticks, water bottles, candy tarts, Spry gum (made with xylitol instead of aspartame), individually wrapped macaroon cookies or brownies, snack bars, granola bars or seed bars such as "Bumble Bars," or beef or turkey jerky sticks.

Schow suggests homemade treats including roasted pumpkin seeds topped with pumpkin pie spice, sandwich bags of popcorn tossed in pumpkin spice, or purchased goodies like Goldfish crackers, fruit leather or low sugar juice boxes.

Or forget treats all together and hand out what Schow calls Jack-O-Packs. Put a Halloween-themed coloring page and stickers and a crayon or two into a sandwich bag, or novelty toys like spider rings, fangs, temporary tattoos, spooky pencils or a small thing of play dough. Or give out homemade "monster dough" in black, green or orange.

Parents also have to take some control after the children get home with their sugary bounty, Probst said.

"Take the time to divide it into individual baggies," she said. "Use the snack-sized baggies rather than the sandwich size for more control. Then set the baggies somewhere out of reach and only allow one baggie per day."

Or better yet, make a trade.

"Find something your kids want more than candy and allow them to trade their candy in for it," she said. "The Brooks family of Highland has been using this strategy for years, with no complaints from their four children, ages 12, 9, 6 and 4. One year, the trade was for money. Another year it was for toys and another was for dinner and a movie."

Don't leave candy in plain sight. And read the labels.

"All candy is empty calories, but some will have more fat than others. Staying healthy around Halloween is all about portion control," Probst said.

Click here to see whole article and to get the recipe for Monster Dough!

Self-Planting Autumn Vegetables

[pictured: self-planted bush bean on Oct. 9. This bean and its neighbors have now been transplanted to a cold frame with other beans for winter growing.]

I’m always happy when vegetables in my garden plant themselves. There is no easier gardening in the world!

Having a self-planting garden is easy to do when you are using the right varieties of seed and have the right kind of garden (as detailed in my Forgotten Skills book).

My self-planted vegetables that have come up this fall include mustard greens, cabbages, rutabaga, peas, lettuce, and beans. On Oct. 14, I even found a baby tomato plant, about an inch high. All of my other outdoor tomatoes have frozen, but this one is fine and happy because it is so close to the ground, it didn’t get frozen (the ground releases heat at night). So I put a cloche over it. So far it’s doing great! We’ll see what happens.

[pictured: self-planted Osaka Purple Mustard greens. Seed for this plant is one of the varieties I sell.]

Another great thing about self-planted veggies is that they thrive. For example, I planted rutabagas, and then transplanted some when they came up so thick (because I over seeded). But the rutabagas that planted themselves came up before anything I planted, and are now more advanced and will produce mature roots before the ones I planted. Kinda makes we wonder why I even bothered planting :)

[pictured: self-planted rutabagas, one of the best autumn vegetables and one of the least used!]

One caveat of self-planted volunteers is that you may not want them where they are growing. I had beans volunteer, but where I have them is covered by a low cold frame for winter lettuces. The beans were crowding the lettuce and needed more space. So I transplanted the beans over to the beans I planted in fall -- and they are all thriving, in full flower right now.

[pictured: a sea of self-planted Swiss chard (among multiplier autumn onions)]

As I’ve said before, when I married my wife, she told me that rule of the house was that everyone and everything has to thrive on benign neglect, including husbands. In the garden, this means that the garden has to do most of the work itself -- we are busy. So when the garden plants itself, it’s just following the rules! -Caleb

[pictured: self-planted baby cabbages among lentils in a cold frame]