Planting & Do One Future Food Activity Each Day, Fermenting Kraut & New Fermenting Kit, Mojo Cuban Pork Roast & Cuban Sandwich

Do One Future Food Activity Each Day-
I first want to thank people who posted some condolences on the death of my brother-in-law. It was tough not being able to go to his burial but we made it thru... On a happier note I was thrilled to receive flowers that were delivered for Mother's Day from my one daughter. One of my other daughter's surprised me with a DVD I had always wanted and never gotten around to buying! Mother's Day was nice, we got some amazing takeout Mexican food for dinner, a nice treat. We also started planting our store bought veggies (finally!) for the summer and some of the seeds I planted are coming up-

Two kinds of radishes, green onions, will thin radishes

Borage

Collard greens

It was 87 yesterday that was kind of crazy! Luckily it will moderate but I think summer is here hopefully. Didn't really tough starting seeds outside the last two months because of the ups and downs with the weather. We planted most of our veggies I bought I while back. I wasn't sure if there's be a shortage, so I bought early. I put them in our mini indoor greenhouse-

They loved it!

One cherry tomato was almost 3 feet long!!!

I took some of the seedlings I started and put in bigger pots for now, want to til they're just a bit bigger, Lemon Cukes (can't find any starts) and green squash- 

Herb box and other plants doing well, need to bring out Basil

We planted 10 tomatoes total, five more to go, as we ran out of cages. Also four peppers. I asked Dave to build some tepee-type frames out of our scrap cedar lumber. These supports are on their last legs, will build new ones next year out of better wood-

 Extra tall tomato is happy!

Three more on the side, will add more peppers, old berry plants were ripped out-

Rest of the garden will get squashes, three kinds of cukes and more warm weather veggies- 

Kale is doing great, has doubled in size!

I bought some red cabbages and purple Kohlrabi to try-

They look interesting! Sometimes called Sputniks like the satellites!

Photo from Motherearthnews.com info there too!

I belong to the Facebook group RetroSuburbia Community. I highly recommend the group, tons of ideas there! A member, Kath, mentioned that she tries to do

"one future food activity each day whether planting, or preserving, bulk cooking, harvesting, dehydrating, etc." 

I really liked the wording, and it helped me focus on that as a great goal.  It made something that might seem complicated much easier! I took her statement, added a free piece of clip art and printed it out. A little mini poster for myself. I put it over my kitchen sink where I can see it everyday since I'm a visual person! It inspires and motivates me. I thanked her as well-

Fermenting Kraut & New Fermenting Kit- 
Quite a few years ago I bought a Vegetable Master Half Gallon Fermenting Jar , see above. While it works great I can only do one batch at a time which can take weeks. With two of us I was wanting to start make more smaller batches. I decided to buy a Masontops Fermenting Kit, link on the left side of my blog-

Normally I'm not a kit kind of gal BUT when I saw it included four glass weights and a pounder I was sold! These items will fit standard wide mouth jars and rings that you already have. The silicone nipples burp out and release the gas from fermenting, insuring no spoilage, ditto the glass weights-

Nice, thick glass, keep things submerged in the brine

Silicone venting top, can't see the X on the top

I ordered from my local Ace Hardware store to help support them (same price elsewhere). I'm really impressed with the quality and love the heavy storage box! Great to store when not in use. Comes with a nice basic recipe book as well-

I wanted to make a big batch of kraut so started in my old jar, two heads cabbage and this recipe
Culturesforhealth Sauerkraut It's always messy making slaw but worth it. Several years ago I bought a cheap mandolin to shred quickly and easily-

Add salt, toss, squash with your hands, then pound!

Nestled away in fermenting jar, top with a large cabbage leaf, then weights. I waited two hours after this photo, then completely submerged the cabbage leaves and weights. Usually the jar is full to the top-

 Dated, then covered, will wait about 10 -14 days and check flavor-

I've made Curtido several times, amazing! That will be my next big batch-

Mojo Cuban Pork Roast & Cuban Sandwich-
I had seen the movie Chef a while back, amazing food and cooking scenes! I found this recipe based on the film's recipe Cuban Mojo Pork Roast I decided to make it, for something different. The flavor was incredible! Really juicy, a nice blend of citrus and cumin. It's easy to blend all the ingredients in a food processor, then bag and let sit overnight-

I took the suggestion and then made her Cuban Sandwich Cubanos also from the movie. I made them for dinner and served with some veggies. I would say the sandwich was good, but not great, but that's okay. At least I know what they taste like now! Sorry no photos, but you can see some on the blog listed above. It was the first time I used my cast iron skillet on top of a sandwich to create a sort of Panini. I gave me the idea to do that again next time with some different ingredients. I used my regular skillet on the bottom, parchment paper on top of the sandwiches, then my heavy cast iron skillet on top. Works great had a really crispy crust! Will be making the roast again this week with a boneless roast!