Seasonal Foods: Smoked Sockeye Salmon

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This is hot smoked salmon after about 12 hours in the smoker. Mmmmm!

Smoked salmon was a traditional way to preserve fish for the winter. Rhonda Dieni is the Weston A Price Foundation Kamloops Chapter Leader. She shared her traditional cure for smoked salmon.

1/2c sea salt
1/2c local honey
2L water
Cut the salmon fillets into 3-4 inch wide stripes. Soak the salmon stripes in the cure for 8-12 hours. Remove the salmon from the cure and lay out the salmon on the racks in the smoker. We used apple wood chips for the smoke but you can use another wood.

Smoking will take about 12-24 hours depending on the heat produced by the smoker. The smoker will have to be fed more wood chips on a regular basis. Some smokers do more of a cold smoke which dries the salmon, while other smokers do more of a hot smoke which cooks the salmon. Cold smoke salmon will last longer than hot smoke salmon but both can be frozen for later use.

Taste the salmon every few hours until the meat is dried (cold smoke) or cooked (hot smoke). If you are looking to do a cold smoke you will need a smoker that has a thermostat to control the temperature. We are using a Big Chief Top Load Smoker which does not have a thermostat.?

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Soak the salmon stripes in the cure for 8-12 hours. Refrigerate or use some ice if you’re worried about the salmon getting too warm.

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Load the salmon into the smoker. Fill up the pan with wood chips. You can see the pan with wood chips in the top left corner of the photo. This is an inexpensive, top load smoker called Big Chief.

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This is what the salmon looks like after about 6 hours of smoking.

If you don’t have freezer space, you can pressure can the smoked salmon like Rhonda does. Now, that’s a delicacy!

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Here’s Rhonda’s home canned smoked salmon. It’s by far the best canned salmon I have ever eaten. Thanks, Rhonda!

Seasonal Foods: Zucchini Chips

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Zucchini chips are a great way to salvage the summer bounty from our gardens.

Everyone that has grown a garden has had to deal with lurking zucchinis. Lurking zucchinis are those massive gourds that somehow manage to hid in the foliage until they grow into green monsters. No one seems to like these monstrosities and they become unwanted gifts to family or friends. There’s a regional joke on Lasqueti Island that the fall is the only time of year you lock you vehicle, because if you don’t you’ll find your vehicle full of monster zucchinis!

This recipe came from WAPF leader Rhonda Dieni and will help deal with these monstrosities. Zucchini Chips have a great chewiness with a sweet, spicy and salty taste. This recipe will make you love your lurking zucchinis.

1 monster garden zucchini, cut into slices
1T extra virgin olive oil (optional)
1T sea salt
1 bird’s eye pepper or other hot pepper
Crane the lurking zucchini onto your kitchen counter for slaughter. I find it easier to cut the zucchini in half and then quarter the two halves. Scoop out the seeds and pulp and give it to the chickens or compost. Cut the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices. Don’t worry it the slices get thicker because they will dry down to about 10% of the original size. In a very large bowl, toss the zucchini slices with olive oil and the spicy sea salt. Mix extremely well. Place the zucchini slices in the dehydrator for 12-18 hours until the slices are completely dried. Store in a plastic bag for a taste of summer during the winter months.

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Cut the zucchini in two and then quarter each piece.

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Scoop out the pulp and give it to the chicken or compost.

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Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices. Don’t worry if the slices get larger. The chips will dry down to about 10% of the original size.

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Mix the olive oil and spicy sea salt with the zucchini slices extremely well. You don’t want some chips to be salty or oily.

WAPF Kamloops Chapter April Potluck

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Bring a nourishing traditional dish to share and your ideas about what you would like to see the? WAPF Kamloops Chapter do in 2014. We hope to see your there!

When: April 6, 2014
Time: 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Where: 781 Sherwood Dr, Kamloops, BC
RSVP: Rhonda Dieni at 778.470.4442

Rhonda Dieni has volunteered to be a new co-leader of the WAPF Kamloops Chapter. Maureen Lefebvre and I are very happy to have her help!

Rhonda will be hosting a potluck at her home. Please bring a nourishing traditional dish to share, and a list of ingredients. Please bring your children!

The WAPF Kamloops Chapter would like to use this potluck as a meet and greet for families interested in nourishing traditional foods. Bring your ideas about what you would like to see the WAPF Kamloops Chapter do in 2014.

Updated January 22, 2015: The WAPF Kamloops Chapter has closed.

Harvest Bounty Canning: Banana Peppers

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After getting a canning lesson with Rhonda Dieni, we decided to try canning ourselves. You can see the slits in the ends of each pepper. This ensures the solution gets inside the peppers.

My husband loves canned hot peppers. After getting a canning lesson from Rhonda Dieni a few weeks ago, we decided to try some canning ourselves. I started calling around to my favorite farmers to find out who had some banana peppers. Gardengate had a bumper crop of peppers this year so I got 9kg of banana peppers. I found a used water-bath canner and presser canner on the internet. I drove all over the city looking for canning jars but everyone was out at this time of year. It really showed me that we have a very active canning community in Kamloops. I finally found a case of 12, 1L jars and ordered two cases of 1/2L jars for pickup later.

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Finding used canning equipment was very easy and cheap. Finding canning jars at this time of year was difficult. You can see the banana peppers from Gardengate in the top left corner.

I have found a great book for preserving food written by Janet Greene called Putting Food By. It is not a great idea to alter canning recipes because canning is more of a science than an art form. Nevertheless, I seem to alter just about every recipe I use. This recipe is based on Pickled Hot Peppers or Bell Peppers from the book Putting Food By. If canning is new to you, read the book before trying to can yourself or take a course with someone like Rhonda Dieni.

Hot Banana Peppers
12L of organic banana peppers, slit each end
12 hot red peppers, one for each jar
6c organic white vinegar
6c organic cider vinegar
12c water
12tsp kosher pickling salt
12, 1L mason jars, lids and collars
Wash the peppers well. It is not necessary to core, seed or remove the stems. Slit the end of each pepper. This will let the pickling solution get inside the pepper. Add one hot pepper to the bottom of each jar and pack each jar as full as possible. In a pot mix the vinegar, water and salt and heat just to the boiling point. Do not boil vinegar. Pour the hot solution over the peppers to within 1/2 inch of the jar rim. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. Remember to adjust the time for your elevation.

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Here are the peppers just out of the hot water bath. I did find canning stressful the first time by myself. I know it will be easier next time.

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Here are the peppers after cooling. I cleaned the jars and removed the metal collars before putting the jars in storage. The jars do not need the collars anymore. If you leave the collars on the jars they can become difficult to remove later.

Updated January 7, 2013: My family has not been very happy with these canned banana peppers. They where soft, mushy and had no zing. The Crock Banana Peppers on the other hand were crisp and wonderful. I did stumble on a way to make the canned banana peppers taste better. Being a frugal householder I reuse pickling juice for the vinegar part of salad dressings. I had a whole jar in the fridge and I just put the canned banana peppers, without the canning juice, into the pickling juice. The canned peppers became more firm and the flavor improved when soaked in the pickling juice for a few days.

Harvest Bounty Canning: White Peaches

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Rhonda Dieni came over to give my girls a basic canning lesson. We canned 50 pounds of organic white peaches.

My husband loves canned peaches. So last week we bought three cases of organic white peaches from Benchland/Todd Orchards, Keremeos, BC at the Saturday Kamloops Farmer’s Market. The peaches were so delicious we ate one case before canning day!

Rhonda Dieni came over to give my girls a basic canning lesson. My girls are home schooled and canning is a great skill for anyone to learn. Rhonda has been canning all her life. She gives canning lessons at the Kamloops Community Kitchen. Before Rhonda arrived I washed and dried twenty, 1L glass mason jars. I found twenty lids and caps. I cleaned up my counters and removed the tablecloth from the dinning room table.

I have never canned before so Rhonda brought her canning equipment and set up in our kitchen. She has two traditional canning pots with trivets for removing the hot jars. While we peeled, Rhonda made a hot syrup for pouring over the peeled peaches. She prefers to use less sweetener in her syrup but warns that if we don’t use any sweetener the peaches would discolor. Here is Rhonda’s hot syrup recipe:

Hot Syrup for Peaches
16c water
1c local honey

The rest of us stood around the dinning room table and peeled fifty pounds of peaches. We peeled and pitted the peaches and cut the peaches into eighths. We saved all the pits and peels for our hogs. The peach pieces went right into the jars. Rhonda told us to lightly push down the pieces, without crushing, to better fill the jars. With four of us working at peeling, it took less than two hours. Actually, it was really fun to stand around the table peeling, laughing and talking. I feel like everyone should have this wonderful experience!

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It is very important to ensure the tops of the canning jars are clean before putting on the lids.

While we peeled, Rhonda poured the hot syrup over the peaches and carefully cleaned the top of the jars before setting the lids on the jars. The first load of jars was ready to go into the hot water bath. Thirty minutes later Rhonda removed the jars and set them to cool on the counter protected by a tea towel to sop up sticky juice. Each load did ten jars.

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Here is one fresh organic white peach. In the background are the canned peaches just out of the water bath.

Rhonda said to let the jars sit overnight on the counter, if possible, before moving the jars into storage. This lets the jars set. Rhonda said it was a tradition in her family to not eat any canned foods until after the US Thanksgiving Holiday. This tradition ensures that the family would eat fresh foods during the bounty of fall and save the canned foods for the cold, dark days of winter. I think this is a smart tradition and my family will follow it.

Rhonda Dieni gives canning instruction every second Thursday for the Kamloops Community Kitchen. This would be an excellent course for home schooled young adults or anyone interested in learning how to can. Rhonda is also organizing the First Annual Food Swap on October 17, 2012 at 6:00 to 8:00pm. Please contact Rhonda at 778.470.4442 for more information and to preregister, as space will be limited.

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Here are the canned peaches after they have cooled and set. I removed the metal collars and washed the sticky juice off the jars. The collars are not needed and can be difficult to remove later.