Pickles Pickles Pickles

The sun is just peeking out of the clouds for the first time this morning. We had an all-day rain yesterday, the garden is lush with joy. Produce is coming into the house once more.

The heat wave has ended, the air is crisp and cool and lovely on the skin.

I am on a very low sodium diet. Commercially baked bread products are in my cannot-eat list, because they contain high amounts of salt. I bake our own low-sodium whole wheat bread (300 gm per loaf), with the flour I mill from wheat berries. But I wanted pita bread for Falafels, because we have fresh garden tomatoes and cucumbers and now is the time to enjoy them. I have made pita bread and do not enjoy the fussy process at all. Flat breads seem easier, and will work well for Falafels. The first batch I made last Saturday were from a recipe using baking powder, the dough kneaded, rolled out, and cooked in the cast iron frying pan. The flat bread was tasty, tough, and broke easily, but we enjoyed those first Falafels!

But, I did not enjoy the fussy process of creating the flat bread, nor did we like that it broke so easily. I continued to search for a recipe to try that seemed easier and the results more pliable. The chosen recipe makes a batter, which is spooned into the cast iron frying pan, and claimed to result in pliable flat bread. And it does! The taste is pleasant as well. Tonight will be the real test, Falafels for dinner. Next, because I use home milled whole wheat for my breads, I will experiment with soaking the batter overnight before cooking the flatbread, to see what results that brings, it will reduce phytic acid, so there are health benefits if this works out well.

A pliable flat bread is desirable, as it can be used in so many dishes we enjoy. Re-fried beans on flour tortillas are a real favourite with us, but I cannot eat commercial flour or corn tortillas, too high in sodium. A homemade low-sodium flat bread would solve the problem.

The first batch of jam made with Pomona Universal Pectin was made yesterday, with Ontario peaches. I could have used between 1/2 cup and 2 cups of sugar in the four cups of crushed fruit. I chose to use 1 1/2 cups of sugar, the peaches are not that sweet. We love the results, so tasty, better than super sweet jam with regular pectin, which called for six cups of sugar. I would call this Pomona based product spread rather than jam. It will need to be consumed within a few weeks after opening the jars, because without the high sugar content the shelf life is shorter.

Today I am canning dill pickles, and dilly beans. Hopefully another batch of peach spread will be tackled if I don’t wear myself out with the pickling. The bread is baked for the day, and needs to be sliced. A meat slicer is used to slice the bread evenly and smoothly, for sandwiches for Attila’s lunches. Laundry was hung out to dry early this morning, so it will be dry before the dew falls this evening.

It is late afternoon now, bread baked and sliced, pickles canned, cooling and all sealed. The peaches still await attention, tomorrow is another day, or perhaps inspiration will strike this evening, who knows. Billows of black float by in high winds, then the sky turns a cloudless blue again, and then repeats the black flotilla. Another busy and quiet day is coming to a close. Dinner is pending, homemade falafels are something to look forward to of an evening.

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Wed, Aug 31, 4:05 PM
22 °C
FEELS LIKE 26
Partly cloudy
Wind 23 SW km/h
Humidity 73 %
Visibility 19 km
Sunrise 6:29 AM
Wind gust 35 km/h
Pressure 100.5 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 7:46 PM

Quote

“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”
Aesop
620 BC – 560 BC

Humans are keeping the faith of the ages.