Killing Frosts: A Letter From Joel Rosen

The effects of frost are often misunderstood by gardeners. Generally, climatologists and agronomists classify frost as light, moderate, or hard. Light frost (29-32) will usually kill or damage warm weather annual foliage and stems (basil, cucumbers, and melons are especially sensitive). Moderate frost (25-28) will damage or destroy the fruits of the warm weather annuals like squash, tomatoes, etc (especially if their protective foliage has already been destroyed in a previous frost). Hard or severe frost (24 or below) may cause damage to some of the less hardy coles like cauliflower and may induce at least temporary dormancy in grass and clover.

Of course most root crops, cole crops, and hardy greens will survive and in many cases improve in quality following temperatures in the 18-24F range. Further complicating the issue is the level of available potassium in the soil, which will increase even tender plants' frost resistance. I have on numerous occasions seen squash, pumpkin, tomato, and pepper foliage frozen as stiff as cardboard, only to thaw out in the sun with little significant damage. The amount of dew frozen around the foliage (acting as insulation) also provides some protection, while wind in sub-freezing temperatures will increase the level of damage. The heat stored in the soil also can make quite a difference to growth within 6" of the ground, so a late August frost when soil is still warm will often show less damage than a late September frost with the same temperature. Duration of frost is also a significant factor. Finally, the placement of a gardener's thermometer may cause confusion. A thermometer attached to a house wall or inside a porch will nearly always register significantly warmer temperatures in calm conditions. An accurate reading of 37F from a porch thermometer may be less than 100 yards away from a garden where everything is frozen stiff. The nearby unprotected garden in a low area could easily be 10 degrees colder than that porch reading on a still morning, enough frost to damage quite a variety of garden crops.

One final caveat. While warm weather fruits and vegetables may survive light frosts, gardeners need to decide if they are worth covering and saving. Basil begins to blacken and deteriorate after the first night or two of temperatures in the 30's and the quality of vine-ripened tomatoes deteriorates markedly once nights begin to dip into the 30's, epecially when the days remain cool. Due to its higher sugar content, a ripe tomato will "survive" more frost intact than a green one, but it may not taste a whole lot better than those green tomatoes many gardeners wrap in newspaper and ripen in warm places in the fall. Once the weather turns cold, I like to focus on enjoying the things that are starting to taste really good, like carrots, broccoli, cabbage, fall apples, etc.

Joel Rosen is a gardener and frequently contributes his weather information to John Latimer's Phenology Show. Joel lives on Park Lake near Matowah in Carlton County. The growing season and phenology in Joel's neck of the woods can be different from other parts of the KAXE listening area due to the influence on weather from Lake Superior

Local Dining in January

It’s January. Happy New Year! January is month 7 of Dennis' and my local food diet.

With the addition of 2 lambs from Erling Lofthus in Guthrie last week, our larder is now overflowing. We have sources for local eggs and dairy. I am in the habit of baking sourdough bread each week and making tortillas, noodles, and sour cream often. The work of preserving the garden is done. I plan to experiment with making cheese and using a pasta machine as soon as time on the weekends clears up a little bit.

Last night, Dennis and I were discussing what to say for a local food report on KAXE on Wednesday morning. It didn’t seem like much was happening.

“Why don’t you just say what we had for dinner tonight?” Dennis suggested.

That sounded reasonable!

Here’s the menu:
Appetizer: Pickled golden beat slices (refrigerator pickles—because our homemade vinegar is of unknown acidity), sliced smoked gouda and aged gouda cheese from Green Pastures Dairy in Carlton County. Homemade sourdough bread.
Main course: Sunfish from Pimush Lake dredged in flour from Natural Way Mills and fried in butter from Dahl’s Sunrise Dairy in Babbitt
Green beans from this summer’s garden
Cabbage salad with shredded carrots, apples and beets. The dressing was a mixture of homemade wine vinegar and honey
Steamed sweet corn from our garden
Baked garden potatoes with butter and homemade sour cream (made from Blackstar Dairy cream from Solway)
Wine: We each had a glass of rhubarb wine from Forestedge Winery in Laporte

Here’s the sour cream recipe:
Sterilize a pint jar and lid by boiling them for 10 minutes (use a saucepan that has high enough sides to immerse the jar).
Fill the sterile jar with a little less than 2 cups of cream from Blackstar Dairy (it is RBGH-free and does not have any additives—you can use whole milk too, but real sour cream is awesome).
Put a vegetable steamer in the same saucepan to keep the jar off the bottom and stand the jar of cream in the hot water (you can also use a double boiler for this).
Heat the cream until it reaches 180 degrees (use a dairy thermometer if you have one—the temperature is important! Put it directly into the boiling water to check for accuracy (should be 212°) and adjust accordingly (my thermometer is about 10° off, and this affects the consistency—“stringiness”—of the finished product).
Cool the jar to room temperature in cold water.
Add 2 or 3 T fresh (freshness is important!) buttermilk to culture the cream (because it has been pasteurized, it lacks the natural bacteria to spontaneously culture itself properly). Stir and put the lid on the jar.
Leave the jar on the counter for 2 days. When it’s thick, stir and put it in the fridge for a day before using. It keeps for about 4 weeks.

-Maggie

Chef Billy's recommendations for Sarah

Today we talked with our buddy Chef Billy from Cooking Light magazine. Sarah from Grand Rapids called in to ask how she could spice up the sloppy joes she'd be serving on Christmas. He had some great ideas!

1. Instead of using ground beef, use some stew meat, or cubed meat for a chunkier, more rustic concoction. Throw it into the crockpot with onions and tomato sauce/ketchup and herbs of your liking. Use a little extra sauce than you normally would to cook the cubed meat more...

2. Add some corn and/or black beans before you are ready to serve. Not too much - it's a sloppy joe, not a chili.

3. Instead of potato chips try roasted parmesan potatoes. Billy said to NOT wash the potatoes and cut them into wedges. Throw them into a bowl with a little oil (olive or your choosing) garlic powder, pepper and parmesan cheese (salt isn't needed because of the parmesan cheese). Toss these all together and then line them up, point side up, on a cookie sheet with parchment paper - all separated and not touching each other. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown. If you want them crispy he said about 4 minutes longer after they are golden brown.

4. Do the same thing with cauliflower. Cut up your caulifower and toss with oil, garlic powder and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees and add the parmesan cheese AFTER they are golden brown and out of the oven. (Be careful when opening the oven door Billy said, there will be lots of steam!

Billy also had some recommendations for appetizers during the holidays. He said that pigs in a blanket are the most popular appetizer. Or cows in a blanket, your choice... He suggested getting some really good hot dogs, some puff pastry from the freezer section... wrap a hot dog once with the puff pastry and seal it with a little egg wash. Bake and serve with mustard.

Billy's best advice for ANY cooking around the holidays - DON'T COOK STUFF THAT YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO! KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Chef Billy also gave us a little sneak peak into cooking trends for 2008 - he said it's the year of the meatball. EVERYONE LOVES MEATBALLS. Or non-meat vegetarian alternative balls. mmm.....meatballs.....

what are you making for the holidays?

Cooking in the KAXE kitchen

The sun is just coming up over the Mississippi River in Itasca County - the frosted trees and the steam rising is so breathtaking that it's almost haunting. It's as if there's a protective bubble over everything. I didn't relish getting up so early and getting out into the nearly 20 below morning to come to KAXE - but I can't wait for what's going to be happening in the kitchen - there's rumor of Finn biscuits with cardamom and puff pastry.

Iron Range cookbook author Mona Meittunen Abel is going to cook with us in about an hour and a half...her cookbooks are not just recipes, they are stories of life on The Range. "To Mom with Love: Ethnic Recipes and Family Favorites" and "To Dad with Love: Ethnic Recipes and Family Favorites." Mona is also looking for stories and recipes from kids or about kids in this neck of the woods. Email her your submissions....

Here's a recipe from "To Dad With Love"

SARMA BALLS

Sister-in-law Tammi Meittunen's recipe. She brought these to our Meittunen reunion this summer and they were a hit.

1 lb each of ground beef, ground pork and ground ham

1 c. minute rice, uncooked

1 egg

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 c. water

1 onion, chopped

1 bag sauerkraut

1 can chicken broth

Butter

Mix first 3 ingredients and shape into meatballs; place 9x13" pan. Saute onion in butter, add garlic. Remove from heat and add sauerkraut, chicken broth and water. Pour mixture over meatballs and bake covered for 1- 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.

Mona will be signing books at Howard Street Booksellers in Hibbing on Saturday and at the Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids from 12-2.

-Heidi

Moravian Spice Cookies from the KAXE Kitchen

Penny and Dan were in for Between You and Me on Saturday and made Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies and Moravian Spice Cookies. Penny got the recipe from The Food Network and passed it on....

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon finely ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg yolk
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper and mustard together in a medium bowl.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until just combined and lightly fluffy. Beat in the molasses and egg yolk. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix together on low speed until dough is just combined and still crumbly, about 3 minutes. Give dough a few turns with a spatula to bring together.

Lay out wax paper on a clean work surface and put about 1/3 of the batter on top. Lightly press down and top with another sheet of wax paper. Using your hands or a rolling pin, gently pat into a rectangle. Roll out with a rolling pin until dough is as thin as possible without breaking, no thicker than 1/16 inch thick. This is the key to these cookies: they really can't be too thin. Gently peel back the layer of waxed paper and then replace it loosely.

Transfer rolled batter to a flat baking sheet and freeze until firm and can easily be peeled away from the waxed paper, about 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Cut dough using a small (2- to 3-inch) fluted round cookie cutter and return to the freezer for 15 minutes to set. Transfer frozen cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until crisp and lightly, evenly colored (but not brown), about 10 minutes.

Busy baker's tips: Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 10 days. The dough can be frozen, between sheets of waxed paper and well-wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 weeks. Baked cookies can be wrapped in plastic wrap then aluminum foil and frozen for up to 1 month.

Cook's note: Don't be intimidated by how many cookies this recipe makes. This dough freezes well, and you can roll out far in advance -- so when you need cookies, you can cut and bake as needed, which is a great holiday timesaver.

Copyright 2007 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved

Add your cookie recipe to the blog, or email us!

Think Healthy this Holiday Season

This email came in from KAXE's girl in the woods, baker and public health advocate, Amber:

I definitely enjoy baking during the winter months, however I usually make yeast breads and lefse, and rather few treats. As for the cookie question, I'm a big fan of spritz cookies with almond extract used as flavoring. Many listeners are probably familiar with these, they are a traditional variety made with chilled dough and the use of a press. It is important to use real butter for these cookies, for the flavor.

I want to remind listeners that while they are making treats this baking season, it's important to take care to use healthy, or healthier oils and fats. Any margarine or vegetable shortenings that contain "hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils" are the worst and should be avoided at all costs. While health experts generally recommend REDUCING saturated fat intake to very small amounts, they also recommend ELIMINATING trans-fats, or those hydrogenated vegetable oils. This is because these fats are made in a lab, and are not found in nature, thus our bodies cannot metabolize them, and they affect our blood and cholesterol in a way much more severe than even animal fats and saturated plant fats (the traditional villains). This is why butter is preferable to margarine. Many recipes that call for margarine can also be made successfully with liquid vegetable oils, such as olive, walnut, grapeseed, canola, soybean, etc. If using olive oil in sweet treats buy a very light colored light flavored variety. There are also non-hydrogenated margarines available, and are generally marketed as such. "Earth balance", and "Smart balance" are two brands I know of. Always always read labels. This goes especially for snack foods.
It's really important to do all that we can to avoid coronary heart disease. Eliminating hydrogenated oils is essential. Remember ANY alternative found in nature is better for you. The holidays are a good excuse to bake some more wholesome homemade treats that are much better for us than those industrial packaged goods that tempt people from grocery store shelves! More information on dietary fats, and specifically hydrogenated oils, can be found on the Harvard School of Public Health Website

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats.html

Thanks for listening everybody, take care!

Brine and Bouillabaisse

During our conversation with Chef Billy from Cooking Light magazine today he talked about a maple syrup brine he used on HIS thanksgiving turkey. It sounded really good....

I asked him advice on things to do with venison, since we have an abundance of it at our house. He suggested a bouillabaisse. It sounded really good, but afterwards I realized I didn't know how to make a bouillabaisse. I've been looking online and so far have only found fish based bouillabaisse. I may try this and just subsitute venison. Has anyone else tried it?

How about other good ideas on what to do with venison?
-Heidi

How was your Thanksgiving?

Was there lots of turkey? Stuffing? Cranberries? What will you do with the leftovers?

Was your turkey dry? Was the gravy lumpy?

Tune in for Chef Billy from Cooking Light magazine on the Friday Morning Show at 8:10. If you have a question for the Chef, email us!