Homemade Beef Jerky

After making dried pineapple, the next thing I wanted to do with my new dehydrator was to make beef jerky. I remember making beef jerky as a kid with our infomercial food dehydrator. It took several days to dry, but was delicious.

Top round sliced and ready for jerky

I bought 3 pounds of top round for $5 a pound. The butcher sliced the meat for me into thin strips (no charge). I marinated the meat using the jerky spice mix that came with my dehydrator plus some Worcestershire sauce and temari (fancy soy sauce), but I skipped the jerky cure packets (containing salt and sodium nitrite). We never used a cure when I was a kid and it doesn't sound like an absolutely necessary step. I suppose if you were making ground meat jerky (with more germs and critters in the meat) and were intending to store the finished product unrefrigerated I might want to use a cure. We always refrigerated our jerky, so spoilage wasn't much of an issue.

Marinating jerky meat

After marinating for 12+ hours, I put the meat slices onto my dehydrator trays. I started the dehydrator before leaving for work and the jerky was done by the time I got home. In all honesty, I probably should have stopped the dehydrator a couple of hours earlier, but the jerky was fine.

Raw marinated beef in the dehydrator

My 3 pound top round dried down to only 19.4 ounces! That's a 60% reduction in weight.

For my next batch of jerky, I think I'll try my own spice and marinade mix. The pre-made spice mix was very noticeable on some pieces of jerky, but almost flavorless on other pieces. I should also try a different cut of meat to see if there is much of a difference.

Finished jerky

Coming Soon! Series on Starting Seedlings At Home

Even though it's only January (and snow is pouring down daily), it's time to start thinking about garden planning and seed starting. Over the course of the next few weeks I will be writing a series of posts on the topic of growing your own vegetable seedlings at home. Hopefully there will be some cute baby chicken posts thrown in the mix too!


Growing your own seedlings is easier than you might expect and opens up a world of possibilities. For example, hundreds of varieties of tomato seeds can be purchased through seed companies, while your local garden center may only offer a couple different options. Starting your own seedlings not only gives you more variety, but can also be much more affordable that purchasing flats of plants from the garden center. Most of the equipment and supplies can be found at your local hardware store for fairly cheap. A packet of seeds only costs a couple bucks! Why not give seed starting a try this year?

I will be covering the following topics (and maybe a few more as they come to mind):

What to Grow? How to plan your garden around what you like to eat and how many people you plan to feed. I will also list good 'beginner' vegetables that can help build confidence in new gardeners.

Obtaining Your Seeds Where to collect, trade, or purchase seeds for your garden.

“Days to Maturity” Explained What exactly does the term "days to maturity (or harvest)" mean?

Transplanting Seedings versus Direct Sowing Which crops should be started indoors and which ones can be sown directly into the garden soil?

Equipment and Supplies A list of the basic supplies needed for seed starting.

Creating a Sowing Schedule Learn about your local frost dates and determine when to start your indoor seedlings

Sowing the Seeds and Germination How to plant your seeds and get them growing!

Environmental Conditions and Ongoing Care Other considerations when growing seedlings including temperature, fertilization, and watering.

Photo Friday: I'm addicted!

My current pile of library books. See any trends?

Some of the books I've been perusing lately include:

• Mini Encyclopedia of Chicken Breeds and Care by Frances Bassom
• Saving Seeds by Marc Rogers,  No Reservations by Anthony Bourdain
• Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen's Guide to Community Supported Agriculture by Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En
• Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth and Kent Whealy
• The Family Kitchen Garden by Karen Liebriech, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland
• Grow Your Own Vegetables by Carol Klein
• Everyday Easy Cheap Eats, How to Grow a School Garden by Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle
• Our Life in Gardens by Joe Ecke, and Wayne Winterrowd
• Preserve It!
• The Dehydrator Bible by Jennifer MacKenzie, Jay Nutt, and Don Mercer
• Jerky by A. D. Livingston
• How to Dry Food by Deanna Delong
• The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin

My seed stash as of January 2011.

My first seed purchase for the 2011 growing season.

Hand Dyed Fabric

My mom is and art quilter and has a huge fabric collection. For her October birthday, I asked her if there were any particular colors of fabric she was in need of. She said she could use green and turquoise. She thought I was going to buy her fabric from the craft store, but since I enjoy dying fabric and yarn, I decided to make her some hand-dyed pieces.

Turquoise and green hand dyed fabric for Mom's birthday.

Since the fabric was so much fun to make for her birthday, I decided to make some more for Christmas. This time she requested blues, purples, and “sky pieces” (for using as background fabric for landscape applique projects).

I have collected a lot of dye over the years and I have quite a few colors to choose from. I had a lot of fun mixing colors, dipping the fabrics in multiple colors, and splattering various dyes to make a variety of mottled fabrics.   

After dying the fabric, I let it set overnight

After sitting overnight, the excess dye is rinsed out before putting the fabric in the washing machine

Before washing, the fabric is very vibrant. Unfortunately, it loses some of its color in the wash. 

The fabric gets very wrinkled and frayed a lot in the washing machine, but it's fairly easy to iron and clean up.

A variety of blues and purples.

Pumpkin and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

I finally got around to using up some of the frozen pumpkin puree I made in the fall from my jarrahdale pumpkins. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite ways to use pumpkin puree (probably because it involves chocolate).

I have a feeling this recipe may vary wildly depending on the type of pumpkin you use (i.e. store-bought versus homemade, water content, amount of stringy pumpkin bits, etc). I've made it a few times and it's always slightly different, but always good too!

Pumpkin and dark chocolate chip cookies

*These are not your typical crunchy/chewy chocolate chip cookies, so don't expect them to turn out that way. These cookies are very dense and cake-like.

1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)

¾ cup sugar

½ cup vegetable oil (yes, this sounds kind of gross if you're not used to baking with oil, but this replaces the butter)

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 t baking powder

1 t cinnamon

½ t salt

1 t baking soda

1 t milk

1 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips (I think this is a little skimpy. I like to have a chocolate chip in every single bit, so feel free to add another ½ cup)

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, and egg. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda/milk mixture. Stir to combine. Add chocolate chips and vanilla. Spoon onto baking sheets.   Bake 10-12 minutes.

*I have found that an ice cream scoop works well for spooning out the cookies because this batter is extremely gummy and sticky.

*Although this may vary depending on the type of pumpkin you use, these cookies do not spread much when I make them, so you can put them fairly close together on the baking pan.

Garden Goals for 2011

I don't usually do New Year's resolutions, but I have recently decided on a few goals for my 2011 gardening year.

1) Eat more vegetables. I would especially like to try to eat more of the vegetables that I grow. I should try to incorporate veggies from my garden into every single meal this summer. I have a bad habit of growing random vegetables that interest me, but then I never actually get around to eating them! For example, I've grown swiss chard the last two years, but never eaten a single leaf. Swiss chard is beautiful enough to grow for its ornamental value, but I'm probably really missing out on some good stuff!

Swiss Chard: always beautiful, but what to do with it?

2) Keep better records. I usually keep track of the dates that I sow my seeds, but I never remember to record things like plant-out date (if transplanting), date of first harvest, or harvest yield. Generally, I remember things like flavor, disease susceptibility or resistance, and growth habit. Over the years, this knowledge can get a little jumbled and should probably be written down.

3) Plant fall crops. Every year I intend to sow a fall crop of carrots, lettuce, broccoli, cilantro, etc., but I always lose track of time or forget. It's a shame because I could plant all kinds of fall veggies in vacant spots that have opened up over the course of the summer. I also should try to build mini hoop-houses for season extension.

4) Grow strawberries. This will be a first for me.

5) Clean up my wild black raspberry patch and my red raspberry patch. These were engulfed by weeds last year and my harvest was almost nothing.

And finally...

6) Be a better composter. My goals are to chop up my compostables better (I've been meaning to purchase a machete just for this task), turn the pile fairly often (I never do this), and compost more cardboard, tissue, and paper (yes, these can be composted).

Photo Friday

I have two crates full of gourds in my basement just waiting for created projects. Any ideas?