The Home Stretch: The Kitchen Harvest

I had a miss the other day and John caught me and remarked upon it.  I had steamed peas and poured off the water down the drain.  "Couldn't you have used that for something?" he asked, quite rightly...And I nodded.  "Yes, I could have.  I could have saved it in a container in the freezer to use as broth for soups or gravies.  I could even have fed my plants with it.  I shouldn't have just let it go down the drain like that!"   I thought about it a little later and realized that I'd slipped in an area where I especially want to be diligent to save these days:  in the food area.

So this put in my mind of what I call harvesting in my kitchen...

What do I mean by a kitchen harvest?  It's where I take odds and ends that might normally not be used  and make something more from them.  Some of this we all do naturally: we turn bones into broth.  That broth is a kitchen harvest.



Top and root ends of onions, celery, carrots: I put those things into a bag and save to season chicken or beef broth.  Add in cabbage leaves,  potato peels if you'd like, tomato tops and tip ends of squash or green beans and you now have a bag of vegetables suitable to making veggie broth.

Pour off the liquid from a can of beans or peas (or after you steam them) and save that nutrient rich liquid for making soup.  I used to keep a gallon bucket in my freezer for just that purpose.  I'd add in any little spoonful of leftover vegetables from our meals.    I need to go back to that habit.  How often does a recipe call for us to drain tomatoes or vegetables before adding to a casserole or sauce?  I wouldn't save the dried bean broth because that tends to be a little too thick and starchy but most all else would do nicely.  And too often there's a mere spoonful of vegetables left that didn't make it onto our plates.  Those would go into that soup bucket (or jar) as well.  Yes, indeed I need to get back into that habit!

The other day as I watched Jacques Pepin and Julia Childs they were taking off the tough outer leaves of lettuces.  "My mother used to drop these into the soup pot, " said Pepin.  "I'll just save these to use in the same way or to steam peas for supper..."  There's a bit of home harvest right from a popular French Chef!

Bread ends are seldom favored for sandwiches.  Most people discard them, but I have saved those for years now. They translate into home made croutons, are made into fresh or dried bread crumbs, become a tasty strata (basically a savory bread pudding) or sweet bread pudding, or I used the whole slices to make French Toast.  I have a vintage cookbook that lists an Apple Brown Betty recipe and it begins with leftover bread crumbs.  Now that we're making 2/3 of our bread here at home, I find that sometimes my bread dries out before we finish it up. I put those pieces into the freezer and then use in a variety of recipes.

That same cook book lists a bread or cake crumb cookies amongst it's pages...Did you ever think you'd save those cookie crumbs from the jar to make another cookie?  Well it's an idea!

I save apple peels and cores and the occasional slightly wrinkled whole apple to make apple jelly.  I have also saved stone fruits and berries that didn't get eaten.  I know that jelly should always begin with top quality fruit but I've noticed that it jells just the same if I use a wrinkled apple or plum!  And berries are terrific in a cobbler or smoothie and no one really cares that they were a little past prime usage when they show up at the table dressed in cobbler fashion.  Very ripe Bananas go into the freezer to become smoothies or nut bread or muffins or even pound cakes.

When I do as I did yesterday and take leftovers to make an entree for supper and another pan for the freezer...I call it a Kitchen Harvest!

If I find I am running low on buttermilk, I add fresh sweet milk to the carton, cap it off, let it sit overnight or all day long on the counter and refrigerate it the next morning.  That's a Kitchen Harvest, too.  Do the same with a bit of sour cream and you'll have a supply of creme fraiche.  It's a good bit thinner than sour cream but delicious.

I had more heavy whipping cream on hand than I could easily use (downside to finding carageenan free product is that I have to buy more than I'd normally buy).  I whipped the cream I didn't plan to use right away and then dropped dollops onto a sheet of waxed paper on a cookie sheet.  I popped that into the freezer and when frozen removed to put into a whipped cream bowl I'd saved.

When we use leftover egg whites to make a meringue or nut kiss cookies, you've just made a Kitchen Harvest from something that could easily have gone unused.

Long ago, when the kids were home, I used to scrub our potatoes well then purposely peeled them a bit thicker than usual.  The baked peels were sprinkled with finely grated cheese, tiny onion bits and we'd have an afternoon snack or 'fancy' side dish from what might have gone directly in to the compost.

The starchy water that potatoes cooked in can be allowed to sit on the counter and be fed as a sour dough starter.

You can plant potatoes that have gotten wild looking with lots of eyes.  Or save tomato and bell pepper seeds or plant green onion root ends and romaine butts.  You can plant apple seeds or citrus seeds if your climate will allow you to grow either.  Stone fruits will grow from saved stones.  You can even plant a bit of ginger root!  You're supplying yourself with an ongoing harvest when you do that.

Compost and chicken scraps is an excellent use of your kitchen scraps as well.  It's just another harvest of a different sort.  I thought, when I offered to save scraps for Bess' chickens that I would run short on compostable items.  Not so.  I produce a big coffee can for our compost twice a week and about as much for the chickens.

And don't think it's all about just food.  Each time I save a jar, a plastic container,  a plastic bread sack or cereal bag, a twist tie or tab from a bread sack, or reuse a paper towel tube to make napkin rings or as a craft item...I call those a Kitchen harvest, too.  Ditto for reusing plastic shopping bags, newspapers, paper sacks.

There are many more things that one might do in a kitchen to harvest at home, but you'll certainly have a good idea of how to start with this list.  Happy Harvesting!!