17 minute read
Celebrating harvest
Celebrating and preserving the harvest
It’s the time of year our gardens are pumping out more produce that we know what to do with, and it’s also HAPPY a perfect moment to GARDENING pause and celebrate the abundance HALEY (which we can do DIEM together at the Duluth Community Garden Program’s Harvest Dinner on Saturday, Sept. 19, 5pm7pm in Leif Erickson Park!)
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During the harvest season, have you ever had so much produce after returning to your garden that you get overwhelmed by how much you need to eat before it goes bad? Are you one of the mischievous souls who leaves bags of unwanted overgrown zucchini on neighbors’ doorsteps?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, or are just curious about what you can do with a surplus when you have one, then let’s talk about tips and tricks for preserving your harvest so you can enjoy a taste of summer in the middle of winter.
There is nothing more delicious than frozen fragrant pesto eaten with pasta with some sauteed garden summer squash on a cold and dark February evening, not just because of the awesome nutrients and flavors, but because it boosts your spirit and reminds you that warmer weather does exist. That reminder alone can carry you to a happy place in your mind, then add the knowledge that you have provided for yourself in a sustainable way, and sprinkle in some gratitude for the earth for supporting you, and a regular dinner can be transformed into a spiritual experience.
I think a lot of people get turned off by this task of preserving because they are wary of the amount of work that goes into it, or are scared that they may cause themselves to get sick. There are many more ways to make your produce last longer than through the effort of canning, but let’s talk about this method before we move onto the “easier” methods.
Canning, for those of you unfamiliar, is a method of preserving food by heating and sealing the contents in an airtight container, with jam probably being the most familiar reference point and commonly made item in the household. Because there is so much sugar in jam and citric acid from lemon juice which are both natural preservatives, it’s a relatively easy project to undertake and a great way to get your feet wet with the canning method. Homemade canned applesauce is also a great starting point.
When canning, it’s imperative that you start with sterilized jars and new lids to prevent the introduction of potentially deadly pathogens.
If you’re looking to experiment with canning, especially with your garden vegetables, always follow the University of Minnesota Extension’s canning quick reference chart to check processing times and if you need to add additional acid to make the final product safe.
If you have the time and energy, canning can be an excellent option since the jars only take up pantry space and they have a longer shelf life than other methods. My favorite way to use the canning method is for our excess tomatoes, which we turn into jars of marinara and salsa.
Probably my favorite and the “easiest” method of preserving our garden vegetables is by freezing, but there is always in issue with the real estate in our freezer.
My goal each autumn is to completely fill the freezer and pack it to the brim, so that we hopefully won’t
need to purchase vegetables until the farmer’s market or our garden starts producing again in the spring! A chest freezer would be super useful if you have one. My favorite things to freeze are summer squash and zucchini, broccoli, peppers, roasted tomatoes, kale, and pesto.
All of the fresh vegetable items need to be “blanched” before being put into freezer bags. The process of blanching is necessary because It slows or stops enzyme action which can cause loss of flavor, color and texture. It can also remove excess dirt or potential pathogens on the vegetable as well, and increases their shelf life in the freezer for up to a year.
Blanching may seem intimidating, but it’s really just chopping and trimming the vegetables, dropping them in boiling water until they look bright in color, moving them to ice water to arrest the cooking process, and draining before moving to freezer bags. Simply follow the U of M Extension website (seriously such a great resource!) for blanching directions. I like to freeze them flat, then once they are frozen they can be moved around and stacked to save valuable freezer space.
My next favorite method of preserving is making “quick pickles” or “fridge pickles.”
Pickles don’t need to be made of cucumbers!
There is a whole world of pickles to explore. I’ve made pickles out of radishes, carrots, green beans, red onions, cucumbers and even pickled purslane (a common edible weed in the garden, it tasted excellent on a bison burger!).
I’m sharing my favorite recipe for quick pickles, so you can give it a try as well. I love how it’s so easy: you just pack the jars full of veggies, pour over the hot brine, put on the lid, then put in the fridge and you’re done! The jars taste the best within 3 months after making them, but I admit I have eaten them after 6 months.
Quick Pickle Recipe
This recipe makes roughly enough for two pint jars or one quart jar, but if you have more vegetables to pickle just keep the water/vinegar/salt ratio the same and make as much brine as you need! • About a pound of garden veggies; my favorites are radishes, carrots, green beans, red onions, cucumbers • Several springs of fresh dill (usually about 2-3 per pint, or 5-6 for quart jar) • Pinch of black peppercorns, and optional red pepper flakes • Several cloves garlic • 1 cup vinegar • 1 cup water • 1 tablespoon kosher salt 1. Wash your jars and lids in warm soapy water and set aside to dry. 2. Rinse, then cut veggies into desired shapes and sizes. 3. Add the flavoring: divide the peppercorns, garlic, pepper flakes, and dill evenly into the bottom of the jars. 4. Add the vegetables: Pack the veggies into the jars making sure there is 1/2 inch from the rim of the jar to the tops of the vegetables. Pack them as tightly as you can without smashing. 5. Make the brine: place vinegar, water, and salt into a pot over high heat. Bring it to a boil, stir to dissolve the salt, then pour the brine into the jars over the vegetables until it reaches within 1/2-inch of the top. 6. Remove air bubbles: gently tap jars against the counter a few times, and top off with more brine if necessary. 7. Seal the jars: place the lids on the jars and screw tight. 8. Cool and refrigerate: let the jars cool to room temperature. Store the pickles in the refrigerator. Wait at least 48 hours to enjoy!
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Duluth Herald September 10, 1888
As the EVENING HERALD, predicted they would do, the county commissioners have revolved to purchase fire lots on the corner of Fifth avenue west and First street for a jail site and “other purposes,” the “other purposes” evidently meaning a court house. This action on their part does not meet with general approval. Even though it might be the proper place for the court-house and the bargain struck with the owners of the land a good one – which we do not believe – there is a universal feeling that the commissioners have assumed too much and that the wishes of the people should have been considered in the matter. The action of the commissioners is not popular and it will be bitterly opposed by the large majority of the people.
Duluth Herald September 11, 1890
It is stated that alleged Canadian timber depredators on the international boundary northwest of Duluth have been given ample time by the announcements of the government as to its investigations to cover up their tracks, and the government has been severely censured for making public its intentions of a thief hunting expedition. Just how timber choppers who are stated to have stolen 18,000,000 feet of pine a year along the Big and Little Fork rivers can cover up their tracks is unexplained and we don’t see any chance for an explanation. Cut forest and camps of choppers who can cut so great a quantity as 18,000,000 feet a year can not be covered up or hidden on request. But the fact of the whole matter is that there has not been anything like the robbery that has been claimed. Special correspondence in The Herald showed correct space
when this question first came up a year ago that there was but a comparatively insignificant quantity of timber stolen, and that the chopping was done by a few men who moved along the rivers from place to place cutting a few hundred thousand wherever it could be felled into the streams without hauling. This stolen timber was sold to legitimate operators or floated at Rat Portage and sold there, and it is doubtful if any government expedition, however secret it might aim to be, could do anything more than stop future illegitimate timber industry.
Duluth Herald September 12, 1900 MINES FLOODED.
Hale and Duluth Mines Filled With Water – Damage To Tracks.
Biwabik, Minn. (Special to The Herald) – The heavy and continued rains of the past week have done a great deal of damage in this vicinity to the mines. One of the heaviest rains ever experienced here took place Sunday night. So great was the rainfall that the immense pit at the Hale mine, covering many acres, was filled to the top in half an hour. The Duluth mine also filled up so rapidly that the pumps were soon submerged. All the low areas in this vicinity are flooded. The Biwabik mine office and roundhouse were flooded to a depth of three feet.
Both railroad companies were heavy sufferers. Many of the tracks have been washed away and others rendered unsafe. Between Sparta and McKinley a washout compelled passengers to go a mile to make connections. It is reported that the dam at Upper Embarrass lake has broken loose. A wreck occurred in the Iron Range yards Monday night, several cars going down about five feet. The track in the vicinity had been washed out for half a block. Along the road leading to the depot the flood threw large timbers.
Reports from the surrounding towns show that conditions there are just as bad, most of the opens mines being flooded. The losses on the range will probably aggregate $50,000 to the mining companies and railroads.
Duluth Herald September 13, 1910 TRIES TO HAMMER HIS BRAINS OUT
Iron River, Wis., Man Fractures His Skull With Repeated Blows.
Iron River, Wis. (Special to The Herald) – Bert Peterson, a drayman of this place and about 40 years of age, attempted to beat out his brains yesterday with a hammer. He went to the barn and commenced to strike himself over the head. He was discovered by his children, but before they could interfere he had succeeded in fracturing his skull in places and inflicting a number of minor bruises. He was taken to the hospital. It is not believed he can recover. He is supposed to have become demented by worry.
Duluth Herald September 14, 1920
JURIES COMPLETED IN
NEW LYNCHING TRIALS State Begins Presentation Of Evidence in Three Cases.
Jurors to try John Carl Fred Hammerberg, John Burr and Carl J. Miller for alleged participation in the June 15 riot were impaneled this morning in district court where the latest three
lynching cases are being conducted. Witnesses for the state are testifying in all three courtrooms this afternoon.
The state is basing its case in the Hammerberg trial on admissions alleged to have been made by the young man to representatives of the county attorney’s office shortly after the rioting.
In his opening statement, Mr. Greene said that he expected to show by the defendant’s own admissions, that he was an active participant, in that he rode on the “necktie party” truck, helped in the assault upon the police station, and was within two or three feet of the pole where the first negro was hanged.
In Judge Dancer’s division Assistant County Attorney E. L. Boyle opened the state’s case by outlining to the jury that he expected to prove that Burr was an active rioter and that his particular specialty was to sit in on the “mock court” which tried and condemned the three negro victims who were subsequently lynched by the mob.
Patrolman Constant Walker, the first witness called by the state identified Burr as one of the members of the “mock court.” He was on the stand when the noon adjournment of court was taken.
In Judge Fesler’s division, Assistant County Attorney Forbes outlined the state’s case early this afternoon. He stated that he expected to prove that Miller was ne of the men who assisted in battering down the Michigan street door at the police station and that he was very active throughout the entire riot.
Duluth Herald September 8, 1922 WAR ROMANCE OF DULUTH VETERAN ENDS IN MARRIAGE Superior Soldier, Dying, Gave Louis Stone His Sweetheart’s Photo. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
When Milton Helms, the first superior man killed in the World war, was dying on the battlefield near Chateau Thierry he gave his buddy, Louis Stone, a switchboard operator at the Duluth Edison company, a photograph of a girl. It was the dying man’s sweetheart, Dorothy Parkers of Durand, Wis.
And just before he died Helms asked Stone to call on her some time after the war was over and tell her about “my last few minutes in the big fight.” Then Helms closed his eyes in sleep as the American guns hammered away at the German lines that weakened a few days later and marked the turning point in the war.
This afternoon Stone, one of America’s army of disabled veterans, is on his way to Durand, where he and Miss Parkers will be married this evening.
Thus will end one of the real romances of the war – a tale that seems too unreal for story books.
When Helms was struck by an enemy shell he dropped alongside Stone, who picked him up and carried him to a sheltered spot. It was there Ad appearing in the Sept. 14,1920 edition of the Duluth Herald.
that the dying man turned over his sweetheart’s picture to his buddy, with a request that he all on her after “it was all over.”
Stone kept the pledge and several months ago called on Miss Parkers at her home n Durand. The acquaintance ripened into a friendship and then into a love that will bring the two together at a wedding ceremony this evening.
After a short wedding trip they will come to Duluth to make their home. Stone is one of the real veterans of the war, with four years’ service in both the Canadian and American armies. He was wounded three times and spent considerable time in hospitals.
Smith Act invoked against Minnesota members of Socialist Workers Party in ‘41
In 1941, Minneapolis leftists from the Socialist Workers Party and Teamsters union local 544 were accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government under the Alien Registration Act. Twenty-nine were indicted; 18 were convicted and sentenced to prison. On June MINN 28, 1940, the “Alien HISTORY Registration Act” (or “Smith MINNESOTA Act,” after its author, Virginia HISTORICAL SOCIETY senator Howard W. Smith) was signed into law. In addition to requiring immigrant registration, the act outlawed “subversive activity” – that is, activity that seeks to undermine or overthrow the government from within.
The first citizens accused of breaking this law were members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and/or Teamsters local 544. Many SWP members had been leaders in the Minneapolis 1934 Truckers’ Strike and still held important A Socialist Workers Party meeting in the Twin Cities, circa 1940. union positions. . J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, worried that the SWP’s anti-war position and its ability to organize transportation workers threatened national security. If transportation workers were to strike, it could disrupt the national war effort. Hoover was given permission by the President to spy on those with leftist or communist politics. On June 27, 1941, FBI agents raided the SWP headquarters at 919 Marquette Ave. in Minneapolis and 138 E. Sixth St. in St. Paul. On July 15, a federal grand jury indicted 29 people for violating the Smith Act. The main defendants were James P. Cannon, Dr. Grace Carlson, Harry DeBoer, Farrell Dobbs, V. R. Dunne, Max Geldman, Albert
Anchor Bar 2016 2016 928 Goldman and Carl Skoglund. (Grant Dunne was also among the accused but committed suicide before the trial.) All the defendants had ties to the labor & Grill 2016 Best place for really Best Dive movement, mostly for involvement in the 1934 Minneapolis Truckers’ Strike and Works Progress Administration (WPA) strikes. The trial began on October 27, 1941, with 28 defendants (the judge later cheap food dismissed charges against five). The prosecution, represented by Victor Best Burger 19 years in a ROW! Anderson, began its case on Oct. 29. They argued that the Trotskyists were using their influence in local 544 to disrupt the nation’s industrial sector as 413 Tower Ave, Superior a precursor to revolution. 715. 394. 9747 They cited the existence of the “Union Defense Guard” – a unit anchorbarandgrill.com formed to fight the fascist threat of the Silver Shirts – to argue that
the defendants advocated violent resistance. According to Anderson, Marxist ideas were inherently seditious because they predicted and supported revolution.
The defense, led by Goldman, argued that the socialists did not present a “clear and present danger” to the U.S. government. In the Supreme Court case of Whitney vs. California, Justices Brandeis and Holmes had found that citizens forfeited their right to free speech only if they presented a “clear and present danger.”
The defense countered the accusation that they were planning violence by explaining their Marxist view that the fall of capitalism was inevitable and would involve violence. They did not advocate that violence; rather they predicted it.
Furthermore, the SWP was a legitimate political party working within the government system. The accusation that their beliefs were illegal, they argued, was a violation of their first amendment rights to free speech.
On Dec. 1, 1941, after 56 hours of
Leon Trotsky (center), in exile in Mexico, with Harry de Boer (far left) and James H. Bartlett (far right), defendants in the Smith Act trial, with their wives. In August of that year, Trotsky was killed by a Soviet agent wielding a mountaineer’s ice ax.
deliberation, the jury handed down its verdict. It acquitted five defendants and found the remaining 18 guilty of alleging seditious speech, publications and associations. On Dec. 8, the 18 were sentenced to prison. The longest term served was sixteen months.
During the appeals process, the 18 spoke in public and raised funds through the Civil Rights Defense Committee (CRDC).
In two years, the CRDC took in $39,010 for defense and appeals. The defendants gained the support of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and more than a hundred labor unions and trade councils, representing over two million workers.
Having lost their appeal to the Supreme Court, the guilty parties turned themselves in on Dec. 31, 1943. Most went to Sandstone Federal Prison in Minnesota.
Although some retired from political life after their release, Carlson, Dobbs and Dunne ran for office for the SWP. Through the early 1980s, the defendants sought a Presidential pardon. In 1981, Dobbs filed suit against the FBI for illegal surveillance; in 1986, after his death, the FBI admitted to its illegal acts.
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