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Make vegetable broth from ingredients you already have

Recipe: No-waste method lets you customize a kitchen staple

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Great broth in the making: Veggie scraps, water and heat. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)


It’s finally the time of year when I don’t mind heating up the kitchen to make soup, stew or risotto.

I like chicken broth just fine, but prefer to use vegetable stock or broth for these type of dishes. The handy aseptic packages in the grocery store hide a lot of information, however. Is this kind tomato-y or more oniony? How earthy is that broth that has mushrooms listed in the ingredients?

The easy answer to this (no surprise) is to make your own. The recipe below is more method than prescription, as you’ll see.

Since we’re all gardeners or aspiring gardeners here, I’m going to assume you’re already composting your kitchen scraps. Many of those scraps can be used to flavor vegetable broth for several dishes -- and they still can be composted afterwards.

The trick is to use your freezer, and to assess every vegetable bit before it hits the compost bin. Onion tops? Yes. Dried-out garlic cloves? Yes again. Carrot peelings? Absolutely. Other favorites in my house include mushroom stems, celery leaves and ends, limp tomatoes and wilted spinach. I keep them in a gallon freezer bag and add to it over the course of several weeks. Sometimes I have two bags going, for different ingredients.

When the bag is full, pop those scraps into a large pot or slow cooker, with some bay leaves and peppercorns (salt is up to you), add water to cover and let it all simmer until the house smells like vegetable soup. I use my large Crock Pot and leave the broth on low overnight. Strain the broth and put it in convenient size containers or freezer bags, and you’re set for awhile.

I generally start with about 8 cups of scraps -- why do this if not to make a lot? -- but if you want to fill up your largest stockpot, go for it. Just be sure to have enough containers to hold all the resulting broth.

Caution: Say no to anything moldy or which you can’t get the garden soil off of. Also avoid members of the cabbage family -- broccoli, cauliflower, etc. -- because they’ll give the broth a very strong flavor.

Otherwise, customize the broth to what you like to cook. You’ll thank yourself later.

No-waste vegetable broth
Yield varies depending on the amount of scraps and size of pot

Ingredients:

At least 8 cups of vegetable ends, peelings and other usable scraps (including parsley and other milder herbs, if desired)

1 or 2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon peppercorns or several fresh grinds of black pepper

Salt to taste, optional

Instructions :
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Typical ingredients for my broth, but it varies.
Put the vegetable scraps in a large pot or slow cooker. Add enough cold water just to cover the vegetables. Add bay leaves and pepper and, if desired, just ¼ teaspoon of
salt. (You can adjust the salt level later.)

If you’re cooking on the stove, bring the pot contents to a boil, turn it down and let
it simmer uncovered on low for about 1 hour. Taste the broth and decide if you want
to cook it longer. You can also adjust the salt level here, too. (If the broth is destined
for risotto or other dishes where the liquid is absorbed, I don’t add any more salt.)

If using a slow cooker, fill it with scraps at least to the minimum level required for its size, add the water to cover, and the seasonings.
Cook 2 to 3 hours on high or 8 hours on low. (Do check the seasonings in there at
some point.)

When you decide your broth has reached optimum flavor, turn off the heat and let it cool.

Strain the vegetables using a colander over a large bowl or measuring cup, pressing on the vegetables with a spatula or large spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. (You may have to do this in batches.) Transfer the broth to desired storage containers. If you want to extra-clear broth, filter it a second time through a mesh strainer or cheesecloth.

Label the filled containers with the date and any other cooking information that makes sense to you, such as the salt content or whether it contains tomatoes. The broth can keep in the refrigerator for a week, but I usually freeze anything I’m not using immediately.

Don’t forget to add those strained veggie bits to your compost bin afterwards. Your garden will benefit.

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Food in My Back Yard (FIMBY) Series

WINTER:

Jan. 13: Tips for planting bare-root trees, shrubs and vegetables

Jan. 6: Hints for choosing tomato seeds

Dec. 30: Why winter is the perfect time to plant fruit trees

Dec. 23: Is edible gardening possible indoors?

FALL

Dec. 16: Add asparagus to your edible garden

Dec. 9: Soggy soil and what to do about it

Dec. 2: Plant artichokes now; enjoy for years to come

Nov. 25: It's late November, and your peach tree needs spraying

Nov. 18: What to do with all those fallen leaves?

Nov. 11: Prepare now for colder weather in the edible garden

Nov. 4: Plant a pea patch for you and your garden

Oct. 27: As citrus season begins, advice for backyard growers

Oct. 20: Change is in the autumn air 

Oct. 13: We don't talk (enough) about beets

Oct. 6: Fava beans do double duty

Sept. 30: Seeds or transplants for cool-season veggies?

Sept. 23: How to prolong the fall tomato harvest 

SUMMER

Sept. 16: Time to shut it down? 

Sept. 9: How to get the most out of your pumpkin patch

Sept. 2: Summer-to-fall transition time for evaluation, planning

Aug. 26: To pick or not to pick those tomatoes?

Aug. 19: Put worms to work for you

Aug. 12: Grow food while saving water

Aug. 5: Enhance your food with edible flowers

July 29: Why won't my tomatoes turn red?

July 22: A squash plant has mosaic virus, and it's not pretty

July 15: Does this plant need water?

July 8: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions

July 1: How to grow summer salad greens

June 24:  Weird stuff that's perfectly normal

SPRING

June 17: Help pollinators help your garden

June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests

June 3: Make your own compost

May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?

May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days

May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can

May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success

April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth

WINTER

March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space

Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting

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Garden checklist for week of Jan. 18

Make the most of these rain-free breaks. Your garden needs you!

* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.

* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.

* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.

* Plant bare-root roses and fruit trees.

* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranunculus and gladiolus for bloom from late spring into summer.

* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.

* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.

* Now is the time to prune fruit trees, except cherry and apricot trees. Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.

* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.

* Prune Christmas camellias (Camellia sasanqua), the early-flowering varieties, after their bloom. They don’t need much, but selective pruning can promote bushiness, upright growth and more bloom next winter. Give them an acid-type fertilizer. But don’t fertilize your Japonica camellias until after they finish blooming next month. Doing that while camellias are in bloom may cause them to drop unopened buds.

* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.

* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.

* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.

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