Winter Reading, Anyone?

AtlantaMarie wrote:Sanderson, you still have Borders???  They closed all of the Atlanta stores...  Very sad....  I like them better than B&N.

Latest for us is a new Tom Clancy in the Jack (Sr) series.  

And a new Clive Cussler.  Pharoah's something...  It was okay, but certainly not my favorite.

I read both of those authors.

I was at the library yesterday and told the librarian that I can't remember which books I have read and never get around to making a list.  She referred me to this link where you can print out the authors by name and just check off the books you have read.
http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Lee+child+jack+reacher&search_type=books

I'm reading an older Ken Follett book, 2005, Whiteout. An Ebola-type virus escapes from Level 4 security in Scotland on Christmas Eve.

Yes, we have one big box bookstore left in a county of 1 million. B&N closed over a year ago. :-(

yolos wrote:Does anyone know of a place to get a list of books that just came out or are going to be published in the near future.  I have read so many books that the only way I can be sure I have not read the book is to only try a new book.

Goodreads is great for that!  They do have lists of books by genre, but your personal "default" lists are for books you want to read, have read, and are currently reading.  I use it daily to log my progress of what I am reading and to track how I am doing on my personal challenge goal.  Of course, I have kept a list of every book I have read in a notebook since I was 12 ( don't ask, i don't remember why I started doing that but that notebook has traveled everywhere I have lived).

I got Veg Journal by Charles Dowding and Baker Creek's Whole Seed Catalog (the great big one) for Christmas!

My oldest son got me 2 books for Christmas; a signed hardback edition of Lee Child's "Make Me", and "The Martian" which I am reading after I get done with the current fiction (St. Odd by Koontz). Yay!

I got two books that expands the use of veggies, fruit, and more without the nutritional heating damage potential that could occur from canning.

Cultured Food for Life, second book is Cultured Food for Health, both books by Donna Schwenk. If the topic of probiotics interests you, these two are powerhouses of information to make the recipes at home.  She is also on Facebook and has an extensive online presence.

Cultured vegetables are phenomenal for building up a strong immune system.  Can't wait to use my own SFG harvest in 2016.  I'm currently drinking homemade flavored kefir (fermenting local organic milk).  Also waiting for a fresh SCOBY from an acquaintance to make kombucha  (fermented tea). So many ways to eat and drink healthy which of course includes my first discovery over 5 years ago, square foot gardening.

llama momma wrote:I got two books that expands the use of veggies, fruit, and more without the nutritional heating damage potential that could occur from canning.

Cultured Food for Life, second book is Cultured Food for Health, both books by Donna Schwenk. If the topic of probiotics interests you, these two are powerhouses of information to make the recipes at home.  She is also on Facebook and has an extensive online presence.

Cultured vegetables are phenomenal for building up a strong immune system.  Can't wait to use my own SFG harvest in 2016.  I'm currently drinking homemade flavored kefir (fermenting local organic milk).  Also waiting for a fresh SCOBY from an acquaintance to make kombucha  (fermented tea). So many ways to eat and drink healthy which of course includes my first discovery over 5 years ago, square foot gardening.

That's really cool, LM!  I've been making my own yogurt for a couple of years now, and when I feel up to it, I make sauerkraut too (which is super easy in a large mason jar).  Did you make the kefir from one of those little culture packets you sometimes see in the store, or did you buy kefir grains?  I don't like kombucha enough to make my own, but our local Wegmans sells is so I buy it once in a while just for a boost.  I want to make more fermented pickles someday too.  Your book sounds very interesting!

As for what I'm reading, I have an odd mix of classic feminist books (The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wold and Backlash by Susan Falundi), seed catalogs (High Mowing, Seed Savers Exchange, and I'm still waiting for Park Seeds and Territorial), and a cool book called The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt, that gives you directions for 99 quilt squares and with each square a letter written in the 1930s to the magazine The Farmer's Wife.

littlesaphire,
 Those books you mentioned sound very interesting. I've got a couple of the catalogs you mentioned that I need to go through.

 I have not tried making my own yogurt. I make dairy kefir every day for the past year. It has a thinner drinkable consistency compared to yogurt. Reportedly has 30 to 50  or more strains of good bacteria and good yeasts.  Store bought yogurt has I believe 5 to 10 strains, but I bet your homemade yogurt is far more nutritious. What is your favorite flavor??
  I received the dairy grains last winter from an organic dairy creamery in southern Ohio.  They were free.  The creamery owner received his original grains from Denmark. I mixed those with more free grains from a Mennonite lady in Pennsylvania.  My favorite flavors so far - creamsicle, coffee, blueberry, also vanilla.

 For kombucha, I'm trading some of my dairy grains with a health food store owner for one of her kombucha SCOBY's.  

 I made 3 quarts of cultured apple kraut.  The weird thing with the kraut is I started eating a little each day and all of a sudden if I miss a day I crave the stuff, including the juice.  That never happened from store bought kraut.  One of the ingredients is kefir whey and it jumpstarts the whole bacterial activity so fast that the kraut only sits on the counter for 6 days or so, then goes into the fridge and is ready to eat.  Still, over the next 3 weeks it develops an even richer variety of bacteria and yeasts and vitamins etc, and lasts for 9 months in the fridge. Culturing vegetables is a whole different ballgame that preserves the nutrition initially at room temperature where canning heats and kills a lot as I understand.  Still learning.  Overall I'm thinking culturing fruits and veggies is a better way to preserve nutrients than boiling the daylights out of it in a water bath canner.  Plenty to learn from books, facebook groups, and online sites if anyone is interested.

Apple kraut? How do you make that, LM?

LM, your apple kraut sounds wonderful!  Did you get that recipe from a book?  I'd love to make it.  I've noticed with my kraut that it starts tasting especially amazing after it's sat in the fridge for a couple of months.  MMm!

I like homemade yogurt so much better than store bought.  It's creamier and you can make it as sour or not sour as you want (I like mine much less sour than they sell in the store).  And if you keep a mother going for a good while, I bet you have a lot more strains of bacteria than the store bought stuff.  I don't usually flavor my yogurt.  What I do is spoon in some homemade low sugar jams (I use Pomona's pectin, which doesn't require any sugar).  Applebutter is awesome!

That's so cool that you managed to get kefir grains.  I don't think I'd be able to find any around here, so I'll probably have to order some if I want to make it.  Have you heard of water kefir?  From what I understand, you use a different kind of grain and use water or juice instead of milk.  I've never water kefir though.

Good luck with your scoby!  You'll have to let us know how the kombucha turns out

Found this forgotten nugget in with my cookbooks, really more of a gardening/local source guide by a local author. Really good stuff, eating clean, locally, preserving the harvest, and not just produce!

Nice little primer, gave me the renewed interest in asparagus. I LOVE it!

This little book of knowledge is a game changer for me.
I have only started to read it and already found out about soil / dirt / compost, etc.
Last season I refrained from adding any type of fertilizer, insect repellent / killer / etc.
and I am happy I did because there will not be any added in the future on my watch.
After reading this I'll try to give a brief report, but just reading a few pages it explains how bacteria and fungi and others make up the fertilizer NKP and more that plants require, they do this naturally and plants take it up much better than chemical fertilizers that actually destroy these natural organisms .

littlesapphire wrote:LM, your apple kraut sounds wonderful!  Did you get that recipe from a book?  I'd love to make it.  I've noticed with my kraut that it starts tasting especially amazing after it's sat in the fridge for a couple of months.  MMm!

I like homemade yogurt so much better than store bought.  It's creamier and you can make it as sour or not sour as you want (I like mine much less sour than they sell in the store).  And if you keep a mother going for a good while, I bet you have a lot more strains of bacteria than the store bought stuff.  I don't usually flavor my yogurt.  What I do is spoon in some homemade low sugar jams (I use Pomona's pectin, which doesn't require any sugar).  Applebutter is awesome!

That's so cool that you managed to get kefir grains.  I don't think I'd be able to find any around here, so I'll probably have to order some if I want to make it.  Have you heard of water kefir?  From what I understand, you use a different kind of grain and use water or juice instead of milk.  I've never water kefir though.

Good luck with your scoby!  You'll have to let us know how the kombucha turns out

AtlantaMarie and littlesapphire,
 
Thought I responded earlier but don't see my post, well anyway --  Here is the apple kraut recipe http://www.culturedfoodlife.com/apple-kraut/
Your yogurt sounds wonderful, I didn't know you could control amount of sour-ness.  I'm impressed,  oh boy I see another project in my future!
Yes, I've heard of water kefir. The grains are different, clear compared to white dairy grains. I believe water kefir is not as nutritious as dairy kefir so I haven't try it.
I'm picking up my first SCOBY later this week plus other supplies. Always fun to start a new project!
 

Back to winter reading: Just finished "The Darkest Day" by Tom Wood. We've read 2 of his books and will not buy another. Sort of a Jack Reacher hero but had to wade through it. Also finished "The Counterfeit Agent" by Alex Berenson. Does Iran have a nuclear bomb? Enjoyed it. Now reading "Every Crooked Path" by Steven James. Good. FBI, NYPD, murder mystery. Caution: dedicated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited children.

Picked up "Eat Your Yard" by Nan Chase, and Eliot Coleman's (ill-timed for me) Winter Harvest.....Nan Chase's book makes me want to call the utility company and start planning some trees and shrubs and grapevines, I literally have 1 pear tree. My dad had a small orchard here when I was growing up. Cherry, peaches, grape arbors, apples of course. I would like to get my strawberry patch happening again, in a raised bed, and explore blueberries and grapes. I like to eat those!

I'm going thru Arrowhead Mills cookbook and Rodale's Panty Hose, Hot Peppers, Tea Bags, & More.

(Can't italicize the title. Sorry grammar police!)

Just finished "The year-round vegetable gardener : how to grow your own food 365 days a year no matter where you live" for the 2nd time.

CC

CC is that the book by Niki Jabbour? If so I've mentioned in a couple of other posts. I borrowed it from my public library but due to other time commitments I'm only half-way through it. Anyway, I really like it and I'm considering buying my own copy.

Just finished "The Twelve" by Justin Cronin, sequel of "The Passage", see page one of this thread. Harder reading. Yes, I am waiting for The City of Mirrors, the final book of the trilogy. Need something lighter before tackling "Mortal Fear" by Greg Iles. Maybe a J.D. Robb. I ordered "Tomatoland" so it should be here any day. Thanks, Marc.

trolleydriver wrote:CC is that the book by Niki Jabbour? If so I've mentioned in a couple of other posts. I borrowed it from my public library but due to other time commitments I'm only half-way through it. Anyway, I really like it and I'm considering buying my own copy.

Yes! I also got it from the library...both times. I wish she had divided it into seasons though. Like chap 1 could be 'Spring', chap 2 could be 'Summer'...etc.

Tonight I'll be heading to my bookshelf & pulling out the 2 copies (old & new versions) of "Victory Garden".

CC

I think this is also a good compost book, especially for beginners. Glossy, photos.

I want to read some JD Robb, is that a pseudonym?

Scorpio Rising wrote:I want to read some JD Robb, is that a pseudonym?

Yes, I think it is.  I read it all the time but my poor mind can't remember anything.

Had to google, it is Nora Roberts!

Nora Roberts