For anyone interested - You can sign up for a FREE, self-paced, online canning course, through the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Here's the direct link for registration. I think it's really cool that they're offering a free course, so I thought I'd share the info.
About a week ago I found that we were out of strawberry jam. Since I had not gotten around to taking inventory of the pantry, I really shouldn't have been surprised. I remembered seeing strawberries on sale when I was at the store, so I got enough to make a small batch of jam & sauce. I used the no pectin jam recipe from the ‘Ball Blue Book', and the sauce recipe came from the ‘Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving'. \nThe jam yielded just under 4 pints, the sauce yielded a little over two half pints. Hopefully that will last us until strawberries are in season here, and I can get them from the Farmer's Market. \nSince I have been in the mood to make / cook different things, I decided to make some mustard, using the recipe for basic mustard from sbcanning. By the time I got the mustard ground to our desired consistency, it filled 5 quarter pint jars. I'll probably make some honey mustard next time. Hope everyone is doing well.
Last canning project was Turkey stock, on 5/21. I had some leftover turkey wings and legs in the freezer, I needed the space, so into the stock pot they went. I ended up with 7 pints of stock, that'll definitely come in handy! \n\n \n\nThought I'd update everyone on the canning course offered through the NCHFP. \nI thought the course was fairly easy, which I chalked up to all of the research that I have done on preserving food. After completing each section of the course, I flipped through the canning books that I have, and found that the information is covered in the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving, the Ball Blue Book, as well as the Complete Book of Home Preserving. \nFor those of you that prefer to have the book in front of you, any of the books mentioned would be sufficient, IMO. If you're going the book route and serious about home canning / preserving, I recommend purchasing a hard cover book. IME, the softcover book starts coming apart pretty quickly. I'll be taking the rest of the binding off of the books I have and putting the pages into page protectors, in a binder. \nIf you are interested in taking a hands-on canning class, check with your local gardening extension to see if they're offering classes in your area. \nSo there you have it, that's my two cents on the online canning course.
Okay so.... I know I have been a little slow on the outdoor garden. I did however get the Lawnmower, and weed eater while on sale. So I fired the whack ass yard guy..saving myself $170 mthly. Now I just gotta get the cardboard for the bottom of my bed/beds. I'll get that from out of the recycle at work tmrw. Haven't figured out if I wanna make 1 big 15'x5', or if I should split it in 2 with walking space between the 2? I'm going to use pressure treated 2x10's for the box's, and i'm set. Just wanted to let ya'll know y
Go dismokes! Personally, I wouldn't make the garden bed any wider than 4 foot, unless you are pretty tall and can reach into the center of a 5 foot bed easily. You want to be able to reach the center of the bed for planting and harvest, and avoid compacting the soil. Another bonus is NOT killing your back while doing garden work. Something to keep in mind when you're getting set up. Length - whatever works for you and your property. That's my 2 cents on that. How tall will you be making the beds? Are you going with the hugelkultur method, Lasagna garden or something else?
Dlsmokes Now that youve introduced me to the L plot. I think I'll incorporate the two. The hugelkultur was my first choice. Although I like the idea of a boarder, it just looks neater to me. Today is the day, I'll throw up some pics later. y
Chive blossoms = edible. You can use them in salads, scrambled eggs, stir fry, or incorporate them into another dish that you think it would add a desirable layer of flavor, texture, and color to. Today, I cut the remaining chive blossoms from the regular chives in the herb garden. I'm using the blossoms for vinegar. More than likely I'll use the chive blossom vinegar for marinades and homemade salad dressing. I found the recipe here Food in Jars . We haven't had a chance to try the vinegar yet, I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, here's a pic of the finished vinegar and a fresh batch. Some dehydrated thyme waiting to be jarred. Thyme blossoms are edible too.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Harvest-Your-Dandelions/ Dandelion blossom preserves. I made this a month ago, took a day or 2 for it to fully set, but it tastes just like honey (and for a vegan, like me, that's great). I cannot wait to have an abundance of tomatoes so I can start canning some sauce. I'm not a fan of vinegar (which is a shame) so I normally don't pickle things, but I have cucumbers growing with dill so I'll probably try to make dill pickles this year. I have a fridge-full of yellow squash, any ideas on what to do with them? I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for other organic farmers around here to strike a trade (I really need to go to the farmers' market). But, anybody w/ experience with squash recipes for canning?
Thanks for sharing the link for the dandelion blossom preserves, I'm adding to my list of things I'd like to make / try. I'm right there with you, I can't wait for the tomatoes to start coming in for sauces, salsa, etc...! Do you like sweet pickles, or bread and butter pickles? If so, you might like to use your cucumber for making those. I'm a big fan of dill pickles, not so much a fan of sweet, or bread and butter pickles. Yoda likes the sweet and I like the sour. LOL Yellow summer squash? I've used yellow summer squash as a substitute for zucchini, in zucchini bread recipes. I didn't notice a difference in taste between the two. You could dehydrate it, and use it in soups and stews. Blanch and freeze it. Use it as a replacement for pumpkin, in pumpkin pie. I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie, so I can't personally tell you if it's a good exchange for pumpkin, or not. My aunt used to make 'mach pumpkin pie' using summer squash regularly, and everyone else really liked it. As far as canning, summer squash wouldn't fair well in the canning process. Winter squash is the only thing I've seen 'trusted' canning recipes for; it is cubed, and pressure canned. I'm assuming that you're talking about yellow summer squash. If not, let me know and I'll give you a few links to recipes for canning winter squash. You're welcome! Glad I was able to share the info.
I don't like pickles....but I figure if I make some from my own garden maybe I'll acquire the taste for them. And, yes, yellow summer squash. One of my favorite zucchini dishes is a creamed zucchini soup (crema de calabacÃn) from zucchini, carrots, onion, garlic, and salt and pepper. Maybe i'll try a yellow version of that.
I think it's cool that you're going to try homemade pickles, especially if you don't like them. IMO, there's a big difference in the taste of store bought and homemade pickles. For me, homemade pickles beat store bought, hands down. The crema de calabacin sounds delish! I'm usually the only one that eats this, and I'm happy to eat a lot of it. LOL One of my favorite recipes using Zucchini and Yellow Squash: 2 zucchini, sliced about 1/4" thick (width wise) 2 yellow squash, sliced (same as zucchini) 1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 small onion sliced into thin rings. olive oil salt and pepper to taste Heat olive oil in a large frying pan for a few minutes over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add onion and minced garlic cooking until the onion is just starting to become translucent. Add the zucchini and yellow squash, cook squash about 5 minutes, or until desired tenderness. I use 2 cloves of garlic, but if you're not a garlic person I'd go with 1 clove. ETA: use small zucchini and yellow squash for this recipe.
Everything that I've eaten from a garden has been 10x better, at the least, than it's supermarket equivalent. (And people say there's no difference nutritionally or taste-wise between organic and non-organic produce..._. I'll probably try your recipe tonight, I'm definitely a garlic person. Garlic is so healthy, last year I ate so much and I don't use deodorant or chemically soaps, I believe I smelled like garlic 7 months straight.
Garlic is something I eat almost every day, I really can't say that a day has gone by that I haven't eaten something with garlic in it. I'll probably smell like garlic 50 years after I die. Over the past few days I've done a little canning. A friend of mine was nice enough to give me some rhubarb, while I wait for mine to establish. Recipes from: Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Strawberry Rhubarb Jam - yield six, 8 oz jars Victorian Barbeque Sauce - yield 3 pints canned, plus 1 pint frozen This weekend I'd like to make a trip to the orchard (weather permitting), raspberries and cherries are in season. Raspberry jam, cherry pie filling & maraschino cherries sound really good. If I have any raspberries left, I'll freeze some to use in smoothies, baked goods, or whatever sounds good. That is, if I don't eat them all first!
Sounds fabulous! I have been dragging my feet on my off days. I ask myself everyday why am I letting the days past....
ive recently started to make my own krauts and i usually add something into them when i make them, my first batch was cabbage and daikon radish and this newest batch that is still fermenting is red cabbage and lambsquarter(which i cant wait for because of the color of the cabbage and the lambsquarter which ive really come to enjoy as a general replacement for most of my greens) i think my next thing i will try is sprouted grain(with some wild grains mixed in) bread and possibly a sourdough culture and hopefully ill get to spend more time on the city than i have in the last 2 years... work lol
Over the weekend we made a trip to the orchard, and ordered some sweet and sour cherries. No red raspberries this year due to excessive die off over the winter. I made a 'test pie' this afternoon to see if we like the pie filling recipe that I would like to can. Cherry pitters - I asked about pitters at the orchard, and was informed that they haven't found a good cherry pitter for home use that would last a single season. For the test pie, I decided to make a cherry pitter using an inexpensive fork that I had tucked in the back of a drawer (found a video on youtube). The pitter was simple to make using a pair of pliers, and it was very easy to use. If anyone knows of a good cherry pitter for home use, please share the details. Very cool oceansgreen! Please let us know how your current batch of kraut turns out.
Dehydrated chocolate mint, I love chocolate, mint tea. A couple more batches of jam, we should be set with jam for a little while. Italian flat leaf parsley I had more parsley than what would fit on the dehydrator. After cleaning and drying, I stuck the rest of the parsley in a jar of water, covered the leaves with paper towel, and put a gallon bag over the top and stuck it in the fridge. The stems that I removed for dehydrating went into the freezer, I'll use them for making soup stock.
Pesto for the freezer - used basil and Susanville garlic from the garden. Basil harvest was enough to make pesto for 9 meals, 8 for the freezer and we had the rest for dinner that night.