Preserving
Ideas for how to preserve the produce you have.
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Plum Fruit Leather
Our plum tree did pretty well this year. It doesn’t usually produce a ton of fruit which is good, because I don’t know what I would do with any more plums. My favorite way to use them currently is to make fruit leather. Plums get very sweet on the inside, but the skin stays pretty tart. And they are so juicy, they can be so messy to eat. Unless you pick them before they get ripe. But then they are super tart. As you may have noticed, I am not exactly sure how I feel about eating plums. I can’t say they are my favorite, but I do enjoy them.…
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Pickled beets
This year we dicided to try a new variety of beets. They are supposed to be striped like a peppermint candy. They turned out to be really pretty. Unfortunately they don’t look quite as good pickled as the good old dark red ones. But, they taste just as good. Maybe even better. It’s hard for me to compare because the last time we grew beets I was expecting our second baby and I was a bit nauseous when I was doing the pickled beets. I had to fight to overcome my association with morning sickness and beets. I have been dragging my feet a bit actually. This time around Tyler…
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Pickles
I was a little surprised at how easy pickles are. I didn’t think I liked pickles because my family only bought dill pickles growing up and I just didn’t like them. But as an adult I had sweet pickles. I don’t even remember when I first tried them. They changed my opinion of pickles forever! When I was pregnant with my first child I didn’t understand what all the hype about pregnant women craving pickles was about. I wanted rot kohl. Long story. But anyway, that was before I knew about sweet pickles. With my second pregnancy all I wanted was pickles. Luckily we had cucumbers growing in our garden.…
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Apricots galore
If you have, or have ever had an apricot tree, you probably know that they don’t do well every year. And you probably also know that when they do well, they go a little crazy. One apricot tree, in a good year is enough to keep anyone rolling in apricots for a few days. You will probably end up giving a lot of them away as well. Well, that being said, we have four mature apricot trees! Needless to say, on the years that we get apricots we are swimming in them for a few days or weeks. We recently bought a freeze dryer which is great and it means…
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Apricot Fruit Leather
So, I guess I am a little particular about my fruit leather. Partly because my kids are. I mean, what is the point of making fruit leather if my kids won’t eat it? I have posted about making Pear fruit leather. My pear fruit leather almost always turns out the way we like it. Which is chewy and kind of thick. The taste is never really a problem for me. If it tastes good before you dry it it will taste good after. The problem comes in the texture. I have had fruit leather that turns out more like paper in texture and it just isn’t as enjoyable to eat.…
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Black Raspberry Jam
When our fruit starts to ripen it seems like it is all we can do to keep up with the harvest. To give myself a little breathing room I have discovered that freezing raspberries is a big time saver. When my raspberries are ripe I try to get out and pick them every morning. That is the way to get the raspberries at their peak of freshness. I don’t always have enough raspberries in a single day to make much jam with. And the times I have tried to save up two days worth, the first day’s pick either gets soggy or it gets eaten, which isn’t necessarily a bad…
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Apple Chips
My kids love apple chips! In fact, I have yet to meet a kid that didn’t like my apple chips. It is a great way to use apples. A bucket full of apples will fill up my dehydrator. How to make apple chips the short version : clean the apples peel and slice apples rinse make them taste delicious: (these are all optional, but might make the difference between stored and devoured, just say’n) Lemon juice (so they don’t turn as brown) Sugar Cinnamon Nutmeg Cloves lay them out on dehydrator tray or baking sheet dry the heck out of them, in other words, wait try not to eat them all at…
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Tomatoes!
I love tomatoes! There is nothing like a juicy red tomato on your sandwich. The sad pale pink things you get at restaurants just don’t compare to what you get out of a garden. Plus there is the added feeling of accomplishment of eating something that you grew. However if you do have your own tomato plant chances are you have more tomatoes than you can eat on your sandwiches. Soooo… What can you do with tomatoes? Here is a list of things I have tried and enjoyed: Salsa (canned or fresh) Spaghetti sauce (canned or fresh) dehydrated, you can use as “sun dried tomatoes” tomato powder: put dried tomatoes in…
