Garden Produce - canning, freezing, recipes

Gardening and Household tips. Good food. The Lighter side...

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Cherry Kelly
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Post by Cherry Kelly » 09-06-2010 07:17 PM

megman - ya we also use the dehydrator for a lot of the peppers and some tomatoes -- and ohhh what a nice taste!!

thinking of drying some of my basil as I am overwhelmed with it at moment... before the bugs get to it... now that weather has settled down the bugs have really become baddddd...

squirt
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Post by squirt » 09-07-2010 10:54 AM

Cherry, another way to preserve green tomatoes is to make green tomato mincemeat. It's wonderful and so easy. I'll find the recipe today and post it for you if you'd like. :)

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 09-07-2010 11:52 AM

squirt please do find and post. Right now we plan to make our 'dilled green tomatoes' which really are very good!

Recipes always welcome here!!

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Post by squirt » 09-07-2010 12:01 PM

Headed out the door to dentist, but will find grandma's old recipe and post it this afternoon for you. :)

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Post by Linnea » 09-07-2010 12:23 PM

Welcome to the forum, squirt! ;) Nice to see you here and posting. We've had little sunshine here in the NW - and I've got lots of green tomatoes.

Also read this somewhere. For the green tomatoes which have not ripened once frost threatens - pick them and place stems up in a paper bag in a dark and cool place - and they will ripen. Sounds pretty amazing! And, if you uproot the entire plant which still has green tomatoes - and hang it upside down in a basement or garage - you can remove the tomatoes as they ripen.

Sounds pretty wild - but am thinking of trying that if there are still a lot of green ones on the plants.

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Post by squirt » 09-08-2010 09:55 AM

Hi Linnea :) Thank you for the welcome
We take the whole plant (at season's end) and string it up to the barn rafters. The fruit ripens fairly well this way.

When it turns cold....this is what I do with some of the green tomatos!

GREEN TOMATO MINCEMEAT
4 qts finely chopped green tomatoes
2 qt pared finely chopped tart apples (I use Granny Smith)
1 lb seedless raisins
4 tbsp minced lemon or orange peel
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 to 1/2 cup lemon juice
2 cups water

Combine all and cook mixture slowly until tender and slightly thickened. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. Pour into sterile jars filling to the top and seal. Store in a cool dark place. Will make 4 quarts.
((When you want to make a pie, chop 4-5 green apples up and mix with the opened jar of mincemeat. You can usually get a couple pies from one quart this way. Bake as you would a mince pie.)

Once you try this recipe as the base for your Christmas mincemeat pies, you will never use the box stuff again!!! Green tomatoes you say...........
:eek: You will be amazed!!! LOL

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Post by squirt » 09-08-2010 10:03 AM

Recipe for some of that corn you raised and are freezing for wintertime....:)

After blanching the corn cobs, Cut the kernals off the cob; scrape the cob with the knife edge to get the 'goodie' out of any remaining kernals. Put into baggies and freeze. This is good as a cream corn in winter when you add a tiny bit of sugar and a bit of milk/cream. Kids love it.

SOMETHING ELSE KIDS LOVE!!

HUSH PUPPIES
1 cup yellow or white cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 (can OR frozen and thawed package) cream corn
milk, if needed

Mix dry ingredients. Add onion and corn and mix well. If more liquid is needed to make desired consistency, add a little milk. Drop by heaping teaspoons into hot fat, about 360 degrees. Fry until golden brown. And watch em disappear!

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 09-08-2010 11:06 AM

Linnea - yes you can store larger green tomatoes in a dry dark area - but do not bunch them in a paper sack.

Cardboard box flat
larger green tomatoes - without flaws (bad spots)
newspaper - not slick sheets

Cover the bottom of the box with the newspaper and they put in the darkest green tomatoes and keep them separated (I use folded strips of newspaper). The reason to keep them separated is so that if one has an internal bad spot it will not get on the other tomatoes. Lay another sheet of newspaper over the top and place in a cool dark dry area. Check weekly and turn the tomatoes. Remove any that start showing a yellow/pink coloring and take upstairs to kitchen and place on paper towel on a counter area. They will finish ripening.

Hanging them works if you have enough area to do so. :)

I actually do not pick any of the green tomatoes until as far into fall as possible. I cover the plants with the solar blanket covers for 'light frost' time as we usually get a light frost and a week or two of no frost so the plants continue to provide nourishment and tomatoes continue to grow.

Been doing this for decades now and had fresh tomatoes to eat into February and one year into first week of March. :)

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 09-18-2010 10:09 AM

we had rain on a friday - by Sunday had a dozen cucumbers ready to pick. We had a late year planting due to so much rain that washed out part of the garden area in June. Now I am wondering if we shouldn't always plant those cucumbers late every year. We canned 10 pints of bread and butter pickles. (and with a little juice and some pickles left over - did one small bowl of those and put in the fridge - delicious!)

===
now 17th of Sept have picked more cucumbers and nice tomatoes - all to be canned - well maybe not ALL the tomatoes. Discovered a lot of smaller green ones that if they do not get bigger will be pickled with celery, garlic and spices.

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Post by squirt » 09-19-2010 02:37 PM

Cherry, Can you make decent pickles with lemon cucumbers? Our regular ones didn't make this year cause of strange weather, but we have batches upon batches of lemon cukes.

Tomatoes are finally ripening up quickly. :) Will be lots for canning come this next week....if I can keep the kids out of the patch! lol

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 09-20-2010 11:33 AM

squirt - Just about anything from the garden can be canned!

http://jilliciousdiscoveries.blogspot.c ... art-2.html

recipe there!! and yes neighbor did that with theirs and ohh nice!! :)

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Post by squirt » 09-20-2010 04:00 PM

Thanks Cherry!
I'll try a batch of those. I have found that picking them when they are not too large is the answer to not so many seeds. We pick when they are about tennis ball size or less.
Fabulous tasting when, onions added, and put in a bit of cider vinegar and sugar....then in fridge to keep cold. Very crunchy!!

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 09-21-2010 11:37 AM

squirt - you are welcome. I did ask my neighbor which recipe was used and was directed to that URL. Amazingly one can find a lot of excellent canning ideas and recipes for the variety of veggies we grow in our gardens.

We made a Tomatillo salsa, with some slight moderations from an on line recipe as none of our canning books really provided much for those. Turned out very nice!

One of the things we have found make a big difference in taste when it calls for X number of medium size onions is the type of onions used. Recipes often do not say beyond sizes or weights. Same with peppers as there are now many hybrids as noted with the Jalapeno pepper. I have one that is hotter and one not as hot and both are Jalapeno. Same with tomatoes, some have more seeds, are juicier, are more solid - even though they have the same 'name' - like my Delicious tomatoes. One batch of seeds called Delicious has produced a meatier tomato than another batch of seeds with same name.

Same can be said about recipes that call for so many cloves - large cloves? small cloves? A lot of older recipes simply do not differentiate and it can make a lot of difference when you bake or can. Even some of the newer ones that say "medium size cloves" but what is 'medium' - be nice if they said so many of a certain diameter.

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 09-28-2010 01:51 PM

Pickled more cucumbers - sweet pickles this time. They shrink up a lot! But the ones done with spears seemed to work the best. Will stick with spears for this next batch! Most definitely!

Took some of the left-over sweet syrup and experimented with jalapeno peppers - just to get an idea of how that might work - soon as they have set long enough will do the taste test on those.

===
BUT here is something for those who like SUPER HOT HOT salsa. PLASTIC GLOVES A MUST!!!

30 scotch bonnet habaneros
1 large yellow onion
1 head of garlic
7T vinegar
2tsp pickling salt
1/2 tsp white pepper

Remove stems on the Habaneros and any dark seeds, otherwise leave the seeds. Peal and finely chop onion. Peal garlic use whole cloves.
IN non-reactive pan put pepper, onion and garlic, cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
Drain off water, put into a blender, add remaining ingredients and blend for at least one minute (longer if necessary).
Pour into half pint jars (otherwise known as jelly jars), process 45 minutes. Yield 4 of these half pint jars.

NOTE: you will get layer separation as it cools - just shake up the jar. Allow to set for a few weeks before use and shake again as needed.

Would strongly suggest cooking be done outside on a grill top if you can or have a lot of good ventilation!!

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 10-04-2010 10:54 AM

Have made a few changes to increase the Firehouse Hot Habanaro Salsa.
more habbies, (now 40), 2 full heads of garlic, 10T vinegar and another 1/2 tsp of pickling salt.

Report back from someone who loves HOT HOT salsa -- this is so hot even this person says almost too hot! :) The other remark - will be a great part of the marinade to make hot wings.

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