Summer Veggies becoming Fall Soups

This week has been our first taste of some much lower temperatures so I decided to warm myself up with a bowl of hot soup...using only the fresh veggies I happened to have left on hand.

It turned out delicious!

I'll call it:

 Creamy Bell Pepper and Potato Soup

2 large potatoes per person
3 chopped bell peppers
1/2 medium onion
1 can or two cups chicken stock
3 cloves garlic
1 large turnip
1/2-3/4 cup sour cream
6 sprigs dill
2 tbsp butter
2 cups milk

• Bring to a rolling boil, let cook until potatoes are thoroughly cooked.  Mine cooked probably about 20 minutes.
• Mash potatoes, add butter and milk then return to heat.
• Return to a boil, add sour cream to desired level of "creaminess".
• Add a few more fresh dill sprigs and enjoy!

Homemade Wine 2012

We have just bottled and are enjoying our first batch of wine!

The peach wine is very sweet and light and the plum is more dry, red and tart.


I'll give you a brief explanation of the wine-making process, now that we have successfully made our first batch.

• Weigh out fruit, place in a knee high stocking or cheesecloth, squeeze out as much juice as possible into clean 2.5 gallon bucket.  Add water.
• Weigh sugar, add to juice, stir then take out a sample and measure the specific gravity. Usually it should be around 1.10. You will need a hygrometer for this step, one came with our starter kit.
• Add your preservatives and stir. Place it in a cool dark spot, in 24 hours add the yeast. Let ferment for another 5-7 days until specific gravity reaches the next goal point as stated in your recipe.

 

• Next you will siphon your juice into the glass carboy, fill it to near the top with water, and place your airlock on the lid.

• Let sit for about a month or two until they clear.
• We siphoned each off again into a second clean carboy to get the juice off of the sediment.  Then we let it sit for another month.  At this time you can test the specific gravity again to be sure it has reached the proper alcohol content.  0.9 equals about 12% alcohol content.
• Then the final step is the best part...bottling! Siphon into a clean bucket, add more stabilizers, water, and sugar (if needed) then siphon into clean bottles and cork.  Store bottles on their side so the corks will absorb some and the wine and swell to completely seal the bottle.
• And if you have some that won't fill another bottle, then put it in a mason jar and enjoy immediately!



Currently we have grape wine in the glass carboy, they should be another month or so until they are ready, and muscadines are in the primary fermenting bucket.

The muscadine wine should be ready by Christmas!

Orchard Additions 2012

We have been adding to and trimming up our trees since purchasing our house last March.  When we first moved in here there was one good pear tree, two crappy ones, one good blueberry bush, one very crappy blueberry bush, one good mulberry tree, one crappy cherry tree, and one good peach tree that requires ALOT of care to produce decent peaches.  Peaches are a pain in the butt, they require a spraying with pesticide and fungicide every 2 weeks after they have set fruit in the spring...in case ya didn't know!

This year we have added:

• 2 Burbank plum trees
• 1 Arkansas black apple tree
• 2 Halls hardy almond trees
• 1 Yellow Delicious apple tree
• 1 Premier blueberry bush
• 1 Brightwell blueberry bush
• 1 Methley plum tree
• 1 Moorpark apricot tree
• 3 Cowart muscadine vines

It will be a few years before most of these start setting fruit, but once they begin they will produce for years!

Honey Pear Sauce

I made this pear sauce because my grandparents gave me a HUGE box of pears from their pear tree and I hated to let them go to waste! I have a lifetime supply of various jams and jellies at this point, so I decided to try something different.
Pear sauce is basically just like applesauce, in fact this recipe is interchangeable between apples and pears.
It was very easy to do and it tastes as good as it smells!

16 medium sized pears

1 cup water

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup honey

Cinnamon to taste

Cloves to taste

Nutmeg to taste

8 half-pint canning jars

1. First wash and slice your pears, discard the cores (or feed them to your chickens like I do). I did not peel them but if you don't like to eat the peels then you may, it just takes much longer.
2. Then place all you slices into a large pot, add the water, honey, and spices.
3. Bring to a boil and let simmer about 20 minutes. Pears should be translucent and tender, but not mushy.
4. After letting cool a bit, drain it and place in food processor, blender, food mill, etc. Blend till "applesauce consistency" then pour the sauce in to your sanitized jars. Leave 1/2 inch of headspace. I used half-pint jars because I will use them as snacks or part of breakfast.
5. Then place jars in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Great project to get you in the Autumn spirit!

Sweet Dill Pickle Relish

I am adapting this from a Mennonite recipe that makes about a years supply of relish, so have patience with me! To make about 8 quarts of relish, you need about a gallon of pickles AFTER they're chopped. If was making this for a lifetime supply of relish it would work, but I don't have that much storage space!

This is what I came up with. I bought a gallon of large, ballpark style pickles from the grocery store and a bag of onions so I could play with the proportions.

About 6 large pickles chopped in a food processor makes about two cups of ground pickles. Two small onions chopped makes about one-half cup of ground onions. This produced 3 pint jars of relish. So here is my final draft of the adapted recipe. To make 6 pints of relish.

• 12 jumbo pickles (a one gallon container)
• 4 white onions
• 4 cups of sugar
• 2 cups of vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of celery seed
• 1 tablespoon of tumeric
• 1 tablespoon of mustard seed
• 1/4 cup salt for wilting pickles

Chop pickles and onions in food processor. Not to a puree, but close.
Place in a large bowl, add salt and let sit for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, strain off excess juice through a cheesecloth or very fine colander.
Place the mixture into a large cooking pot. Add sugar, vinegar, and spices. Heat until it begins to boil.
Place into pint jars, the recipe should make about 6 pints.
Boil in water bath canner for 10 minutes to seal lids.
Let cool overnight and use "prn"!

Redneck Tomato Garden using 5 Gallon Buckets

To create a tomato container garden you are going to need:

• 1 five gallon bucket per plant
• peat or compost
• fillers such as empty water bottles or soda cans or even beer cans will work
• drill
• small to medium growing tomato plants (I used Roma tomatoes)
• water
• sunshine

For the good ole' upright tomato plantings.

First dig some empty cans or plastic bottles out of your recycle bin.  Busch Light cans work just as good as any!

Drill 5-6 holes in the bottom of the bucket for water drainage.

Then fill your five gallon bucket up till there is about 12 inches of space left for dirt.

Add your compost or potting soil up to about 5 inches from the top.

Place your plant in the center of the bucket.

Cover roots and stem with soil up to the top of the bucket.  It will pack down after a few waterings and you may want to add more soil.

Plant in a location that will get at least 12 hours of sun a day.

Water every 7-10 days if needed.

Easy 3-Ingredient Strawberry Jam

My grandmother makes the best strawberry jam, store-bought jam doesn't even compare...seriously!   So naturally I thought her recipe was a family secret, or used magical strawberries, and was super labor-intensive to produce such awesome jam.   Nope, she told me that it was just three ingredients that (with a food processor) only took us about 20 minutes to make the first time we made it together.

I will never eat store-bought jam again!

Here is the rediculously easy ingredient list:

1. 2 quarts of strawberries
2. 4 cups of sugar
3. 1 package of Certo liquid fruit pectin

The directions are pretty simple and after you do it once you probably won't even have to look at the instructions that come in the Certo box!

• Cap the strawberries, wash, and chop (not puree) in a food processor for just a few beats.   You still want them to be kinda chunky
• Put the chopped strawberries into a large bowl and add your sugar.
• Add the Certo liquid pectin and stir it in well.
• Quickly (before the pectin starts to set up) divide your mixture out into your jelly jars.   Cap them, let them set up for a few hours, then they are ready to use!   Place the extra jars into the freezer for future use or give to friends and family as a cute, homemade gift.

I don't have a ton of freezer space so I like to go ahead and put them in a water bath canner to seal the lids.   About 10 minutes in boiling water does the trick, then I can keep them in the cupboard at room temp for up to 1 year.   Great tasting and made with love!   Doesn't get much better than that!