I have to say, having a full time job can really get in the way of harvesting and preserving my veggies.
Monday’s harvest (with a side of homemade chocolate chip cookies).Tuesday’s harvest. isn’t that pretty?
We had a holiday this week and it threw my whole weekend off.
I also got to play with my grand kids over the weekend, so I was a little distracted. I was so busy with them and with harvesting and preserving and picking berries, I completely lost track of my days.
I didn’t even realize Tuesday was Tuesday until about 10 pm Monday night. Oops.
I’ve been canning.
Quart of canned tomatoes
We’ve been harvesting and preserving our garden goodies.
We don’t have a ton of different veggies, but we have enough of the few we grew. I’ve given some to family and now I’m preserving for later.
Of course, we’ve been eating them too….daily.
This weekend, I canned 10 quarts of tomatoes and 3 quarts of chicken broth.
I’ve been saving up tomatoes through the week and froze them. Then I thawed them this weekend. The skins come right off when you thaw them. That was something new I tried and it worked great.
Chicken/rabbit broth.
We bought a few chickens from a farm down the road a few weeks ago. I cooked them and used the meat last week.
Then I cooked what all was left from the chicken along with some veggies and some rabbit parts I had saved in the freezer. You can read how how I make broth here.
We’ve found that the rabbit makes the broth a bit darker than usual. I’m guessing that will make it more flavorful too.
I’m dehydrating too.
Dehydrator and dehydrated veggies.
I dehydrated some of the banana peppers and okra. I’ll be able to add the peppers to meatloaf and maybe some meatball and the okra to soups and gumbos during winter.
I also dehydrated the last of the radishes we had. They were so good roasted, I thought dehydrated, they would be really good in soups and stews. We’ll see how that goes.
Since they lose their bite when they’re roasted, I’m counting on the flavor without the bit in a soup or stew too.
We went berry hunting.
Elderberries
We also went berry hunting Monday morning. I’ll be coming up with some elderberry syrup soon. Stay tuned for that one.
With cold and flu season just a few weeks away, you’ll want to make some of your own elderberry syrup.
I have a few cool things in the works. You’ll see those soon.
A few things in the garden exploded and we have tomatoes and banana peppers running out our ears. So, I’ve been dehydrating veggies, a lot of them.
Tomatoes and banana peppers.
The tomatoes
We planted a lot of tomato plants this year because we weren’t real sure they would all grow because the seeds were so old. We planted all these plants with the idea some wouldn’t make it.
We were wrong.
Mortgage Lifter tomatoes
These Mortgage Lifters don’t get as big as I thought they would, but they made up for it in sheer volume.
They’re beautiful and really good, but there’s so many of them.
They’re called “salad sized” tomatoes. Too big to eat like a cherry tomato, small enough to cut up for salads, but too small for slicers.
And the perfect size for dehydrating.
We got some cherry tomatoes, but not as many as I expected. I’ve just been eating them from a bowl right off the counter like snack food. They just don’t last long here.
Banana Peppers
Banana Peppers
When we bought these banana peppers, we weren’t sure we liked them. I was pretty sure my husband would, but not too sure about me.
Like the rest of the garden it was an experiment.
After cooking several and just eating them right out of the garden, we both discovered, they’re really pretty good.
We like grilling them with what we’re having for supper.
The little plants look like they have Christmas light on them, there are so many little peppers on them.
They were slow to start, but once they got started….watch out! They went to town and we have quite a few of them now.
Dehydrating Veggies
My Dehydrator
If you remember from a post or two back my dear hubby got me the dehydrator of all dehydrators for my birthday. And I’ve been using it almost constantly since to dehydrate veggies.
Getting ready to dehydrate my tomatoes.
I’ve dehydrated so many tomatoes and Lemon Balm leaves, I have enough to last several months.
Dehydrating veggies is so much easier than canning. The actual amount of time it takes is probably a little longer, but it’s much easier.
I turn on the dehydrator and walk away.
And it holds so much, I can get a lot done at one time.
Dehydrating Tomatoes
Powdering my dehydrated tomatoes.
I slice the tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick and filled all but 1 tray, using parchment paper on the trays to hold all the juice. This makes clean up a lot easier.
Once they’re dehydrated, they pop right off the parchment paper and are easy to grind up.
I was originally using my mortar and pestle, but couldn’t get them powered enough so I started using my spice grinder.
Peppers & Okra
Sliced banana peppers.
I used the dehydrator from my dad for the banana peppers and a few okra. I was trying to do as much as I could all at once.
I sliced the banana peppers about 1/2 inch thick, the same with the okra.
The peppers and okra are pretty dry and don’t take very long to dry. Dehydrating the tomatoes took about twice as long because of all the liquid they contain. They’re really juicy.
Storing my Dehydrated Veggies
Dehydrating veggies takes up much less space in my opinion. You can seal the Seal-a-meal attachment in canning jars or in the sealing bags. Or you can crush or powder, like I did with the tomatoes.
I’ve dehydrated our garden goodies before, but only had four trays, so it took a while. Now I have 13. YAY!!
Next…
I’ll be canning the pink brandywine tomatoes this weekend. I like choices when I’m cooking.
I’ll be freezing a few things too, like breaded okra. Makes frying up okra this winter quick and easy.
I hope you got a couple of ideas here. There’s a lot of things you can dehydrate to help preserve your garden.
Just last weekend I found a book on dehydrating food and of course, I bought it.
I can’t wait to see what I’ve been missing.
If you have ideas or have tried something I didn’t mention, let me know. I’m always up for trying something new.
Homemade catsup on my grilled burger with my homegrown grilled banana peppers.
Either way homemade catsup is really easy and really good.
Recently, I’ve been on this theme of trying almost everything I can find homemade. Hint – coming soon, mustard and crackers among other things.
My goal is to make as much as I can from scratch and buy as little as I can from the store.
Just like garden grown veggies have so much more flavor than their store bought counterpart, in my opinion so does homemade condiments like catsup and homemade sweet pickles.
Regardless of what it is if it’s homegrown or homemade, it’s always so much better than what you get in the stores.
And if it’s homemade it’s a bonus, or maybe it’s the point of it, that you know what every single ingredient is you put into it.
Store bought tomatoes or home grown
In this spirit, every homemade catsup recipe I came across called for tomato paste. I rarely have tomato paste since you usually only use a tablespoon or 2 and I end up throwing it away.
But, this year I have a garden and I’m beginning to get a TON of tomatoes.
Tomatoes that I’m getting ready to slice and dehydrate.
And, this year for my birthday, my awesome husband bought me the Cadillac of dehydrators, an Excalibur Dehydrator. I’ve wanted this thing for years, but it costs so much I wouldn’t buy it for myself.
Anyway, this means I’ve been dehydrating tomatoes. I knew there had to be a way to use those for this recipe.
So I searched the net and finally found a ratio method for mixing dehydrated tomatoes to water for paste and for sauce.
Just so you know…..it’s a 1:1 ratio for paste and a 2:1 water to dehydrated tomatoes for sauce.
So now I’m excited. Dehydrated tomatoes take up WAY less space than canned tomatoes. And this means I don’t have to can so many tomatoes….BONUS!!
Okay, back on track for homemade catsup.
To ferment or not to ferment
My jar of homemade catsup with one of my new fermenting lid.
Most of the recipes I found said I could ferment them or not. As a general rule, we don’t use a lot of catsup, so I kinda wanted to ferment just so it would last longer.
Recently, I also bought myself some fermenting lids so I could ferment more. So since I had those I thought I would go ahead and give the fermented catsup a try.
From what I was reading, the recipe is no different either way. So, that made it easy.
Homemade Catsup
Making homemade catsup truly is one of the easiest things you could ever make. And best of all it can be made to suit your tastes. As you mix the ingredients, all you have to do is continue to taste it and adjust it to what you like best.
Although I read through about 3 or 4 different recipes, this is the one I settled on. First because I liked the ingredients and second, because I’ve liked most of the recipes I’ve found on her site so I trusted it would be good.
This recipe comes from theprairiehomestead.com. If you haven’t been there yet, you should check it out. She had a ton of great stuff there.
Ingredients:
12 oz or 1.5 cups of tomato paste
3 TBL of maple syrup or raw honey
3 TBL of raw vinegar
2 TBLS of whey or brine from an existing ferment***
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp allspice**
*** You only need this ingredient if you plan on fermenting your catsup. I had just made some sauerkraut, so I used some of the brine from that.
**I didn’t have allspice, so I found a mixture you can use to make a homemade version. To make 1 tsp of allspice you use 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground clove and a pinch of ground nutmeg.
Instructions:
Mix all of your ingredients in a bowl. If you are not going to ferment it, then put it in the refrigerator and your done. I’d let it sit for a few days just so all the flavors blend well.
Mix all of your ingredients into your bowl and mix well.
If you’re going to ferment, then put your catsup in a pint jar, cover it with a fermenting lid, an airlock or a regular lid. If you use a regular lid, you need to remember to burp it either daily or a few times a day to let the fermenting gases escape.
Let it sit on your counter for about 3 days and then put a regular lid on it and move it to your refrigerator.
That’s it. It just doesn’t get any easier.
Another thing you’ll notice with this recipe is there is no sugar. I suppose you could use sugar if you wanted to in place of the honey or maple syrup. I wouldn’t know why, but you could if you wanted to.
You can adjust these spices to whatever taste you like. You could even add a touch of hot sauce if that’s something you might like. The possibilities of the different tastes you could come up with are endless.
So there you have it, really easy homemade catsup. I hope you give it a try. I know I’ll not be buying it from the store anymore. You may decide the same thing.
If you find you want to make your own catsup, let me know in the comments below how it turns out. If you change up the recipe, I’d love to hear how. I’d love it if you would post pictures of what you make.
Be sure to subscribe to get something new in your inbox every week. Canning season is coming up, I have a new dehydrator and I have several new recipes I’m itching to make, you won’t want to miss what’s coming.
Wow! This garden has a ton of tomatoes, but most are still green, some peppers, radishes, a few okra so far, and a hand full of yard long beans.
My garden looking more to the east
The garden is growing and I’m a happy camper. Here’s a look at what the garden looks like now. You can see the differences in this post, my last garden update.
My garden looking more to the north.
Let’s start with the tomatoes.
One of the Pink Brandywine tomato plant.
I have 7 pink brandywines, 1 mortgage lifter and 1 large cherry tomato and the roma in the compost pile.
The pink brandywines are late blooming, but they’re slowly catching up. There’s plenty of tomatoes starting, but they’re small and still green. They seem to be about a month behind where they should be, but they’re getting there, so it’s okay.
In due time I’ll be canning and/or drying tomatoes. More on making sauces and paste from dehydrated tomatoes later.
The mortgage lifter has a TON of tomatoes on it. They’re not getting near as big as they’re supposed to before blushing and turning red. But what they lack in size, they’re making up for in quantity.
Mortgage Lifter tomato plant
There are so many of them, the plant is covered.
The big cherry tomato isn’t over doing it, but it’s doing okay. Those are being real slow to turn too.
I’m getting 1-2 small tomatoes a day. So far that works. I’m just eating them as they come in almost.
Now the Peppers.
The peppers have made a come back. We had some really HOT weather in the last few weeks. Maybe that was it.
Red pepper plant.
The peppers that were scrawny have begun to fill out and get more leaves.
One of my 3 Banana peppers.
I have 2 plants that are producing really well now. I have several peppers on both of those plants.
Red Pepper with a bad spot. Maybe sunburned?
Then I have the 1 actual red pepper. It looks like it didn’t like the sun on it’s west side. Maybe sunburned?
Still green red peppers.
The other plants have a lot of blooms on them and looks like they will explode here soon. I guess time will tell.
We’re really liking the banana peppers and I have 3 of those so I really hope they keep going.
The yellow pepper has blooms but I’ve not seen a baby on it yet. And then I have 1 more red pepper with a ton of peppers on it.
The 2 big ones are still green though, so I’m being patient.
Then we have the radishes.
You can see we’ve been picking the radishes.
Radishes and carrots
Those are big and we’ve been using them like roasted potatoes. They’re so good that way, I just can’t get over that.
These radishes are really big. I’ve tried them raw a few times and I just really don’t like them that way. They have such a big bite, it’s just too much for me.
Radishes.
But when they’re roasted, they are just so good. A spicy potato is what it comes out like, we love them that way.
I have a ton more seeds for these, but I’m anxious to try different kinds next year.
The okra
Okra plants
The okra plants are so pretty. I’d grow them just to look at, if nothing else. I’ve only gotten 2 okra so far, but there are a few more coming on.
I’ve heard these were usually early to bloom. I haven’t seen that, but I attribute that to the rain and earlier temperatures. There are a lot of blooms just coming on.
Okra bloom
I have yet to see a flower. They get to this bud stage and by the time I go back out to look again, the flower’s gone. That was just from morning to afternoon too.
Sometime this week we’ll fry them up. I really hope we like them, but if not, that’s okay. There’s plenty of family that like them.
The cantaloupe and pumpkins are coming along nicely.
Small pumpkin in the garden.
We’ve had a major issue with squash bugs. I’ve sprayed neem oil, but that doesn’t get rid of them completely. I know you have to keep respraying, and I’ve tried to keep up with it.
I’ve learned to use a strong hose and cold water too. They really hate that.
They haven’t killed the plant yet. I’m kind of surprised how well it’s doing. It is time to spray again though. The thing about an organic spray is that it has to be done often.
We counted about 7 pumpkins, so far. Not sure what I’ll do with all of those. Most of them are pretty small, so I could probably cook several of them myself for pies, muffins and breads.
My daughter-in-law likes to make pumpkin soup and my grand-daughter loves it. Maybe she’ll like a couple.
I also saw I have several cantaloupe now too!!! That excites me. I love cantaloupe and this one was so good a few years ago. I’m dying to see what it will be like.
Hopefully they stagger themselves just right. One a week. Wouldn’t that be great.
The Chinese Yard Long Beans are beginning to come on.
I’ve picked a handful of these so far. I’ve been told you’re not supposed to boil these like you do regular beans. Just blanch them and then sautee or stir fry them.
My beans.
We’ll I had to be different and try something new. I recently bought myself a fermenting kit. So I am making Dilly Beans.
I found a recipe using these kind of beans, with the Dilly Beans recipe, so I had to give it a try.
I’ve never tried pickled beans and it sounded good. We’ll see.
More of my beans.
Out of the 7 plants we have, only a couple look like they are really growing well. I have one plant that has grown up the trellis and then started crawling sideways at the top.
Another one is almost to the top of the trellis and the rest are still pretty short. They’re almost all producing or have produced, so not sure what’s up there.
We’ll see if I want to keep growing these. I’m just not real sure about them yet.
The corn and carrots are still growing.
Both of these have a ways to go yet.
Corn with its tassels.
The corn has tassels on top now, so that was encouraging. They’re growing well too. Not sure how much longer that will take.
The carrots are growing well too. But they usually take a good amount of time, so I’m in no hurry to pick those either.
I’ve got a notebook I used when we planted everything that tells how many days to maturity and then I put dates to them all.
None of those dates have worked out this year. Everything is really late where maturity is concerned. So I’m not putting much stock into any of those dates.
Radishes and carrots.
I still want to plant a fall garden so I’ll have to go by the frost and maturity dates in getting that planted. I just hope the fall garden isn’t as late at producing as the spring and summer one or I’ll not get much.
I really believe that the 30 inches of rain we got and the really cool temps had a lot to do with what’s happening with my garden now.
I guess next year I’ll have something to compare to and we’ll see.
A random broccoli plant is still growing.
This plant has been here since the beginning, but it has barely been doing anything.
In the last several weeks, this thing has been going nuts, except there’s no broccoli head. But it sure does look pretty.
I hope you enjoy watching the garden grow as much as I do. We get a handful of things most days, and I’m happy with that, for now.
Saturday’s take.
Sunday’s take.
Monday’s take.
I’m learning something new every day is what’s most important to me right now. As long as I’m get anything out of the garden this year, I’m happy.
Next year will be another learning experience and will be even better. I hope.
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to subscribe, if you haven’t already.
So a week or so ago I told you about mixing your own herbal tea blends. You can find that here. Now, here’s something a little different.
When I first started making herbal tea, it felt very foreign to me. That seemed like an exotic kind of thing for this small town country girl. I never considered there was anything beyond the store bought tea bags.
These days I’ve discovered so many ways to prepare and steep your herbal tea, I have to actually decide on which one I’ll use each time.
The Different Methods I Use to Prepare My Herbal Tea
There are several different ways to hold your loose leaf herbal tea. Let’s go over a few.
Tea Bags
There’s a couple of different tea bags you can use. I use both of these and like them both for different reasons.
This one I get from Mountain Rose Herbs. I like this one because you can quickly make a bag of tea, just fold over the edge and pour your water over it.
Fold over tea bags
I use this one at home a lot. It’s good for trying a new herbal tea blend and don’t want to make up a lot.
This is another one I like to use. I get them at Mountain Rose Herbs too. You can find them in different sizes all over Amazon, but I’m never really sure of the quality from places I don’t know.
Iron close tea bags.
I like this one because they’re easy to prepare and have several bags pre-made and ready to take with you when you want. They’re just like regular tea bags, and easily portable because they seal.
Both of these tea bag types are compostable too, which is a plus for me since we compost everything possible.
Tea Balls
Tea balls are another way to steep your herbal teas. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. I have a few different styles and I use them both. I don’t have a specific purpose for either, just depends on my mood at the time.
You can see I got my flower too close to a flame somewhere. Not sure where that happened.
Some tea balls have smaller screen sizes or holes which means some will leave small bits of leaf in the bottom of your cup and others won’t.
This style is more like a spoon
I don’t mind little bits of tea leaf in the bottom of my cup, but that may be something you’ll want to consider when you decide on one.
Then there are a few other styles that I like.
A Couple Other Styles
A friend bought me this next style a long time ago. I love it. This one is a basket type thing you put your herbs in and set it in your cup and then pour your water directly over your herbs.
Herbal tea straining basket and holder.
This one works very well. It even comes with a little thing to set the tea basket in when you get ready to drink your tea.
A basket full of lavender and lemon balm tea.
This one is really good for using enough herbs to make several cups of tea.
And lastly, I have a steeping pot. I found it on sale at my local grocery store several years back and have been very happy with it.
I found this at a local grocery store during a clearance sale. I love it.
I really like this pot. I do wrap it in a tea towel during the winter though.
It’s a thin clear glass pot, so after I pour my water over the herbs, I usually wrap it in a tea towel to keep it hot. I use this a lot more in the winter, cause I can drink a whole pot on a Sunday afternoon.
Brewing Your Tea
Teas or herbs with a high volitile oil content, or those that smell really good, need to be covered when you steep them. This will keep the properties of the herb from evaporating while the tea steeps.
Steeping herbal tea.
So if you’re making a tea using, say lavender, you’ll want to cover it while it steeps.
I’m sure there are several more ways to prepare your herbal tea. But these are the ones I use regularly.
I hope you see one you would like to try. Or maybe you saw a few that interest you. Even better.
Thanks for stopping by and reading about making herbal tea. Let me know what method you use or let me know which method you want to try. I’m curious.
Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already. See you next week.
