2014 my food adventure has been growing a garden and teaching myself to can

  This year my food adventure has been growing a garden and teaching myself to can.

I have always been intimidated by canning because my Grandmother, Aunt and great Aunts but the  “ C “in canning. My Grandmother,” God rest her soul”, she made the best bread and butter pickles I have ever tasted. I had been thinking of trying, because my husband can’t eat fresh tomatoes or fresh fruit due to the chemicals and additives which are added commercially.  Last December, one of the guys I work with Derrick, made and shared his pickles as a Christmas present to our department.  When I went to him to asked how he made the pickles, he told me .he did it with a mix and “if he could do it, I could do it” and so I did. First, I YouTube, a bunch of videos on the how to and how not to pickle.

Finally, I tried the pickle recipe I found on the simply canning site ttp://www.simplycanning.com/dill-pickle-recipe.html and the pickles came out great!! I went back to my friend who ate the whole jar in a day. My husband ate so many jars of pickles I thought he was going to turn in to a pickle!   

My granddaughter Jessie

With almost all the jars gone from my first batch I attempted my second batch. The batch was too salty. I tried different recipe and this one had the pickles salty. I went back to YouTube and learned how to fix salty pickles.  You have to soak them in cold water over night and then re pickle them in pickling brine. They are good for relish in my opinion, but the truth is I was just happy not to have to throw them out the second batch of pickles. So for my third batch I tried bread and butter pickles, pickled peppers, pickled radishes and pickled onions. They were yummy. OK, now I’m dangerous I have 4 different kinds of vinegar, 12 pickling spices have been pickling playfully.

  Ever since we bought our home 8 years ago I have been talking about starting a garden. When my boys were little, we would grow a garden together, so the boys had lettuce for salads at thanksgiving. But I hadn’t had a garden in almost 15 years. This year before my first surgery, I started a garden in containers, half the summer it sat untouched by me: no pesticide’s, no fertilizers, and no dead heading the flowers, with the exception of getting it watered. We grew bunching onions, bush beans, tomatoes, banana peppers, zucchini, jalapeños, bell peppers, sage, oregano, rosemary, parsley, sweet potatoes cucumber, mint, basil and peas. 

 

 

 My granddaughters went out daily to pick and to watch how the plants grow.  This little garden has been putting out fruits and vegetables almost every day, since March.  I call it the little garden that could… and it did I have been very proud of it.  Imagine the tomatoes tasted like tomatoes and the hot peppers tasted like peppers and the bell peppers oh yum. It was great and I am doing it again this year.

  Cranberry, and Raspberry Jam

3 1/2 cups sugar
1 whole orange, peeled
 and I took out the seeds,
And I used frozen raspberries about 2 cups left over from Summer. I used a bag of whole cranberries from the produce department at the local store. I washed and pulled the stems off all the cranberries.
 I let this mixture cook slowly and it made 5 1/2 pint jars. mix often. Medium heat about 20minutes.
Once the fruit was cooked down I  labeled this mixture into clean jars and  wiped the mouth and side of the jars  clean, processed the jars. And store. Great Christmas gifts.

** Recommend you make this jam in small batches. I used a bag of whole cranberries from the produce department at the local store. I washed and pulled the stems off all the cranberries.

 http://theviewfromgreatisland.com/2014/08/super-easy-hot-pepper-jelly.html

The taste is wonderful. I am actually going to make it up without the pectin to use as  a dip for my eggrolls.

 I just started making jams and jellies so far I have made apple pie jam, peach, cranberry and raspberry jam(my recipe), and hot pepper jelly. They came out pretty good. So I am going to keep trying. I still have plenty to learn. I haven't stated pressure canning yet.