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Preservation
Each summer, my garden produces more vegetables and fruit than I can immediately use.
This was never a problem when I grew plants that I thought were neat but did not like
to eat. However, since my gardening space is somewhat more limited than it used to be
since it's now in my backyard plot of about 12'x16', I now have to grow only plants
that I'll use. I use a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, carrots, broccoli, corn,
zucchini, peppers. Since my cucumbers and tomatoes can be especially prolific, I've
learned to preserve them for use throughout the year.
Making Jam/Jelly
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I made three kinds of Jam and jelly this year: raspberry jam, plum jelly, and
nectarine jelly. I planted two raspberry canes a couple of years ago and in 2007,
they really started to produce - I can't wait for this year's berries! The plums
were from my parents' tree and the nectarines were from a 3-year old tree that
I planted in my back yard. I used the Ball Blue Book for the recipes and everything
turned out great.
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Making Tomato Sauce
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My tomato plants often produce enough tomatoes to cover my counter several times over.
I decided to make tomato sauce with them since it's something that I use all year when
cooking stews and sauces. Tomato sauce is so cheap at the store that it may seem stupid
to spend all of the time and effort to make your own sauce. Making your own tomato sauce
is a good way to use tomatoes from the garden that you'd otherwise waste -- how many BLT's
or salads can you really eat? I basically follow the procedure from the
Ball Blue Book
but I no longer bother peeling the skins. I just core the tomatoes, slice them in half
or into fourths, depending on the size, squish them a little more, and bring them to a
boil over low to mid heat. From there, you can continue straining the skins and seeds using
a strainer or food mill. From there, you can reduce your sauce and can it.
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Making Fermented Dill Pickles
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I planted pickling cucumbers in 2007 because I wanted to learn how to make pickles.
I experimented with various recipes from zucchini pickles (I always have too much zucchini)
to bread and butter pickles. My favorite type of pickle has always been the Dill pickle -- especially
Claussen pickles. Like so many, I sought to replicate those pickles using
my own cucumbers and my own dill.
I came upon a recipe for making a good knockoff of
the Claussen pickle but the recipe involved fermentation. I'd always been too timid to
try fermentation for fear of giving myself food poisoning, In 2007, I decided to give it
a shot. It's really easy. Basically, you wash the cucumbers, put them into a non-corrosive
container (I used a plastic container with a tight sealing lid) with the dill, garlic,
spices, brine, and vinegar. Once you do that, you weigh down the cucumbers so they are
totally submerged and leave the whole container in a dark, cool place for a couple weeks.
I let my pickles go for 4-6 weeks and they were really nice by that point since the
fermentation had continued into the cores of the all of the cucumbers, completely
pickling them. My pickles turned out great! I'm definitely going to do
this again!
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