Monster radishes!

Two years ago my daughter came and helped me make a hugelkultur in the vegetable garden. You can read about that here:  

http://simplyhomemaking60.blogspot.com/2017/10/hugelkultur.html

This morning I went out to check on some radishes that I had planted in the hugelkultur in March and neglected to pull up.  Here is what I found!

Surprisingly, they are good flavored and not stringy.  In fact, they are very good!  So, I cut them up and have started a ferment.  :)

Then I cleaned and blanched the greens and ended up with 4 nice little packages for the freezer.

What I am doing with our wonderful Purple Sweet Potatoes....

Here is a purple sweet potato that we grew in our garden this year.  I think we ended up with about 2/3 of a bushel of them from FIVE plants.  They did amazingly well. As I've told you before, sweet potatoes (orange or purple) are very easy to grow, and, at least where we live, are very productive.  All I have to do is dig them up, let them cure (I do it on the garage floor) for a week or two, and then place them in baskets or paper bags or cardboard boxes and set them in the house.  They will easily stay nice until the next harvest.  They are not sensitive to light like Irish potatoes, but they don't like to get cold, so don't keep them in a cold cellar or in your refrigerator.

These potatoes are much dryer than the orange variety. They also are sweet, but not as much as the orange ones.  However, what they might lack in taste (on their own) pales in comparison to the nutritional benefits. I assume you are familiar with the fact that blueberries are very rich in certain antioxidants? This purple color reflects a rich concentration of those same phytonutrients that we find in blueberries.  If you garden, then this is an easy and very inexpensive way to be able to eat those on a regular basis.

One morning, recently, I was laying in bed pondering what I might do to use more of the Purple sweet potatoes.  I do like to boil them, peel and mash with a little lime juice, some butter and sour cream and maybe some sort of sweetener.  I have also made very nice Purple sweet potato pie a few times. On the  morning in question, I decided to try making powdered Purple sweet potatoes.  It worked out perfectly.  If you have a dehydrator and a good blender, you can do this too.

I cut the Purple sweet potatoes into large slices, covered them with water and boiled them until they were tender when pierced with a sharp knife.  Then, I drained them, let them cool and removed the skins.  Next, I put them in my mixer and used the "paddle" attachment and added a bit of water and mashed them thoroughly.  Next, I spread them on fruit roll trays in the dehydrator, not very thinly, actually, and dehydrated them at 135 F. It only took a few hours.  When they were nice and crisp, I put them in the blender and turned them into powder.

Next, I put them in a glass jar and covered it tightly.

Here is a picture of a little bit of it in a spoon so you can see what the powder looks like:

So, you may ask, what do I do with this powder?  You can add it to anything you wish!  I've been adding some to bread, I sprinkle it on yogurt, or in a sandwich on top of something else. I'm sure it will be lovely in smoothies.  It is mild in flavor and packed with nutrients.

That pint jar was filled by just 3 of the potatoes.  Like I mentioned, they are quite dry, so they yield a lot in comparison with other vegetables and fruits.

https://simplyhomemaking60.blogspot.com/search?q=sweet+potato

We finished the Sorghum "molasses" !

My garden fairy and her little boy came to our house and we all worked together and finished making the Sorghum.

I stayed up until midnight cooking the juice and finally gave up.  I finished it the next morning.  From approximately 5 gallons of juice, we got about 2.5 quarts of syrup.  Oh, my, it's lovely stuff!

A job well done....

Avocados were on sale!

My local grocery store advertised Haas avocados for 88 Cents each!  So, I bought 10 of them, put two in the refrigerator to eat soon, and have frozen the rest.  I blogged about this process a number of years ago, but thought it might be good to mention it again.

This time, I had 8 avocados and mashed them thoroughly with my electric hand-held mixer, and then mixed in 1/2 cup lemon juice.

I divided the pulp into 1/4-cup batches in the fold-over sandwich bags, tied them all shut and put them into a larger food storage bag and then into the freezer.

How cute!

You might wonder, "Why 1/4-cup batches?"  Well, I'll tell you...  I like to make "Avocado Ranch Dressing" - a recipe I found on AllRecipes.com.  Blogger won't let me link to it, but you can go there if you want to see it.  Here is how I made mine:

AVOCADO RANCH DRESSING

1/4 cup ripe avocado

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1 Tablespoon buttermilk (I used milk kefir, and you could also use plain yogurt, if you wish)

1.5 (one and a half) teaspoons distilled white vinegar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon dried parsely

1 pinch dried dill weed

1/8 teaspoon onion powder

1 pinch garlic powder

I put all of that in the small container of my food processor and blended it well.  Alternately, you could mash the avocados up with a fork and then stir everything in, or use a hand-held electric mixer.

Refrigerate.  It's really yummy!

Okay, I prefer not to use commercial mayonnaise, so I make my own, very quickly and easily, like this:

MAYONNAISE

In a medium-sized bowl combine:

3 egg yolks (if you are not worried about the safety of raw eggs)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1.5 Tablespoons (one and one-half) raw apple cider vinegar

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

sea salt, to taste (about 8 pinches)

I use an immersion blender to blend this all together and it takes only moments to do.  I used to do it in a stand blender, drizzling in the olive oil very slowly and that works fine, but takes a lot more time.

According to Gnowfglins, if you add a Tablespoon of live whey to this and let it sit out on the counter for 7 hours before putting it in the fridge, it will keep much longer, but if you are going to use it within a week, I wouldn't worry about that.

Avocados really do freeze well.  Just get some out the day before you need to use it and put it in the refrigerator to thaw out.  You will be glad when the price of avocados go sky high!

Dehydrating - Chapter 2

We bought a Food Saver and the jar sealer accessories and today I sealed all the jars of dehydrated foods that I've been able to put up this year.  Until I got it all organized, I had no idea how much there is and I'm very grateful!  Can you imagine how much this would be if the foods had not been dried?  A Lot.  It covers the bottom shelf in this cupboard and there are 3 rows of jars on the second shelf.

Dehydrating Kale - Kale Powder!

This is a pint (2 cup) jar.  There you can see some dehydrated powdered kale that I made today.  This was made from 15 large kale leaves!  

I will add this to soups and smoothies through the winter when the fresh kale is not available.

Here is how I do it.

1. Pick the Kale

2. Wash the Kale in cold water and drain.

3. Remove the tough center ribs.

4. Bring a large pot of water to the boil.

5. Immerse the Kale for only 15 seconds.

6. Drain in colander.

7. Plunge into ice water and stir until the heat is out of the leaves.

8. Drain and run it through a salad spinner or pat dry on clean towels.

9. Arrange on dehydrator trays, only one layer deep.

10. Set temperature at 135 degrees F.

11.  After 2 hours, check it.  It could take as long as 3.  It should be completely dry and crisp.

12.  At this point you can just pack it into a jar with an air-tight lid, OR, you can powder it in a food processor or blender, and then store it in a jar, out of the light.  

This will keep nicely for a long time.  It actually tastes nice and slightly sweet.

Sauerkraut 2016 - I had help!

Our granddaughter is visiting us and today, she helped me make this year's sauerkraut!  She picked the cabbages and while I was cleaning them, she shredded them all in the food processor.  Then she swept the floor.  She loves to cook and enjoyed it.

If you are new to my blog, you can find the recipe for sauerkraut HERE.  Today's batch was 6 pounds.  I have a big jar full left from last year and it is still delicious and nicely crisp.  Kraut lasts a LONG time in cold storage. Here is the jar from last year.

Garlic - in a Very Wet Summer

This year when I harvested the garlic, the papery coverings were not very good.  There had been such a lot of rain... Lately I've been worried that the garlic won't "keep" as well as it has in the past, so a set aside a few bulbs to plant in October, and I've preserved the rest in two ways.  You can see the problem here.  The papery wrapper is all but gone.

So, I washed a lot of it, carefully peeled the cloves and rinsed them thoroughly under running water.

The first ferment is a remedy for colds and influenza. I took my small Fido jar and filled it about 2/3 full with the peeled cloves.  Next, I poured in enough raw honey to cover them, and sealed the jar.  What I read is that you should "burp" the jar every day until it doesn't burp anymore.  I think I will just let it go for a few weeks, as the extra pressure will slowly leak out of a Fido jar.  Then, I'll keep it in the cupboard.  If a cold or influenza is coming on, we'll eat 4 or more fermented cloves right away, and then as needed.

The second ferment is just to preserve the garlic for cooking.  I filled a quart canning jar about 2/3 full with the rinsed cloves.  I added 2 Tablespoons of live whey that I got from making kefir cheese. (You can also use the whey from plain yogurt.) and then poured in about 1/2 quart of simple brine, which is a mixture of 2 cups of water and 2 Tablespoons of plain sea salt.  This will set on the counter for several days and then I will store it in the refrigerator and just take out what I need for cooking.  This garlic keeps indefinitely and it is very convenient to have on hand, all ready to go! 

I think my kitchen might have the aroma of an Italian restaurant today.  It's very garlicky in here.  Fortunately, I love garlic!

Here are the two jars.  I'm certain you can tell them apart.

Fermented Apple Chutney - easy and delicious!

chut·ney

ˈCHətnē/

noun

noun: chutney; plural noun: chutneys

1. a spicy condiment made of fruits or vegetables with vinegar, spices, and sugar, originating in India.

My sweet sister-in-law introduced me to "chutney" many years ago.  It makes a wonderful accompaniment to a meal... freshens up the palate and I love chutneys!

Recently, I've started making fermented fresh chutney and it's spectacular!  No need to cook or process in a canner.  Just chop it up, mix with the other ingredients, pack it into a FIDO JAR, close the lid, let it sit on the counter for 3 days, turning over once in a while to distribute the liquid, and then refrigerate it!  It will stay nice for many weeks in the fridge.  Being fermented, it is rich in healthy probiotics, and also your body will love the easily assimilated vitamins and minerals.  

Meet the magical FIDO JAR !!!

I bought mine yesterday at TJ Maxx in a nearby city for only $4.99 !  They are available on Amazon.com, but cost twice as much (and would be worth it).  You don't have to use a Fido.  You can use a regular canning jar with a lid, but then you need to open it sightly from time to time so it will let out the pressure of the gasses produced.  With the Fido, you fill it, close it, and forget it.  The rubber seal is very tight, but it will sort of burp slightly on its own.

Fermented Apple Chutney

1. In a large measuring vessel or a bowl, combine:

    1 handful walnut meats, broken in pieces

    1 handful raisins

    Enough apples, chopped into bite-sized pieces to make the contents of your bowl measure 1.5 liter. Do 

    not peel the apples, just remove the cores and the little blossom ends and where the stem was.

    1/3 cup honey

    1/3 cup whey (explained below)

    3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

2. Stir all of that thoroughly and then pack it into a Fido Jar.  

3. Close the lid.  Leave it on the kitchen counter for 3 days, turning it over to let the liquid flow through the 

    contents once in a while

4. Store in the refrigerator - it will keep for many weeks.

Here are some pictures of the process:

Voila!

A note about apples... My mother grew up during the Great Depression.  She never wasted anything if she could possibly avoid it. When she ate an apple, she would wash it, pull off the stem and then just eat the apple.  She did not throw away the core.  I do the same thing.  If you want to try that, don't eat around it and make a core first.  Just eat the apple.  Apple seeds contain laetrile, which many believe has anti-cancer properties.  As I was making this, I ate all of the little core pieces I cut out!  I do like them.  Bite into the seeds.  They taste good (at least to me.)

It is a good idea to eat a small amount of something live and fermented with each meal.  I drink about 2 ounces of milk kefir with breakfast, and have a couple of Tablespoons of live sauerkraut or this chutney with lunch and supper.  The probiotics in the ferments really help your digestion be healthier. Also, they contain live digestive enzymes.

The recipe calls for "whey".  I use whey that I strain from my milk kefir when I make kefir cheese.  You may also use whey you can gather the same way from plain yogurt that has live cultures. 

This chutney is sweet and crunchy and a little zingy!  You will like it.  I promise.  :)

Salsa 2015 !!!

Almost exactly 2 years ago, I posted my recipe for "Millenial Salsa" that I have been making since the year 2000.  Today, I came up with a new recipe after looking at the recipes from 2 friends and adding my own experience.  This is just called ~

SALSA 2015

Here is how I did it.  You will need a 2 gallon stainless soup pot.

The following ingredients are minced in a food processor.

2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1 whole bulb of garlic, peeled of course
20 smallish Jalapeno peppers, stem ends removed
4 cups minced yellow onions

Put all of that in the pot and then add ~

8 teaspoons sea salt
3 Tablespoons chili powder
3 teaspoons ground cumin
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
3/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups lemon juice (I used bottled)

Next, you will chop fresh tomatoes, coarsely, in the food processor.  I only used "grape" tomatoes, because that's what I had. Roma tomatoes would be an excellent choice.  It took about 1/3 of a bushel.  Put them in the pot until it is nearly full.

Carefully bring it to a simmer, stirring often.  Add ~

4 small cans of tomato paste and stir well.  Heat through.

I processed all of this in pint jars for 40 minutes in my steam canner.  (A water-bath needs the same time.)

I got 15 pints.  Here are some of them:

It's very good.  Of course, you can play with the recipe according to what you have on hand, but do add the vinegar and lemon juice at least.

Enjoy!

Windfall Apples... the rest of the story

I worked through all of those apples and ended up with two apple pies, that I will freeze to bake later, and 7 pints of nice organic unsweetened apple sauce. The goat and the chickens got all the scraps and were very happy.  :)

Do you see that old jar lifter in the second picture?  I've been using that since 1976!

Windfall Apples...

About 18 years ago, I planted two apple trees.  The poor things have been almost totally neglected.  I think I've only pruned them maybe 3 times?  And I have NEVER sprayed them.  So, the apples are visited by many interesting (?) creatures and sustain a lot of damage.  Nevertheless, I can pick up the ones that are "sound" and cut out the bad parts and use the rest for whatever I like.  Today, I picked up a big apron-full and plan to make them into applesauce.

Years ago, before someone got the bright idea of growing our food with poisons, I suppose all the apples were like this.  Maybe they had fewer pests back then, or maybe not.  In any case, I am sure you could crush these, just as they are and make some wonderful apple cider, worms and all.

I once read a book by a lady who had moved to a South Sea Island with her husband.  This was many years ago.  Conditions were fairly primitive.  There was no "packaging" of food.  She wrote, "I soon learned that all that crawls is not garbage."

Every year I toy with the idea of spraying the trees.  Maybe they would be healthier, but I don't think I would.  I am so grateful for these apples!  They are sweet and crisp... and safe.

Sauerkraut 2015

I picked the rest of my cabbages yesterday and was able to make 12.5 pounds of Sauerkraut!  Here is a picture of it in the Fido jars for fermentation.  Here is how I do it.  Trim your cabbages of anything that is less than nice, cut them in quarters and remove the core.  Shred them in a food processor.  Weigh.  Add 3 Tablespoons of salt for each 5 pounds.  Stir it in well.  Let it sit and wilt for at least 1/2 hour.  Then squish it and squish it with your hands until it is getting softer and the juices are flowing nicely.  Pack into Fido jars, 3/4 full.  Close.  Let it set in your kitchen.  It will begin to ferment and "puff up". When it settles back down (length of time will vary) open a jar and taste it.  If it tastes good to you, transfer the jar(s) to the refrigerator.  It will keep a LONG time.  Easy.  Quick.  Delicious and so so good for you!

Sweet cucumber and onion pickles

I was able to save up enough cucumbers to make 8 pints of my favorite pickles!  Here are some pictures and the recipe follows.  I have such nice memories of making these pickles.  The first year I did it was in 1976 in Nebraska.  We lived way out in the country.  I didn't have a car, so when we needed to go to town, I would wait for my husband to take us.  In those days we did grocery shopping once a month when he got paid.  He was working on a hog farm at the time.  I was a stay-at-home mother with 3 little children, one just a few weeks old.  He was such a "good" baby that canning (my first year of canning!) was not hard to do.  In those days, and until relatively recently, I cut the onions and cucumbers by hand with a knife.  It took quite a lot of time, but I enjoyed it.  Just a few years ago, I realized I could cut them in the food processor I have now, and so that phase of the process is SO easy and fast! 

I used 6 pounds of cucumbers and some onions.  I didn't weigh the onions (sorry), but you can sort of see how much there was.  These are all fresh out of our garden.

You have to cut the little ends off the cucumbers.  In the blossom end there is some sort of enzyme or something that you don't want in your pickles.  Don't ask me why.  I don't have any idea.

Here you can see my food processor with the appropriate blade inserted.  I use the one that makes the largest slices.  Even at that, they are small.

 The onions all nicely sliced up,

 

...and then I sliced the cucumbers.

Here everything is in the kettle with vinegar, sugar and spices.  

Hot pickles in the jars

 All finished!

Sweet Cucumber and Onion Pickles - makes 8 pints.

6 pounds cucumbers, washed, trimmed and sliced

Sliced onions - maybe 1 - 2 pounds

2 fresh garlic cloves

1/3 cup salt

3 trays of ice cubes or crushed ice

3 cups white distilled vinegar

4.5 cups sugar

1.5 teaspoons turmeric

1.5 teaspoons celery seed

2 Tablespoons mustard seed

Combine all of the vegetables in a large bowl (glass, stainless or ceramic)

Add the salt and mix well.

Place the ice all over the top and cover with a clean cloth.

Allow to sit for 3 hours.

Drain all in a colander and remove the garlic.

Mix together, in a heavy-bottomed pot, the vinegar, sugar and spices. 

Bring to a boil.

Add the drained vegetables and heat on high heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.

Fill pint jars with the pickles, leaving 1 inch head space, and pour the hot liquid over them to within 1/2 inch of the top.

Carefully wipe off the rims of the jars.  Apply hot caps and the rings, finger tight.

Process in boiling water for 5 minutes.

Allow to cool thoroughly, and then if you wish you can take off the rings.

These are very good pickles.  I would let them sit for a few weeks before tasting.  Such a nice bright flavor with a heavy meal in the wintertime.  I don't go in for sweet much anymore, but pickles and a little jam I still enjoy.   

Please consult a Reliable Canning Guide if you do not already know how to can food.

Dehydrating sweet potatoes...

We were able to grow a very nice crop of sweet potatoes in last year's garden.  However, when we went to dig them, something (probably mice) had gotten into them and done a lot of damage.  Here is a picture of one of them with the chewed out hole:

I don't wash them before storage.  I think maybe they would not keep as well, but I don't really know that.  In spite of the damage, they keep fairly well, but as time goes on, they do start to dry out and get icky looking more and more.  I didn't want them to go to waste.  I had about a peck (1/4 bushel) of them in that condition, so I decided to dehydrate them and want to show you how I did it and tell you how to use the resulting product. This is rather long-winded, but it really was easy to do.

First, scrub them clean and then boil them until they are tender.  Pour them into a colander to drain and let them cool for at least an hour so they are easy to handle.

Remove the skins and mash well with a potato masher.  I suggest you do not use the electric mixer.  That makes them almost too soft to deal with.

Here is a dehydrator tray with the mesh in place.

Get 2 squares of Wax Paper and place one on the counter.  Put about 1.5 cups of the mashed sweet potatoes on it.

Cover with the other piece of wax paper.  By the way, wax paper has two sides (of course!) and one is slicker than the other.  Use the slick side.

GENTLY, using a rolling pin, roll out the mashed sweet potatoes...

This shows you the thickness I rolled mine to.  You don't want it so thick it has a hard time drying out, but you don't want it too thin, either because then trying to put it onto the dehydrating tray will not work out.

Peel off the top piece of wax paper.

Pick up the wax paper and simply invert it onto the tray and then carefully peel off the wax paper.

Put all of your filled trays into the dehydrator and set the temperature to 125 degrees F.  Here is one of them after it was good and dry.  You don't want it leathery.  All the moisture needs to be gone.  You'll have to check to see how long it takes, but it will be at LEAST overnight and probably longer.

When it is all dry enough, peel the sheets of sweet potato off of the mesh and break them into pieces into a bowl.

Chop part of them into a food processor and process to break up into little pieces, then..

Transfer to a blender and blend until a powder is formed.  Store the powder in an airtight container out of the light in a cool room or pantry.

Here is the amount of powder from that peck of sweet potatoes!  Isn't that amazing!

To reconstitute - in a heat-proof container, combine 1 part Sweet Potato powder with 3 parts boiling water, cover with a lid and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Stir, add a dollop of butter and eat!  Or, it can be used in breads, mixed with the flour, or meat loaf or in sweet potato pie!