My Favorite Pepper: Cayenne

I picked this great cayenne pepper in the garden yesterday, I thought it looked like a big waxed mustache. I tried to get Lucy to oblige me for a photo, but she doesn’t like to have her photo taken, so this is the best I could get as she tried to bite the stem.

I grew cayenne peppers this year because I love love love hot food, and I find myself often adding cayenne powder or red pepper flakes to my food. I’m not a huge pepper fan, they give me terrible indigestion, but cayenne peppers are a different story.

I’ve been drying them whole and in slices dehydrator. I’m planning on crushing them all to make red pepper flakes.

I also dried some jalapeño slices. I’m still harvesting and drying, but I think I should have 3 cups of pepper flakes before the end of the season. That should last me till next year.

Have you ever grown one of your favorite spices/herbs?

Filed under Edible, harvest, Harvest Keepers Challenge, Peppers | Comments (20)

Pearsins or Something Like That

All those pears we picked at my mom’s house are finally getting made into pearsauce, pear butter and my personal favorite, pearsins. What are pearsins you ask? Well, dried pears of course.

This is one of the easiest ways to process pears. Simple wash, cut in half, core and then cut in half again and place skin side down on a rack in the oven. Set oven to 170 and dry until they’re leathery and dry, but not crispy. I sometimes dry them for 3-5 hours then turn off the oven for a few hours, and keep doing that until they’re finished. Periodically check them and remove the ones that are dry and store in a cool dry place.

What kinds of fruits do you like dried?

Filed under Edible, Fruit, harvest, Harvest Keepers Challenge | Comments (8)

Picking Pears

We picked pears at my mom’s house again last week. We didn’t get as many as we did last year (remember that?). There were a lot of pears on the ground, but we still had a good haul.

I gave some to my sister and we brought the rest home. Last year I canned pear halves, but that’s a lot of work. Since we still have some left, I’ll stick to easier preservation methods like: making pear sauce (like applesauce), pear butter and drying.

What’s your favorite way to preserve pears?

Filed under Edible, Fruit, harvest | Comments (20)

Quote of the Day: Jessica Prentice

“What if I had simply grown up in a time when food was seasonal? When there was, in each year, a time of more and a time of less? When food was not just there in packages on the supermarket shelf all year?”
– Jessica Prentice

I’m glad I’m living in the time I’m living, I don’t mind being able to get things like onions whenever I need them or lemons all year long. I do however only eat certain things in season. My favorite in season thing right now – tomatoes; fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes of all shapes and sizes. I eat them fresh every chance I get, I have to get my fill of fresh tomatoes during these couple months since the supermarket varieties in the off-season are just a mere shadow of a real tomato.

What’s your favorite in season fruit or veg at the moment?

Filed under Edible, harvest, Tomato | Comments (18)

August Harvest Totals

I almost forgot to do my July harvest totals post. It’s such a great way to realize how your hard work in the garden is paying off.

The tomatoes were by far my biggest crop for the month of August. The weather finally heated up around here and they started to come ripe rather quickly.


So what did everything total last month?
113 lbs of tomatoes have made it into the kitchen, most of them have been made into tomato soup.
11 lbs of elderberries were made into syrup for sweetening tea and drizzling on pancakes.
7 lbs of wild blackberries have been frozen for winter cobblers.
5.4 lbs of celery has been used in my tomato soup.
5.2 lbs of cucumbers have been made into various pickles.
4 lbs of peppers have been roasted and pickled.
3.2 lbs of zucchini have been steamed, sauteed or made into zucchini bread.
2 lbs of crab apples were used to make pectin to thicken my elderberry syrup.
1.5 lbs of green beans have been steamed, drizzled with olive oil and enjoyed.
1 lb of herbs have been chopped and diced and added to recipes or dried for winter use.

That’s 155 pounds total, and I’m sure there were things I didn’t weigh because I forgot. I’m very happy that I’ve already exceeded my tomato total for last year!

What’s your garden harvest total for August and which vegetable/fruit tops the list?

Filed under harvest | Comments (27)