Making Yellow Tomato Preserves
This year I started 2 small yellow cherry tomato plants just to make a recipe from Preserving the Taste. I checked it out of the library a few years ago and bought a copy when I found an old version because I loved the recipes so much.
It’s a small cookbook packed with delicious recipes like: caramelized apple marmalade with thyme, rose geranium jelly, pear ginger jam, cranberry ketchup, and more. I made the apple marmalade last year and it quickly became a favorite of all who tried it. My favorite thing about this cookbook, is that she uses herbs and spices in almost every recipe.
This little cookbook really takes canning recipes to the next level and makes them healthier as herbs and spices are packed with vitamins and minerals. I’m always trying to find ways to incorporate herbs into my food and this is a great way.
Yellow Tomato Preserves
(makes 4 half-pint jars)
from Preserving the Taste
4 cups sugar
5 cups very small yellow pear shaped tomatoes
3 fresh jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced
3 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil leaves
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
In a 4-6 quart heavy nonreactive pan, stir together the sugar and 3/4 cup of water. Set over medium heat and bring to a boil. Wash down any sugar crystals that accumulate on the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.
Insert candy thermometer and continue boiling until until the syrup has reached 234 degrees F, the soft-ball stage.
Immediately stir in tomatoes. The mixture might seize up, but after a few minutes will again become liquid. Stir in the chilies, basil and lemon juice and turn heat to very low. Continue simmering for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. The mixture will have thickened and darkened in color.
Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, wipe rims clean with a damp towel, and seal with new lids and metal rings. Process in hot-water bath canner for 10 minutes. Preserves will continue to thicken as they cool.
I’ve been waiting for enough little yellow tomatoes to ripen so I could make this recipe. I didn’t get enough (must plant a few more next year) so I had to settle with a half batch. Since I only ended up with a few handfuls of tomatoes, I only got two small jars of preserves. It was well worth the effort to fire up the canner though, I’ll be happy to have a jar for the winter.
These preserves have a wonderful sweet tomato taste with a hint of spice from the jalapeño and the basil really adds a wonderful touch. The little tomatoes become almost candied in the sugar syrup and the peels seem to melt into the preserves (so don’t be worried about leaving them in). I enjoyed some on toast and now am trying to figure out where I can tuck in a few more yellow cherry tomato plants next year!
Have you discovered any new canning recipes this year? Do you like herbs and spices in your preserves?
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Quote of the Day: Confucius
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
~ Confucius
Sometimes all it takes is a different perspective or a little bit of light to make something stand out as beautiful!
I was walking down the hallway one evening and saw the light shining in on a pitcher that I had thrown some carrots, broccoli, and basil in and was amazed at how beautiful it was.
Have you noticed anything beautiful lately that wouldn’t necessarily be classified as beautiful?
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Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap
Many many years ago Mr Chiots and I went on our first backpacking trip in Pennsylvania. My dad gave us an old bottle of Dr Bronners Peppermint soap because it’s biodegradable and you can use it in streams for dish washing, etc. We started using it and loved it and have been using it ever since, and not just for backpacking.
When we go camping we still use it for dishwashing and bathing, but we also use it at home for all sorts of things. I use it to make homemade cleaners and laundry detergent, I like the lavender or lemon for this. I love using it for bodywash, my favorite for this is eucalyptus. The tea tree oil makes a great dog shampoo as well.
I also use this for washing up any of my gardening tools and pots when they need it. I know I can safely rinse things and use the gray water in the flowerbed. I don’t have to worry about phosphates or any other petroleum contamination from this soap. I’d highly recommend giving this wonderful soap a try if you never have. It may seem expensive, but you only need to use a tiny bit.
Do you use biodegradable soap for washing garden pots and tools?
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Protecting the Fall Crops
Miss Mama is coming in quite handy protecting the fall crops from moles and chipmunks. One year the chipmunks ate all of my fall beets, this year, thanks to Miss Mama I should enjoy a great harvest.
We’ve had a lot of moles or voles in the garden at my mom’s house, hopefully they don’t do too much damage to our crops. Miss Mama seems to be keeping them out of my crops so far, too bad she’s too small to chase away a groundhog.
What’s your biggest pest in your fall garden?
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Make Your Own: Toothpaste
For the past couple years Mr Chiots and I have been trying to get rid of any products that contain harmful chemicals especially when it comes to personal care products. We were using some all natural toothpaste for a while, but it still contained fluoride. I won’t go into the details of why we try to avoid fluoride and sodium laurel sulfate here today, you can google it and find all kinds of information. The toothpaste brand we were buying was also bought out by a large corporation so that helped prompt our decision to make some toothpaste at home. Making toothpaste is quite easy, you can make it in powder form with things you probably already have at home. If you want it to have a sweeter taste and paste like texture like store bought then you’ll have to buy some vegetable glycerin.
I used a recipe that I found over at Mountain Rose Herbs which is where I bought the vegetable glycerin that I used for the batch I made. They have a bunch of recipes on their website. This is the one I used:
Citrus Mint Toothpaste
¼ cup baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons vegetable glycerin
10 drops peppermint essential oil
10 drops orange essential oil (I used lemon)
5 drops eucalyptus essential oil
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly in a small bowl. Store in a small, tightly covered container. To use, scoop a small amount out onto your toothpaste and brush. Beware, you’ll think you add to add more glycerin when you first mix this up, but resist the urge. If you do it will be too runny after it sits.
We actually were very impressed with this toothpaste and we really like it, we’ve been using it for about a month and a half now. It leaves your teeth felling fresh and clean, much cleaner than with regular toothpaste. The flavor and consistency are not like store bought toothpaste and it doesn’t foam since there are no added foaming agents (which is what we were trying to avoid). I think I’m going to try to make some tooth powder with myrrh next. We’ll be making homemade toothpaste from now on since we like it and it’s very inexpensive, this batch above cost me only about .50 to make, which is a great price for fluoride SLS free toothpaste!
Have you ever made your own toothpaste?
If you’re going to buy a few ingredients at Mountain Rose Herbs I’d appreciate a click through the link to the right as they give me a small portion of what you buy.
